Birthday Bonaza!

Sophia's Birthday is here and is still going on complete with a horse themed cake.  She chose to have a slumber party in the backyard this year.  The party went on until about 4 in the morning (I can hear Snoop Dog's voice).  It is now pushing 9 am and there is still a tent full of sleeping girls in the backyard.  The griddle and pancake batter are on the counter and ready for the required final salvo, we are just short on 'slumbered' girls to eat the flap-jacks.  5 of her close girl friends showed up in the late afternoon yesterday and we had pizza, cake/ice cream, smacked a pinata, went swimming, had a campfire, had smores, as well as soccer and a variety of glowstick hid in the dark games.  I hung a light in the tent and tried to sleep.  Wow!! I am glad it only comes around once a year.

Horsing Around

  Sophia chose her complete outfit today based on horses.  She told me her shirt was the most farm-like that she could find. Coincidently her underwear that said Thursday also had a horse picture on them, so they were a must.  Even her cake for her birthday party tomorrow has horses for a theme.  Thanks to the generosity of a friend the kids were able to hang out with and  ride two different horses, one of which was a massive Clydesdale. Animals that are beautiful enough to have won national show titles in the recent past and tolerant of the kids.  For Sophia I suspect it marked a milestone of development as she moves away from the princess stage of her youth into the horse stage of her early adolescences. They were both able to feed the horses several pounds of carrots and apples as a reward for carrying them around.  Merrick enjoyed the horses, but the three farm dogs, likely won the day for him.  It wasn't long before all four of them were in and out of the pond playing fetch and chasing each other around.  Not sure if a boy needs a farm dog or if farm dogs need a boy, either way it was a good match.  Road construction took us on a long route home and required us to stop at a small country bar for a pizza and a rootbeer, that was enough of a carbo-load to let Mr. Sandman show up for the afternoon.  A Lot of smiles all around.

Still in Hike School?

They said they weren't tired, turns out they were mistaken.  We headed out early this morning of a bike ride and run and then decided to find some treasure before a swim.  The itinerary was long and didn't even include the impromptu nap.  We only did about a mile on the bikes before heading back home and packing up for a geocache in a nearby park.  We found three new caches and had wonderful time in the warm sun, high breeze and low humidity weather.  Each of us found a treasure and then we figured it was just a good place to stretch out on the grass and eat some fruit snacks and granola bars.  I had packed the wiffleball bat and ball and we walked over to the large baseball diamond to play a little two on one in the strong breeze.  The kids crushed the ball and ran the bases and I found myself being the one that wanted to leave last.  We did get home in time for a swim before lunch and after several Greco-style pool matches we took a break for lunch--it had been a full morning and the bellies were empty.  Merrick was done and asked to hit the couch for a recharge, Sophia retired to the hammock to read and write a little.  She too soon came in and crashed out on the floor.  If only these days could be bottled, preserved and canned and slowly distributed in the future.

Berries and Bugs

Today we feed ourselves and the baby dragon.  Spent the morning dodging scattered rain showers to hit the tail end of the strawberry season.  The berries were small, but we picked about 10 quarts.  We packaged them up for freezing, put some in the dehydrator and left a good amount on the table for generally grazing.  This was of course done only with the ones that weren't eaten on the way home.  After some pool time, we did head out to one of the large fields near the house to look for grasshoppers for Mitch.  It has been a good week for Mitch, he got his cage cleaned yesterday with all new sand and color scheme and today he has been able to dine on four free range grasshoppers.  He is clearly the happiest dragon in the house.  After some more in and out of the pool, the kids were fried by the summer heat and are now crashed out in the living room for a little Norwegian Siesta.  The summer is off to a great start and we have decided that when your shirt has various ice-cream, dirt and fresh berry stains on it, that just means "that you have a little summer on it."

Staying Busy

In a month with no rain, we have been too busy to sit down and update the blog.  School ended for the kids and Merrick graduated from the CP center.  A milestone indeed as both kids will be in 'school' next year and a new school at that.  Sophia had her last concert and was Ragna the Gnome in the school play.  She delivered her lines with all the gusto we would expect from Sophia playing a Norwegian Baking Gnome.  She also had her bridge ceremony for Girl Scouts and will join a new troop next year at the new school, fortunately the girl scouts are more lax on switching loyalties than some other gangs and I don't expect any retaliations.  During one of her last GS meetings Merrick and I found our selves a the sauce slinging counters of A&W, pounding frosty mugs and fries.  Turns out it was a bit much for the boy, and he got 'the spits' and had to rest outside on the curb for awhile. Soccer is in full swing for Merrick, although due to much confusion the season is only half done when it was originally scheduled to be finished by now.  Merrick is playing strong, and we are getting a bunch of backyard practice as the three of us play 2 on 1. Both the kids are really looking for passes, as they now understand if the pass well, there is no way I can beat them--good lessons on teamwork and part of the general 'edutainment' of the summer. Still starting the day with about an hour of school work each morning and Merrick's spelling is coming along and Sophia has begun recorder lessons, I told her if she plays hot cross buns backwards it is Smoke on the Water, so I am thinking that will be a hit at her new school.  The round-rubber beach is back up, although it is new this year due to a leak in last years model.  The new model is three feet wider and some cubic relationship greater in total water volume, I didn't calculate it as I had to fill both of them and figure it is somewhere in the neighborhood of 2400 gallons of water that the the Water Department is going to want to 'discuss' with me.  The bigger issue was that the larger pool meant the old cover didn't fit and squirrels are not strong swimmers (pool 3, Squirrels 0).  We now have a cover that fits the pool.  We did get a couple of new pictures painted and they are proudly hanging in the kids' rooms.  Father's day found us on the links, for some mini-golf action.  Sophia got a hole in one and Merrick shot either a three or four on every hole.  His math is pretty good, so he was apparently working on other aspects of his 'game.'  Sophia has been working on her cooking and baking, she did all the of kabob prep work last night and earlier in the week, made the shortcake for the last of the '11 strawberries.  We even perfected the outdoor grill for baking the shortcakes.  This week we are planning on replenishing the strawberry supply now that the picking is open.  We also have plans to hit the trails for some horse riding.  Plenty to do and the kids are the perfect people to do it with.