A Sunflower Just His Size

Aaron and Becky planted this in the spring.  It started with his desire to plant the maple helicopters that kept falling from the tree in our front yard (that one is peeking out from behind him).  While they were at it, they planted these pygmy sunflowers.  He's been helping to water them all summer.  We're a little worried that they won't make it through the August heat while we are in Montana, so we decided to snap this shot before we left.

Paper Sack Serape

During Alex's Spanish immersion class this week, he learned about different Spanish-speaking cultures, food, crafts, and sports from all over the world.  One of his crafts was to make this serape from a paper grocery bag.  He was pretty proud of it, so we decided to immortalize it here.

Mario Jumping on a Goomba in Chalk

by Alex Evans

Mosquito Central

Aaron told us he wanted to go on a hike.  I had been trying to log time in all of the area Metroparks, so I looked online for one we hadn't been to with hiking trails and settled on Pearson Metropark in the nearby suburb of Oregon, OH.  We packed gear, snacks, and (thankfully) bug repellent.  What we didn't realize was that the Black Swamp Trail was aptly named - not for the swampiness; it was actually dry - but for the swarms of mosquitos that smelled the only fresh meat for miles - us.  Having never been on the trail, I got a little turned around.  I knew the trail was a loop and so if I kept going straight, we end up at the beginning.  After the fact, I realized that we were going exactly the opposite way I thought we were (clockwise instead of counter-clockwise around the loop).  I thought I might have made such an error somewhere in the middle, but I wasn't sure.  Around this time I realized that we were not having fun getting attacked despite our DEET repellent and we wanted to get off the trail as quickly as possible.  So, we just kept going around the trail's 0.8 mile loop as fast as we could, swatting away the mosquitos with our hats.  At one point I saw something rustle in the gras and said something to the effect of "Boys, come here! Look at the frog. OK, Let's go."  When we got to the end I only had 4 bites due my stronger DEET concentration, but the boys had a couple dozen each.



Off the trail, the bugs diminished greatly, but we didn't want to take any chances, so we headed indoors.  The park has an air-conditioned building with chairs in front of a long set of windows that looks out into a clearing.  We sat in there and ate our snacks.



Out there they had installed an artificial fountain/pond and several bird and wildlife feeders.  We snacked and drank and identified as many birds as we could using a guide on the wall.  In the center of that picture is a goldfinch on the feeder perch.



Then we ran over to the park's jungle gym and let the boys run around for awhile.  This park has a pedal park pond that we didn't sample and a sledding hill that we may sample in the winter.  Otherwise, we may leave this park to the mosquitos.

Yard Sale Day

For the first time in years we decided to hold a garage yard sale.  Some other families in the neighborhood advertised in the paper for a community wide sale and we just chipped in for the ad.  We were able to get rid of a few things and packed the rest up for donation to charity.  The boys took advantage of the traffic to set up a snack stand with bags of popcorn or cups of lemonade for 25 cents each.  50 cents would buy you a juice pouch.  We totaled it up at the end of the day and subtracted expenses for supplies.  They got to keep the rest which went toward a handheld videogame system Alex had been saving up for.  Aaron was a persistent and tenacious salesman. He'd get very excited as people would approach, and then shout loudly at them "WE HAVE LEMONADE AND POPCORN!" repeatedly until we shushed him.



Becky set up a little stand selling handmade jewelry.  She had several interested people come up, but no takers today.  Garage sale bargain hunters just weren't interested in new custom made items.  She had at least one person tell her that they'd look her up at Christmas time to order some gifts for friends.



My medical assistant, BJ, came by with her husband to check out the boys' snack stand and were good customers.  As a reward for their patronage, the boys played an air guitar concert for them to the soundtrack of The Rolling Stones' Paint It Black and Dragonforce's Through the Fire and Flames that they learned from Guitar Hero III for the Wii.  They rocked out the neighborhood - next time we'll have to sell tickets.

Etch-A-Sketch WALL*E

Alex has a natural talent with the Etch-A-Sketch. He drew this picture of WALL*E the robot from memory in just a few minutes.

Independence Day Sparklers

We've always done sparklers as a celebration on the 4th of July.



They're festive and fun and they have always seemed easy for the boys to be able to handle.



This year however, we learned differently.  After Aaron's sparkler went out, he wanted to find out what happened when you touched the glowing rod that remains, to see if it was still hot.  He found out that it was.  He only burned a small spot on one finger and it'll be OK.  But I think we may take a break from sparklers for awhile.

Fireworks at the Fort

We came out to Fort Meigs for their Independence Day celebration in Perrysburg again this year.  We hoped to have time to let the kids ride some of the carnival rides, but the weather had other plans.  It has been raining alot over past several days, including a heavy drenching yesterday.  This left the park rather soggy, especially right in the middle of the carnival rides.  Not to mention the power cords for the rides running through the impromptu swamp.  No thanks.



Becky brought us a picnic lunch and we bought frozen dessert from an ice cream truck.  We made our way into the fort and set up our chairs with a great view of the sky above the Maumee-Perrysburg bridge which had been shut down for this evening's launch.  We played frisbee and chased bubbles.  We read, listened to the nearby band playing patriotic songs and settled in for the fireworks.



They seemed bigger and lasted longer than last year, whether because they really were or because the passage of time had shrunk last year's pyrotechnics in our minds.  It was an uncharacteristically cool night for July, but the extra clothes Becky brought on a hunch that we would need them kept us warm.  After the show we made our way through the swampy park (I found a dry path along the outskirts actually) in the dark to our cars.  Leaving Fort Meigs after the show was a pain again because we were forced by the police to turn to the right.  The main road was to the left, but the right led deep into a maze of residential streets.  We got lost in there for over an hour before stumbling onto a road that led us out.  We'll have to plan better next year.  Still, hard to beat fireworks seen from a fort.