Kyla turns 7 in two days*, so she had a small swimming party with the friends she’s had since she was a few months old.  It was pretty easy—swim, eat pizza, and smear neon frosting all over your face. 

I like how Piper and Wesley matched their frosting to their shirts.  The first time they try to color coordinate something….

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Yes, yes, I post-date the heck out of this blog.  But let’s get back to my virtual reality now.

The first thing that must be noted, is that although the car is packed with all sorts of camping….crap…., Piper carefully cradled the brand-new bag of marshmallows in her lap the entire distance to Camp Casey on Whidbey Island (yep, just 30 minutes from the cabin—talk about temptation!).   Wesley still likes to hold hands all the time in the car and Kyla still, usually, obliges.

 

Why I Went Camping:

1) We bought a ridiculously big tent (it actually has four rooms) and I feel we should use it once a year.

2)  Some of the people I love most in the world—and their children (who I also love very much)—were going.

3) It was at a great place that had a private campground for just our church group which meant….free-range kids!!

4) Some of the meals were being provided.

5) Again, because it was greatest factor, our tribe was there.

 

And, gangbusters, the kids loved it.  Which kids?  I’m not sure. There was just this blur of kids running through the forest together.  Some I had given birth to, some just birthday gifts. 

Walks along the beach….  

 

and the old fort….

 

and forts on the beach!

 

There were the Family Olympics, which featured…balloons!

 

Talent (and “Talent”) show

 

And the most marvelous sunset.

 

See, with a little time and editing, one can forget the babies screaming at night, the gangs who ran around—yelling—before 7am, and the 90 minute ferry wait.  We’ll do it again next year!

One cannot have said to have conquered something until one can stand on top of it.  So must be the kids’ philosophy.  Unfortunately, a neighborhood friend is getting indoctrinated.  Sorry, Kelsey!

After spending the day at the zoo with Kristin, we went home by way of another completely out-of-the-way location—Traci and Eric’s house.  (Yes, I know calling someone else’s hometown inconvenient is a bit like like the pot calling the kettle black, but who’s writing this blog?) 

 

 

 

 

Just telling Kyla and Piper that we are going to see Cousin Traci gives me total credit for bringing them all of life’s good things.  Piper does her especially cute jumping up and down, clapping her hands, and exclaiming, “Did you hear that, Wesley?  We’re going to see Cousin Traci!  She’s the Funny One!”  Which does a great disservice to Cousin Eric for being the human jungle gym they climb on and plot to take down for most of their visit.

I laugh more in two hours with that family than I do in an entire week.   We love them.

Do you know how, in May, summer stretches out ahead of you as you make plans—supposedly just little dots on a large, blank canvas of free time?  And suddenly school is about to start and you’ve made just a dent in your Top Ten summer plans? 

Kristin and I have been waiting for summer so we could spend more time together—I’d bring the kids down and we could stay a few nights and do this and that….  Finally, last night, the kids and I drove south, so we could spend the night and go to Point Defiance Zoo the next day. 

And what a day!  Through impeccable timing (never underestimate dumb luck), we got to the exhibits just at feeding times or during training or lectures. 

And Point Defiance has one of the best animal-shows I’ve ever seen.  Evil Dr. Dolittle had a special ray gun to make people want to go indoors and she spoke in rhyming couplets.  There were caped superheros (both the human and canine variety) and lots of animal antics.  I enjoyed it more than the kids (to be fair, I wasn’t scared of the ray gun and smoke machine).

 

It’s a small enough zoo that we saw everything, even though Wes was beyond wiped before we were done.

 

Why, yes, that is a beaver strolling through the zoo.

 

Hey, kids, did you have a good time?  Oh, watch out for that shar….. oh, never mind.

We’ve always loved our W&C Galas, but we’ve always done them around Valentine’s Day or New Year’s Eve.  But between our middle child’s birthday, and the fact that there are too many children in our group to make hosting it in winter an option anymore, we hosted our first Summer Gala.  It was more casual, earlier, outside, and a ton of fun!

I was hoping to get pictures of everyone, but I mostly took them from the vantage point of the grill, so I missed a lot of the kids.  My apologies—next year I’ll put others in charge of the photos.  And my husband in front of the grill!

The shot of the day?  Piper and Anya after a trip to the chocolate fountain.  They both had to be changed. 

And because I realized I had taken all the photos, there wasn’t a single photo of my tres cute dress, Dwayne took this, perhaps a few hours past photogenic time.   But I loved the dress.

Thanks all for coming—I loved it!

We like our checkered picnic basket—settings for four to have mac-n-cheese, grapes, and juice.  We even wear some clothes when we pull out the “good” plastic.

We had to head over to the island today to get a few things for the party, mow the dandelions at the cabin, and what the heck—spend as much time in the afternoon at the the local fair. 

SO FUN!

 

I think I will quit our home, move to Whidbey just so I can learn to hula with this club.  So graceful and beautiful!

I want move like this!

 

The midway only had a dozen rides, but it was candy land for the kids.  Wesley was excited about the ship that he could fly and shoot from.  I wanted to add a bit of machoism to Wesley’s latest reports.

 

The best part of these sort of adventures is seeing the pure delight on my children’s faces.  Kyla and Piper loved the swings.

So much so, that they did it again. 

 

Wesley wanted to go on the trucks until he realized that he wasn’t on the flying gun ride (it’s a logical fallacy we are working on). 

 

There were fun shows to watch—like the guy who padlocked a chain around his straightjacket. 

 

We explored every single building of the fair (the kids got to fill their fair passport with stamps everywhere we went) and I found the pig judging hilarious.

 

What does one judge pigs on?  How good the bacon is? 

Turns out, that’s pretty close.  The best in show is the one that is the one most ready (and not overly) for butchering. Yeah, no kidding. 

 

The fair is only 4 days long so we will need to figure out how to get Dwayne to join us next year.  And you should come to!

We had a birthday party for cousins on Saturday, with best friend on Sunday, and then two more birthday parties on Monday.  The kids were exhausted, but had a huge streak of FUN!

Thanks again, Tad!  Batty Birthday!

 

Sarah has equines and had a Horsey Birthday. All the kids got to ride!

Our good friend Isaac had a birthday and we might have had kinda of a good time. 

Okay—it was fantastic!  I got to do a lot of the face painting, which I love.

The Lion King himself!

 

His little brother is always a superhero. 

 

Sus did Wesley’s snake.  He loved it.

 

Kyla likes her tiara and jewelry.

 

Sus turned Piper into an antelope, at her own request.  Two jaguars and a lion around, and she wants to become prey? 

 

Susanne and I ran out of kids to paint, so we turned on each other!

 

Unfortunately, we had to stop at Target on the way home.  I held by butterflied face up high.