Then I noticed it was eating it’s lunch! A squirrel!

There was no “running” on the trampolines but I just couldn’t help myself. I liked the feel of running ore than jumping.

I had a lot of fun bouncing around with my group of friends.

We all fell, a LOT!

They brought out balls for us to toss around. I would NOT let go of the purple ball.

I joined in on a game of dodgeball, but they took my purple ball so they could play the game. Little did I know that was the last I would see of my beloved ball! I did listen very well to directions before the game.

I tried to play. I was not the first knocked out. I was actually the 4th out of 6 so I did fairly well, I guess.

They moved the dividers to make room for more “big kids” so we scooted to the little kid side for safety. There were adults and older kids flipping off the walls! REALLY!

I had a great time but think we will stick with the “youth jump” times. I was a bit overwhelmed when all the bigger kids came jumping towards me. Good thing Emmerson wasn’t jumping, he would have been jumped on!

Each day we work on handwriting, science (biology specifically right now), math, history & geography, art, music and literature.

This week I learned all about continents and how to read maps. We played a lot of fun games with the globe and directions. I learned a bit about the people and things on each continent.

Art was really fun. We painted with water colors and tempra paints. I learned about warm and cool colors and all about lines in art. I had a lot of fun painting.

Literature and Music have been a lot of review stories and poems so far but I still enjoy singing and saying them. I really liked learning about Johnny Appleseed. I even remembered the statue I saw in Ohio a while ago. I decided I want to be like Johnny Appleseed and plant lots of things. Good thing Daddy signed me up for 4H Garden Club.

Science was also fun. We read a lot and did several experiments. I have plants growing in the yard. Some with sunlight and some without. I am trying to find out if plants REALLY need light to grow.

I am also growing some beans to see the plant life cycle.

I learned about how plants drink water. We put white carations in different cups of colored water.

This was the green cup.

This was the purple cup. I want to try to figure out why it turned blue instead of purple?!

This was in the blue. I think I put a LOT of blue dye in the cup.

Each morning I have to update the calendar, days of the week, count as high as I can and practice my handwriting. These are some of my tools that I use. Also you can see some of my “Line Art”.

On the other wall is my magnet board/dry erase board and my cork board covered in art and drawing from this week. Oh, and my NEW desk! I LOVE IT!

Every day Mommy brings out the tub. I have folders for each subject and as we do them they are tucked away into the tub. It helps me understand how much we have left to get done and stay focused. If I get done quickly without being a goof I have more time to play with Mommy or Daddy. So far that has been a great reward.

I really like story time and going to the library to get new books. I picked out about 30 this week! We are half way done already plus have read a ton of other things!

So, week one homeschooling… BIG THUMBS UP!

We shall see how things go.

Sorry the picture isn’t the best but Mommy didn’t have the other camera.

I loved the feeling on my hands and skin.

Then Mommy got out the tumble mat and sprayed it all over with shaving cream. We slipped around for an hour!

I kept falling down and getting it all over my clothing.

Then I figured if I jumped my feet would fly right out from under me and I would fall to the ground.

Splash!

Wrestling Emmerson to the ground. Honest, he loved it!

So much fun!

Yesterday, our review day, I decided I didn’t want to review the topic. I knew it and decided enough was enough.

So, when asked what it means, in my own words, I answered: “if you do something to me I get to do it to you.” My parents, apparently being daft, needed an example. I told them “if you push me along out the door, I get to push you along out the door.”

My parents where still confused until I let slip the logic behind this “tit-for-tat” (or eye-for-an-eye) interpretation:
1. I accept everyone follows the Golden Rule.
2. If someone does something to me, they must think it’s fine to have it done to them (since otherwise they would be violating the Golden Rule.)

So, when at a pool play date this morning and I got whacked a few times with my little kickboard, I grabbed it and whacked right back saying, quite loudly, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!”

My parents keep rolling their eyes at me and face-palming. I can’t understand why. How’s my logic and interpretation broken of this saying not correct?

After the picnic we went down to Tyrone Mall for a Kidgits event. We got some free school supplies and a small colorful backpack. I was very excited. But the best was yet to come. We went to Haslams! My favorite bookstore down in St. Petersburg. I picked out nearly $100 in new books! WOW! We also found a Letterbox in Haslam’s and it even had a hitchhiker inside! VERY COOL!

