Mid-to-End of July update

Two weeks later...I get back to posting.

The kids and I took a quick trip to visit the Troll.  The thing about touristy places, is they're always crawling with tourists.  We had to wait several minutes for a threesome to get out of the way so I could get a few pics with the kids.  As soon as they got on the creation, a group of what I suspect were college kids came by to get photos.  They could have been a sports team or a famous rock band, for all I know...  We headed to Green Lake to splash around, but I couldn't find a place to park.  Stupid parking lot is SOOOOOO tiny!  I saw some spots on the road around the North end, but by then, I just wanted to get back to our neighborhood.  We stopped by the park near our house and Cammie splashed around in the water.  Ben forgot his swim trunks, Cammie forgot a towel, and Emma wanted nothing to do with it.


Our deck is done.  The slippery wood and wobbly railings indicated that it was truly done for.  Kelly ripped it apart and found that it had far more rot than we first thought.

Cammie and I went to July Coronation while Kelly and the other two kids held down the fort.  I was able to see a friend get elevated to the Peerage, and another friend was offered the peerage as well.  Sigh.  Always the bridesmaid...

Cammie was able to work with the blacksmith for a while.  Last May, when she visited his shop on Merchant's Row, he said if she came back at the next event, he'd let her make something.  Needless to say, she was excited to return to the July event and learn the trade!  This is what she came away with!

We also got a chance to shoot some archery.  The trick with shooting arrows into a grassy field is trying to find the arrows again afterwards.  Straw colored shafts hiding amongst the straw.  After shooting about 10 of them, followed by a great deal of digging, I managed to find an arrow from the Archery Marshal that was lost the day prior.  We shot some more arrows, being short now three, and after a great deal of searching, found a bright green "war" arrow (with a large blunted tip).  I held it up and read the name on the label.  The Archery Marshal walked over and said, "I don't believe it.  This guy isn't even here this weekend.  This arrow has been hiding in the field for two years!"  About that time, another archer brought out her dog to help search for the arrows.  She had scented her arrows with birch oil to make it easier for her dog to find her arrows, but he was pretty good at finding other people's arrows as well.  At the end of the day, all the arrows that were lost had been found!  I was happy to go home with as many arrows as we arrived with!

  

Kelly and Emma went to Eastern Washington to visit with family and do some country stuff, like shooting targets.  Apparently this one wasn't designed for .22 gauge weapons.  PS - Emma did a lot of the shooting of this thing.  Annie Oakley, move over!


He made her drive part of the way, as evidenced here:

She doesn't really want to drive and hates being forced to practice.  I keep asking her but she keeps saying no.  I figure if we can get her the license, then she can drive as much (or as little) as she wants, but she won't have excuses to not do things like go see friends or run errands.  I hate fighting it.  It's not like she's refusing to go to school or something, but it is a life skill.

I took the little guys out to explore a new park (well, the park isn't new, but we hadn't been there before).  The sign said that it was for children ages 5-12, but this was the biggest toy there.  The swings were for infants and the climbing toy was less than 18" off the ground.


The park had a "fishing pond" (lots of frogs, a few fish that we could see, but it was really murky), an English Garden with lots of flowering plants, and a ball field as well as an old settler's cabin.
  
 

Benjamin had a cub scout outing to Gameworks where he won a sort of One-Armed-Bandit and got 1,000 tickets!  In the end, he had 1,600 tickets that he spent on this pile of loot.  The snake is named Oscar.  I voted for Nagini, but I was overruled.  I guess Harry Potter is officially passe.

Benjamin helped me make Monkey Bread.  It's French bread in a tube, cut into rounds then cut into quarters and tossed in sugar and cinnamon, then put into a bundt pan.  Then you take butter and brown sugar and melt it down and pour it over the blobs.  Bake for about 30 minutes at 350 (I think).  Then you can just tear off bite size pieces of bready bliss.  I have ideas for doing the same thing but tossing them in graham cracker crumbs and tossing in marshmallows and chocolate and baking.  Everything tastes better when you make it taste like s'mores.

Excess salt and sweat makes a great hair styling tonic.  Here's the Son of the Heat Miser during the off-season.


Cammie started piecing some blocks together for her first quilt!  She wanted to do some sewing, so I pulled out my baggie of 4" scraps and let her design her own blocks.


We worked on doing good 1/4" seams, then I let her have at it.  This is what she made in the first day!  She made a few more the next day, and her goal is to make 48 total to make a twin bed quilt.  This is a great project for her to start on, and I love that she's so eager to learn!


One more month of summer.  I still have to take Mr. B to the pool to teach him to swim.  Probably this week, now that we finally have the open swim hours at the pool.
Toodles!