The Holiday Spirit

I have learned from my wise family to embrace those holidays I formerly failed to appreciate (i.e., 4th of July and Halloween). These are the go-for-it holidays. The only way to do them is to throw yourself into them. Fireworks until 1:00 in the morning, gorging in junky candy, giving in to all those hedonistic pleasures your never realized were actually so much fun. Needless to say, we are in the midst of feverish preparations. I don't have a photo of the yard, but there are bats, ghosts, and gravestones galore. Also, some mysterious blood appeared on the porch, and I recently found this picture:
Also, A made these adorable treats tonight, which seem to fit the spirit of Halloween. We like to bite they little toes off, and nibble on they tiny feet...

More Not-Back-To-School Events

We went to Oaks Park today for the Not Back To School day (unlimited rides for $10/kid) and had a great time. I was remembering the first time we went to this event, I think seven years ago. We went with two other homeschooling families and didn't know another soul there. M was just a toddler, and A was afraid to go on anything other than the carousel. We played a game with the other kids we went with and then pretty much just watched the other kids go on rides. I think M went on a kiddy ride that involved motorcycles, but that was about it besides the turn around the carousel.

What a difference seven years makes! A was still not just crazy about the rides and avoided the wildest ones, but she went on a bunch, as did M. The biggest difference, though, was how everywhere I looked I saw kids and parents I knew. It was such a kick to see the younger generation of kids M's age now big enough to run around the park as a gang and go on rides while the parents hang out the shade. Every once in a while you'd run into a parent who would ask "Tell my kid to come check in if you see him, will you?" It felt like we lived in a small town--we didn't know everyone by a long shot, but it felt safe and comfortable, and I knew that if something happened to one of my kids when I wasn't there, there would most likely be someone they did know close by to help them out. At the same time it gave the kids a nice chance to shed their parents for an afternoon and hang with their friends, if they wanted to.

And I love seeing all the teenagers who were just lovely kids--happy, having a good time, and full of positive energy. At one point some other moms and I were watching the kids try out fencing and a gang of 5 or 6 pre-teen and teenage boys say down and shared our table with us. They were doing their own thing, watching the fencers, drinking sodas, and probably just taking a little break. I thought that, knock wood, there would be M and his friends in about 5 years.

Not Back to School

The first day of school--ah, now we homeschoolers have OMSI and skating rinks and corn mazes and movie theaters and the parks back to ourselves during the schoolweek. Such luxury after having to share them with the masses all summer long.

But wait, this year we met our charter school teacher on the first day of school, so maybe I can't say "not back to school" anymore. We're hopeful the charter school will complement our homeschooling nicely, and it certainly will allow us to take more classes at our local homeschool resource center than we could without it, along with the use of some expensive curricula that look to be quite nice.

I like our teacher a lot--her specialty area is P.E., which is a great fit for me, since I seem to think the fresh air and exercise will cure whatever ails you. And, I actually think she'll be a great fit for A, as another role model in the mold of her wonderful older cousins. Lovely young women who, unlike me, have an awareness of modern clothing and makeup, in addition to being capable, resourceful, strong, and good-hearted women.

After spending some time this morning making muffins, cleaning house, and meeting the new teacher, we spent the afternoon with most of the drama club girls plus our homeschooling cousin. The sun was out, the kids ran around like maniacs playing tag, put on a circus, worked up some kind of dance routine to "Fart and Smell" (to the tune of "Heart and Soul"), etc.. Meanwhile, the younger brothers (except for M, who was here at home) apparently spent the afternoon playing in mud on Sauvie's Island and arrived back to get the girls dressed in nothing but towels and seatbelts. Homeschooling at its best.

Tomorrow A starts gymnastics back up, then Not Back to School day at Oak's Park on Friday. All the signs point to a good year, knock on wood.

Block Party 2009

This weekend was our 2nd quarennial block party. That is, the second in 4 years, and this one every bit as fun as the first, if not more. We truly have great neighbors. My bro-in-law set up the kitchen, grilled all manner of comestibles to perfection, and made an amazing paella.
Some friends were kind enough to join us.

Things are starting to gear up here. I bet we had about 40-50 people stop by.
The road was painted,

and so were faces.

When it got dark one neighbor brought his fire pit over to our driveway and we built a fire and brought out the instruments. We had about 5 guitars, 2 fiddles, a bunch of drums, a keyboard, a flute, a trombone, an accordian, a harmonica, and an extremely cool bow-like percussion instrument that I'd never seen before. Seriously fun.

What I've been doing instead of blogging

According to the wise Dave Barry, it's a thin line between hobby and insanity...

You can't see it very well, but the red pair above was my first foray into patterns (it's a diagonal lace). Here is my second attempt, Bamboo Walking Socks:

And my masterpiece in progress, Azure. I just wish the yarn was a little less brightly colored so the pattern would show up a little better.

This weekend was the amazing Sock Summit, where A and I helped break the world record for the most continuous knitters at one time and I laid in the supplies for my next few projects:

...and got some fancy new clogs to show off all my lovely socks, self-horn-tooter that I am!

Happy Garden

Thanks to D's enthusiasm and diligent efforts this year's garden is our best ever. We've been eating salad out of the garden for weeks, and now we're getting a few more things, too. On Friday we had home-grown artichokes (with a dipping sauce made from home-made mayonnaise and home-made yogurt), and a smoked chicken salad. Chicken was done on the grill in the back yard, and the salad included lettuce, radishes, green onions, nastursiums, and herbs from the garden. And smoothies that included some of our very own strawberries. Delicious! For breakfast yesterday we had a first batch of new potatoes.

We gave a big chunk of space to about our 4th try at a sunflower house. Our previous sunflower houses have been pathetically thin and short, but this year's is putting our previous attempts to shame. Unfortunately I've got lettuce and sugar snap peas and cucumbers growing behind the sunflowers. I'm hoping that by the time the sunflowers get much bigger the peas and lettuce will be done and the cucumbers will have climbed up high enough on the fence to be able to get some sun. Our other cucumbers (that are not behind the sunflowers) aren't looking too good, so I'm afraid these may be our only chance at some home-grown cukes. The tallest sunflowers are about 4 feet tall, and we've got California poppies, nastrusiums, and a couple of little (but much pampered) lupine growing between and around the sunflowers.
And we have lots of our favorite flower, the beautiful poppy. The ones in this patch are so densely packed that they are choking each other out, but they still look beautiful, if you ask me.

Silver Falls State Park, 2009

Yay, I found some pictures of our camping trip on the camera! OK, we stayed in cabins, but they didn't have indoor plumbing, so I think I still get to call it camping. Sort of.

Silver Falls is renown for the stunning views of many water falls, which are easily accessible by hiking trails from the campground. However, I saw exactly none of said falls because I was way too comfortable in my camping chair to haul myself out of it for a hike. Fortunately the cabin area was equipped with considerable natural beauty, plus some carts for hauling stuff from cars to cabins that were heavily used by our kids this weekend. 

Seriously, it was a kid's paradise. There was a stream that was about 20 feet across and about a foot deep that ran among the cabins, complete with huge logs fallen across it for bridges, a real foot and bike bridge, and little fish and other critters for catching and examining.

And most important, a plethora of great kids to play with.