August Book Review: Just Grace Goes Green

This past month Chloe and I read Just Grace Goes Green by Charise Mericle Harper.  It's the fourth book in the Just Grace book series.  Chloe had a great time reading it while she was an invalid at the beach.

Third grader Grace is known by her teachers and friends as "Just Grace" because there are several other Graces in her class (Grace F., Grace G., etc.).  (As someone who had eleventeen Melissa's in her fourth grade class, I get it.)  Grace's teacher, Miss Lois, tells the class they are going to "Go green."  She teaches them to reduce, reuse, and recycle.  One of their projects is to make up an earth saving super hero.  Like this:

Chloe and I talked about the different ways our family tries to take care of the earth (recycling, using reusable grocery bags, hugging trees, . . . ) and what we can do to improve.

Grace and her friends decide to decorate reusable plastic bottles, instead of throwing plastic bottles away.  I thought that sounded like a good idea, so Chloe and I went to Target and picked up a few water bottles from their $1 Spot. 

We all had fun decorating our bottles.  Of course, Chloe's wouldn't fit into her lunch bag, so we had to buy a new one.  (It was like the Gift of the Magi.)  In the end I think we'll save a lot of money and help reduce our waste.  Go team!

I think the author did a good job of stating facts and figures about the earth in a way that wasn't too overwhelming or boring.  There was also a major plotline involving friendship (of course) and we had a good "What would you do?" discussion about that.  It was a bit longer than a lot of the books we've read, but the sections were short and there were plenty of hilarious illustrations.  Definitely a winner.

Off she goes to solve the world's problems.

Back in Action

Harrison and Chloe started school last week.  It was the single greatest day of our lives.

 

 

 

 

 

It looks like they're doing something weird here, but that's only because they're doing something weird.  The other day Harrison was playing the air violin and he looked ridiculous.  So, naturally, I imitated him and turned it into our new favorite hilarious dance.  They miss me so much.

 

Mom Camp

Did I tell you my brilliant plan to survive the summer?  It was total genius.  We can't afford to send our kids to camps, so I decided I would have "Mom Camp" and teach them everything I know in one summer.  High-five!  I made a list of different camps I could do and the kids chose what they wanted to learn.  We started with Cooking Camp.

On Day One we learned about the food groups and I taught them to make breakfast.  Harrison is now our resident pancake maker and Chloe takes care of the scrambled eggs.  We also made some fruit smoothies.  Now I just have to teach them how to make hash browns covered and chunked and they can get a job at the Waffle House and start bringing home the bacon.

On Day Two I taught Harrison how to make rolls and Chloe and Miles helped me with freezer jam after we went to a local fruit stand.  Another cooking camp triumph!

On Day Three we did French toast and syrup, because I had some stale bread and had forgotten about cooking camp.

On Day Four they made homemade spaghetti sauce with homemade meatballs for dinner.  It was delicious and I was so proud of them. 

On Day Five we went to the pool.

The next week, my amazing friend, Mandi, hosted a soccer camp at the elementary school near her home.  She invited all her friends to bring their kids to the soccer field for an hour every morning while she taught them the basics of soccer.  Here's the kicker (See what I did there?): she seemed to enjoy it.

Mandi told me she should have been a P.E. teacher.  I think anyone who has ever said that out loud should definitely be a P.E. teacher.

Soccer camp was the greatest week of Miles' life.  He slept in his shoes and called them his "soccer camp" shoes for the rest of the month.

Mandi wisely split the kids up into different age groups and had her lovely assistants do some drills with the kids.  Thanks, Laura and April!

Even Chloe and Harrison couldn't resist the fun of soccer camp.  She's not usually eager to participate in sports and Harrison is older than the other kids.  Mandi let him help out with drills, too.  She's the genius.

That weekend we went to Chicago and it was really fun.  The week after that I went to Girl's Camp.  That weekend, the Bloomfields came for a visit.  I believe it was the next week that I realized I do not have the energy of five 18 year-olds and my dream of doing Mom Camps all summer officially died.  We went to the pool.  We went to the zoo.  We went to the beach.  We played video games and the kids discovered Gilmore Girls.  We survived the summer, even without my brilliant plan.  Next summer I'm hiring Mandi to come up with my brilliant plan.

