søndag den 28. august 2016

Prepping for school and end of summer

Summer is coming to an end - not that the days have started to get cooler yet, but evenings have shortened quite significantly and the other morning I even had to pull out my bike lights before setting off to work.

School start is getting close and Ulrik and Teresa have both got their schedules for the coming school year plus some books the size of coffee tables. Both of them are quite happy with their schedule. Teresa gets her middle school German teacher, who is probably the sweetest teacher ever and Ulrik has two ceramic and sculpture classes every day = less homework. We do not know yet who Luca's teacher will be but we have our hopes high. All kids are definitely NOT feeling ready for school. The summers here are so long (11 weeks) that a new rhythm settles over the summer and it doesn't really feel like "vacation" anymore, it just feels like another way of life.

We have had a few things on our goal list before school start and one was to go tubing at Argo Cascades. We invited Teresa's friend Lauren over as well as the German exchange student living with her. And off we went:

Getting the tubes ready




It was crowded but fun:
 
Here's a video (starring my singing husband floating down the cascade.....): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXBqz3YRYoo

Luca and Bailey did not want to try!

Of course a thunder storm came rolling in and we made it home just in time not to be in the middle of a crazy storm. Yet the girls were bored and decided to bake creampuffs. Well....... They were not super successful so we had to go to Whole Foods instead:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj53ZeXE2AgXzpGzyBBWotfelW71wBw8bS0LIU9eSYTYoNvrTuDojc8aw5lKb3_qX5ZRb_VvSbt2A1mMsV7U-tX6jnHjyuULPM0aJIgn1silyV7Tq15VwOSyen9eSj0hlDz1hp0HlQ2TTzW/s1600/20160827_164913.jpg
The so-called cream puffs.......




An additional thing on our to do list was to go to Lake Erie - just so Luca and I could go for a swim. Nothing else. This summer we have been swimming in Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Ontario, and Lake Superior. And, honestly, it would be quite a shame not to get the 5'th one as well. So here we are. 5 out of 5 lakes. Yay:

Last but not least Teresa has settled for high school sports. Her original plan was to do only synchronized swimming at the YMCA, but then she got headhunted for the high school's field hockey team as a goalie. And what a team! The coaches are on the olympic level and super enthusiastic. It seems that the Pioneer Field Hockey team is one of the best field hockey teams on a national level, and because of this they have 3 teams rolling this year. I am quite relieved that she can get to practice by bus as I don't think we could have managed to keep up as parents. Here she is just done adding the sticker to our car: