THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER: VOLUME 115 JULY 2017

Dear Family and Friends,

The major events of May were Joshua's return from months of traveling and volunteering in Colombia and Bolivia and Ava Claire's 4^th birthday party. The birthday girl decided on a mermaid theme this year: thus her party was held at her neighborhood clubhouse pool. I drove over to Coryn's house a few hours ahead of time to babysit the children while she picked up the pre-ordered party food and cake -which she stored in huge ice chests - whilst she grouped and guarded enough tables and chairs for all the guests. I was charged with bringing the kids, gallons of lemonade, juice boxes and swim gear shortly before party time. It took several trips to get everything loaded up in my car but the hardest part was holding my breath as I squished myself into my swimsuit. Once there Coryn came out to the parking lot to help me unload.

Ava Claire and Owen were in the water as soon as their arm bands were on and knowing that Coryn was too busy to watch them I peeled of my clothes and dashed in after them, noting that I was one of the smaller mermaids in the pool. I breathed out and felt quite comfortable in my seldom worn bathing suit. Soon the already busy pool was full of Ava's friends, their siblings and parents. Ava Claire tried to persuade me to go down the water slide with her. Grandma is too old to do that I informed her. Her response “Oh Grandma- you are not too old silly!” She assured me that I could do it, that I would love it, and it would be so much fun! Thankfully Jeremy arrived and Ava Claire talked him into going down the water slide – once Owen saw this he was determined to go too. I took him to Jeremy who took him down a couple of times but soon Owen was climbing the stairs and coming down all by himself. He loved the experience and having no concept of waiting in line he would just work his way through the big kids assuming it was always his turn to go first. They were kind to be so tolerant of him and I must confess that I was concerned that he might fly off as he weighs so little but the sides of the slide were very high and I noticed that with the bends in it no one was entering the water at great speed.

I was amazed that neither Sean, Sarah nor Kay had thought to bring a swimsuit to a pool party! I was the one playing in the water with the kids at more than twice their ages. Good thing that I am in such great shape children – pray you have my genes and not your dad's!

Everyone enjoyed the sub sandwiches and sides that Coryn served during adult swim time only and afterwards they were all back in the pool until it was time for Ava Claire to open her presents and blow out the birthday candles on her cake.

Unfortunately Josh was out of town again by the time Ava Claire's Birthday was celebrated as he had arranged to meet up with Evan Fahey and Josh Bergman( his long time friends from Fort Madison) in Des Moines that weekend. Ava Claire was disappointed but she had Uncle Sean, Sarah and cousin Kay to more than compensate. The most amazing part of all this is that she told very frugal Josh that he needed to give her four presents because she was turning four and amazingly he did!

The following weekend Ming-Jon came for a quick visit, as we were celebrating Kay's obtaining her Masters Degree in teaching English as a Second Language. She elected not to attend the graduation ceremony as she had actually finished her degree a semester earlier but I thought we should acknowledge her accomplishment in some way so we had a celebratory dinner at my house on Saturday night.

Thankfully Josh was back in town at this time and was able to pick Ming-Jon up from the airport late Friday night as Kay had accepted an invitation to a concert that night with her new boyfriend - forgetting it was the same date as her dad's arrival. Ming Jon spent the night at our house and Kay came over the next morning to spend the day with him. We drove to Sean and Sarah's new house for the tour but once again Sarah was out of town for work so they missed being introduced.

That afternoon Coryn arrived with the kids – Jeremy was out of town at a bachelor party – so we let the kids entertain us. Fortunately we were able to eat dinner on the deck although we moved inside for dessert – ice cream cake - as the blazing sun would have melted it for sure. I have since moved all the furniture around on my deck in an effort to provide more shade for the dinning table as the umbrella was not covering it enough. Later that night Ming-Jon left with Kay to spend some time at her apartment before she took him to the airport for his afternoon flight back to Washington DC on Sunday.

Ava Claire with her beloved Uncle Josh enjoying the water slide!

Owen's second birthday was celebrated on June 8^th but unfortunately his pool party had to be canceled as he was running a fever that day. Ava Claire was heartbroken because she wanted to show me and Uncle Josh her new swimming skills so we decided to drive over and take her to the pool for awhile leaving poor Owen at home with mom and some new birthday toys to compensate.

Towards the end of June, Coryn and Jeremy were vacationing with some other couples in Austin, Texas to celebrate a fortieth birthday and so Ava Claire and Owen were taking a vacation with Grandma for a few days. They were dropped off on a Thursday afternoon and picked up late Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately Josh was in Texas at this time helping out a friend with siding his house (I have a loose section of siding on my house that I have been trying to get one of my boys to fix) so with the exception of Kay who came over to play with them on Saturday afternoon I was flying solo.

Fun in the sun in Grandma's water park on the deck
Owen decided to eat lunch in the pool, at least his plate floated but a lot of the food sunk ! 