I love my new books. Many are Magic School Bus science ones and one was a Fantasy and Mythological Creatures JigSaw Puzzle Book! I really love the jigsaw puzzle book. I learned about a new animal called a bunyip. It is an Australian Aboriginal Fantasy creature that lives in the water areas there and eats people! It is now causing nightmares!

Sunday I had a fun playdate with a few friends at the playground. My rash was looking better when we got there but when we left it flared up again. But I felt fine so I got to keep playing.

Here are some photos of the rash… you really can’t tell much of it on camera. It is red and lacy.

My cheeks.

My arm.

My back.

Another shot of my face.

I sat right in the front row and banged my drum to the music.

They asked for volunteers to come up and dance. My hand shot into the air! I was so excited to be picked as a dancer.

I had a very silly time dancing in front of the entire room.

I did get bored sitting in the chair and opted for kneeling on the floor to drum. The chair was just not comfy because I had to lean forward the entire time to play the drum.

We got to meet the firemen and have a quick talk about fire safety and then running through the hose safety.

We all ran out into the field.

Here comes the water! RUN!

This was so much fun. The man with the hose was very good at his job. He was pretending we were the fire and was chasing us to put us out. He would open the valve more when we raced to the other side far away from him. He could STILL get us wet. Pretty tricky!

Waiting in line to use the hose.

This thing is heavy! I tried to shake it all over but it nearly knocked me to the ground. Good thing the man was holding on to it.

The field got muddy pretty fast and a few of the older kids were sliding in it. YUCKIE!

Me… pretending I am a fireman and squirting the hose at Mommy.

At the end it was time to clean-up. All the kids left!!!! Ummmm… guess that leaves it up to me to clean-up. I raced over and started helping them drain the hose.

I was the only kid that offered to help. Mommy was very proud!

I stayed until the little hose was all wrapped up and ready to be put away. I got a BIG high five from the fireman.

I thought the fireman was cool but I would still rather be a paleontologist!

Monday-Solid Liquid Gas

Tuesday- Water cycle and how water helps us (salt vs fresh)

Wednesday- Random day of animals and games

Thursday- Rocks, Gems and Minerals

Friday- Magnets

I made lots of art projects, science experiments and mud pies. We got to play outside and go on nature walks as well. There were really cool grasshoppers, frogs, dragonflies and lots of other things that I caught!

It was such a fun camp and I behaved rather well considering my camp track record.

Before camp each day Mommy had to come up with things to do… camp started at 1 and we had to leave at noon to get there on time. We did lots of letterboxing and arts and crafts. I am finally enjoying crafts so Mommy is just letting me take the lead.

I love drawing with glue and then sticking things on to it. I love cutting with scissors (ever if i cut both left and right handed!).

I love being silly. Mommy thinks I will be a class clown next year. Good thing I am homeschooled!

This is my artwork of snow covering the ground in the winter and seeds waiting to grow up up up in the spring.

This is a happy face with a mole on each side of his nose.

We are also in the process of making a fishing game. I had to help cut out lots of fish. Mommy needs to finish making the poles and we are all set to play!

I absolutely loved the sound of the didgeridoo. It made my insides giggle.

It was really neat to learn more about Australia, their people, animals and culture. But that didgeridoo was pretty AWESOME!

The man was hilarious. He had the entire room laughing. He was very silly with his jokes and all this stuffed animals. Mommy was shocked how many of the kids in the room (well over 75%) didn’t know that they were mammals! HUh? Probably why I am homeschooled! Mommy was equally impressed that I knew a name of a mammal that lays eggs! I now know a new word: monotremes! COOL!

We laughed and learned!

Protect the planet. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle!

At the end of the show we got to be super goofy! I was so well behaved and Mommy was so proud of me. Here is a video of the event.

Click to view

Mommy still isn’t sure why but Emmerson and I tuned into owls at the very end. Who knows?!

Yes, you read that correctly.  The only anagram for my name in common use is: “bothering”.  Yup.  ”Bothering”.  Daddy did a face-palm and rolled his eyes when he typed my name in.

(This is from the WolframAlpha Widgets website: Anagrams)

The show started out with “Jedi the Augur Buzzard”. He is basically a hawk! Matt Edmonds’, the teacher, held him on his glove so he didn’t get cut from his talons!

In mid sentence the hawk took off and flew around the room and back to Mr. Matt!

