We went camping in the Stanislaus forest for a couple of nights. The kids loved playing in the river, making fairy houses, and playing "The Impossible Game." The rules: whoever is it picks three or four spots that the others must run to and tag - in order - and return to you while you count to 20 with your eyes closed. Every time you get to 20, you can look and try to spot the others. If they are seen, they're out. So you have to run like the dickens to each spot, and calculate properly whether you have enough time to make it to the next one or not before you have to find a hiding spot. Oh, and did I mention it's a race? It's impossible, I say!
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| Yeah, we crossed the river right here. With school-age kids. |
We read books by the fire, the kids painted rocks, and we attempted to swim in the {freezing} river. We branched out from s'mores and tried a couple different treats. The best one turned out to be chocolate cake baked inside oranges on the fire. So yum!
The kids' most memorable spot will probably be Cougar Cave, this alcove we found that was so peaceful and cool and quiet, but also seemed to be the perfect place for a cougar to live, which made hanging out there a little exciting and risky. We went three different times, mostly to listen to Todd tell stories in the interesting setting. Todd is an awesome storyteller!
The last thing not yet accomplished on the kids' summer bucket lists was a trip to the beach. Sadly, Jack was really sick the day we planned to go. The girls still went, with the friends we were going to spend the day with, and they had a good time, but it was Jack who had put the beach on his list, so I felt bad he missed out. It was obviously the right choice, however, as he proceeded to take a three hour nap on the couch that afternoon. Sweet kid.
I've got a game club up and running with a few friends. I hosted in August and planned games we could play in my gorgeous new backyard: bocce ball, Mafia, corn hole, dice games ... I was doing such a bueno job entertaining my friends and showing off the landscaping job, until suddenly, we were disrupted by the sound of rustling in the bushes. There was a rat creeping around at 9:00 at night, not at all afraid of the loud group of laughing ladies. I was appalled! We asked Todd to help, and he came out with a rifle! Are you kidding me? (Sadly, no.) When it became apparent that he would need to use a different tactic, Todd went after the rat with a shovel, and scared it away with a rough swing. I was mortified, and truly hope my friends remember game night at my house for the fun games I came up with, or the yummy veggie tray and popcorn I offered, but if I were them, I'd definitely remember the Rat Incident.
My kids are still crazy about Legos. Hazel made this hotel and it is one of the coolest things I've seen her make with Legos yet. It's got a lounge area, bedrooms, a rooftop deck and pool, an elevator, and even a check-in desk. The kids have had lots of fun playing with the Lego people at the hotel.
The bunnies got old enough that we had to separate them so they wouldn't make babies. Everything I read said to get them fixed around 12 weeks, but everyone I called either refused to perform the surgery until they were at least 6 months old, or wanted around $300 a bunny to do it. Both the price and the complexity of keeping separated bunnies for months was so far outside of my view of simple first pets that we knew something had to change. After talking about it as a family, we decided we would rather use our extra money for trips than for bunnies, and we found new homes for Cocoa and Carmel. The kids are pretty sad about it, especially Hazel, but Todd and I realized we were in over our heads, and it was the right choice for us.
The big kids went back to school near the end of August. Hazel is in third grade and Jack's in first. We've been biking, scootering, or roller blading most mornings and it's been a happy way to start the day. The kids seem to have good teachers this year, and have had mostly good feedback to report so far.
A big change for Jack is that he gets to play on the bigger playgrounds at recess. He and Hazel are even out there at the same time at morning recess, which we all think is fun. Jack's been attacking the monkey bars with a passion, and proudly grew a massive blood blister as evidence of his focus.