Actually it was much easier than the time they stayed for almost a week in December because the weather was very pleasant which meant that we could spend a lot of time outdoors. Friday morning I took the children to the animal farm where as always Ava Claire insisted on pushing her brother in his stroller until he decided he would rather try to climb into the pens with the animals. Ava Claire declared that if Owen didn't want to use the stroller she would and promptly clambered in, but as soon as I started pushing, Owen shoved me out of the way and raced off with his sister. I have to confess that he can steer much better than she, but his short stature was a hindrance to seeing oncoming pedestrians and sometimes I would grab a handle to avoid a collision which enraged Owen who would scream “mine” at the top of his voice. My nerves were beginning to fray. After feeding various animals I decided it was time for my grand children to burn up some energy and let them climb up a huge enclosed slide. I asked Ava Claire to keep Owen with her but of course as soon as he was out of my sight he just rushed past all the other kids and came flying down the slide. Ava appeared several children later and chased after Owen who was already in the building that housed the staircase to the top of the slide. I spotted them on a walkway to the slide up in the air but they didn't come down the slide. Grandma's imagination immediately conjured up visions of them being abducted, Ava Claire needing to use the potty and not sure what to do,or Owen a tumbled heap at the bottom of the stairs. I started asking other adults around me if they had seen a couple of Asian children but no luck, so I ran into the building that houses the staircase and shouted their names. No response. I dashed out side and sped around the entire circumference of the building and saw another slide with a grinning Owen jumping off. I grabbed him and asked where Sissy was, he pointed at the slide and ran off into the building again! Eventually Ava Claire appeared and declared it was so much fun. I said she and Owen needed to stay together and tell me which slide they were coming down as Grandma didn't know their were two ways up and down. “Okay Grandma1” she called as she ran off too. To think I was on the verge of dialing 911!

The next chance I managed to nab them I suggested a treat and checking out another play area – near the parking lot so I could get them home before my mind was completely blown. This was just as stressful because once at the top of a double slide – albeit a much smaller one – he and Ava Claire grabbed onto an over head bar at the top of the slide and swung themselves back and forth in the air using their legs to gain momentum. I was amazed that they had the arm strength to do this but of course they were holding up the line of kids waiting to slide down behind them so I had to tell them to let go and slide down. They dropped onto the slide but started a ritual whereby they would count to three and come down simultaneously, further holding all the other kids up. One little girl fed up with this routine of theirs pushed Owen down and he was furious. As soon as he reached the bottom he stuck his bottom lip out in a great big pout and proceeded to block her way down. I apologized to her parents as I yanked him off- they were apologizing for their daughter's pushing him down but I assured them that he needed to learn to share the play equipment. Thankfully after a few more runs around all the spring rockers, rock climbing walls and monkey bars, Ava Claire needed to use the bathroom so I headed to the closest one to the exit so we could head home for lunch and hopefully a long afternoon nap for Owen.

On Saturday morning we made our first trip together to the Arboretum as I thought Ava Claire would enjoy a new exhibit, The Enchanted Forest inspired by all the interest in Fairy gardens – one of which I started this summer for the kids in my garden. We arrived at about ten in the morning to a packed parking lot and I had to drive down a rocky makeshift road to an overflow field. I dreaded to think what effect this was having on my car. Once parked, the people parked next to me asked me if I knew that the Arboretum was closing at noon that day. I did not. The woman looked in my back seat and said she thought I might want to know before I unloaded the kids and all their stuff. I thanked her but decided a couple of hours was probably plenty of time. I slung my kid essentials bag across my body,  put Owen in the stroller and explained to Ava Claire that Grandma would have to push it along the grass until we reached a path. It was a challenge - I was hot and sweaty before we even got to the entrance. I decided to have the kids walk around the lake first, thinking that Owen would enjoy walking across the bridge to see the turtles and fish. A young girl was throwing chunks of bread to the huge fish and without any prompting from her father she offered my grandchildren slices of bread to throw in too. I thanked her profusely and congratulated her father on his daughter's kindness.

I think Owen was more interested in his blue mosquito repellent bracelet.

Ava Claire felt we needed work - a lot of it on our fairy garden!

It has been a a couple of years since I last visited this place and I had forgotten that the bridge was open to the water on both sides, just some low slung ropes provided as a useless barrier. It wasn't long before Owen was inches from the edge , bending over the water to better feed the fish frenzy. I grabbed his shirt, and suggested that we hurry up with the fish feeding and find the Enchanted Forest.

Since this was advertised as a childrens attraction I expected it to be situated on a paved pathway in fairly close proximity to the entrance but it was quite a hike through the woods on mulched paths- try pushing an umbrella stroller on one! I was soon lost and beginning to worry about ever finding my way out of the maze back to my car - leave alone the exhibit. Fortunately I was not the only lost soul and with a little help we eventually found some very intricate wood carved castles and cottages with amazing details like stained glass windows and miniature tables set with fine china for afternoon tea. I think it would have been more effective to place the exhibits in one setting rather than strung out over quite a distance but definitely worth seeing. We made it out of the park in time, and headed home.

Ice cream cones on Grandma's porch. I had to hose the kids, chairs and porch off when they finished!

After supper we headed off for a walk through the nearby woods -on a paved trial. Ava Claire was very excited about this secret wood that she knew nothing about near Grandma's house. On the way we ran into my neighbor Charlene who promptly joined us saying she would love to check the trail out as she hadn't ventured down there in years. She mentioned that she had often seen deer there so the children were on the look out for them the whole time. Once again the kids took turns riding in the stroller with Charlene happily pushing it! I had to carry Owen at times but they did a lot of walking too so they slept well again that night.

Sunday morning I was at the grocery store with the kids before I had even drunk a cup of coffee so that they could pick out donuts from the bakery – I did buy some fruit too! They were very enthused about this change in my morning routine knowing very well that Grandma is not available to do anything in the morning until she has two cups of coffee! I slept for ten hours that night after their parents picked them up!

Unfortunately Ethan was unable to visit as planned because he didn't book his ticket earlier enough and the cost was just too high to justify a two week stay. He hopes to come later this fall or maybe next Spring. Too bad he missed our 4^th July Celebration which made me light up more than any fire cracker ever could. Details of this explosive event will be shooting your way as soon as I can light the fuse under my butt to write another red hot newsletter – but hopefully before the end of this month.

Love from your always fired up about something Mother