I was so amazed!

A goofy picture while about 100 camp kids piled into the room from the local YMCA.

Mr. Matt had the bird do a few more flights across the room. Truly beautiful. I kept telling MOmmy it was the most beautiful thing I had even seen!

Up next was “Stitches the Grey Squirrel”. Stitches is the kid of squirrel we have in our yard but Stitches is trained!

He likes to hunt for peanuts in the dirt.

He climbed all over Mr. Matt while I giggled with delight!

This is “Scooby the Burmese Python”. Scooby is 24 years old and had belonged to Mr. Matt since he hatched from his egg and fit in Mr. Matt’s hand!! WOW!

One girl got to go up and pet the snake. I guess normally all the kids get to do so but there were well over 200 kids plus adults in the room.

There were a few other animals: a rat named Sagan, an Amazon Parrot named Moby and Sun Conures(didn’t get their names). They all did tricks and preformed on command. Mr. Matt is a professional animal trainer! When the parrot was preforming he told us that it took him EIGHT years to teach him the tricks he knows! Wow, and he is a professional trainer.

The next animal out was quite hilarious! it was called a Red-legged Seriama. His name was Bambam.

In the wild they catch lizards and bash them against rocks until they die.

Mr. Matt gave the bird a plastic alligator to do it with. Over and over the bird smashed it into the rock. Neat way to kill your prey.

Next to last was a flying squirrel. I think this was my favorite because he was very cute, tame and could FLY! He ran all over Mr. Matt.

Then he sent him up a pole and the squirrel jumped and FLEW to Mr. Matt. I was so amazed!

The show wrapped up with a “Nova the Eurasian Eagle Owl”.

Really watching intently and learning.

The owl flew from Mr. Matt to a perch on the other side of the room. It was so QUIET! The only way you could tell(besides seeing it) that it was flying across the room was the wind from the wings when it first took off!

Then it would glide into its house.

It would perch and fly back out again!

This was such a wonderful show and I want to see it again some day! WOW! I talked about it all day!

Tuesday I spent the day with friends (without Emmerson!!!!) and we went Letterboxing at Philipee Park in Safety Harbor and then I went to my friend Zachary’s house and went swimming at the HUGE pool at Innisbrook. What fun!

Wednesday we went to Music with Mar and then chilled out for the day… no major plans.

Thursday we met up with some friends again for a morning of Letterboxing and then playground climbing fun. I took a long nap because I was so exhausted! Mommy work me up at 3:45 and said “TIME TO GO” and we went to go see Toy Story 3 at the Clearwater Cinema Cafe (my favorite movie theatre because you can have milkshakes and popcorn while swiveling in the chair!).

Today, Friday, we headed down to Indian Shores to the Goldman’s house (Miss Lynn and one of my best buds Zachary). We spent a while at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary enjoying all the wonderful birds. I even saw a baby white pelican! Very cool! Mommy found a Letterbox at the sanctuary so that was a cool extra treat… it even had a hitchhiker (a traveling letterbox that you have to go hide in another letterbox!).

Afterwards we headed out the back door of the sanctuary and saw all the birds of the beach… there were thousands!!!

We were all being very silly! I look like a giant here… I was just closer to the camera and Zachary was doing a straddle.

Emmerson watched on as Zachary and I played in the water. At first I asked Mommy if I could take my shoes off and not get wet. Then I asked if it was okay to get my pants a LITTLE wet… next thing you know I was in up to my ears! Good thing MOmmy is always prepared with a change of clothing.

The dark-ish skies are courtesy of Tropical Storm Bonnie coming across the state of Florida today! Nothing major!

After a long play on the beach we came back to Zachary’s house and all got showered off and had lunch. After lunch… TV COMA!

We played hard all morning and continued to run and play inside up until about 6pm when we headed home. What a fun day! Glad to be home but miss my Grandparents…

We had a very busy day at the Cradle of Forestry, Trout Farm, Looking Glass Falls and then Pisgah Recreation Area.

I loved hiking with Ian on the trails.

We got to dig in sawdust to see what we could find. I found a LOT of nothing!

Once again Ian had to climb the train!

ALL ABOARD MY CHOO CHOO TRAIN! WOOOOO WOOOOOO!

Iam climbing something else! I climbed this too but Mommy wouldn’t let me up the crane part.

Yee Haw I am a cowboy!

