Only in one place...

...will you see sights like these:

We also saw the real largest bull and largest boar. Honestly, I was too horrified to take pictures of them. The poor things. On a happier note, we saw an ostrich and an elk with amazing antlers, too. Of course, they are meat animals, but disregarding that.

The Sky Glider is always a favorite.

You can't tell from this picture, but the cabbage is actually bigger than their heads.

We also saw baby ostriches (so cute!!), chicks, piglets, calves, lambs...baby animal extravaganza!

No comment necessary.

P.S. I will post some vacation pics soon. At the moment I am overwhelmed at the possibilities.

Faireality

M3 was inspired by this book:
to make some clothes (fairie sized) out of plant matter. Here are some of the results:




She set them on a photo in a book for the background. Pretty cool!

More summer fun...

I voyaged to KC with the kids and had a lovely couple days before I had to come back to teach in G-town. The kids stayed there with Grandma and Grandpa, and though we had a tough good-bye, I know they'll be having loads of fun!! Much more than if they were here while I teach and clean the house! We already had some fun with cousin O:

They have the same hair!

Running in the sprinkler helps ease the onus of the ridiculous heat wave.

The fountain at Crown Center is such a great place for photo ops! And a great place to keep cool!

When the spirit moves you...

I guess when you feel like practicing, you just feel like practicing!

Visitors!

Kristi and Craig came for an overnight Independence Day weekend! It was so nice to see them, and the kids had so much fun together. They are all getting so big. Oy.



Furthermore, Craig brought his power tools! Woot! He and Mark broke up the bottom step in front, which was a piece of crumbling concrete. Mark has laid some new concrete for a set of wooden steps. Hmmm...I should take some better pictures of this.

Summer!

Wow, I'm bad at posting! Sorry! Summer has begun, and as usual it is busier than I expected. I am teaching quite a bit. Mark is busy with his 3.5 summer students. M3 participated in a swim camp with the college swimming coach. She had a great time and learned a lot, and next year she wants to spend the night in the dorms! Eeeek! M & M both did a naturalist camp at our local "lake" and really loved identifying the plants and animals and tromping around in the mud.

Of course, we are having lots of time to play with friends on the deck:
...and for visitors (we're looking forward to more visitors this summer!!):
We are the pigtail trio (Mon, cousin O, and M3)!! (Apparently some of us are succumbing to the humidity worse than others. Ew.)

Bittersweet

Last week was a bit bittersweet, as we said good-bye to two of our international "kids." I really can't believe how quickly the four years have gone! We can hope to see them in the future, which may be easier with Shitanshu who is moving to Seattle to work at Amazon. Inwook is returning to Korea to fulfill his mandatory military service, so we probably won't see him again for some time. What a couple of outstanding kids....

It was also bittersweet because both M and M finished the school year, and they both had great years. In particular, M4 had a fantastic year with a fantastic teacher and a great class. He got pretty teary as he made a card for Mrs. M to tell her what a great teacher she is. M3 wasn't as sad, but she was ambivalent after a year of friends, music, and new experiences at the middle school.

The fulfillment of her birthday present made things a bit better, I hope, as we went to see Taylor Swift in concert. It was really a fun show....definitely different than any concert I've been to: dancers, set and costume changes, fireworks, yada, yada , yada. It was a great show for a first concert! It's not like M3 LOVES Taylor Swift or anything (like clearly many of the screaming girls at the show do!!), but the girl plays multiple instruments, writes much of her own music, and doesn't rely on sleaze to sell her music. She's a good role model, and her songs are inoffensive and sometimes even good! I'd call myself a fan after this show. Plus there were people hanging from ropes and spinning, and I like any show where that happens.
M3 and a couple of her buddies before the show at dinner. First concert! Woohoo!