Today was a pretty good day other than being completely annoyed by our neighbors this evening. Cory was working, and the kids and I had gone out to pick up marshmallows for Accalia. When we returned home, our neighbor and her sister were sitting in their backyard and the three kids between the two of them were playing in our yard. They were swinging on our swingset, riding in our wagon, etc. Earlier this summer, I had told the neighbor girls that we didn't want them playing in our yard when we weren't there. As far as I knew, they'd been respecting our wishes. I just don't understand how, as parents, you let your kids go ahead and play on someone's property and with their things when they aren't around and you have no prior agreement to do that. That doesn't make sense. I've always told the kids that we shouldn't be on someone's property or use their things unless they've said it's okay. That just seems like commonsense and respect to me. I guess not everyone thinks like that. As soon as I parked, Cole jumped out of the van, ran to the kids (who were near the moms) and said, "You shouldn't be playing with our things when we're not here." Who knows if that will actually be enforced? I was just amazed that there were parents outside watching the kids.

Anyway, minor annoyances aside, the kids and I had a good time on our little trip to Vermillion. We headed out right away in the morning and went to the park that they really enjoy. Since it was early and still a bit overcast, there weren't very many kids around. Most were at the nearby community pool for swimming lessons, I guess. After playing there until they were worn out and hungry, we grabbed lunch and then headed over to the W.H. Over Museum. Cole had been requesting going there. It's not a very big museum, and the kids weren't all that interested in many of the exhibits, so it was a pretty quick trip in and out. Then we went to the library because they had all of these interactive bug activities in the children's section (bugs was the theme for this year's summer reading program). I think Accalia and Cole's favorite was the huge honeycomb where they could arrange bee eggs, larva, pupa, babies, etc. in the cells.

So we were over there for part of the day until we had to get back in time for Accalia's tap class. Miss Judi, the studio owner and teacher of the tap class, pulled me aside and told me how surprised she was that Accalia had decided not to continue with tap this year. Registration for the fall semester is this week, and Accalia had decided she wanted to take ballet and gymnastics this year. She told me (and then Accalia) how wonderful Accalia is with tap, how she catches on so quickly and knows the steps so well. She told me she thought Accalia would stop with ballet before tap, and I told her I was surprised, too. After the class, I made sure to tell Accalia that she didn't need to feel pressured into taking tap just because of Miss Judi's praise, but that's not a problem with Accalia. For whatever reason, she's had enough and is ready to move on.

So that's pretty much been our day. I'm now falling way behind on emails, which I had been hoping to keep up with so I don't just go into labor and leave people waiting for my response even longer, especially with LLL stuff. Anyway, hopefully that catching up happens tomorrow since we'll be in town all day.