Albin did indeed get his braces affixed on Wednesday, at least on the bottom half. He has a bite plate for the top teeth for now. Let the good cleaning begin! They sent him home with a whole bag of proper teeth cleaning utensils. What fun : ). His teeth were a little sore, but are starting to feel better.

Yesterday I went to our neighbor's store for her sidewalk sale, at Three Orange Doors. I found a beautiful antique bowl to serve our berries in, and a huge cake platter. Let the decorating begin! I also bought nice brackets to put on our west-facing dining room windows, so I can put a board over them for plants to sit in the sun. The brackets were cheaper and easier to find than roller shades!

I wish I'd had the camera with me last night, when Elise and I went to our town's 'band in the park' night. She danced and made friends with a woman with two cute Pomeranian dogs, while I knit on Karl's sock. We made it to the library in time--barely!, to pick up her Redwall movie on hold. Unfortunately, the tape is really bad, so I put it on our Netflix queue. I don't know how she could stand to watch it at all.

Another lovely lazy day at home in the works, and our last chance to learn more about the War of 1812 before we head out to the reenactment tomorrow.

There was too much good science on PBS last night, so we'll have to watch more War of 1812 shows today. One of them is a History Bites episode which covers that topic. Lucky us!!

But before we get to turn on the dvd player on this lovely, drizzly day, Albin has another appointment at the orthodontist. I think he's getting his first set of braces on, but maybe it's just fitting the new bite plate. We'll have to see.

We're getting the gutter fixed today, too. (Of course it's raining!) Now I'd better hurry up and order another rain barrel, that's been on my list of things to do for a long time....

preparing for battle

I am so excited about the upcoming reenactment battle this weekend at Villa Louis. I just love living history stuff like this. We are going to spend this week learning about the War of 1812, so we understand some of the context. We watched the first dvd of the History Channel's 2-part series on it tonight. We'll watch the next one tomorrow, read a few books and look at other links from the WI Historical Society's website, etc. History is just so cool.

Today we:
-biked the long way to the library this morning (to get the books and dvd's)
-had lunch
-Albin came downtown with me to run some things home from the dime store (when's the last time you heard that??)
-I went grocery shopping
-Elise and I made a French silk pie
-I almost finished a new skirt
-drove Albin to Madison twice to try and get his new DSI, or whatever it is (sad story!)
-tried out some sparklers
-watched the War of 1812 movie
-were horrified by the calorie count of most of Culver's food
-the kids finished all their things

And now Albin's tomato plant looks very sad. Hmmmm. Good times had by all (except the tomato plant).

picnic and frogs

We had lovely picnic lunch with Jeff, Janet and Joy today, as we met so that Joy could get home. The girls were sad to be parting, but can look forward to more time together later this summer. The view over the Mississippi was amazing, too!

Elise and I decided to take the river road home, and stopped at a county park on the way. At a small creek, we saw many frogs, a swimming snake, and several dragonflies--oh, and many mosquitos. Elise also saw bald eagles just as we were leaving the river.

We had dinner at a small restaurant. We shared a plate of catfish, and it was still too much for us (good thing that we didn't order separate entrees). Elise ordered a French silk pie for the way home, and I managed to get two bites of it before it disappeared--it was very good!

waiting for fireworks

We got to the fireworks display very early! The girls made new friends and played tag for a long time. Karl and Albin listened to Juno Reactor type music and did a few sudoku puzzles, and I had my knitting. The fireworks were lovely, even if we didn't get home until 11:00 (and had to have a grilled cheese midnight snack before bed).

This is what the family is doing this evening (I will be sewing as soon as I put the computer down). We've had a good day at home. The girls played with the neighbors a little bit, I cooked and sewed, Albin did his stuff, including beating me twice at chess, and is on the computer. I think Karl will be playing Runescape when I am done, too, but we'll see!

We spent a lazy day at home! Albin got all his work done, then played computer and watched Pink Panther cartoons. Elise and Joy did their work, too. We decided that for math Joy could start Key To Algebra while she's here. It may not be anything for new for her, as the beginning of the curriculum reviews multiplication and factoring, but we like telling her she's smart enough to start algebra.

The girls made waffles and whipped cream for their daily chore. Yum yum! They were up early again today, too. Albin is going through another growth spurt because he's eating and sleeping more than usual, but they don't seem to have that issue!

We are reading The Legend of Luke out loud, and as soon as Nova is over, we'll have to get another chapter or two in.

Check out Albin's sunburn on his arms. Ouch! He and Karl went on a long bike ride midday on Sunday, and he missed quite a bit of his arms, knees and feet when putting his sunscreen on. Now it's getting to the itching stage...