The shape of a summer

It's coming...... I know it is. The days have lengthened and the birds are restless. We pack so much living into summers here that we spend the first rainy months recovering. Somehow it balances out, so that by the time we arrive back here, in the early spring, we're more than ready to launch.

This entry is about the places and programs which inspire and frame our summer living.

I've already mentioned the garden on numerous occasions.... and the places we go to support that endeavor are many. It's also, for being a single-family activity, a way to keep close with our friends, most of whom also garden. It's so much more than a hobby.

Related to the garden is our treatment of the birds we host here. We like our birdfeeders. This year we signed up for a feed membership with Wild Birds Unlimited. I love those folks!

Hot on the heels of putting in our garden, the kids and I will be traveling home to Chassun. I expect to spend far too much time on the beach. G-girlie reminded me today that she wants to go to the waterpark there. I had already forgotten its existence, which is funny because I think of its host park all the time. We practically lived there most of the time, so much so we seriously considered moving closer because we drove there so much.

We usually have "homeschool scouts" at least every other week during the Summer, which is enriching. I know at least a couple of families who are interested in that, maybe more. :)

GH has its own entertainment, and the GH calendar alone could fill one's summer. We do make use of the Summer Sounds at Skansie, and we always intend to go to the films, but never seem to make the screenings. They finally have the schedule up on their site.

One of the shining jewels in the community here is the naturalist group Harbor Wild Watch. I am so impressed by both their initiative and their success. They've really been embraced by the community and they do an incredible job at bringing the wildlife in our waters to the clear attention of children in the community. We will definitely be participating in some of their planned events this summer.

Three of our five birthdays are during the summer, so there is that. We will clearly be camping again, as we love it so much. We're going to Penrose again, and will branch out depending on how the kids do.

We usually spend the 4th of July on our own beach, with friends. Carr Inlet lights up with our own little fireworks display, and it's a nice show for such a short walk. :)


The Renaissance Faire is an absolute must-do. I have the costume we purchased last year and I would like to make some for the children as well. P-daddy wants to get dressed as well, so we need to figure out a family identity. The Faire is moving this year, so we might not get to camp as we'd hoped, but I expect we'll go for the weekend nonetheless, maybe camping somewhere close but established. I am thrilled for them that they've gotten a new property like this. What they will be able to accomplish is probably going to astound a few people.

Also in August, my parents will be coming for a visit. That will be wonderful, as they haven't been here since we had just moved in. We'd only been in this house two weeks and knew nothing of the area. Now, we can show them around and enjoy the city with them.


*I reserve the right to update this with stuff I know I have forgotten.

Do you want some caffeine with that?

P-daddy had surgery last week Thursday. It was both elective and medically necessary, meaning he could have chosen not to seek it out but the condition (which I will decline to broadcast here) would have continued to grow and cause him pain. We'll find out the results of the biopsy tomorrow, but we are not worried.

He did well after surgery, during which he was put under general anesthesia. The multi-care presence at Allenmore was amazingly efficient and friendly--it was a day surgery machine, I tell you. The funniest bit was the anesthesiologist, who offered P-daddy some caffeine in his IV. "You haven't had your coffee, have you? Do you have a withdrawal headache?" Not two minutes prior, P-daddy had said he felt one coming on. He declined the extra jolt, though.

Niki had the children while we were gone all day for this procedure, and then stayed over to watch them again the next morning for the 8 AM (!!!) follow up appointment at the dr's office. While I recognize this is a beneficial trade-off (in our eyes anyway) for an inpatient stay, it still was somewhat overwhelming. Paul and I commented how wonderful it was to not even have to think about the kids.

Anyway, what that means in terms of my online life is that well, I am not here. Not like I usually am anyway! P-daddy is a terrible, terrible convalescent and when I am not enforcing bed rest, I have the children away from the house.


We had a last huzzah at the Renny Faire last weekend with some dear friends (see Niki's blog for some pix) and it sounds as if we have infected both those families with our madness. I am already looking forward to next year. Cruelly, my peasant Renny costume arrived moments before we left to go to the fair. The thing is, I bought it a size down because I knew I wouldn't be receiving it in time to use this year. OOOOOOWWWWWWWCH! Oh the whining my friends heard that day! (Not to mention the flat-out, cackling, laughter from my dd when she saw me try it on anyway.)

