Saturday: July 4th

We started with a walk at a new trail.  There are no bikes allowed on this one, so it was a bit less stressful.  It's about the same distance as the last one, so we'll probably go again.  We only explored about 1/3 of it.

They wanted to climb a hill.  So I let them.

Our fireworks plan was to sit on the deck and watch all the fireworks that other people bought.  I felt a little bad "stealing" the fireworks, but not bad enough to not watch them!  We all started out on the deck, just a few minutes after sunset.

Two houses down from us had some nice fireworks.  They were loud(ish).

Ben went inside and watched from there.  The boys had sheets to protect them from the bugs.  Joshua didn't last much longer though.  Then about 5-10 minutes Isaac was inside.

I was the last one in; the bugs had no one else to bother so they came to me.  We watched from the comfort of our house.

The fireworks have been pretty constant since then.  (Although as I write this, after midnight, there are a few breaks of a minute or two.)  But it has been continuous noise.  I was a bit surprised that the boys were able to get to sleep, but they didn't have any problems.

Friday: westward ho!

We went to Riley Trails again today.  Isaac wanted to go to the boundaries.  I suggested starting with one side and seeing how we felt.  They decided that just going to the west side was good for today.

They ran into a tree.

We found the edge.

And a screaming tree.

We also played Ingenious today as a family.  It was the first time playing an adult game where everyone played on their own team.  It was fun.

Thursday: lost in the desert

Since it was supposed to be a hot day, I told the boys were were going to do a walk first thing.  I had been expecting a walk around the lake, but Isaac wanted to do a trail and I wasn't about to say no!  The suddenly the boys were on a mission to get lost in the desert.  

We made it to the desert.  We got slightly lost, but not as much as last time...just the right amount, actually.  It helped that I wasn't trying to get to the parking lot quickly.

Isaac used his new piping set for some chocolates.  They didn't turn out fancy, but you can tell there is some texture to them.

Joshua made a desert temple for his Lego challenge.  He put a lot of thought into what should be in the treasure chests and made a scraggly tree with dull green leaves since it's in the desert.

In the afternoon we stopped by church so Joshua could ask, "How was God created?"  The question came up a few days ago and then yesterday Joshua brought it up again.  Since I didn't have a great response to that, we went to see an expert.  (To be fair, half of this learning process is that you can go ask other people your questions.  And some questions don't have good answers.)  Pastor JD did a nice job explaining how it's just a mystery and that lots of people have wondered the same thing.

Wednesday: birthday

We made banana bread.  I was pretty much letting Isaac do his own thing with the dry ingredients, but did manage to catch that he put in a 1/2 tsp brown sugar instead of a 1/2 cup brown sugar.  Phew.

Joshua had his first in-person karate class today.  They did an obstacle course, which he greatly enjoyed.  He wore a mask, but after seeing how everything is set up and being inconsistent, he might not be required (by me) to do so next time.

Isaac had small birthday party #2.

Tuesday

J: STARBURST!
I: Why did you say it so loud?
J: Because I added an exclamation point.

Well, I guess he's learning something this summer.

The Lego chopsticks didn't work very well.

Last week: pictures I missed

Science camp involved a balance.  It was interesting for a while, but they didn't come back to it at all the rest of the week.  Joshua learned "water is heavy."

We had a mini-birthday party for Isaac.  (His first of two.)

Friday Joshua brought up that he wanted to go back to a garage sale and pick up an item that he had seen.  I was hoping that he'd forget about it, but I suppose that holding off on a purchase is a good life skill too.  Anyway, we had Mr. Ears (left) and now we have Baby Ears (right).  Baby Ears also spins, which filled Joshua will delight.  They're loud, but the boys have been enjoying them.

Joshua made an elaborate battle the Ben, Big Puppy, and me to do.  At the end we got badges that he had made.

Friday: on masks

The power went out for a bit this evening and I left my phone upstairs.  It annoyingly doesn't backup the photos unless I open the app.  So I thought I'd talk about masks a bit.  It has been such a divisive topic in this country and worthy of documentation.

Yesterday we went to garage sales.  A few people wore masks, but most did not.  Now yes, we were outside.  Most of the time we were at least 6 feet from people, but not all the time.  Isaac and I wore a mask but Joshua didn't because the mask I brought for him was too large.

On Wednesday I went to Meijer.  All of the people were masked.

Today I picked up groceries from Family Fare.  Now we stayed in the car so I only saw people that were already outside, but it seemed like less than half the people were wearing or holding masks. 

People do seem to be masking more, but it is not as much as I'm hoping yet.