In an attempt to restrain myself from blabbing on and on about the rugrats, I've started a blog to upload photos and videos and the occasional story for your internet browsing pleasure.
I forgot to post about Amelie selling girl scout cookies. This was our first year selling (and I hadn't even gotten her Brownie uniform, so she walked around in her Daisy bib).
She sold over 80 boxes just walking around our neighborhood. Leah came with us in the stroller. (Her very useful baby coat was a gift from my friend Amanda!)
She ended up with credit for over 150 boxes since the troop did a few booths as well - which is pretty impressive since the period we had to sell was fairly short and the weather was just awful for almost all of it. (These pictures were from the one nice weekend in February.)
Here's Amelie in her Brownie vest. She was not too enthused about taking a photo.
And she got some cool patches for the back, too.
And some pictures from Girl Scout camping. Aunt Holly loaned us her big nice tent, and we practiced putting it up in our yard. It takes 4 people to hold the poles - James, Amelie and I were trying, but not quite managing. Amelie said, "I'll go get Edward!" ran next door, procured our 6-year-old neighbor, and we got the tent up.
On the morning of the camping trip 1) had to tell her not to pack library books 2) conceded that she could take one of our paperbacks 3) she tried to sneak a Kindle into her bag 4) lost her water bottle within 15 minutes of getting to camp 5) I got a call from the nurse after dropping her off that she’d been stung by a bee
For the second year in a row, we went to the YMCA Trout Lodge near Potosi, MO for MUUSA (Midwest Unitarian Universalist Summer Assembly). We had a great time, and the weather was nice besides a couple days when it rained some.
We stopped and had Mexican food in Linn on the way over. There were churros.
I got a tip from the photography class that I was in to take a photo of the signs - it helps to organize the photos when you're looking back at past trips. However, I learned this tip after we arrived, so I stole this one from google images.
We stayed in the same room as last year - up in the lodge, which makes it quite a bit more like a hotel room than camp. The kids packed a perfectly reasonable amount of books to take for one week.
This was right after we got there and I had to include this photo even though it's blurry.
There was a great deal of discussion about what the room arrangement should be, since we had the two queen beds, a pack and play for Leah, and two roll-away cots. Last year, the big kids were on the cots in the loft and Leah was in the pack-and-play downstairs with us. This year, they decided to claim the other big bed and we put Leah up in the loft area. (I took several pictures looking down at them from the loft.) Look at that thumb-sucker.
More reading. Good thing someone packed a whole backpack full of books.
This is how I get my exercise in. Look at that grin!
Sam out on the deck with a view of Sunnen Lake.
There was facepaint and James wanted Batman.
Nine years old! So big! Amelie out on the dock. You can also see that the big kids spent a significant portion of the time in their swim stuff, just in case the opportunity arose.
Same played the cajon several nights at the coffee house - this was his solo.
Updated to add video:
There were also lots of balloon animals (and we came home with extra balloons and a pump to make our own). James came up with this game where the fan would blow his balloon up in the air when he let go.
No fireworks, but a lively glow-in-the-dark fourth of July parade. (Which actually took place on the 5th of July since it was raining on the 4th.)
Leah made friends in the nursery!
And got to ride a pony!
They were supposed to have long pants for the pony ride, but apparently we didn't pack any for her. I discovered that a pair of James's 6T shorts works out pretty well as a substitute for 2T pants.
Leah wouldn't wave because earlier they'd told her to hold on tight, and she was taking the process very seriously.
James and Amelie at the morning assembly. James later told me that he lost his hat "in the ocean!!" (I guess if flew off while he was on the boat on the lake.)
My friend Amanda asked about how the camp is organized - the kids were set up in programming for a block of time in the morning and in the afternoon. We'd drop Leah at the nursery, go to morning assembly together, and then they released the kids to their classes. Sam and I signed up for tai chi in the morning, and when that was through, we'd pick the kids back up for lunch since there was a break from noon to 1:30. Then, we'd drop everybody off again and do our afternoon classes (or just hang out) til 3:30, so we still got to spend the afternoon, dinner, and evening with the kids.
The meals were set up cafeteria buffet style, and James was Very Impressed with the sugary breakfast cereals.
Sam and James on a different day:
Sam can hula-hoop! Who knew?
James wielding his mini-golf putter like a sword, as one does.
I brought a box of markers and drawing paper for downtime. James took advantage.
Walking back from arts and crafts. We came home with several painted ceramics that are now displayed on the mantle.
Leah is probably saying "Be quiet, Dada!" in this picture.
We spent several evenings at the lake/beach area.
James looks like he's in over his head wrangling the baby.
We took the kids for ice cream, but they decided to get these everlasting lollipops instead. (Amelie's still working on hers one week later! Sam is insisting that we just throw it out, due to germs.)
James was impressed with the way the lollipop turned his whole tongue white, but he was a little disappointed in the flavor (when I asked what kind it was, he eventually came up with "sugar") and ended up trading with Leah for her ice cream.
I went on a hike (and got a little lost) and saw this interesting red mushroom.
I came home with several bug bites. Here's a selfie:
I took a photography class, despite only bringing my iPhone. I learned how to build a light box and took this artistic photograph of a seashell:
This shows the construction of the light box a little bit:
Another assignment for the class was to photograph dominoes falling, but my phone wasn't quite up to the task. It did make this gif, though, and I had a fun time on set-up duty.
I should file this post under “better late than never.” I kept thinking that I'd do a good deep clean and then post pictures, but finally decided that a regular clean was probably good enough. (I was also thinking I might change the window covering/get a curtain for the over-the-sink window and haven't done that yet either several months later.)
Here are the "before" pictures. Sam really wanted to move the sink under the window. In this picture, it just faces the wall - I'd guess there used to be a window there before the carport was closed into a garage and then we eventually converted the garage into an additional bedroom.
One big, nice change is that we wanted to make more space for folks to pass through to the dining room - this opening was not very large for anybody with a walker or a wheelchair. Also, the microwave being up above the stove meant that the kids couldn't reach it/use it.
Picking out a new light fixture was probably the most fun. Here's the old one:
I felt bad about replacing the metal cabinets that were original to the house! (Built in 1952! I think!) But I did not feel badly about getting one consistent floor all the way through the dining room, landing at the top of the stairs, and kitchen. The floor was the part that took us the longest to decide/agree upon. Here you can see the three different types of floor in the small space.
And here are the after photos! Yay white, wooden cabinets and a new window! Plus my new coordinating light fixtures. The one in the dining room came in an absolutely enormous box.
Plus the sink moved over under the window and the stove moved away from the opening. We got a lot more cabinet space. You may not be able to tell, but we reused most of the same cabinet pulls.
There's a new fridge and stove in there, too. Aunt Holly took the old fridge & I sold the old stove on facebook. Mom's handyman came by and took most of the old cabinets and Sam put a few in the basement for extra storage down there.
