Mommathon

This book made me feel like I was back in high school again. There are some characters in this book that could have gone to my high school. It’s a good story and a pretty quick read. What’s it about? Two boys who are best friends and who don’t exactly have an ideal family life. One lives with his mom who is basically negligent and the other lives with his mom, too, but her choice of profession (no, not THAT profession) is questionable. Where are their dads? Gone. Everything in their lives changes in one night when the two boys go to a party with a girl they just recently met. Do things change for the better? In the end? Maybe.

There was an awesome maker fair in town this weekend at OMSI. What’s a maker faire? There was everything from catapults, to robots, to paper making, to archery, to Steampunk to chocolate art and then some. I didn’t get a ton of pictures, but these will give you the basic idea of the event. The boys had a great time and the weather was perfect.

A ginormous catapult that launched watermelons and pumpkins. Yes, I think this was Colm’s favorite part of the whole day.

Liam getting ready to launch the rocket he made.

Colm launching a tennis ball off a much smaller catapult.

Liam in the Intel tent where you could make your own keyboard with wires and this foil tape-like stuff. You then placed it on a clipboard, hooked it up to these metal clips and then as you played your body became part of the circuit that would then create the music. It’s hard to explain, but it was very cool.

I could not put this book down. It will make you cry, but it’s so worth the tears.

First Day of School Photos

This weekend was also the boys’ first soccer games.

Book club is next week, so I thought I had better read our book club book. We read “A Visit From the Good Squad.” I thought it was very well written, but a little hard to follow since every chapter only has one person in it from the previous chapter. There is some overlapping as the book goes on, but I really wish I would have started a diagram or something after reading the first couple of chapters just to help me keep everyone straight.

After that I read “A Farewell to Arms.” I try to read a classic every once in a while, so I have met my quota for a while now. I thought the story was good, but the dialogue between the main character and his girlfriend was awful. Did people really talk to each other like that back then? I don’t think so.

These are definitely two VERY different books, set in two very different times and places.

View from our room

Haystack Rock

Life is hard

Digging a VERY deep hole in the sand.

This is Sean’s favorite beach activity.