Tonight the kids and I ran movie night at the lodge. We showed The Lego Movie--I finally got to see most of the movie, and the kids all got to swim in the pool and eat french fries. Which pretty much is how summer should be, right? Swimming, movies and fried food.

Seph got a haircut today, and is suffering the way I assume is normal for a young teen parting with three inches of hair. It looks so cute now, framing her face and all, but the likelihood I'll have a photo is nill, given her reaction. With luck, in a few days she'll settle into her new hair. Failing that, maybe I'll let her cut my hair.

I'd thought I was the bus before. Last year, with Seph in dance 4 days a week, and running the other two here and there, it seemed like I was the bus.

Now I know I was wrong. I'd forgotten a key ingredient of the bus, which is now plain to see. The bus? It drops people off. It doesn't stop to chat and hang out a bit. It doesn't come in for iced tea while the kids play. The bus is transport only. I have four places to go today, and they're all bus stops, not iced tea sippin' time stops.

At least I can be the bus. They're in for a surprise when they find out how bad I am at being the bank.

This was a busy weekend. Rone had his 'Claiming Ceremony' for Camp Half-Blood. It's a camp run by Book People, and is basically a week of live action role-play. The thing is, a God has to claim you, and Rone was really hoping Aphrodite wouldn't want him. Happily, Zeus saw Rone's great potential, and thus he was saved from working his charm for a week, and instead can use his lighting bolts.

Cotton's having a Big Swim summer. I likely wouldn't call it that if either of her siblings had been big swimmers. As it stands though, I've got to balance being terrified when she jumps off the diving board and heads to the ladder with wanting to read my book. Both are valid, but more and more she doesn't need me watching. If we were living in Rainbow Lakes, where I grew up, she'd be hopping on a big girl, clamoring to be allowed to play Stump Tag.

Heat finally hit, and it's hard to be mad at it, since it's July and all. The kids got to do sparklers, and we saw lots of homegrown firework shows after a great day of pool games and fun at Rob and Tarlie's.