Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Brain Dump

 It's summer.  But you knew that.

Which means occasional bursts of activity to do projects, clean out the house (hello garbo-flauge... y'know what I mean?), and feel productive, and a lot of where-did-the-day-go-and-what-did-we-do?

So, because my two or three faithful readers are dying to know feign polite interest, and so that I won't forget absolutely everything... here, in no particular order, are a few of the things we've been up to.

*  Dino-opolis has experienced a revival, with some 'new' (to Dino-opolis) neighbor kids taking part.  This involves a lot of bargaining and negotiating for dinos, dino homes, properties, and - you guessed it - weapons.  The dinos seem to be at war a lot.  The currency of choice are those funny, decorative glass marbles (shapes?) that you get for a buck a bag at Walmart, which are referred to as Jewel Pets.  Don't ask me.

*  If I let them they would sit in darkness, in the family room, and watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail on fast forward.  What is the attraction of this?  I don't get it.

*  We continue to do a little bit of school, every other week.  I am totally out of my groove.  In fact, I just realized that we have six library books overdue, and have failed to pick up several books we put on hold.  Oops.  Which means that we owe a whopping fine of 80 cents.  I love my library.  :oD

*  Speaking of school, we are on year four of Story of the World, and have finally reached the Civil War.  Tate has been waiting anxiously for this moment for about three years.  But, being a four year overview of the history of the entire world, the one lone chapter on the Civil War was a bit of a let down, to say the least.  Slavery, Fort Sumter, Gettysburg, Appamattox, Lincoln's assassination, and reconstruction.  It's a total drive-by.  Blink and you miss it.

But Tate has saved the day.  I woke up Monday morning and peeked into the school room.  He had scoured the house for every book we have about the Civil War (even if there was just a little mention) and arranged them artfully (for an 11 year old boy) around the room, along with his reproduction Civil War newspapers, Kerry's several models of the Monitor (or the Merrimack... I have no idea), and his packets of reproduction Civil War money.  And a huge toy soldier battle arrange next door in his bedroom.

And we're off to the library today.  (Gotta pay that fine before I get in real trouble.)

*  Podger - the bunny - is growing, and continues to receive lots and lots of attention.  And I think we need to clip his claws... ouch!  Some of the neighbor kids have been bringing over their guinea pig and letting it have visits with Podger.  We hope this doesn't result in anything unexpected.  (I mean, I know they can't actually breed, but they might try...)

*  The swimming pool that seemed so enormous when I bought it (four years ago?) now seems hopelessly small.  I'm thinking this will probably be its last year, here.

Yes, this may have been its first summer.  That's Wyatt pushing on the side, wearing a bathing suit that is small on Gunnar this year.

*  The boys are counting down the days until this weekend.  Weather permitting they'll get to go to Seattle on Saturday to see the Blue Angels, with Uncle Dave.  Then Sunday they're heading to Aunty Tami's for another overnight... two nights.  (Hear me sigh, with happiness?)

And, in a total stroke of coincidence and luck, this weekend there just happens to be a Civil War Reenactment nearby, to which Aunty Tami will be taking them.  Amazing how the timing of that worked out.

*  Wyatt continues to pester beg to be taken to the skateboard park, with his new board.  Kerry is more tolerant of this than I am.  Probably because he sits in the car and reads instead of watching Wyatt.  The last time I went a kid smaller than Wyatt seemed to be operating under the delusion that I was going to give him $10.  So he could go buy pizza.  Right.  Go home and make a pbj, ya little punk.

*  There's an unusual color in the light, lately.  Very golden.  With a couple of cool mornings lately it seems like fall is in the air - which I am not ready for - but my neighbor tells me it's smoke, from a brush fire 150 miles away.

*  And speaking of fires, we've been enjoying the campfire pit the boys and I worked on.  What is it with boys and fire?!  They could spend every night out there, throwing in pieces of bamboo to hear it explode (um, we really don't want to attract a lot of attention, so you might want to quit that), roasting weenies, eating baked beans and enjoying their bodily noises, telling funny stories (like the one about Grampa, the bison, and the rock), and inventing new ways to eat chocolate.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, the s'moreo.  (I'm waiting for better pics from Kerry, but in the mean time...)

