Last Day

This year's last day of school was overshadowed by torrential downpours and tornadoes. So really, it was just another day in Oklahoma.

Bode loved first grade and had a mad crush on his teacher, which is turning into a theme. For her end-of-the-year- gift, he insisted on going to the Cracker Barrel to get her some of those tiny bottles of pancake syrup. No amount of arguing could talk him out of it. 

He nailed it on the "finish the famous phrase" assignment because diamonds are a girl's life.

First day:

Last day:

Mia smugly let us know that 4th graders don't have ridiculous and juvenile things like "end of the year" parties at school. She then asked me to take her to Sonic because it wasn't fair that Bode got to eat all of those treats at school and she didn't.

The best advice I can give mothers of tween-agers: Bite your tongue.

Summer break is officially here. My goal is to accomplish as little as possible. So far so good.

Marathons are, like, hard and stuff.

So the BRPE (Best Running Partner Ever) and I decided to tackle the full marathon recently. It may or may not be that I talked BRPE into running a full by convincing him that it wasn't going to be that bad and that he would totally love it. This may or may not be why I have to keep getting new running partners.

Running a marathon is like giving birth - it's so impactful and deeply meaningful that you want to share it with anyone who will listen. And also, no one else really wants to hear about it.

So, I'll spare you the gory details.

I'll just say that we finished and are better for it. I'll also say that if these three (and a hamburger stand) weren't waiting for me at the finish line I may not have crossed it.

The practical part of my brain tells me that running full marathons is kind of dumb and is eventually not going to end well for me. The other part of my brain is the part I usually listen to.

Graduation; Epic Fail Style

Nothing sums up my graduation experience better than this picture:

That's right, folks, this is all that is left after flash floods, torrential downpours, tornado warnings and power outages. The weather was so terrible that they actually canceled convocation a few minutes before it was scheduled to start, which left us no choice but to graduate ourselves.

Once all the deans of the graduate departments split (which took about 10 seconds) the students that were left decided to go up on the stage and just take care of it ourselves. Someone found the script with the list of award winners, another person pilfered through the certificates, someone else dug through the gift sacks and about ten minutes later we were done.

Graduate students are nothing if not resourceful. We have lived in survival mode for years. We know how to stir a pot on the stove while reading textbooks, we write papers in carpool lines, and for goodness sake, we don't let a little (or a lot) of life-threatening weather derail us.

So, yah, all that to say I'm done. Finished. Through. My only regret is not swiping one of those gold key necklace things.

Thankfully the weather and my graduation did not get in the way of Mia's theater performance.

I would rather watch this girl perform than just about anything in the world.

Latest Reads

I'm graduating from grad school tomorrow. This means I never have to read for an assignment again. This also means I no longer have an excuse for not cooking or cleaning.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

However, I have to say that the last three books I read in grad school I would recommend to any parent.  

First of all, if you are raising a kid in Edmond, OK, for goodness sake read The Price of Privilege immediately. On second thought, if you are raising a kid in America, read this book. It's informative, based on quantitative and qualitative research, and it makes sense.

Teach Your Children Well is kind of a companion book to Privilege. It has a bit of overlap but it's also excellent. Anything that comes out of Madeline Levine's brain or mouth is worth listening to.

I think How Children Succeed is a great read for educators and parents of school age children. Less parenting info and more educator info, but I found it very valuable.

I'm sure I'm the last person on the planet to read this little nugget. Loved. It. It's simply wonderful. One of the most interesting autobiographical novels I have ever read.

 And this is great entertainment. Such a wonderful and surprising story.

I fully intend to read tons of trash fiction now that I'm out of school, but I keep finding myself drawn towards books about my field. Which makes me a nerd. But there is something gratifying about reading nerdy books because I choose to, not because I have to.

And also, nerds rule.

The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread

I got myself a brand new nephew and he's pretty perfect. So perfect, in fact, that he was polite enough to come two days before we left on vacation. (I totally dodged a bullet on that one.)

 Mia could do this all day:

Weston Aaron Wade, named after Maresa's and my wonderful grandfather:

He likes to stay up all night and sleep all day.  Kind of like every college student I know.

I can't wait to introduce this child to Dr. Pepper, just like his momma did for my kids when they were toddlers. It's payback time.

The best thing about LA

Because we planned to stay about a week in LA and because I knew I would be pretty tired of hotel room by the time we got there, we decided to rent a house. We used airbnb, and lemmetellya, we loved it.

We found a great place, for a great price in a great area, but the best part about the experience was meeting our wonderful host, Tracey. This woman made our trip. She basically acted as our personal concierge. She found me the perfect place to run (with the Hollywood sign in the background), she gave us restaurant recommendations (which we hardly needed given all the delicious, gourmet food she left for us), she spoiled our kids absolutely rotten, and huge bonus - she works at Disney studios and gave us a private tour.

