Parentheticals

The Fourth of July went well. The Plastows came to our house for a barbecue, and Amy brought an awesome collection of fireworks from Costco (Rea really hopes we can find the ones called "goddess fountains" next year). It didn't have Pop-Its or sparklers or tanks, so we bought those. We didn't find any Bestest Crackering Ballz this year, though. It rained a tiny bit and then was very windy, which is not great for fireworks in a drought, but we survived and didn't even light anything on fire. We had a lot of fun. No-one got hurt, and we got to bed at a reasonable hour. Timmy and Gideon both ordered more Bakugan on the internet. Both packages arrived on Saturday, and they have been enjoying them a lot. For those that don't know, Bakugan are ball shaped toys that transform using magnets and springs to become monsters and robots. They are pretty cool. Mike is getting closer and closer to the end of this semester of grad school. He only has one assignment left from ...

On Friday, the older kids had their final exam for Nature Kids Connect, our nature group. Rea and Sara ended up with a harder exam than most. The kids ages 8 and up were supposed to walk from one trailhead in Dimple Dell to another. The starting trailhead just happened to be the one we went to for our Forest Kindergarten for several years and the one where Mike likes to forage, so our girls were at an advantage at the beginning. They were supposed to identify about a dozen plants, and all but one of them were ones that we have foraged or pointed out (poison ivy), so they not only knew what they were, but exactly where to find them. They were even able to help some of the other kids. As they hiked, the kids got more and more strung out, and Rea and Sara were on their own in the part of the park they didn't know when the trail split and they took the wrong turn. They wandered around and realized that they were lost. That was scary, but Rea recognized one of the mountains. It was the ...