Lions and Tigers and Camp... Oh my!

Where does the time go? It seems like certain times (and seasons) of life just get busy, and some of the little things get away from you... like blogging. It seems to be even more the case when Stan's away. But rest assured everything is going fine in our little family. Stan's staying safe and plenty hot - he says it's upwards of 130 degrees there daily. I know he'll greatly appreciate some rain when he gets home, although I'm not-so-secretly hoping we don't get more rain anytime soon. He will, hopefully, be back in-country very soon! 

What in the world have we been up to here on the home front? All of that end of the school year goodness. Helping in classes, prepping for summer, planting our flower beds and all of that jazz. I got to be a chaperone for Emma's 3rd grade field trip to the Seattle Zoo. We tromped around and looked for all of the animals that weren't sleeping the day away.

And a few weeks ago, I got to head up a cabin of girls at Torrey's 5th grade Outdoor Education camp. The kids did all kinds of fun outdoor studies in the rain and shine. I might just brag a little and say that the orange team took the gold... Way to go Tangelos! From scavenger hunts to dissecting owl pellets, from water and forest studies to one crazy skit night Torrey had a blast. I survived the week with a reasonable amount of coffee and a lot of reflections back to my days as a camp counselor many moons ago.

Torrey's class with "The Bird Man"

Dissecting Owl Pellets

Doing water samples

Estuary studies from a canoe

Then in the in between time I've been playing with my scrappy goodies. This layout is using Punky Sprouts lil' Stems & lil' Petals, along with papers from Best Creations. Mist the lil' Stems with glimmer mist, then twist together with tulle to add a flower with lots of texture. Check out more Punky Sprouts goodness here.

the last days

the last days

the last weeks of school are always filled with a flurry of activities. friday was the 3rd grade field trip to the zoo. i love that each grade has one special field trip that they get to look forward to through the years. we spent most of the day with the first family we were lucky enough to meet at the school. i met her at weight watchers just before school started. for torrey it was a huge relief meeting someone at her new school before it started. and man, we've been so thankful for their friendliness, and heart this year. the girls had a great time checking out the animals, especially the snakes and nocturnal exhibits. i even snuck in a few pictures (never mind the root beer hard candy torrey's packin' in her bottom lip here. lol)

gorillas, penguines and giraffes... oh my!

then after school... the annual school carnival complete with dunk tank, bouncy houses and carnival games. we ran around all evening watching the girls flit from one bunch of fun to another. torrey got to dunk her teacher (who was such a great sport)! they both came home with bags of goodies and memories to last a lifetime.

{thursday}

thursday stan and i did some more work on our fountain. (by more work, i mean, a lot more work! we redid the whole thing!) he did most of the work getting it taken apart (i.e. moving big rocks) and cementing the bottom. then i came and helped move the rocks back in, and arranging them so they'd cascade the water down. if you want a sure fire way to find out if you're aging... moving lots of big rocks is an excellent indicator. with all of that rockin' fun, we ordered a pizza for dinner, and ate it outside in the fabulous sunshine.

to balance out all of that work... well, a little bit-o-fun. i mean, what else should you do after you clear a bunch of rocks off your tarps, but load them with dish soap and water and turn them into slip-n-slides?! now that's good, clean fun. we're trying to figure out a better sliding surface for turning our "double black diamond" sledding hill into a slip-n-slide hill. anybody have great ideas for making a super long slip-n-slide?

wierd science

emma's class went on a field trip to seattle's pacific science center today. i love it there. nothing like checking out butterflies, moving a two ton granite ball with your bare hands and making crazy shapes on a shadow wall. all in a day's work. :) i've got a bunch more pics, but since it's nearly 3am, i'll just get these two up tonight. loved how the space needle was refecting on the water skimmed granite ball. :)
and on a side note... when we got home from the field trip, this little doosie was in the mailbox. gotta love it. would have been better if it were for two cents. guess they had to give me their two cents twice...