Summertime fun

Made some milkshakes with fresh-picked raspberries. Lovely purple color.
Tried to fly the airplane in the street. Had a good time even though it didn't get off the ground.

Albin with the airplane.
Floating about at the local beach.

four new pictures

Knitting Homework (our last class by Hazel Carter meets tomorrow)
The Next Project (a scarf with some designs I learned in this lace class??  It's alpaca and feels like a cloud!)
The New Sewing Machine (gifted to me by a lovely woman--it was made in 1937)
Awwwwww, isn't he cute?

Now Karl and I are going to have a date and watch Red Dwarf on Netflix.  Elise is off visiting relatives for a week, so we will really be the Quiet Ones for a few days!

treasure cake and dress-up fun

I wonder...

These don't really look like bush beans, now do they?  Hmmmmm.  Wish I had time to put up a fence for them, but we have had a long week of activities, and don't foresee any down time until Tuesday.  Amazing how that happens sometimes.

The gift (plant) that keeps on giving

The friendly plant Elise bought decided to go all out on its blossoms. And now it's tired. But the blossoms are still pretty, even after I've harvested them off of the front steps.

the local festival

Elise and Karl had a fabulous time yesterday at our little town festival.  She bought a wristband, and had five hours to go on the rides.  The cobra was her favorite (the second picture).  She played games and won a few prizes, found $2.40 in the coin dig, painted a picture in the Wall of Art, watched a dog show, and went on more rides.  Albin didn't care about the rides, but he went over several times to get a corn dog, or kettle corn, or cheese curds.  (Karl said they were the worst cheese curds he had ever had.  I told him that at least there weren't that many...)

Today was the parade, and Elise has a friend over, so they watched the whole thing, and now they are in her room, sorting out the candy stash.  Sigh!  Remember when parades weren't about the candy?

I went to the garage sale of a local theater company yesterday, and found a boatload of stuff for Elise's upcoming birthday party.  She is having a dress-up tea party, and I got each kid a pair of gloves, handbag, and hat (for $3.50 per person!).  Now we just need some gaudy lipstick for them, and we're all set.  I also found Elise another dress-up dress, three pairs of shoes, a beaded crown (sort of falling apart), and yards of blue tulle.  The danger was in asking if I could write a check (I never carry much cash), which meant I could get those extras for Elise. 

I'm trying to get the gloves cleaned up so they look better for the party--some of them were pretty dingy.  I hope soaking and a gentle wash will do the job.

Chicago

We drove down to a Chicago suburb on Wednesday night so that we'd be on time for Karl's great-aunt's memorial service.  Our google map from the hotel to the funeral home led us astray, but we managed to find it on time, anyway.  It was a nice service, and I'm glad we went--lots of relatives to meet that I didn't know, and Karl doesn't see often. 

Afterwards, we had planned to see the Art Institute in Chicago and then drive home.  Elise and Albin were much more interested in getting back to the fireworks at our local festival.  So we decided to do that, and went to a park with Karl's cousin for an hour or two, who had some time to kill before getting to her flight.  We played bocce ball, looked at the lake, and chatted.  We left about 5:30, thinking that should be plenty of time to get home to see 9:30 fireworks.  I suppose it would be plenty of time if one didn't get lost, but we did.  Karl has a good head for directions, though, and we made it home and to the festival with fifteen minutes to spare.  The fireworks were lovely, the children were happy, and all's well that ended well.

hmmmmm

My new and improved plan of hanging both kayaks in the basement for the summer is kaput.  I thought we could put them on a rack straight down from the basement steps, so we just have to carry them up and out to get them on the car.  Alas, our house is not long enough.  The kayaks are so long, they'd reach from the basement wall to the bottom of the steps, forcing us to dodge and weave through the doorway whenever we'd want to go in the back rooms of the basement.  Here's what we are doing temporarily, which would really work much better if the white one were flat enough on top that we could set a cup of coffee on it.

new kayak in the water

Albin didn't care to go out kayaking this afternoon, so Elise and Karl made the maiden voyage in our new kayak.  I came along to help get the kayaks in and out, then sat and knit or read by the lake while they were out exploring.  Elise tipped out by shore and split the skin of her knee in the shallows.  Luckily, we had just put together a basic first aid kit for the car, so we got it cleaned up and bandaged before she could say boo.  The skies were darkening while we loaded up, and it just started raining as Karl tied the last ropes.  It was pouring cats and dogs, and then hailing before we were four blocks away, so we parked under a tree for a few minutes to 'protect' our boats as best we could.  It was a good afternoon at the lake!

camera found

It was in the car.  Here are some camping pictures from our trip with Karl's family.

camping

We seem to have misplaced our camera somewhere, so there are no pictures to go with this post.  Just wanted to give a quick update on all our camping adventures.

Memorial Day weekend we met Karl's family at a state park in MN.  It was rather hot, especially down by the river.  We had fun with campfires, many picnics, blowing bubbles, hikes and learning about peregrine falcons.  We also went to Lark Toys on the day we left, which was an event as well.  Elise rode the carousel twice (or was it three times), we played mini-golf, and came home with Rush Hour plus an extra deck (Albin finished all the puzzles in a day).  We listened to a Scott Adams book on the way up, and Elise found a great top hat in a flea market--for two dollars.  It was a great vacation.

This weekend was the Relaxed Homeschooling Retreat that I organized with all the local homeschool groups we joined.  I think about eight families initially planned to go, but the weather was rather iffy, so only four families showed up Friday night.  Friday was great--the weather was cool, we had fires, good conversation, and wine.  This morning was lovely, too.  Karl, Albin, and I went on a walk in the prairie (Elise was too busy playing with all her friends to join us), then Karl and Albin went on a local cave tour.  Around 4:00 p.m., the rain started.  The family with the new baby packed up, but the rest of us stuck it out through supper.  Thank goodness one of them had tarps to string up, so we could cook in (relative) dryness.  After finding out that it was going to rain in gusts all night, the rest of us packed it in, too.  Now we are home, dry, and ready for bed!   (We'll definitely plan another expedition like this--it was fun.)