Exploring the Town

We love where we live.

Well, most of the time.

There are days I dream of living in the South,

where the manners are nicer and the pace of life slower

(and the cost of living cheaper!)

Or I dream of living in the Midwest,

with its practicality and hardworking folk

and their common-sense values.

I occasionally wonder about areas like Utah

but by and large I don't know enough about the Northwest

to really long for it.

I'd like to vacation there, though.

But, amidst all the dreaming,

I do have a great appreciation for where we live.

Our town and the area around it

has won numerous awards for being

"The Best Place to Live"

and "The Best Place to Raise a Family."

While the cost of living is high,

the schools are fantastic,

there are lots of opportunities to do things outside,

their are a multitide of cultural opportunities all around us.

Since we are "stay-cationing" this year,

the kids and I took a day a week or two ago

to just explore a town nearby.

We had a lovely time.

After a bite of lunch,

we looked over the bridge for turtles and fish in the river below.

By crossing the bridge on foot, we went from one county to the next!

The kids kindly posed for a snapshot

and we continued on our way.

Next we went into one of their favorite stores,

the one they call the "Fairy Store."

This multi level store is literally chock-full of every fantastical thing

you can imagine!

They have a level devoted to all things Halloween

plus huge areas all devoted to Christmas towns.

They have doll rooms, fairy rooms and various freaky things everywhere!

After browsing along our way at a few displays here and there,

and going into the best old-timey toy store in the Mid Atlantic

with a proprietor named Frank who hand picks the toys,

the kids then went to an old Country Store where there is, quite literally,

PENNY CANDY!!

This is so much fun for the kids, as 25 cents can buy quite a bit of candy,

given in a little brown paper sack.

Unfortunately, there were no chocolate babies that day. :-(

The kids and I took our candy and climbed up on the big rocks

to overlook the little town while they ate their rock candy.

They had a blast and I had fun too.

These are the days that childhood memories are made of!

Bows and Arrows and Strange Circular Wounds

Today I took my little dudes

and went to the Native American Indian Pow-wow

at the local Fairgrounds.

It was hot but there was a nice breeze blowing through periodically

to cool things down.

Also shows how spoiled we are,

that mid 80s seemed so terribly hot!

The boys and I watched some Indian dances,

including a man who did an amazing dance using six hoops.

After that, we ate some lunch,

feasting on Native dishes (or not)

of Buffalo Stew and Indian Tacos

(Taco meat and fixings on Indian Fry Bread.)

After visiting the farm area

(what about this pig looked so familiar-

oh, SHUT UP!)

we were headed back to the Pow Wow field

when Chris decided to hurdle some large plastic planters.

A great hurdler he is not.

No matter how many times I have thought about it

and turned it over in my mind,

I cannot figure out how he managed to do THIS:

After dripping blood around the fairgrounds and no first aid area in sight,

we found someone who had a first aid bin in his van

and he got Chris at least partly patched up.

All whining came to a sudden, screeching halt

when on our way OUT of the fairgrounds,

we came upon this little stand.

Pay 3 dollars, use the bow and arrow and try to pop the balloon.

You pop it, you get the bow and arrow.

After some instruction (Chris wisely asked questions and got many pointers)

and a few wild attempts,

Chris hit the balloon and was rewarded with a resounding POP!!

He gladly took his prize.

On the drive home, I stepped into MOM mode

and began the lecture:

"That is a real arrow. It is sharp. You are NEVER to point it at a person

or an animal. You are never to point it at ANY LIVING THING."

At which point Trey's voice pipes up from the back seat:

"Guess you won't be shooting the ground then, either."

Little smart ass. But he is smart!

Tart and Sweet Summer!

Today the kids and I met with a friend of mine and her three kids at a Pick- Your- Own farm.

I have known Charlotte for many years.

She and her husband Paul went to college with Rob and I

and we hung out fairly often because our husbands

were Fraternity brothers.

Charlotte and her son, Harry

When college ended,

Paul and Charlotte and Rob and I lost contact.

Oddly enough, one day about 11 years ago,

many states away from our college town,

Rob took a little three year old Kate to the local pool

and ran into Paul and Charlotte!

Unbeknownst to any of us,

they had moved to the same state and town.

It was quite a surprise!

Turned out they had a little boy, Casey,

who was the same age as Kate.

Very cool indeed!

Casey and Kate, not so little anymore!

We see them from time to time

but Charlotte and I keep up often via Facebook.

Realizing the ridiculousness of being neighbors

but not seeing each other very often,

we set up this Farm trip and had a blast.

The new gang, who shall not know the debauchery of their parents!

Casey and Kate hit it off quite well

and had some shared interests.

Chris gets along with anyone and everyone,

and Charlotte's son Nicky and Trey are one year apart in age.

Bringing up the rear was the one I call "Harry the Cute"

because he made my uterus ache all afternoon!

Allow me to introduce "Harry the Cute!"

We spent about three hours at the farm

picking blueberries and red raspberries,

with some kids eating more than picking.

But, isn't that part of the fun?!

A Berry Thief

We parted ways with promises to meet up again

very, very soon.

Casey was going to make his family crepes for dinner

and I will be making (and freezing) a couple of Monster batches

of double fruit muffins.

Yum!

Oh Mr, Postman!

One of the challenging things about summer

is keeping the kids from spending too much time doing this:

or this:

or this:

There is certainly time and room for electronics, IMO.

They work hard in school, get good grades

and this is their time off.

However, the voice of guilt creeps in

and after a while, we either go somewhere and do something,

or I send them outside,

or we work on one of our projects.

This year, each kid has been working on the lost art of letter writing.

This is touched on in school but not taught as it used to be.

Plus, with the advent of email, it seems that no one even SENDS letters anymore.

But, writing letters is an important skill

and it is a real treat to those who receive them.

So I taught about the salutation, body and closing of a letter.

I taught about the proper addressing of envelopes.

Yay, me. lol

We have a list on the wall of things the kids want to do,

places they want to go and things they want to see.

Tomorrow we will go to a Pick Your Own farm,

knocking another item off the list.

Rob will be taking Kate to see Twelfth Night, which is one of her items, as well.

Preparations continue for my trip to the beach,

T- minus 7 days and counting!

A Few Random Summer Observations

1- Without a schedule, I get veeerrrrry fluid. 

Kind of like that cute little turtle in Finding Nemo.

Mealtimes go all over the place, 

the children just go scavenge for food

when they are hungry and when it is 8 PM

and it is getting dark outside

I'm all like, Did we have dinner?

like some good summer fairy might have swung by

and prepared it for us.

So here it is, 8:30 PM and my kids are eating dinner.

At least I made them something.

2- Hawaiian Punch,

that stuff is utter crap,

pure sugar and water and cancer-causing red dye

and I TOTALLY love it.

I have had two glasses of it with my dinner,

surreptitiously

while I have given the kids skim milk.

3- Being an adult rocks.

See number 2.

4- In the last few days 

I have been bleeding money.

200+ dollars for 50K car maintenance

300+ dollars for dog vet visit

500 dollars for a new Polaris for the pool.

5- Being an adult can also suck.

See number 4.