Looking Glass Falls and home of my meltdown of the day! I wanted to go in the water but Mommy said we weren’t going to swim here we were swimming later in the day.

Finally to the swimming place after a stop at the Trout Farm and a quick Letterbox grab.

Cousin Ian jumping off the rock face.

I am mighty! I am strong! I can lift ANYTHING!

Goofing around in the water.

Iam must have jumped 30 times!

Building a dam with Emmerson, Anna and Mommy. We tried to get the water to pool and redirect. After a good 20 minutes of work, we finally did it!

I had an amazing day and LOVED being around my cousins. I have missed them. I am not looking forward to 10 hours in the car tomorrow but I miss Lightning and my house, friends and toys. So I guess it is time for our adventure to come to an end.

Anna helped me work on my “tee-pee”.

It got one thumb up from me! Mainly because I locked Emmerson inside of it. See him hiding in the orange shirt behind the sticks. He is in jail!

Mommy helped me scoop a bunch of muck out of the pond. The teacher said I scooped too much but I found a lot of bugs including a dragonfly nymph, 3 baby salamanders, a sack of eggs and a few other things.

Getting more muck.

Some of the bugs and things that all the kids caught. My eggs are on the spoon. The teacher thought they may be salamander eggs but I told her they were too big and were probably frog eggs.

You could not pry me from this bucket unless you bribed me with more bugs!!

Grandma Jo helped me put some bugs into the viewer.

This was sooooo cool!

I enjoyed showing all the other kids the buts I put in the viewer.

Amazing that with this many people NO ONE fell in the lake and ALL the kids were so amazingly well behaved!

After the pond adventure we went back to the classroom to talk about where the different animals were living in the pond.

We each got a picture to put on the pond. I got a “Water Skimmer” and correctly placed it on the top of the pond.

They had a craft at the end (make a turtle from a paper bowl) but I had already done that craft at home with Mommy before so I wanted to move along. We loaded up the car and drove down the road to the fish hatchery. I love the Trout Farm! They have these long rows of trout with running water. for $.25 you can get a handful of oily stinky food to feed the fish.

I had a blast feeding them. I figured out that if you go to a big group near the edge and drop in the food that the fish will get you soaking wet!

When we came home and Emmerson went down for a nap Mommy gave me a new toy she had been saving for me. It is called Bizarre Builder “In-Sections” . It is like Mr. Potato head but all the pieces are bug parts and you can chose to follow the directions or free build you own bugs.

My first of MANY creations!

My next of a zillion creations.

We killed a little more time at the Thomas Train table.

Almost time to get on board. I just kept giving Mommy goofy grins when she went to take my picture. Oh well, I guess I have to live with them posted here now!

Watching out the window from the “family first class” coach. There was LOTS of kudzu. I became an expert by the end of the train trip. I could point out all the kudzu between the starting station and the return trip home. PLus I now know that they can make honey from kudzu flowers. COOL!

Despite the rain the views were pretty neat.

Chilling out with Grandma Jo.

We ate lunch on the train and had our own car attendant. She refilled our drinks and even found me hot chocolate to drink!

We arrived at the break point and got out and walked around for a while. This is where the white water rafters pull out after their trips down the river.

Heading back to get on the train to ride home.

I really liked this little waterfall.

On the way back we got to ride on the other side of the train (we all had to swap seats!) so we could see the other scenery.

I had a really great time even if I got wiggly towards the end. That is a long time for a kid to sit still! haha

Doing my model pose and showing off my new “Dinosaur on a bike” shirt! RAWR!

We went to the Cradle of Forests and enjoyed an educational and fun walk.

I was allowed to make all the noise I wanted in this tunnel! SO MUCH FUN!

I greatly enjoyed watching the lady weaving.

This man was making bees wax candles.

Chilling out after a nice hike.

Emmerson and I insisted that we had some of this liquid stuff! It is called Sugar Not. Mommy kept joking it was Sugar Snot. This was “Booger Blue Raspberry” and Emmerson had “tropical loogie”. They were actually really gross. We are not use to sweet tasting drinks. YUCKIE!

Before we headed out for more fun I LOVED playing with the blocks and “tree cookies” (a tree cookie is a slice from a tree). I made all sorts of neat sculptures!

Then I wanted to make a chair.

Mommy said I should check it out.

So proud! I worked!

Now I build up up up!

One more sculpture before we head out.

