The not-so-good ones end with frozen yogurt with lots of toppings.  Luckily, we did our first family ride close to home, so when Dwayne’s chain snapped, it wasn’t the big deal it would be if we hadn’t been a short bike ride from our car and bike shop. 

But it’s still worth a “Cheers!” with the family.

First of all, isn’t this the coolest cloud formation you have seen?  Seriously, Double Bluff beach is a kick, which is why we log in so many hours there.

 

Kyla, Piper, Wesley, Friend, Friend, and Friend spent 3-4 hours Tuesday afternoon building a teepee out of driftwood, and used kelp to decorate it. 

 

Today we went back so the kids could continue working on their fort and then they “had to” build a bridge, with more wood, sand, shells, and rocks.

 

Everyone, except Mama, who had books to read, helped.

 

I love  how the girls collected seaweed to make the teepee walls waterproof (and on sunny days, it works great!).

And after all that play, Wesley is exhausted and wants to sleep NOW!

Hi, Moms,

You know some of those handy kid snacks that are so convenient, healthy-ish, and completely disposable?  I’ve stopped getting them in my attempt to go Zero Waste (impossible right now, but I like being very conscious of what I put in landfill).  BUT, we discovered that Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle has a program to recycle Go-Go’s (the applesauce squeeze tubes), Capri-Suns, plastic lids (the ones too small for household recycle like milk jug lids), corks, and batteries.  Oh, and those plastic rings that hold 6-packs together.  When you turn them into the Zoomazium or the special cart by the new Asian otter exhibit for points.  Then, kids can spend their points on—get this—really cool shells and real fossils!   Seriously, can life get better for K & P?? 

Kids can also get points for stopping by the Zoomazium and picking up activities to do at the zoo that day, like observing the different babies behaviors, or Behavior Bingo, etc.  Anyway, we have more reason than usual for going to the zoo. 

This is the sign at the Northern Tree Shrew exhibit:

 

See, and it turned out okay.  Probably.

We’ll have to come up with a name for this beast, since we bought the naming rights from our neighbor who has been the reluctant owner of this ‘73 Dodge for a few years.  We’ve borrowed it more than we should have, and it finally kicked the bucket while Dwayne was coming home with a load of lumber.   After spending $700 to fix it—fuel filter, ignition coil, master cylinder, and brakes (because if it was eventually going to start, we needed it to stop)—we figured we needed to buy it so it wouldn’t be sold to someone else. 

 

So the good news is that you now know someone who owns a truck and a cabin.  We need to know someone with a boat and a hot tub.

Speaking of the cabin, I’ve finished (read: I’ve done all I’m going to until next winter) a website for the cabin. 

http://heartseaselogcabin.blogspot.com/

What I like best is that it has a calendar of times already reserved so you can see when it may be available.  The times we are going are not usually marked.  

It’s hard to find a more beautiful place than Deception Pass.

 

Besides building our Zen towers, the kids explored the properties of fulcrums and levers. They called it playing on a teeter-totter.  Tomato, tomahto.

We took a special trip a favorite Brasilian restaurant in Seattle (on the Ave, just before the Ravenna junction).  We dressed up “special” for the occasion (Wesley with a red tie, red T-shirt, and pink sateen skirt, Piper wore one of Wesley’s ties with her dress).

This boy conked almost as soon as we backed out of the driveway.

 

 

One thing we are celebrating is that Grandpa and Grandma have left Brasil for good and are back stateside!

 

Grandpa and Wesley share common interests.

And if you ever find yourself on that end of the Ave, stop in and try the passion fruit mousse…I will be dreaming about it for months!

…when I went into her room and discovered she had used scissors to cut a hole in her window screen, large enough to put her hand through and touch the roof.  Of course, it’s never an isolated incident—Wesley had cut up the dust cover on a library book so that he could see the picture it had covered, Piper had gotten out my Russian nesting dolls and then stepped on one—the destruction seems ongoing.  And I was So. Mad. At. Kyla.  Had she been there, the following would have happened to her:

• a thorough and vindictive lecture.
• taking away all scissors in the entire house and hiding them in my one safe spot (inconvenient to me, but this is the one I have done).
• taking everything out of Kyla’s room except her bed, blanket, pillow and clothes, with no plan on how she could earn them back.
• take her to Home Depot and have her buy a new screen with all her money and withhold her allowance ($1/week)  for a year until it was paid off.
• put myself in a long time out in a separate city and not parent for many months.

But as mentioned before, Kyla was at school—her last day—and I had to cool my heels for a few hours.  I had to go clean something.

I went out to our street with the blower and broom and cleaned our end of the street and a vacationing neighbor’s driveway.  I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned (with Piper and Wesley’s help, because heaven forbid would they let me be when they have 3 other adults to be with) and thought and stewed and fumed.  And I finally came up with a consequence that was practical, cost-efficient, timely, and hopefully, educational.

Dwayne bought “screen by the foot” at the hardware store when he went, and I threaded a needle, and after lunch, I taught Kyla how to sew and she repaired the screen.  It took her some time, and she couldn’t use big stitches, and I received a sincere apology.  And she will have a patched screen for the rest of her childhood to remind her of impulsive actions and consequences. 

I think all my children will do well to be out of my reach for two hours upon committing (or have been discovered to commit) a particularly destructive crime. 

I just realized that I usually “Mom” (or “MOM!”) these days, instead of “Mama” (or MaaaaaaaaMMMMMAAAAA!).  I’m not sure how I feel about that yet.

I love that Piper wore the “new” dinosaur costume all day long, including riding her bike to school to pick up Kyla.  She managed to keep her tail in line!  (Thanks, Sus!)  Kyla, sadly, was prevented by her mother in wearing her outfit for her last day of school.

Wesley appears to be napping or tantrumming on the floor behind Kyla.