Summer Brainstorming

"Moooooooooommmmmm......what are we going to do today?"

We'd midway through the summer, and I'm already really tired of hearing that question.  I do try to have an idea or two for an answer, but I just can't imagine why the kids don't like my suggestions of cleaning their room, practicing math facts, reading quietly, and taking a nap. Normally, my kids run around with the giant pack of neighborhood kids, but unfortunately everyone else is either at camp, at the shore, on vacation, or on a totally different sleeping schedule.  Isn't anyone else anyone else ready play at 7:30am?

Fortunately, the threat of cleaning makes Legos and playing with siblings FAR more enticing. Currently all three kids are playing with a flashlight under a blanket fort on the sofa since my suggested alternative is to go grocery shopping.

To try to prepare for the "What are we going to do today?" question, I asked Caroline and one of her neighborhood friends to brainstorm a giant list of activities.  This is what they came up with (translation below):

CAROLINE'S "FUN LIST"
Egg races
Piñata
Musical chairs
Freeze tag (with timer)
Plain tag
Karate tag
Toilet tag
Play people Legos
Hide and Go Seek Tag
Hide and Go Seek
Play school
Art class
Bedroom games  (?????!!!!!)
Video Games
Cats and Kittens
Power (probably Power Rangers)

I love this list!  The only drawback is that 90% of the suggestions require additional children.  FYI, I confirmed that bedroom games is not what you think.  Get your mind out of the gutter!  Caroline clarified that "bedroom games" means to play with any of the toys that are stored in her room, such as Calico critters, Barbies, or tea party. Whew.

I have my own brainstormed list of summer activities (not those listed above and not cleaning), but I can't share them right now because ABBY IS READING OVER MY SHOULDER.  GO CLEAN YOUR ROOM, ABBY.

Look at that!  It's worked again.  She is going to go play hopscotch.

Road Trip! The Grand Canyon of PA

This past weekend, we took the kids camping at Leonard Harrison State Park, which is located on the east rim of the Grand Canyon of PA in Tioga County.  Our longtime friends, the Sullies, bravely joined us for a weekend of gourmet campfire meals, a 12-mile bike ride, and strenuous hiking.  With an inviting itinerary like that, who wouldn't want to join a family of three children for camping after a 4+ hour car ride?  Right??  Only the best of friends.

The Grand Canyon of PA did not disappoint.  The views are stunning.

Mist rolling through the canyon 

View looking upstream Pine Creek inside the canyon

Soaring Bald Eagle!

The kids really did complete a 12-mile bike ride along the Pine Creek Rails-to-Trails path inside the canyon. The mileage alone is impressive for 7- and 9-year olds, but the biking was made even more challenging after a mid-bike downpour.

On the Pine Creek Trail

Soaked

Smiling at the Finish Line

On the second day, we tackled the Turkey Path, which is a short but incredibly steep round trip into the canyon.  The trail zigzags down a forested set of narrow switchbacks on ledges.  It is a beautiful trail, but required some intense adult supervision.  It only took about 2 hours for the circulation to return to Ben's hand.  I loved fielding all the questions like, "Mom, what would happen if I fell here?"  

At the Trail head 

(before the switch backs)

Beautiful Waterfall near the bottom of the trail

Pine Creek felt DELIGHTFUL after the hike!

 We saw a lot of wildlife over the weekend, much to everyone's delight.  Aside from a 15-minute visit with a soaring bald eagle, we also saw woodpeckers, sapsuckers, kingfishers, and herons. We heard ravens and owls and warblers in the woods.  There were fish and toads and snakes too!

Toad 

(overly "loved" by Caroline)

Eastern garter snake

Overall it was a terrific trip -- totally worth the 42 loads of laundry I'm currently doing. I'm not sure what the kids enjoyed the most, but it was probably the spinning merry-go-round thing at the campground's playground.  I would be hard pressed to pick my favorite thing myself, but I was very tickled to learn that you really can make muffins in orange peels over a campfire.  Also, dark chocolate s'mores are really, really good.

It's Fair Time!

