Last year the kids enjoyed something of an extended summer
with the move from Michigan—almost a full three months—making this year’s 10½ weeks
feel short by comparison. Phineas and Ferb need to learn how to count. The kids
wound out the last full week of summer with fewer away-from-home activities,
but they kept up their characteristic intensity.
The kids started out the week on Monday with watercolor
lessons in the back patio courtesy of our friend Carrie.
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| Samples of their work. This bottom one looks quite a bit like a dragon, ay? |
So cool to meet and greet with the actual person who wrote a
book we so enjoy! We look forward to many more readings of his new book.
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| Completely different question unrelated to Drew's funny face: What's with the perfectly positioned Mickey Mouse ears on the lady on the left of the picture? And what kind of miniature black sheepdog does she appear to be carrying? ;) |
Mike spent much of the week cloistered up in the bedroom
grading papers and preparing his second year review materials. Not a good time
to be Mike. He’s rediscovered his trusty mate gourd and thermos, and he does
get out for morning walks. On Thursday, he met up again with the elusive orange
tabby that has been giving Fergus a bad name in the neighborhood. This time he
got a picture.
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| Bad kitteh: Unaltered tom, outdoors, light-colored paws |
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| (Mostly) Good kitteh: fixed, indoors, more uniformly tabby |
On Thursday, Hallie babysat Cru and Sawyer, and she took all
the kids to the splash pad at
Rancho
Tapo Community Park in Simi, where they met up with Granny O. and Ali.
After they all came back home, Sawyer got to spend some quality
time with Fergus.
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| Soft kitty. Sawyer doesn't quite know what to do with all the cuteness! |
Later on, Hallie enjoyed a Relief Society activity at the
home of one of the sisters in our ward who lives out in Somis.
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| Views over the golf course |
Mike posted his grades Thursday night, so we saw more of him on Friday in between other paper revising and going to and from other work-related activities. Cru and Sawyer came over again on Friday and had pizza and a
movie with the gang.
It’s still light enough at night that the kids could go
out riding for a bit. Eliza decided to show off a new skill she learned. She’s
going to make us go prematurely gray.
Later, Hallie and Eliza went to Landon's school to see his new class assignment for the fall. He'll be in Mrs. Tran's class. We know that Eliza will be in Ms. Tammy's class again. We're looking forward to amazing learning this coming school year!
Grandpa O. had bought the boys tickets to the
Brick Fest Live event in Pasadena
on Saturday, so Mike and Landon took to the road bright and early. We had gone
to a
similar
event officially sponsored by LEGO called LEGO KidsFest almost three years
ago in Novi, Michigan. There were a lot more vendors at the California event
and fewer
MOCs and
miniature cityscapes. Kind of disheartening, actually. Mike hopes that the move
doesn’t represent a larger trend away from using Legos to build mind-blowingly detailed buildings and other creations.
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| A Lego VW bus transformer. C'mon, now! |
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| Animated old school MOC clown band |
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| And these were the cheapest ones. Minifigs went up to $40 each. Each! |
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| Here's a trend for you: Sell pre-built parts of sets as separate components. |
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| Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! OK, some MOCs for sale were pretty cool. |
After the fun and some lunch, the boys stopped by Aunt Emily’s on the way home to wish her
happy birthday and have a visit with Laura Grace, who is getting to be strong,
chunky, and vocal!
Once home, we spent the rest of the afternoon hearing and
occasionally seeing vintage airplanes from the
Wings Over Camarillo air show fly
overhead.
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| Specks above the roof lines: It's astounding that they can sound so loud from so far away! |
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