The bitter end........of summer

This is it my friends. The children are asleep, the clothing picked out, the backpacks lined up and ready. I have everyone's lunch orders in my head.
The Lawyer ironed this week's clothes for me.
It's time for all of us to trudge out the door tomorrow morning and begin a new school year. My first class, 6th graders, will arrive on the library's doorstep in 11 hours.
Let the games begin!!

Sheesh-a-baby

Well, my friends & fans, it's been a while. How have you been?
It's a sad, sad time of the year around our house. Summer is dying and it's time to trudge our butts back to school. Let's have a little round-up of our latest adventures. Shall we start with our mining day?
I got the bright idea of going to a "diamond" mine, located about 125 miles from home. I enticed the children by telling them that we would "have to" stay overnight in a hotel - it gets them every time. The Lawyer stayed home to "take care of the dogs."

Come to find, my sister Anne had plans to go to the diamond mine on the same day. Here she is with her hubby Jeff (holding a *big* find!), my brother Tom, and her daughter, Colleen.


We started off strong and giddy - whacking random rocks with our hammers.


Elizabeth was waiting all summer to go to the diamond mine. She was sorely disappointed when we got there and all she saw was a quarry. I suspect she anticipated that the roads would be paved in sparkling diamonds. She worked the hardest at pounding on the rocks. The crystals we found were so small that I had to buy each of the kids a little box with a magnifier to put their tiny crystals in - made them look much more impressive!! We left after a few hours - it was H*O*T and we were cranky.


The hotel pool turned out to be a high point!


Before we left the mine, my brother in law, Jeff told me about a place on the way home, called Fort Ricky. He said they had been there 10 years ago and their kids had loved it - a little nature reserve/petting zoo/splash park. So the next morning, off we went to find it. I believe not much has changed in the past 10 years, except they closed the splash park! It was kind of run down and tired looking.

One of the first things we saw was a woman carrying around a boa constrictor! The kids were very curious but Frances would do nothing more than give it a little poke. Ana and Elly petted it and asked a lot of questions.


There was a little tortoise corral that was quite exciting...... kind of


We fed the greedy deer and they were our friends for life. That gave Lewis the creeps.


Our visit ended with what I could only imagine was a germ infested ball pit. Who needs a spray park when you have a junky little playground??!


Well, I guess we can cross "miners" off the list of possible future careers. Stay tuned for the gripping tale of our near expulsion from African Lion Safari, coming up next.

En Garde!

In my never-ending quest to open the world of possibilities to my little chickies, I enrolled them all in a week long session of fencing. We go all this week for an hour every afternoon. Today I embarrassed them by pulling out my camera to take some pictures. I didn't make anyone pose and didn't use a flash though, so I got some points for that. They are all enjoying it but Frances claims she HATES it, for the pubescent effect, I think. Lewis had 2 timeouts yesterday for not listening and today the teacher threatened to kick him out when he whacked his sister with his foil. What the heck is 1st grade going to be like for the boy?

They're suited up and ready!


Frances, Ana & Lewis were "paired" up for the first exercise.


Elly was partnered with a little boy who just stood there, doing NOTHING!


Frances, listening intently, as usual.


Frances and Lew were paired up another time. Frances spent most of the session telling him to behave himself.


The little angel himself.

TeeHeeHee

A frightening day in the country

Sure, there was an Art festival and concerts that were possibilities for entertainment this weekend, but the Lawyer and I were craving some higher culture..... and maybe some fodder for the blog.....
We chose the Sauerkraut Festival in Phelps (creepy boonies), NY.
A cloud of stink greeted us from the NYS Thruway

After arriving at the fairgrounds and parking, we were greeted with our first option for throwing our money away - cabbage bowling! Couldn't all that cabbage have been used to make several pounds of kraut??

The Lawyer then challenged me to get a picture of this old coot's tshirt. The Lawyer forgets that I have learned many tricks from my sister Suzie, like taking a picture of someone with an absolute poker face so they don't even think anything of it.

There was a lot of crap for sale - who doesn't want a pair of handknit slippers?

We went into a building to see more "arts and crafts" when we were greeted by a horrific stench. Frances slapped her hand over her mouth and nose and ran out. I said "Holy crap, what is that smell??" As we walked farther in, I thought there must have been some bathroom "problem." Then I came to 2 tables of food - it was the sauerkraut cooking contest!! I love sauerkraut but this smell was B*A*D N*A*S*T*Y. We exited quickly, hence no photo evidence.
Then came the highlight of the "festival!" SAUERKRAUT IDOL!! I kid you not. Contestants from the ages of 4 ("You are my sunshine") to adults got on the stage to perform horrid renditions of Hendrix, Elvis, and various country people who I do not know. I believe this was the Elvis girl:

The Lawyer was LOVING IT! Me and Lew kept asking if it was time to go yet.

Frances asked me why so many of the Carnie people didn't have teeth.......I had no good answer.

Grasshead Love

For the past 7 years, at least one of the kids has made a "grasshead" at their daycare. Lewis and Elizabeth each did one last month and I set them on the kitchen windowsill to grow. We have noticed that Elizabeth's girl seems to be giving Lewie's guy/monster some looks of love. He seems clueless to the power of his attractive head. We'll see where this leads.

Day at the Beach

Even though we live close to Lake Ontario, we rarely go to the water because the beaches are so nasty and there are often advisories to stay out of the water. Yesterday we ventured to Sodus Point, about 40 miles to the East of us. I hadn't been there in more than 20 years. It was beautiful! The sand was clean and soft and the water looked and smelled ok! We stayed for a few hours. The kids waded, dug in the sand, and found tons of interesting rocks - I never saw so many perfectly round and flat rocks.
Elizabeth was the first to go down to the water. She LOVES looking for shells and rocks.

Lewis loves waves and spent a lot of time jumping over the waves and laughing hysterically.

I started taking the rocks and building little sculptures, which encouraged everyone to find me more material!

I couldn't believe how many times Lewis ran back and forth from the water to our blanket, bringing me "another cool one."


We walked out to the lighthouse, which didn't impress anyone! The pier was covered with gull poo and there was no railing. Frances said it made her feel like a wave was "going to come up, knock me into the water, carry me away and kill me." Think the girl has a little anxiety???

On the way back from the pier, Elly found some shells and foraged for a "good one."

She sat on the blanket sorting her shells and rocks while everyone else did some wave jumping.

There were 2 people sitting near us who were taking photos the whole time we were there. They were having so much fun posing for each other and did some pictures together. I couldn't resist taking photos of them taking photos





When we got home, it was almost time for dinner. Everyone was asleep by 8:30 and I probably only lasted an hour more! The kids are already asking me when we can go again.