We visited the little river that I love to look for salamanders in.

Mommy caught me a fish!!!

Back to looking for more living things. I did find one blackish salamander but I couldn’t catch it. It was too fast for me!

Having a blast out in nature!

Such a goof!

Daddy even helped paint!

Thanks Grandma Jo for getting a family photo.

We headed back towards the car and we saw a gem and mineral museum. I wanted a geode. I love geodes (thanks Uncle Matt for that one!). They had a HUGE claw to break the geode! Very cool!

After it was cracked open I got to hold it and then look at under a light that made it glow green.

Cracking open the second one.

On the way back to the house we stopped off at Bent Creek to play in the river where it joins the French Broad.

I had a fun time wading around trying to catch things in the water.

I caught a whirly-gig-beetle.

I also caught some sort of skipper type bug.

We came home and FINALLY went up to my fort. I had a blast dragging sticks around and making a huge pile.

I decided I was building a FORT. Emmerson was my helper.

Daddy helped snap a few dead branches off of the trees so I had more sticks.

More being silly.

I was walking with a huge stick and not watching where I was going and I tripped. This is the result.

On wednesday morning we went Letterboxing. He had a grand time despite the poison ivy and hot temperatures. The last one we got a little obsessed about but still never found. Mommy has decided to limit long hikes for cooler weather. Asheville is unseasonably warm right now.

We came back to the house to cool off and then changed into out swim suits and went swimming in the lake in Grandma Jo’s community. It was a bit murky in parks but I wanted to look for fish and “stuff”. Mommy learned that sometimes there are leaches in the water so she made me relocate to the clear pat of the water. I left kicking out to the rope and trying to navigate the swimming line but it would get too deep and Mommy would call me back in. I am rally trying to swim. Mommy caught me kicking with my feet on top of the water and trying to scoop a bit. I am terrified of a swimming pool and things that may eat me but i just went right into the lake! who knows! (mommy wishes she would have grabbed her camera for the lake but didn’t want to risk getting it wet). I scarfed down my dinner and had some popcorn and watched Scooby-Doo to wrap up the first full day in Asheville.

Today we got up and went to the Health Adventure. I always love it there! They had two traveling exhibits. One about satellites and one about “The Wizard of Oz”.

I wanted to do the satellites first. I made this little house while Mommy was getting the passes to get in.

We learned about orbits. One tube made a circular and one made the balls go in an elliptical orbit.

We learned how the satellites take images and also how they can tell how tall things are on Earth.

Pictures of different imagines satellites have taken from space. I never knew there were so many things looking down on us.

On to the Wizard of Oz. I built a scarecrow…

I worked on the yellow brick road.

I thought the balloon picture was really cool.

There is no place like home!

I really worked hard on my tube invention.

All done! TA DA!

We went to lunch at Mama Cita’s Burritos and then out for ice cream at Ultimate Ice Cream. Just around the corner from the ice cream place was the WNC Nature Center. Mommy thought we had been there before but we had not! It was kind of a zoo. They had a lot of animals in cages. I liked looking to find out they camouflaged in their tanks.

I slide down the human version of an otter slide.

I pet the goats.

RAWR!

A coyote!

Emmerson and I have enjoyed trying to wear Mommy out by making her push us both in the stroller. She said she would rather push both than listen to both whine! I think we are too big for the stroller.

A grey wolf relaxing on the cool dirt in the shade. It was about 92-94F out and we were way too hot.

On the way out we hunted for two more Letterboxes in the parking lot! Cool! I did not have the patience for anything more than an easy find today.

The first two tries were unsuccessful. We were confident we went to the right place but didn’t have any luck. The third try was a charm! Here is the first letterbox I ever found!

It was called “you scream, i scream, we all scream for ice cream” Inside was a stamp of an ice cream cone!!

Cool!

Then you hide it back where you found it and leave it for the next person!

It was SO much fun!!!

We tried one in Poland Woods and the tree where it was supposed to be at looks like it collapsed from rot. If you find something like this you are supposed to contact the “person who hid it” and let them know.

After another failed try, Mommy took Emmerson and Grandma Susie for some rest time and we proceded to Mill Creek Park to the Lanterman’s Mill. We had to hike for nearly a mile following clues to find this one! I found it all on my own!!!

Very cool stamp inside. It was a hand carved picture of the Lanterman’s Mill! Very near piece of artwork!

