Rain, Rain, Go Away

Today is Chancellor's Day.  In other words, the teachers need a day to do their end-of-year paperwork and pack up their classrooms so students are left at home (or wherever you can pack them off to).

A couple days ago I started plotting how the three of us would spend our midweek day off.  The beginning of the week was in the 80s with clear, sunny skies, so I envisioned us spending the day in the park, going on a nature hunt.  Yesterday, I realized that the forecast for today was rain and a lot of it.  My visions of wearing shorts and hunting for wildlife quickly turned to the three of us spending the day in our tiny apartment with our faces deep in laptops.  I couldn't let that happen.

Holden's been begging to take another Lego robotics class at Robofun (where they take their video game making class).  Lego robotics is where they build robots (or spaceships, or solar systems, or whatever) out of Legos and then use the computer to program them to move.  They had an all day camp today and I realized it would be a great opportunity to both make him happy and also for Ella and I to have a mother-daughter day.  Ella's always craving individual attention.

Mission accomplished.  He had a fabulous time.  Here's some video of his "planetary system" doing its thing.

With the rain coming down heavily, Ella and I ducked in for shelter at our favorite coffee shop, Birch.

And then we caught the matinee of Maleficent.  If you're thinking of taking your little ones, be warned - it's scary.  Very scary.  Ella isn't easily frightened but I'm sure glad Holden didn't come with us.

 

Check out these fancy seats in the movie theater.  They recline all the way back.

 

We still had some time to kill after the movie so I left Ella to her own devices in the kitchen.

For the first time I handed her a recipe and pointed out where the ingredients could be found and left.  It's only a one butt kitchen anyway, so I couldn't have helped her if I tried.  But I completely left her alone and she came up with these muffins all by herself:

Last night was Ella's big end-of-the-year chorus concert.  They sang all Beatles songs this time and it was fantastic.

Remember back when I was bragging about how school doesn't start until after Labor Day in New York?  Well, it's payback time.  Still three more weeks of school when it seems like everyone else in the country is celebrating their last days.