Every once in a while I get an idea that is super fun for one or both kids and extra super-duper easy (+ free) for me. The best of these take me five minutes to set up and then provide at least quadruple that amount of kid-free alone time. So here I am giving myself a gold star for the occasional good idea, and sharing four of them.

1. Water popsicles.
Maybe this won't last, but for the time being my kids are almost as excited by water popsicles as by real popsicles. Doesn't get much easier. Bonus: make a rule that kids must eat water popsicles outside.

2. Wading pool + mini trampoline.

It was nice and splashy (just the right amount of splash, actually) and managed to result in 25 minutes of jumping on a hot day. My presence was not required!

3. Easter egg hunt.
I don't have a photo of this one. I found 6 empty plastic eggs left over from Easter and used a sharpie to initial 3 for Halina and 3 for Luke to take outside. Okay, I had to go outside with them, but I lounged in the sun while they played for at least 30 minutes from this prompt.

4. Costume for Kit.

This took 10 minutes. Halina came home from a play date wanting a princess dress up costume for her American Girl doll, Kit, like the playdate friend had. Not only would I not buy the princess costume for Kit, but Halina conceded that Kit is not the sort of character who would even want to be a princess anyway (she's a total realist -- love Kit). I got this brainstorm and it literally took 10 minutes. Maybe less. I cut a the mask out of a file folder. Halina stuck on the jewel stickers. I stapled a rubber band to the back. And then grabbed a hole-y scarf from her dress up box and ripped off a bit for kit and the rest for Halina and sort of wrapped them each in it. Voila. Costume for Kit, plus bonus matching costume for kid. Nearly one hour of mom-free play followed.

Other fun and cheap things that were not so very easy/useful, but still pretty fun (and that I have cute pics of):

No-mirror face painting.

Yeah, this gets major.

Skate-board ramp sliding (no skate board).

Loitering around a fire station and getting offered a hat.

Hiking -- with a stick (stick very important).

Riding BART.

Waiting to ride BART.

Being kitties.

Playing at the laundromat. (And even going to a laundromat in the first place. Thrill.)

And hiding. Always hiding.

Herber Bluefish.

Today Halina was, as she so often is, engaged in a low-volume, fast-talking kind of pretend play that involves lots of spontaneous characters, often embodied by figures she's been cutting out from mail-order clothes catalogs over the last few months (but they can be embodied by anything, even pencils) interacting in a school or similar environment with a kind but efficient teacher or other organizing person in the mix. Today I was half-aware as I was emptying the dishwasher that Halina, sitting at the kitchen table, was quietly voicing the part of the teacher and improvising student names one after another to give them assignments or check off work completed or something. "Oh, you have a brother? And what's his name? Zimba? Ok. Give this to Zimba. And this one goes to Zamba." I wasn't really taking any notice of it until I heard her name someone Herber Bluefish. After a beat I surfaced, blinking, and said "Herber Bluefish?" 

She looked up, distracted. "Yeah," she said hesitantly. Then we looked at each other and giggled. 

"Herber Bluefish," I said with great interest.

"Stop saying that," she said. "Stop saying Herber Bluefish." 

"I just want to remember it," I said, resuming the dishes.

"What was it again?" she asked a minute later. "Herber Bluefish?" 

"Yes," I said. And she seemed to think it over with a dreamy, distant, just-noticing-herself half-smile.

I'm enjoying having her around for summer.

And speaking of enjoying, when Chris called tonight (he's out of town), Luke reported: "I got a new toothbrush today that I can enjoy."

Today Halina went to her swim lesson while Luke and I watched. Every time she gets a little better, a little more quietly sure. In the water, she is long and pale and unfolding. She doesn't swim yet. She glides, and dips and surfaces with the help of her amazing instructor. But I can see her love for the water growing. Her relationship to her own powers. I can see her "becoming" in it like those sped up movies of plants blossoming. I think there's something there for me about recognizing and accepting who she is. She doesn't eat meat (unless sometimes when we bribe her), she has delicate wrists, she doesn't want to play on a soccer team, she is kind and she will probably hug me when she's 16 (fingers crossed). And she dreams up Herber Bluefish.

Yesterday I was facing a deadline, exhausted, frayed, spent, and nervous, hit with round two of a cold and home alone for a long stretch with two children, and Halina had decided not to return to the day camp that I'd enrolled her in for the week. I was so tired and stressed, I felt like the whole day was a dream. After picking up Luke from MCPC and getting gas, I let the kids talk me into driving from the gas station to a 7-11 to look for graham crackers, then back to the gas station I'd just left so they could wash the car with the window washer/squeegee things. (Luke's neck was slick with tears.) They happily washed the car for about 15 minutes in the rain while I loitered, wondering how to transition back to normal life. Eventually the gas station worker walked over and coaxed them to call it quits while giving me pitying smiles. Today I find this pretty hilarious.