F-I-N-A-L-L-Y (as the kids would say) it is the most special week of the year when we can stroll down to our fire company's town fair.  My kids definitely relish being able to walk down the road to the bumper cars,  swings, spinning strawberries, dragon coaster, and other carnival rides. Scott likes to take advantage of the soft serve ice cream (twist with chocolate sprinkles).  And, I must admit I enjoy taking a daily walks and/or drives down to the park to see how the pre-fair preparations are going in the weeks leading up to the fair.  Bingo tables delivered yet?  Check! Red fire company shed? Check!  Porta-johns?  Check, check, and check! 

Of course everybody would love to go to the fair every night, but that simply isn't doable with ride wristbands costing $20 each. It also pains me to report that we also have not yet won a goldfish or hermit crab, despite throwing a record number of ping pong balls at impossibly small fish bowls. 

I've also noticed that it has been getting harder and harder to take photos at the fair because most of the rides they want to go on spin so fast!  But, there are a still a few slower-paced favorites, like -- 

The Swings

The Giant Slide

Merry-Go-Round

The Obstacle Course

The Stomach Dropper*

(*not real ride name)

You may have noticed that Abby is not pictured.  She is enjoying a week at sleep-away Girl Scout camp called "Paddles and Arrows."  As the name suggests, she is spending a week learning archery and canoeing with six of her friends from school.  Honestly, I'm jealous. Seriously jealous. Doesn't that sound incredibly fun? I received a letter from Abby yesterday, and the first two sentences read, "Camp is awesome! I miss you, sort of."  That completely cracked me up! Well, I "sort-of" miss her too. She'll be coming home tomorrow, and then Scott and I will be outnumbered again.

We Survived ROCK THE MALL

I can summarize ROCK THE MALL in just one word:  CRAZY.

Over 250,000 Girl Scouts descended on the Washington Mall last Saturday.  I know that I am stating the obvious here, but a quarter of a million people is an incredibly large amount of people.  There were Girl Scouts everywhere you looked. I felt like a Girl Scout ant.

You can't capture that many people in a single picture, but here was my widest angle:

Here's a photo of the crowd projected from the stage:

We had a grand time acting like silly tourists and riding the carousel.

Through the magic of cell phones (set on vibrate because it was way too loud to hear a phone ring) we successfully met up with a few of our friends from the Great Valley Service Unit.  I still find this a bit miraculous given how many people were there.  We spent the afternoon with our friends, wandering among the hoards of Girl Scouts trading SWAPs and meeting girls from at least 30 different states and Canada.  The swapping was fast and furious for a few hours, and the girls came home with some amazing treasures, including a hand-painted dessert scene from a new friend from Arizona, a tiny bag of sand and seashells from south Florida, and a beautiful hand-made piece of (foam) birthday cake from Minnesota.

It was over 90 degrees on Saturday, and it was HOT on the mall.  Really, really HOT.  After about 3 hours swapping and sweating on the Mall, the girls and I decided it was time to find some ice cream and some shade.  We paid outrageously high prices for ice cream treats from a DC vender, and I tell you the ice cream was worth every penny.

We made our way back to the Metro, found our car, and started to drive home.  But I was sooooo tired, I knew I needed some coffee.  So we stopped at.....

 

......The WAFFLE HOUSE restaurant, if you're loosely defining the word restaurant.  I asked the girls if they wanted breakfast for dinner, and you'd have thought they won the lottery.  "Breakfast for dinner??  You are the best mom ever!!!!"   Honestly, that might have been the best coffee and bacon I ever ate. Probably also, the greasiest dinner ever.  But, what is a road trip without a greasy diner visit, right?!

To cap off the end to our adventure, Abby lost a tooth at the Waffle House, so here is her new smile, less one canine tooth.

Overall, ROCK THE MALL was a neat experience.  It was hot, crowded, exhausting, and crazy, but we would totally do it again (now that I've had a week to recover and reflect)!

Ready to ROCK THE MALL - S.W.A.P.S.

I am fairly sure that I have lost my mind, but I have decided to brave the crowds and take Abby and Caroline to Washington, D.C., bright and early tomorrow to go to the Girl Scout's ROCK THE MALL event.  ROCK THE MALL is an enormous sing-a-long to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouting held right on the Washington Mall.  The organizers are expecting 150,000 to 200,000 girl scouts.  Streets will be closed and it is going to be a spectacle.