Doesn't that look cozy?

My chief fire-poker.  He's obsessed.

The results of another of Gunnar's "Colorful Fire".

9 comments:

leah said...

You guys are having a great summer! And if the rabbit and the guinea pig hit it off, I expect to see pictures of the baby buguinea rabbits (I expect that's what you'd call the hybrid, anyway)!

Firepits and boys... mine already love it, and I spend the entire evening in semi-panic mode, trying to keep Nolan from running near the fire. I want to see what a s'moreo looks like (yum)!

melanie said...

"Thank you for sharing." =)

Very cool about the Civil War reenactment ~ And *Way To Go* on the 11yo effort to provide a bit more reading material etc on the subject.
As I recall, it was Tate who made the battle scene card, right?

I remember enjoying fire-poking ~ I think it could still be fun if I had a lovely or even functional fire pit =) We will miss our fireplace ~ the outdoor woodstove just won't be the same ~ NO ash in my living room! =)

S'moreo? I think I would like to eat chocolate with your boys ~ they have great ideas!

I'm thinking you have done a LOT this summer ~ it's just never long enough to make you want it to end. Oh, and enjoy your quiet time this weekend!

The dB family said...

Sounds like a perfect summer!

Um, regarding the g.p. and rabbit. You may want to be careful. We had a g.p. and rabbit and truth be told, the rabbit was not too particularly discerning about who his company was. The g.p. on the other hand, did not appreciate his affections. No buguinea rabbits here :o).

Sounds like a fun weekend in store! I hope to see and here more about it come Monday!

Blessings!
Deborah

Herding Grasshoppers said...

"Buguineas"... you guys crack me up.

I googled, to be sure... the chromosomes are different enough that buguineas should be impossible.

So far they stay at opposite ends of the bunny run, with only occasional sniffing.

We're going to be pet-sitting while the owners of the g.p. are away for a week or so, and the kids wanted to keep them in the same cage the whole time.

I vetoed.

They can have supervised visitation. 'nuff said ;D

h west said...

I did SOTW with the boys too. When we got to the civil war, I had them read a few extras, one of which was a GREAT comic book about the Battle of Gettysburg. It's PERFECT for boys. . .and it's also PACKED in a box right now so I can't give you the author's name. They also read a great bio of Abraham Lincoln. I've had to supplement SOTW a few times like that.

And, I'm reading through your past posts and had to laugh at the one about t-ball. Wyatt is a pretty good baseball player now, but he was TERRIBLE at t-ball!!!!! He would take FOREVER at bat because he would practice his swing a MILLION times before hitting the ball. He desperately needed someone to just throw him a ball so he could hit it in one go. I decided then that t-ball is just plain stupid.

Herding Grasshoppers said...

Thanks, h west, for the reminder. We are supplementing a LOT. And I think we've had that comic book about Gettysburg from the library before, but I had forgotten about it... we'll have to look again! I often use the Sonlight catalog for ideas for more books.

Your Wyatt and mine sound a lot a like :D

Rebecca D said...

Thank you for "delurking" on my blog... It is nice to meet you.

I actually think it feels less "stalker like" when people comment... Then I get a chance to go to their blog and meet them. The other way feels a bit like somebody dropping by your house when you are not home and peeking in the windows...

Joey Lynn Resciniti said...

That's a great campfire! It's neat that your son took such an interest in his Civil War studies. Those "artful arrangements" always make me smile.

Kristen@nosmallthing said...

We haven't done a lot with our fire pit this summer, sadly. It's been too stinkin hot, and the thought of making a fire just is not attractive. But maybe this Sunday would be a good day. I love the idea of roasting weenies and I'll make some yummy baked beans and maybe some watermelon to go with it. And of course, s'mores.

You are good for me, you know? I tend to get inspired by what you do. :)