A fabulous weekend!

On Saturday we drove up north to Traverse City to visit my uncle Jim and aunt Dana. They were very kind hosts and very tolerant of all the shenanigans the kids came up with. The boys loved the pool, we all loved Lake Michigan, we can't wait to go back!

It took about three hours to drive there - no stops! no traffic! - and we listened to Magic Treehouse books almost the whole way there. It was such a relief that we didn't have to clean the whole house before we left in case there was a showing, but we did a little cleaning as a present for ourselves when we got back home.

The best part for the kids was getting to use an entire bottle of colored bubbles - each! - to paint themselves, right before we were going to get in the car to come home. Oscar was "blood boy" and John was "smurf". Then they took a bath with the hose and a tupperware and some surgical cloths. Once we got home they requested to have their fingernails painted red so they could continue being blood boys. When we gave them a real bath on Monday night, Edie's hair turned the tub blue, surprise!

 

Summertime, summertime

Edie contemplates danger at Rocketship Park, where we stopped on our way home from the library.

I went through some clothes and uncovered two pairs of shin guards!

The shin guards were in this box but now the box is full up. 

On Saturday we went swimming at the pool, but on Sunday we had to recover from that adventure so we got out the sprinkler! And the umbrella! Oscar was Captain Clean and John was Bubble Boy (according to Oscar) or Bubble Man (according to John).

Just biology things

A bug eating another bug! The hunter flew around with its prey very proudly and even tried to land on me to feast. I was not having it though.

Deliciousest blueberry pie, made with Oscar-picked, Michigan-grown blueberries. Didn't last long!

Now we're really getting settled in - we got ourselves a brand new GreenCone for composting. Only 1 HomeDepot trip was required. The kids helped when the hole had to be enlarged for good drainage by refilling the hole immediately. (Eric even checked the drainage!)

Then we got some bee balm (which everyone here only calls Monarda, buncha monards), lavender, and hyssop to make it smell nice, and put some stepping stones for easy access, and then the boys did this:

The cone had only been in place about a week before we planted these guys, and already the worm population has exploded, hurray!