Water fun abounds this time of year. So much for schooling year round. We can't even think during the summer, so I'll just keep heading down to the pond or to the porch to be the lifeguard.
Ian and Shane: The Pirates that Don't Do Anything...But Annoy their Siblings
Ian added a new rope swing down at the pond and the older kids have been testing it out. Maybe someday I'll get around to adding video links so you can see Daniel's first few go's on the swing...he looks like he just falls out of the tree and belly flops in the water. But...
Daniel has improved greatly!
I've come up with new rules for paddle boards, based on Lula's experience falling off in shallow water and freaking out. Anyone who wants to go on a paddle board must be able to float in their life jacket without screaming or whining. Lula and Heidi have been working, first in our wading pool, then in the pond, for the right to sit on a paddle board.
Jason came up with the back floating idea
They haven't made much progress...
Like Cats in Water
Is she 11? Or 16?
The patience this girl shows with her younger siblings and the love on her face as she gently propels her baby brother through the water simply melts my heart. She has almost never ending grace even for Daniel and is very good at telling him spiritual truths about treating people kindly and forgiving those who trespass against you.
Surprisingly, Heidi, the one that cries if a single drop of water is splashed on her, was the only one to remain calm enough in the water to SIT on the paddle board. She can't go anywhere yet, but with the weather forecast being what it is this week, I'm sure they all will have a lot more practice.
We've had some roof leakage over the years and a full roof replacement about 14 years ago. We've had several companies and individuals come out and give us bids. Mark chose a local guy that everyone on the KP recommends. He's quite an individual, but he's saving us several thousand dollars AND he lets Mark play too. He was the first to say, "Why would you want to throw perfectly good 30 year roofing material in the dump?" instead of "Oh sure, we can rip the whole thing off for about $15 to $25 thousand."
I had a nightmare last night that someone stole all the cash that I have to pay him. I also told the little kids that this guy is Santa and he is making sure our roof is solid enough to hold him and his reindeer come December. Did you know Santa is a roofer in the off-season?
I can't remember if Summer Fest really is the name of the latest vaulting competition, but for this post, it will suffice. We were in Auburn, so not too far away, it was 85 degrees, and I had to bring Jason, Heidi, and Lula. Thankfully, I brought Fiona too. She was a great help.
We found a patch of grass, shaded by trees, that had a circle of sidewalk around it. I felt like this little area was designed JUST FOR ME because I brought bikes for the little kids to ride.
Lula cracked me up with her bike poses. You should see her water dance and her wind dance too. She has a lot of creative energy.
The funniest/worst part of the day was the potty issue. Heidi and Lula refuse to use porta-potties. We were there for six hours and this was their only choice. Every time they had to go, we would walk across the hot parking lot and look inside. The girls would see the pile getting higher and higher and freak out and refuse to go again. By the end of the day, when they couldn't hold it a second longer, and it couldn't get a degree hotter in there....they finally broke down.
Jason ended up spiking a fever when we were there! Lula had a fever a few days before that, so I shouldn't be that surprised. But it was already hot, so wearing his hot little body in an Ergo backpack wasn't very comfortable for either of us. But at least he was lethargic enough that I didn't have to drag him out of the viewing area of the arena. I actually got to watch several other girls compete, not just Genna.
Our girl brought home a blue ribbon for compulsories and a fourth place ribbon for freestyle. Combined, she received second overall. Her #1 competitor beat her and everyone else in freestyle. It looks like she decided Genevieve Downen wasn't going to beat her again and she creamed them all! Genevieve got 1st by the skin of her teeth, so the close scores in compulsory and the amazing freestyle score gave Ms. #1 Competitor First Place overall. Competition is good.
Having the pond on the property is not something we take lightly. When Daniel was an adventurous tyke, Ian made up a story about The Blobber Fish About This Big (hold your arms out as far as they can go). Daniel never went to the pond alone.
We've got another batch of little swimmers this summer and we require they always wear a life jacket, even if they are not going on the paddle boards. Mark always checks to make sure they are adjusted correctly.
Last week, Ian and I found a turtle on the road. I pulled over and "rescued" it. After we researched the variety of turtle, we decided to let it go in the pond. Ian told Lula that it would bite her toes off if she went in the pond by herself.
So when she fell off the paddle board....
...and totally freaked out and needed to be rescued...
...even though she could touch the ground... (Daniel was quick to paddle to her as fast as he could)...
...it was all because she thought the turtle was going to bite her. She swallowed half the pond screaming and got a great introduction on how to float with a life jacket on.
Shane just came home from a week-long sailing trip on the SSS Odyssey. He took a lot a fun pictures, some of which I'm sharing here. But since there isn't much of a story except that Shane had a good time and he thought the pictures he took were cool...
The Odyssey
Pop Eye the Seal in Friday Harbor
He couldn't always remember where he was when he took pictures...
The Odyssey again
They ran man overboard drills and had to be on anchor watch. They also visited Vancouver Island, Canada. Shane is the only person in the house with a Passport.
The little boat above was rescued and hauled to shore by the crew. They notified the Coast Guard.
While Shane was gone, I ordered myself a new Instapot from Amazon. From the moment I took it out of the box, I have had something cookin' in it. I started right off with some turkey legs from the freezer. I used the drippings for refried beans right after the legs were done (oh, the meat was so tender). I scrubbed the pot and hard boiled about a million eggs in five minutes. Then I made yogurt overnight and a batch of oatmeal the next morning. While I was playing with oatmeal (not a good Instapot meal), Mark butchered three roosters and an old broad breasted turkey we kept just in case we could hybridize her with the heritage turkeys. Nope. She just gobbled down food and ate her own eggs. I cooked those roosters and the turkey back in three batches, then ran their bones through two batches of stock (I got a total of 10 quarts of stock out of those bones). As soon as the bones were dumped out for the dogs, I took some of the meat, some dried beans, some green salsa from the freezer that I made a year or two ago, a quart of stock and now I've got some chili verde in the pot that will be ready to eat when my activity goers get home! And the kitchen stays COOL the whole time. No steam, no boiling water, no oven, no hot stove. I love playing with new toys!
VBS is always looked forward to, but exhausts us. We just aren't used to getting up and out of the house early every morning.
Bulbasaur by Shane
VBS is only half-day, but I'm wrecked by Wednesday and can't even function by Friday. My kids develop nasty attitudes and fight and whine. Thank goodness we can return to our normal life again.
I bet this is how public school moms feel the first week of summer vacation. Too bad they can't send their kids back after a week at home!
Oh my, how quickly time flies. Lula turned five on Monday, the first day of VBS. I wanted to invite a little friend of hers over for cake, but Jason was sick for six whole days and the house still hasn't recovered.
Lula drew a picture of what she wanted her cake to look like. It had rainbow stripes and we were going to make them out of Skittles and M&Ms. Since I held Jason in my arms for six straight days and nights, I had to order a Costco rainbow cake. I got the order in fifteen minutes before the closed on Sunday and picked it up two hours after they opened on Monday. That's some serious customer service.
Lula is my mini me when it comes to sharing her birthday presents with her sister...
"Heidi! Don't LOOK at my presents!"
She loves free form art projects, so she got her own sets of markers and paper to cut, color, and glue to her heart's content.