Tracey was the bomb-diggity:

 Oh, and sprinkles cupcakes are pretty great too:

Tracey took us to the Disney archives. This place was unreal:

Look - the puppets they used for the opening credits on the original Parent Trap:

Stan Lee's office, where my husband walked in to pretending he was lost looking for the bathroom. Like they don't see that all the time:

 The famous seven dwarfs executive building:

 The Character voices studio:

 Mia looking through the original drawing for Beauty and the Beast:

But like all good things, the trip had to come to an end and the laundry had to begin. (That entire back was full of dirty laundry).

On our last night in LA we were sitting in a restaurant and it dawned on me that my kids had not asked to play on my phone the entire trip. I actually teared up when I brought it to their attention. We just had that much fun being together without the distractions of our regular responsibilities.

Every family should be forced to spend huge amounts of time together in very cramped quarters. Strangely, it doesn't bring out the worst in you.

We get our kicks on Route 66 (and a little bit in Vegas, but not much)

If you are ever roadtrippin' through Arizona on Route 66 you have to stop at the Snowcap. This was one of our favorite unexpected stops on the the trip. In fact, we liked it so much that we stopped again on the way home. 

Where else can you get an amazing chocolate malt and find a zombie head in a toilet? It's a win-win!

There is really nothing like this place. The family that owns it are so much fun and the decor can't really be accurately described with words.

And then there is Vegas....

If you're children can't see or can't read, this is a pretty good place for them. If not, well, prepare to do a lot of explaining. And the hardest thing for me to explain (anywhere, not just Vegas) is animals dressed as humans.

We stayed one night in Vegas at the Mirage to see the Cirque du Soliel Beatles Love show. The show was fabulous. The kids have been forced to learn every Beatles song ever sung, so they ate it up. They also ate up an all-you-can-eat buffet.

The smoke and the gambling and the prostitution and the alcohol aren't really classic kid stuff, but overall we had fun and thought it was worth the stop.

Nothing says father-daughter bonding like a trip to the city of sin.

If only we all had such confidence

I made the kids keep a journal on our road trip. I wanted them to have something to look back on and remember the experience. I don't think Bode understood the assignment:

Theme Parks

Being a child of the 80's, the only thing I've ever known about LA is that the Crips and the Bloods will kill you if you wear the wrong color. So, I was a little anxious to visit. However, it far exceeded my expectations and, thankfully, I lived to tell about it. The main attractions for the {three} children in the Lashley family were Disneyland, Universal Studios and Magic Mountain. 

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by Disneyland. One time, when we were on a Disney bus in Florida the driver told us that all of Disneyland could fit in the parking lot of the Magic Kingdom in Disney World. That was it for me. I was never going to waste my time visiting the "lesser" Disney park. 

I know this will come as a shock, but I was so wrong. We loved Disneyland. It's so much easier to get around and it doesn't feel small at all (except the sad, little castle). 

Mia was all over the pin trading. Disney is so genius for coming up with this little scheme game.

Apparently, I couldn't keep my mouth shut the entire day.

If you have little kids that love the Cars movie this place will blow their minds. 

I might go so far as to say the food options in the park are better than Magic Kingdom in Florida. And by food options, I mean chocolate options.

This is how I look every time I ride It's A Small World. I also tear up. Every. Single. Time.  Bode, on the other hand, was less than impressed:

Universal Studios was a step down from Disney, in my opinion, but they have some really cool shows and the kids loved the thrill rides. Also, they have a Starbucks, in case you need a place to chill while your family rides insane and terrifying roller coasters.

Huge plus to Universal - Harry Potter World. I bet we will be back for this:

And then there was Magic Mountain. It's like the trashy, filthy step-child of Disneyland. I hated it. The kids LOVED IT. It's still all they can talk about. They have some of the fastest roller coasters in the world. Also, the roller coaster with the longest drop in the entire world. If you like to see your life flash before your eyes every ten minutes, this is the place for you. 

We did get to ride a roller coaster with Phil Mickelson, which made it almost bearable. Almost. I didn't take many pics in this park because we were all either hanging upside down or being thrown from side-to-side on some death trap of a ride.

Bode thought the food at Magic Mountain was awesome. He made that declaration while dipping a corn dog in nacho cheese. I spent the entire day looking for coffee. I never found it.

The next time we are in LA, I will happily drop the kids and Andy off at this park and drive myself straight to Beverly Hills for the day. Period. End of discussion.

The kids will definitely tell you that LA was their favorite stop on the trip and that is because of theme parks. I'm raising two thrill seeking junkies. It's their Dad's fault.