CLEANING THE GARAGE

Ok, these aren't really pictures of cleaning the garage. There's nothing too wonderful to see in that project. That is, nothing except a couple of cute kids in boots. Calvin always creates some funny get-up for himself. Doesn't he look like he's being very helpful?Amelia thinks wearing her pink boots is a prerequisite for going into the garage. I thought they matched quite nicely with this play outfit that Grammy and Great-Grandma Bethel sewed for her this spring.

Doesn't that gnawed-on apple look inviting? This age is great. Somehow she got her hands on an apple and then carried it around with her for about an hour, taking bites here and there. Of course it got dropped on the garage floor a half dozen times and prying it away from her to wash it brought torrents of tears of anguish.

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There's really nothing the littlest members of the family love more than "wrestling" with daddy on the floor. What is it about climbing on top of him that is so great? I don't know, but they sure do love it.

BENNY LEARNS NUMBER 6

I got some great preschool books from Rod and Staff Publications for Benny to work on this summer. He is learning to write each of the numbers for the first time and doing really well. It takes some real concentration for him, but he's working hard! It really helps that he has two older brothers that he wants to be like.

This look on his face is, "I just got in trouble for chewing my eraser."

"HI, PAPA"

Amelia loves to hold the phone, like most toddlers, and pretend to "talk." She loves to say over and over "Hi, Papa!"

CANNING PEACHES

Well, I didn't think I was going to break out the canner this year, but I got some wonderful peaches for a good price at the farmer's market and so we did some canning after all. Seeing them all completed and ready to be set aside to enjoy this winter is very rewarding. I had some helpers with the canning for the first time. I wasn't sure about having them in the kitchen with the many boiling fluids on the stove, but it turned out they did great and were a big help. Sam put whole peaches into a pot of boiling water, timed them for about 30 seconds and then transferred them to the sink full of cold water. William then removed them from there after some brief cooling and peeled them for me. That freed me up to do just the halving and loading into jars. Very helpful. It was just like having an extra adult helping me. When they were done they had an apple break.

BUG COLLECTING

This is a first attempt and a very crude one, but the boys have started keeping and labeling some of the interesting dead or dying insects that we find. It's amazing what they see and pick up that I would never notice. They found that lovely tiger swallowtail butterfly last week shortly before it died from an injury it had. Some of the others are a cicada, various moths and beetles, including, we think, a colorado beetle.

WATCHING DANIEL BOONE

Our recent Friday night movie for the kids has been episodes of Disney's TV series about Daniel Boone rented from Netflix. Good stuff, especially if you're a frontiersman wannabe. :-)

FRIDAY AT THE FAIR

Last Friday was kids free day at the Washington County Fair. We don't live in Washington County any more and so we hadn't planned on going. Our new county doesn't have a fair and we are a little sad about that. The boys entered projects and art last year and won a total of three ribbons. Such fun. Anyhow, circumstances arranged themselves so that I spontaneously took all the kids to the fair after all. Peter was at work and missed out on the fun day, but we took A LOT of pictures and showed them to him on the computer as a slide show. That was almost as much fun as the fair was. So here are a very small fraction of the pictures that I took, though it still adds up to a lot.

First off, after lunch, we got to get a close up look at some military equipment. This was really interesting and fun.

Ben doesn't quite fit this gear.

Sam very nicely accompanied Calvin on several "small children" rides. Here, I think Sam is trying to be the terror of the highway.

A little girl came and took the seat next to Will, even though there were many empty seats. I think he felt highly complimented.

Every year our fair has a wonderful petting zoo set up in the area where the rides are. The baby animals are always adorable and looked forward to. The first we saw this time was this baby donkey.

Goats

There was a big white goose under this board that the kids, especially Amelia, loved to peek under and see.

Amelia would laugh and laugh when she got close to an animal. Hearing her delighted giggle was a highlight for all of us.

Baby llamas

THE FAIR, CONTINUED

This is what Calvin does when things get a little too intense for him. He puts his whole hand in his mouth. There was a point in the midst of visiting the rides that he was a little overwhelmed.This is what Millie did most of the time. :-)

You can see Sam and Will if you look close...

Sam is second from the last and Will is "flying" at the end of this roller coaster.

We took an ice cream cone break.

Next, we saw some of the animals brought to the fair for showing. We always enjoy this and didn't get to do nearly enough of it before we needed to be heading home.

This horse decided he wanted to be petted.

We had a hard time, but we finally found some sheep that hadn't been sheared yet.

Out of all my kids, I think Will is the one who connects with animals the most. He was down like this talking to them the whole time.

HIKE AT THE ARBORETUM

The university has a section of forest that they bought and turned into an arboretum, a place to plant, label and study trees. It's right in the center of town, next to the basketball colliseum and above the banks of the Monongahela River. We went over and tried out some of the trails through the arboretum on a recent Sunday evening. It's really lovely. The nicest part is just being able to hike through forest right in the middle of town. Here's a few pictures of our hike... Hi Calvin.
An inlet(?) of water flowing into the Monongahela.



Silly Will.

Dad and Sam.

A glimpse of the river.

There were many interesting webs and different varieties of spiders that we enjoyed observing.

MORE MILLIE PICTURES

Eating a cookie and wearing a funny, little pair of clogs. She loves shoes.

"Hi!!"