(Yesterday I was also forced to conclude that taking them for a walk around our curvy, fast-drivers, no-sidewalks neighborhood when they each have a bike or scooter to deal with is not the good idea I keep thinking it might be but instead guarantees a slow parade of mortifyingly bad parenting in front of all our neighbors.)

We had a nice day today. And I cannot believe how much I have to be thankful for in general and how lush life with these two can feel. Being home alone with them for a week (and a significant week -- Luke's last week being two, his first week at preschool camp, my last week working at this job), it brings these things out. The highs and lows. And with it the knowledge of how things are like this for only a short time, how things will change. But maybe they'll keep being kinda magical.

Yesterday was a special day. It was Luke's first day of pre- preschool (a less time-intensive summer camp intro) at MCPC, the same place Halina graduated from last year. (See my farewell post here.) It was actually Luke's second day, but his first having to say goodbye. I had no idea which way it would go. He's done some heart-broken sobbing when I've left for work before. But yesterday he did great. He was a little worried but ready to take on the challenge. And when I whispered that it would be not too long and would be fun, he nodded bravely. When I picked him up his teacher told me he'd said "It's cool to be at MCPC by myself." You said that?!, I asked. "Yes I did," he said proudly. It was a relief to hear he had not only suvived but truly enjoyed himself.

Before heading off to school that morning.

At pickup, wearing his lion shirt for courage.

Blissful, puttery cooking with Luke this morning.

"We should pretend we are in a factory!"

"A muffin-making factory?"

"Yeah."

We celebrated Fathers Day by taking bikes to Middle Harbor Shoreline Park, where it's spacious and full of paths, perfect for riding. 

Maybe it was due to bringing Kit along on the newly installed doll seat, but Halina was an extra confident rider today.

Luke also had an amazing day on his strider bike, coasting down hills with his feet tucked up for the first time and generally covering a lot of ground.

We got a lot of sun & breeze with so much room to roam, and great views of the bay and the City. Boats of all kinds zoomed and floated by, the USS Potomac among them. The Port of Oakland is right there, featuring those enormous loading cranes. There's an observation tower where you can get a good look at everything.

Yes there is a goose poop problem. And a few people here and there hanging out for long, probably drug-related reasons in the parking lot. But there are people flying kites and having picnics, too. And did I mention the s-p-a-c-e ?

Just generally a fun, active outing, seasoned with affection and appreciation for Daddy.

(Caught here doing yet another selfless task.)

Hope he felt the love.

It was such a short time ago that we were choosing the right school for Halina for her kindergarten year, then stressing about it, then beginning it, then adjusting, then figuring out it was awesome, and during all that it seemed like *so much* time was ahead of us for stretching our legs within this new reality. And now suddenly it's the end of Kindegarten for my girl.

Today I went to her classroom for their publishing party. My small group of four kids each read one of the books he or she wrote as part of a series. Halina read from her "The adventures of the boy and the girl" series, which has six books, all kept as a secret surprise for today. In the book she read, the girl and boy go camping. In another book, they go skiing -- something she's never done. The skis are pudgy, like bread loaves, and have wheels on the bottom.

Now that the year is ending, it's easier than ever to see the adorable-ness and courage involved in what these kids have accomplished. It really shines through and is almost too brilliant to take in. 

After the small group readings, we gathered in a big circle to offer appreciation for the writing or illustrations or for whatever came to mind from the publishing party. A turn-taking stone was handed around. Some kids offered appreciation, many kids passed. It got to Halina last. I figured she'd pass. She's not one for public speaking. It can be so difficult for her. But she didn't pass. In a soft voice, she appreciated...me! Wow. Such a sweet moment. I was so touched and tried to be as present as I could for it.

This weekend we traveled to Colfax to celebrate Grandma Mary's 80th birthday at Uncle Mark & Sage's gorgeous foothills home. Whenever we go there, the smell of pine trees and all the beauty makes me vow to move back to the foothills somehow someday. We also stopped by Grandma & Grandpa's in Sacramento for a night. And at the Nut Tree on the way (111 degrees there). Here are some photos.

Pretty much kid heaven.

Grandma Mary and her sister, Elaine, whom she hasn't seen in many, many years. She flew out from Iowa for the party.

Swimming at Grandma & Grandpa's.

This picture makes me giggle. Totally spontaneous, but they look like members of a professional troupe doing their signature act.

The night ended with writing cards at home. What a lot of good weekend.