Beachy Keen

The time has come.  I've spent the past two weeks living in denial that summer has come to an end and we're back to business as usual.  The time has come to accept that it will be another year before I see the beach again.  Moment of silence, please.

 

 

 

 

 

Chloe was really sick the last few days, so she spent her time indoors sleeping or out on the balcony like an invalid.  It was beautiful and sad all at once.

As always, it was great to be with Jeff's family in our happy place (Topsail Island) playing in the water and eating lots of food.  This year was particularly awesome because we were there during my birthday AND because Jeff's sister, Amy, brought her fiancé, Jeff.  (Yes, that's going to be confusing.  I'm pretty sure he agreed to let us call him Howard.)  In an effort to keep my DSLR from drowning in the ocean, I took a lot of my pictures with my waterproof video camera.  It's fine in full sunlight, but it was cloudy all week, so most of the pictures were blech.

 

Except this one.

 

Aeli

 

Dear Amy, sorry about posting a picture of you in a swimsuit on the Internet.  Except, not really, because you look amazing.  Signed, Me.

 

Emmi, Chloe, and lots of sand.

 

Lovely Grandma Win. 

 

This was the first year we've had Grandmother Carol at the beach with us.  The kids loved getting to know her.  ("How many grandmas to we have?")  Grandmother didn't say much, but when she did, she had our full attention.  As Chloe put it, "She has really great stories."

 

Grandpa Eddie reading the longest book, ever.

 

 

Hands off, ladies.  He's mine.

 

Justin digging his "three hour hole."  A word of advice: never undo anything Justin's spent three hours doing.  Ever.

New Jeff and Amy put Harrison in the three hour hole.

 

Mani and Brian.  She looks adorable in every picture I took of her.  Life's not fair.

 

Melanie and Trent

 

Not the best angle of me, but he looks so darn cute, I'm taking one for the team.

 

Nathan and Bradley.  These two and Miles spent the week being the Three Amigos.  

 

Pops and Nathan

 

Your eyes do not deceive you.  That's my father-in-law with a boogie board.

 

Scott, Trent, and Bradley

 

It was cloudy all week and we had a lot of storms, but they looked cool and it gave us an excuse to have a Gilmore Girls marathon, so whatevs.

So Happy Together

As delightful as it was to spend a few days alone with Jeff, being away from the kids was harder than I thought it would be.  It turns out I really like them.  We met up with them at Topsail Island last Sunday for Jeff's family's annual beach trip.  Group hug!

I missed Harrison banging on the piano all the live long day.  He'll spend hours sitting at the piano trying to figure out how to play his favorite songs.  This summer we've been delighted by the Gravity Falls theme song and the theme from Pirates of the Caribbean.

I tried to call the kids every day while we were gone.  At the end of my conversations with Harrison, I'd tell him I loved him and he'd say, "Okay."

At least he lets me take GQ pictures of him on the beach.  I can be glad of that.

I missed Chloe's sweet smile and her humility.  She has no idea how awesome she is.  I keep telling her, but I don't think she believes me.

Chloe has spent the summer reading and hanging out with her mom.  Nerd.  When I talked with her on the phone and told her I loved her, she'd say, "[giggle giggle] Bye!" 

I knew what she meant.

When I talked to Miles on the phone, I asked him if he liked the beach.  He said, "I tasted the water and it tasteses gross.  I hate that water!  Everybody hates that water!  It's so gross!" 

You know what he hates worse than saltwater?  Sand on his feet.  "Look at my feet, Mommy!  Get the sand off my feet!"  He's always been weird about the sand.  Each year we hope he'll get over it.

However, when I called and told him I loved him, he said, "I miss you, Mommy.  I always love you and you're always my best friend.  I just love you so much!"  He spent his summer telling me that several times a day.  So I guess I can get over the fact that I didn't get one happy portrait of him at the beach.