Parker and Cecily had (or about to have) birthdays in August, so the kids and I drove home from Hood Canal via their house to have an afternoon of fun and food.
This is the fun…
…and here is the food!
Julie made their birthday cake on American Ninja Warrior [insert rumbling announcer voice] Mega-Wall. Isn’t this awesome? I love her thoughtful creativity!
The 5 cousins made good use of the fort and of each other.
Thanks for the fun Friday, Keith & Julie, Mom & Dad!
Happy Kyla, cheerful Wesley, contrary Piper.
Later that night, her siblings are in another room and Piper has Timmy. Now she can be happy.
I’m taking the 4 kids on a sunset adventure to chase its setting and paddle out further than we had before.
I love it when my kids’ friendships line up with my own. Wesley and Westin 
And wow, what a treat for us! They live right on the water’s edge, and we had immediate water access for the kayaks and standup paddle boards (SUP). And I am obsessed with SUPS. I have three natural talents: roller blading, breastfeeding, and SUP-ing. Not surprising, I am way underemployed.
But first, let me show you some of our highlights.
The house was bright and open, the better to take pictures of cherry-vampire Piper. (I am relieved she shows up in photographs.)
(Isn’t it lovely?)
During low tide the next morning, the kids hunted the golf balls, as well as shells, crabs, and all the other marine treasures they could collect.
They snuggled up with Inspector Gadget in the evening.
But of all the wonders, my highlight was our sunset adventure. Before I went out, I took this shot of the boys in the foreground, Piper on the paddleboard, and that distant speck? Kyla kayaking out on her own.
Never before have I actually wanted to live on the water, but this trip had me looking longingly at waterfront. Thanks, Karla and Westin for an amazing overnight adventure!
“Welcome to Concrete: Center of the Known Universe”
I love the sheer audacious irony.
I took the kids camping Monday, for probably the last time this summer. KOA is not the beautiful state park down the road a few miles, but it has a pool, mini-golf, the jumping pillow, and lots of other kid-friendly options, including a store where Wesley can buy himself. Another. Stuffed. Animal.
Fortunately, Paws likes the playground as much as Wesley does.
The pool is fine, but the kids enjoy the creek more. Kyla can build dams while Piper and Wesley “catch” (read: chase) fish.
We ended up staying two nights, after I got a text saying I didn’t need to watch a friend’s kids Wednesday morning. But here’s why I’m done with camping. When I rolled in Monday afternoon, there was ample opportunity, between taking my money and charging an extra $5 per kid, to let me know that tree work was scheduled near our site all day Tuesday, blocking the egress most of the time. You know a good reason to go camping, besides making kids happy? For peace and quiet in the great outdoors. KOA fail. And then it was carefully explained to me that it was really important for everyone’s safety to take care of the trees. I don’t think I once said that I preferred dead people, but I do prefer making decisions based on full disclosure. They offered me a different campsite, but the entire purpose of camping for 2 nights is not to set up camp twice. Our compromise? They didn’t charge me $15 for my kids the second night. Any other KOAs to try beside Leavenworth and Concrete?
We took a day to play at PSC, one of my favorite places. In a nod to current reality, we spent a good deal of time in front of different screens.
We started with the Panda IMAX movie. No cute shot was left out!
Kyla’s big enough to do the lever bike now, but my roof-dwelling girl is a tiny bit concerned about heights.
We took in our first laser show—Michael Jackson! I think I last saw a laser show in my HS church youth group. I’m not a MJ fan, but it was fun and I was surprised how much each kid really enjoyed the experience. The theme this summer is how rare it is for 3/3rds kids to be happy simultaneously. This was one of those times.
My favorite of the day was the Virtual Reality. We did two, but the Tree experience was remarkable! It was immersive, using fans and blown-out matches to tease all the senses.
This is how crazy-amazing Kyla is: each of us did the Tree VR, and you actually feel like you are the tiniest seed in the ground, and you watch your body grow into one of the tallest trees in the rain forest. But when you look down, your legs are actually the tree’s trunk, and you are 30 feet (and growing) above ground! I am not scared of heights, but I felt myself completely teetering, using my whole body not to “fall off the tree”. Piper did the same. Kyla, when she felt that way, deliberately took a side step off the tree to prove to herself it wasn’t real…and to get a closer look at her neighboring flora. I really admire that—it was like the ADHD paleontologist who was the first to find an intact nest and deliberately smashed one of the eggs to discover more about it, something none of his colleagues could have brought themselves to do. Cool Kyla!
Dwayne and I assigned KP to the kids while we did garbage duty. We came into Wesley cleaning the floor.
Now, there are many who believe that sponges are germy, smelly, and unsanitary. To those I say, you haven’t met Wesley’s feet.
Sometimes Piper or Kyla get invited to a party where the host has a little bro Wesley’s age. It’s kinda my thing to invite said boy (and any others left behind by their sisters) over to play sans girls. Then the ninja’s really come out! Until it’s popsicle time, anyway.
Needopedia 