We proceded to check out one more by the covered bridge but had no luck finding it. So we were going to call it quits and I told Mommy I wanted to do more! So she quickly looked up a few in the area. She found one that supposedly had 12 boxes hidden on a pathway! That sounded FUN!

We went to the Ford Nature Center and parked the car and then hiked down the road and followed the clues. The clues produced stamps from all 12 months of the year. We missed 2 because we just could NOT find them. So we figured 10 out of 12 wasn’t bad. They were also all hand carved. This was my favorite!

We left exhausted after the hike in the woods and all the hunting.

We headed home for some lunch and then off to the YMCA for some swimming and cooling off.

What a fun last day in Ohio. I am going to miss it here. But on to Grandma Jo and Grandpa Howie in the morning.

I am so sorry for my words.

I had a really fun time with Uncle Matt. He is a really cool uncle and he likes a lot of things that I like (nature, animals and building things).

I rode with Mommy after lunch to drop Uncle Matt off at the airport in Pittsburgh. I cried for 15 minutes after he said good-bye.

I really got the snake working well and actually managed to unplug the clog while no one was looking. Smarty pants!

This is just ONE box of the poppers.

I loved the ash snakes.

Uncle Matt kept me safe as I was nervous with most of the fireworks.

It’s hard to tell but I have in ear plugs. I didn’t want to do any of the approved fireworks. Just hide with my ears covered. With the earplugs I was a bit more willing to come out of hiding.

Finally I wanted to do some of the poppers. A huge step for me! Remember EARPLUGS!

The aftermath.

Danielle and Nomiki set off the smoke balls and had a fun time playing in the smoke. Mommy let me experiment for one and then called me back away.

We took a break to wind down and painted some more rocks.

I think I finally an art form that I really enjoy.

Nomiki pained a dragon on my tummy.

Pretty cool!

After the sun started to set we got to play with sparklers. Since Nomiki and her nephew were having such a good time I decided to try one. I fell in love with sparklers! AWESOME!

Mommy drew a “safety line” on the driveway for the kids under 9 to sit behind. Nomiki was allowed to help Uncle Matt since she is so responsible.

More snakes.

We had a really fun time! Thanks Matt!

One shot at this photo and not all that great… worth the try.

The bridge that Mommy does NOT like.

I told Mommy that this was the biggest bolt in the WORLD!

Riding a horse… aka log.

I just couldn’t contain myself, I HAD to be in the river.

I was looking for crayfish and salamanders under all the rocks. I did find the “History of a crawfish” in the water (aka dead crawfish).

What a lovely hike! Thanks Uncle Matt.

I enjoyed looking at all the mill parts but I wasn’t focused and wanted to do it all in fast forward.

I thought it was neat being below the ground in a “cave” (really a building build on the side of the river).

Checking out the fish down in the river.

We visited Fellow’s Riverside Garden again and I found really neat tree to play under.

Oh, and swinging from the tree. That was fun!

My mood from this morning was still pretty consistent. I was touchy, not focused and very emotional. Most of these smiles were forced by Mommy today!

Back to my emo self. I was sitting on the bench crying for who knows what reason this time.

I cheered up a bit after my grumpy breakdown.

The last legitimate smile of the day.

We were on the way home and I burst into tears again because I missed Lightning. Once we got home after a few more getting in troubles I ate dinner and had a bath and then calmed down. After a brief cartoon while the adults ate their dinner I zonked immediately after being tucked in bed.

Hopefully tonight I don’t roll out of my bed and under Mommy’s bed again. A rough night of sleep with falling out of bed every 30 minutes… probably why I was a total pill today!

I kept finding all the BIG rocks to bring home.

I found a break wall and had a great time running out on it and scaring Mommy when I did.

I built “dams” in the sand ridges.

I was rinsing off rocks and suddenly darted down to get my shoes.

I came running back with my shoe and then dropped one in the water. Mommy came running over to save my floating shoe and grabbed the one in my hand and went to wash the dirt out and tell me that shoes are NOT toys and that they will float away. I started to scream at Mommy. This is why:

I actually managed to find a frog on the beach and catch it in my shoe.

Mommy told me if the frog jumped on our car I could bring it home. He didn’t.

We went to lunch at Eddie’s Grill in Geneva-On-The-Lake and then grabbed some donuts at Madsen Donuts. Uncle Matt let me snuggle for a while and then I got silly.