I think this is either going to be an amazing experience or a complete disaster.  I am so worried about losing Caroline in the crowds, that I took a Sharpee marker and wrote Caroline's name and my cell phone number on her belly after her bath.  I'm not even kidding.  She's inked.  

On the less neurotic side, one of the neat things about Girl Scouting events of this type is that all the girls bring along SWAPs that they have made and then they trade their SWAPs with those keepsakes made by girls from around the country. SWAPs is an acronym for "Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere " or, alternately, "Something With A Pin."  Typically the SWAPs are made to be representative of something special from your area of the country or a particular type of activity.

We weren't able to attend the SWAP-making workshop for our service unit, but I stole a few ideas from them, found a few ideas on the web, and created a few things myself.  Abby, Caroline and I spent quite a few hours creating a glittery, beady, glue-gunny mess in the dining room, but their SWAPs are ready to trade.  And, I think they turned out pretty well.

The end results (we made about 20 of each type pictured).  I must say the girls really got into this!  Wish us luck tomorrow and I'll post some photos from the event after I recover.

Philadelphia Pretzels

Mushroom Capital of the World

(Chester County, PA)

Philadelphia Phillies

 

Girl Scout Pins

Magic Friendship Seeds (Magic =Glitter)

Philadelphia Eagles

Happy 5th Birthday to Ben!!

Yesterday was Benny Boy's 5th birthday!  It is hard to believe that my little ray of sunshine is 5 now!

Scott and I asked Ben what kind of dinner he would like for his birthday, and he picked the "restaurant with the fish tank," which (for the locals) is Margaret Kuo's in Frazier. Ben loves the shrimp tempura rolls for dinner and a giant bowl of free spicy pickles while he waits for them.  He likes the spicy pickles so much that he grabs the bowl provided for the table all for himself, takes his fork, and sits quietly eating all the pickles at his place for the next 10 minutes or so while the rest of us just stare at him with our mouths wide open.  I'm exaggerating a little bit, but not that much.  The boy can really put away pickles.  And shrimp tempura roll.  And pot stickers.  And white rice.  And orange slices.  And the "cookies with the words at the end."

Fortunately, everyone in the family loves Margaret Kuo's too, so we had a splendid and tasty birthday dinner. Grandma and Pops joined us for the very festive celebration.  Scott decided to try ordering a Peking Duck, so we enjoyed a special carving ceremony too.  The highlight of the evening, aside from the pickles, was that the waitstaff let Ben ring the gong for the Peking Duck delivery because it was his birthday.  He definitely got a kick out of that.

The birthday dinner was followed by a tasty brownie cake in the shape of a Lego mini-figure (made in a very cool Lego baking mold found by my mom).  There were some presents too, most of which were the Lego variety.  Ben did not want to go to School Camp today because he wanted to stay at home and build Legos.  Mean mother that I am, I made Ben go to school so I could head over to the teaching store to pick-up Summer Bridging workbooks for everyone (see?! I really am a mean mom).  And then, Ben a.k.a. The Lego Taskmaster rode me hard all afternoon to help him assemble superhero Legos.

How cute is this cake mold?!

Memorial Parade Weekend

This weekend our town hosted its 144th annual Memorial Day Parade, so we've been enjoying a FULL weekend of neighborhood fun events, including a Saturday afternoon neighborhood kickball game with an incredible 24 kids participating, Saturday night block party, hosting a Girl Scout BBQ on Sunday, walking with the Scouts in the parade, and even a few post-parade activities too.

One unexpected highlight was that Abby and Caroline were both big winners in the Cake Walk.  I contributed a castle-shaped bundt cake, so the girls were desperately hoping to get the cake I made.  Abby won early on, but my cake was already taken.  Instead, she selected a lemon cake because it was the largest cake still available.  (I love her logic!!)  Caroline won the very last cake of the event, hence she received a pineapple upside down cake.  I highly doubt she will even try a bite, but she was still absolutely thrilled to be a winner.  I wish I had a shot of her sprinting around the cake walk circle raising her arm in victory.

Some shots from the parade (we were lucky that storm to the north missed us)