Art Camp

Last week, the boys did morning art camp at the Botanical Gardens.  When I signed them up, I had images of them sitting with their easels amidst the flowers and plants, lot of nature -- but no.  It turns out that Art Camp takes place in this warehouse-like basement.  They only go to the Conservatory for a bathroom break.

Despite this let-down, I think the teacher was very good, and the boys enjoyed it (especially Matthew).  This week, they're doing Construction Camp (both) and Clay Camp (Matthew).

(On the last day, they did abstract paintings, and the teacher asked them each to show the class and, on the spur of the moment, give a title if they had one for their piece. Matthew named his "Random Shapes."  Apropos, I thought!)

Look Ma, No Tube

Guess who doesn't have a g-tube any more?

We didn't expect Thursday to be such a big day, but at James's peds GI appointment, they asked if we wanted to take the tube out (Mike had discussed it with them at the last appointment), and we decided to go for it.  James has been asking to have it out recently, and since he had gained a couple of pounds since the last appointment (and has been steady on his growth curve at around 5% for height and 3% weight), they thought it would be fine.

(Unlike putting a tube in, taking it out is extremely simple -- perhaps a 10 second process!)  So far it seems to be closing/healing up quite well, which honestly is not what I expected, given that he's had it in for so long.  (If it doesn't close up all the way after a month, they may have to close it surgically with a few stitches. It would be nice to avoid that, but we'll see.)

Yay, James!

Big Games

The softball games yesterday were in the morning, so in the afternoon we went down to Canalside.  It was a free concert night (although we were too early for that), but an unfortunate side effect was that they wouldn't let me take my camera into the area because "professional" camera equipment wasn't allowed.  (Clearly they didn't know much about photography if they thought my gear was professional!  I didn't even have a lens cap on -- what kind of professional would do that?  :) )  So, I had to make do with the phone camera.

Much to James and Matthew's delight, they had some large-sized games out -- the boys enjoyed giant Jenga, and James played Maia in giant checkers.

Afterwards, we went to Pearl Street for dinner, which was a fun location (except for them forgetting to bring Karen's dinner until the rest of us were almost done!)

Edited to add: The other excitement while our friends were here was that there was a water main leak, so we had to boil water or use bottled water.  (Welcome to the United States, where you can't drink the water!  The just lifted the ban now, Saturday afternoon.)

Girls of Summer

 Our Canadian friends were down in the area for their daughter's softball tournament, so we were able to go down and see them and the game!  It was a beautiful evening to be out, and lucky for us, their game was moved away from the main ballpark but right next to the playground.  :)  James did spend some time enthusiastically cheering on the team, though!

Cheese Please

 We made a strategic error on Saturday -- we arrived at the Italian Festival after eating lunch!  But on the bright side, we did get there just in time for the kids' cheese building contest, which was fun (although Matthew said he wished it had been a cheese-eating contest.  Fortunately for him, all the contestants received cheese sticks as well as a gold medal!)