~D~ got lost at the Renny Faire. ~G~ got lost at the Renny Faire. It was a tough day at the Renny Faire, but as fun as ever in retrospect! I was somewhat sad for P-daddy when we returned and he said wistfully, " I wish I could have gone." This guy never wants to do anything like I do, so I am really happy about his affection for it! There are a lot of these in WA and OR, not to mention the ones that aren't quite Renny, but have to be just as smashing!

The local YMCA opened and omigoodness. It opened yesterday, and we spent several hours there yesterday and today. (G even had their first first-aid call, when she spontaneously burst into a heavy nosebleed in the pool. YUM!) The facility is actually better than I expected and everything I hoped it would be. We even got to meet another homeschooling friend there today. Day two of the facility and we already had a swimdate! I guess I will count that as our lunch-on-Wednesday date, cause I am retentive that way.

After the pool, the boys and I took to the gym and shot hoops while G ran a mile on the track. Not kidding, she counted. 9 times around is a mile. After that, she joined us and we left with promises to return again tomorrow. This is going to be a very good thing.

All my homeschooling homies are gearing up for the non-year to begin. It's fun talking to each other and comparing notes. I have two ladies coming over on Friday to talk homeschooling and pick blackberries. I am crazy. I know that I am.

St. George and the Dragon

Edited to add link above

~N~ loves theater, with a pretty steady passion. Especially after taking a theater class last summer, he's been bitten by that bug. This year, instead of being shooed aside, he actually won a role in his favorite act at the fair. Robin Hood comes every year and with Maid Marion, directs an impromptu show. ~N~ was St. George, who rescued the fair maiden, fighting dragons, rascals and even death to do it.

In the cast!

On the quest for the bad guys!

Slaying the dragon

Oh no! Felled by a bad guy!


Checked by a concerned audience member


St George Saves the day!

Take a bow!


More pix here.

Too much to sensibly update.

Especially since it hurts to sit at the computer right now. Lots good, some bad. It's life, you know?

My friends and I officially decided to pretend we're a homeschool group since, as Niki points out, we already are. But we're really an exclusive group. Totally selective. You must have three children, live in the Puget sound area and have an ongoing struggle with food allergies. So far there are four of us families, all of whom have tongues firmly planted in cheek.

3/4 of us attempted IKEA earlier this week. We're nuts, I guess.

My back is on the mend after deciding to go on strike. I went speed-hiking in the woods with Birk clogs but no socks. I expected to only venture a little ways in, but Neighborgirl hijacked one of mine and two of Mack's boys on our Wednesday lunchfest and took them to the &^@ beach cliff. SO out of her boundaries, SO out of my boundaries, and completely on the down low from her mother. I was livid when I finally found them-- coming down the path from the cliff and past the turnoff for home. She was leading them on to the gulley in another far off section of the woods. I don't usually yell at other people's children but I did that day. Our boys were in the back picking berries-- Pickles didn't even have on shoes or a shirt-- when she said she'd take them to "see a waterfall." I am growing more than weary of Neighborgirl issues.

Can't go to Renny fair today because while I have range of motion 70% back, I won't risk that kind of event with a toddler and G-girl. P-Daddy has N off fishing with buddies from work, so I am happy to see that happen. We did however, go to the GH Farmer's Market for a trial run of my back. I made it through, but just, and the kids got their faces painted. Very cute. the artist was an artist, so the pictures on the little guys were very good. D-baby didn't move at ALL while he was being painted.

One of G's crabs died, for no explainable reason, and she was heartbroken. She doesn't want a replacement crab because these crabs were from Santa, and the ones from the store are just too mean.

Plucked another zucchini from our bush in the dry garden, and a spaghetti squash from the big garden. The acorn squash are coming along nicely and apparently I forgot to plant cucumbers.

I am excited to try to win Jubilant Tulip over to the world of stove top espresso makers. I am making a latte now as a matter of fact.

And most importantly of course:

She's gone mad....

Now that I have gone to the Renny Faire and not been bowled over by the sheer coolness of it.......

I love it more!

and so does P-daddy! Yipppeeeeeeeee!

So now we have to costume ourselves for next year. The kids can costume themselves now from the dress up box, and I have a few things, but P-daddy has nothing. By next year we should be sufficiently outfitted. I love this stuff.