We played in the arcade and won some plastic bugs and lizards. Like I need more! Then we went to play a round of putt putt golf.

I had a fun time playing speed golf.

I got frustrated when we had to wait so we skipped a few holes that people were backlogged at.

Goof-BALLS!

When we got home we played outside and painted our lake rocks that we collected.

I really got into painting the rocks.

Here is the completed set of rocks. Mommy painted the spider.

I had a blast running around and playing on all the different things.

I loved riding the bike and crashing into all the other bikes and cars that were not in use.

I made some new friends, one was from Belgium. We rode the tire swing around and around and around for 15 minutes.

I turned green and asked to stop. I insisted that using the regular swing would balance me out. That didn’t work. After just a few minutes Mommy had me lying on the bench trying to relax so I didnt get sick. We left shortly after that because I still was feeling dizzy. When we got home I took a two hour nap and felt much better.

I spend the afternoon and early evening in the yard with the neighbor girls digging worms, chasing squirrels, playing hide and seek and rolling in the grass. We even saw some cardinals defending their nest of eggs from a nasty red squirrel. Sadly, even after Mommy and Grandma Susie’s intervention, the squirrel ate all 6 of the cardinal eggs. BAD SQUIRREL!

My deer soup was empty when I went to check on it. Mommy fessed up that se did it since it was getting stinky.

((**note from Mom: Deer soup was rotting, took out the sticks and paper towels and tossed them in the trash. I dumped out the rest into the yard. A few minutes later i noticed there was a dead chipmunk in the stuff I dumped out. That explained the STINK! We scooped it up and trashed it before Breighton saw it. Bird eggs and a dead chipmunk in the same day may have been too much.))

Mommy said she was SO proud of me for how hard I worked at it. I was so proud of me too. A few more times with the life vest and maybe I can try it without. You never know!

I ran on the slide.

Grandma Susie showed me the box and how it was supposed to be done. I tried, many times… many many times. When I tried to slide

I came to a grinding halt after about 2 feet. Grandma Susie said my tummy needed to be wet to slide further…so I kept laying in the kiddie pool and trying to get more water to stick to my tummy.

Then I would crawl the rest of the way. I eventually made it about 4 feet but I scratched my tummy and was done with that. I had a blast playing for over 2 hours.

I had a fun time in the kiddie pool doing cannonballs and making mud soup. Ms. Ruth came over and I entertained her for a while with my silliness.

I did get it under control for a bit to draw a few things.

My monster.

My ghost.

We walked over to the library for some air conditioning and books.

I made a shark for the summer reading tree.

I worked really hard on it and even gave it a crown!

I love listening to stories.

We came home and took Great Granny out to lunch for her 92nd birthday! I had pancakes and bacon and behaved amazingly well, considering how exhausted I was. We came home and I took a 2.5 hour nap! I never nap. I had a ton of energy when I got up. Mommy and I went on a “date” to a Mad Science show at Boardman Park.

They did all sorts of neat tricks and science. They launched balls with a blower and hair dryer. They made a ripped piece of sticker turn hole with magic and then they levitated balls with a yard blower.

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They did a lot of dry ice tricks. He made a quarter shiver!

They made some strange thing with dry ice, food color and soap. I waited my turn to touch the stuff.

As soon as it touched my hands it turned into carbon dioxide gas! VERY COOL! I want Daddy to show me this at home!

They made FOG.

Lots of fog.

Checking it out up close.

The last thing they did was a soda pop and Mentos geyser.

I found a pretty dandelion and wanted it tucked behind my ear. It stayed there until we came home!

I made some new friends but got sad when I didn’t understand their game that they were playing. They mad me really sad but made it up to me by collecting me lots of sticks.

Time for the parade.

Not a big crowd… but it is not a big town.

We had our earplugs in because the firetrucks are LOUD!

Over 50 firetrucks… LOTS of noise… but LOTS of candy!

The more you wave the more candy you get!

Just before I turned to Mommy and said “Mommy my arm is tired of waving will you wave it for me?”

We saw this guy last year… he must be 7 feet tall! I took our my earplugs because the firetrucks passed. Suddenly these guys and another pack of soldiers loaded their guns and fired! BOOM BOOM BOOM… tears immediately burst from my eyes and I curled up in a ball in Mommy’s lap. