Some of the Summer Highlights

Here are some of our summer adventures, in no particular order.

The K5 graduates!

Each of the Misses got to choose a half-day summer camp to go to. Miss M chose a cooking camp, and had a lot of fun. At the end of the week she brought home a cookbook of her own, full of recipes that the campers had made during the week. We have tried Spaghetti Cupcakes and pancakes. Here are the Misses during our first foray into pancake making. Evidently the secret ingredient is the chocolate chips.

Miss S chose a cheerleading, gymnastics, and dance camp. She had so much fun! Her week ended with a recital of sorts. She was the smallest girl in her age group so she got to be on the top of the pyramid AND she got to be lifted up into the air. How cool!

Fishing was on the "to do" list for the annual trip to the big lake. Here is Miss S with her catch. That poor fish was destined for the frying pan, and the fisher-girl couldn't wait. That kid has no mercy when it comes to her lunch! The second picture is of the Misses watching their Papa take the hooks out of the mouths of several fish. Evidently the fish kept swallowing the hooks, and had to be rescued before going back into the lake. The girls didn't exactly love that part of the process, but I am not sure if they felt bad for the fish, or were dismayed because those fish were not going to the frying pan.

Miss M and her first lost tooth. Just for those of you who need to know, the Tooth Fairy can find lost teeth even when you are at the lake.

Fancy and General getting ready for our annual horseback riding adventure with the cousins. This year the Misses were big enough to help curry the horses after the rides. THAT may have been the highlight of the whole day.

We met some friends from France downtown one Saturday for a little Geocaching. We enjoyed the Saturday morning Farmers' Market and a bunch of big trucks. The kids had a great time climbing all over the trucks. They even got to play with the sirens on a police car.

We have been working in the community garden again this summer. It has been such an incredible experience. One change for this year is a row of Japanese vegetables. Here the Misses are showing us a Japanese eggplant, their new favorite veggie of the summer.

Dad and the Misses worked very hard to redesign my kitchen pantry for Mother's Day. It was a time-consuming project as each shelf had to be cut, sanded and painted. The end result is VERY nice. What a wonderful gift.

Cousin C and Aunt W made their first visit to our new house this summer. The cousins had fun wandering around downtown and swimming in our neighborhood pool. When they weren't outside playing they were building forts in the living room and creating with legos.

We finally had an opportunity to take our boat out on a local lake. It has only been 6 years. The Misses and the dog enjoyed the adventure. The dog had fun playing frisbee with the girls. I am not sure who swam more to get that toy.

The Misses and Dad in the new tube. Miss M is in the picture on the left. I think they would have stayed on that thing tha whole summer if we had allowed it. The best times are when we hit wakes and they get ariborne.

Part of the fun of the tube was getting to and from the tube or boat, and getting into the tube. Dad gave Miss S a little lift to get in, while the tow rope helped shorten the swim to get the rides going again.

Two happy Misses after sharing wonderful adventures all summer long!