I am very interested in this as our hobbies are actually going to be skills that serve me well in this endeavor: P-daddy's beer brewing and woodworking, my knitting and beadworking. The kids , well heck they still have a full bore imagination going on!

Check this link out: http://www.nwta.com/couriers/8-97/knit.html (beware, only knitters will find this interesting. )

~L~in the grotto behind the food vendors. See our new friends in the background?

Butterfly princess cloaked in mystery in the grotto (costume by Niki!)

P-Daddy found the beer garden

My boys have no sense of relative size when it comes to swordplay!

Camping week

We have a tent up in the backyard, largely just for fun, but also because we will be going on an MDC campout this weekend with a vatload of our homies. We thought it would be nice to let the kids adjust to it and see how they liked sleeping outside.

Monday night, I spent the night in the tent with G&N. We read books by lamplight and pretended we were back at the Renny Faire where the knights could protect us and we could smell the faire food. I was impressed by how swiftly the children went to sleep, and how they slept all night. Their mother, however, was more like the princess and the pea large pile of rocks.

Not the loamy, soft earth of my home, my backyard. It was like sleeping on a bumpy board, and the benefit to this experience was that I now know when we go camping for real I will have to have extra blankets support our sleeping bags. P-daddy(who had a where-is-Mommy? snuggler) and I didn't sleep well that night, and when 5AM Boobie Call came around, I was happy to answer. For the record, I heard D in the tent, in the backyard, through the closed window. So rest assured, when we say he is loud, we do not exagerrate.

Anyway, the big kids had a great time, slept through the night and were so happy with the experience that they went back in last night. Their parents, however, declined to join them. With the kids ensconced asleep in their tent, the baby tucked away in bed, P-daddy and I got down to business in the most appropriate ways parents do when they find themselves alone: we scrubbed an entire load of work clothes that had been spackled by an inkpen hidden into a shirt pocket. Despite arising at 5, I stayed up until 12.30 AM. I had just lain down my head when I heard N wailing from the backyard, through the open bedroom window.

I wandered out there to hear G groggilly soothing him back to sleep. After speaking with an incoherent, sleep-talking daughter for a moment, I went back to bed. At 3AM, P-daddy did the tent rounds, eventually bringing both children inside, while D never really recovered from the movement of the P-Daddy even after he returned to bed. (How will we ever get him out of our bed if he requires bookends to sleep?) So here we are, dawning on day two into the experiment. The parents are even more tired than they were yesterday, and the children are snoozing away quite happily, sleeping late in their own beds.

I am pretty happy with NO ONE sleeping in the tent tonight.

Renny Faire

If you want to find our family next August, this is where we will be:

Washington Renaissance Fantasy Faire


Click the title link for pix far superior to anything I could generate. I took the two larger kids, and left P-Daddy with Thumper at home. It was very unpleasant: hot, arid, noisy and dusty. We brought only water, peaches and some cheese puffs. But I couldn't get the kids to leave! They were in particular disturbed and fascinated by the fact that grownups dressed up in costumes. They see the adults in their life working working working, and I think they forget we like to play as well.

Next year we are totally camping. Did I mention it is a wee 2 minutes (if that) from our house?

N took this pic, which I think is the best of the day:



Is this the Dude who lives under the bridge? Yes, there was a troll bridge. And a machete-juggling fire eater. And real horses in real joust. Elves and fairies. Pirates. It was a trip. That's .... it was freaking awesome! Take Robin Hood, Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean and Braveheart, mix it all together and toss it onto 15 acres in the middle of the woods.

The whole theme to it (this is what kicks it for me, and if you know me....) is that this is a shire from the 1600s in SCOTLAND. So lots of kilts as well. People. For a diversion, it just doesn't get any better than that! There was the big giant Scottish clan gathering last month on the other side of the county, so we had many authentic, drunken Scots wandering about, amidst the fairies and the gypsies.

G learned how her precious Atocha coin was made, as they had a coin stamping booth. They showed the kids the blanks, and then rang the bell before the huge hammer fell. BAM! Out came the newly minted coin. G FREAKED OUT, wanting, craving, having to have one of those coins. (Mind you, she doesn't scream or rant or whine in these situations, in case you're picturing the kid from the mall last week. She just pleads with her eyes and tells me these things verbally) I reminded her that she got the last coin and that if we got a coin today, it would be for N. In the 6 year old all must be fair world, that made sense to her.