Eliza says...

The other day we watched The Princess Diaries. Eliza saw the movie cover on the computer and exclaimed, "Let's watch Princess Diarrhea!"

Germantown's 4th of July Parade

For the first time our family had a member actually march in the parade! Andrew showed off his elbow, elbow, wrist wrist wrist as he marched with the little league. We loved seeing him go by with his big smile! He loved it too.

The girls watching. This year I simply couldn't resist the $3 Wal-mart patriotic shirts. Here he is, what a guy!

Feed the Mosquitoes (aka: go camping)

If you want to do a good deed to bugs, namely mosquitoes, give them fresh food by visiting any of Wisconsin's state parks. Going with or without bug repellent will do. Even if you put it on after a couple minutes of leaving your vehicle, they will have had enough time to get a good meal.

Eliza is protecting her eyes from the smoke. Her idea. Abby is reacting to the mosquitoes.

Kids working on a project by flashlight.
Abby took this picture of the wetlands/nature reserve. We camped in a wooded area. We were at Richard Bong State Park and Recreation Area. It is massive. It has places for hunting, four wheeling, horse-back riding, camping, swimming, snowmobiling, bird watching, etc.

Eliza and Andrew both had somewhere between 12 and 14 mosquito bites on their faces. Andrew's were all on his forehead. Hard to see here...but it was bad! It didn't take long before we were covering faces with bug spray as well. Sheesh!! You know, they say here that mosquitoes are the state bird.

Abby (like all of us) got attacked in the first minute upon leaving the car. Some even through her pants. Poor girl.

Despite all the bugs we had a lot of fun! We jumped rope, swam, ate hot dogs and foil dinners, roasted marshmallows, had lots of snacks and treats, told shadow stories at night in the tent, played frisbee and catch, and all that good camping stuff. The extra fun was that our friends, the Greens, camped along with us for a night. What a treat!

Hermies

We're learning as we go. We started with this cage set-up. But learned that the pet store cage is not the cage to model after. Hermit crabs are diggers and like to bury themselves completely. They can't dig in the rocks. They also need multiple shells to try out and wear. They enjoy climbing and hiding, thus the wire bridge and flower pot in there. Humidity is important so we switched from the wire screen lid to a plexiglass lid that will keep the moisture in better (with a little space for fresh air to get in). So this is the better set up...

We could make the "soil" even deeper at some point. The soil is actually compressed coconut shell fibers sold in bricks. When you add water to it poofs up. It's really cool. This is Julie in her second shell.

This is Charlie in the shell we bought him in. You see Julie's first shell (empty) next to him. Charlie has switched to a bigger, thicker shell.

Hermit crabs like lots of human food so it's fun to put different stuff in their cage each night.

So far they've lived longer than the poor goldfish.

TLCB Summerfest

You've heard of The Lucas Cates Band here before.

They just had their first gig at Summerfest, so we had to go support! They did awesome. And I'm pretty sure we're their biggest fans.

If you don't believe me:

It was a hot, sweaty day. Lots of walking. But so worth it! We had fun meeting the band's other fans, like Lucas's sister, Dad, Mom (though we'd met her before) and a few of the band's close friends. They loved our...band spirit!

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Andrew's second grade class put on the play, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, at the end of the year. Oh my, was it cute! Complete with singing, a great set, and adorable props. The kids had it all memorized and did such a great job. Here's Andrew as Mr. McGreggor.

When they were asking who would want to be Mrs. McGreggor the girls all declined, as they did not want to have to be married to the Mr! Ewww!! Then this boy chimes in, I'll do it! So, the comical outfit (Dorothy, if you ask me), wig and all, got some laughs on the big day.

The boys being silly after the performance.

Andrew, Mohammad (Peter), and Albert (0ur downstairs neighbor and Andrew's best bud).

little bits...

Love serving up lunch sides like this

The other day A and A got a good laugh when Eliza was trying to speak to royalty saying "Your Matress-dee!"

The kids and I were in the car talking about what we could put on Daddy's father's day shirt we were making. Eliza was trying to spell DAD and started out D-O-A. I started laughing and said we wouldn't want to put DOA because that means Dead On Arrival! I explained what that means in an accident or something. There's a bit of a pause. Then Andrew says "OH! I thought you said Dead On A RIFLE!" More laughter from me imagining the "dead on a rifle" scene.

Last week highs in mid-nineties. Today the high is 64 or something.

Our dear friend, Rachel, and her family moved away this week. I babysat Rachel for about half of the school year. She is a sweetie and Abby's best friend. Her mom is a hoot and I will miss her bouncy personality. They are from Ghana and I figure will like the climate of their new Georgia home better than here.

To slightly lessen the blow of a best friend moving, the girls are happy about a new move-IN. Nadia was in Abby's kindergarten class and has just moved in across the hall. Very close. She has a 4-year-old sister, Lexie. So the girls are happy. They are really active, get-into-stuff girls. We've had to establish (over and over) that they have to knock before they come in. Every time. And wait for us to answer first. Wish me luck.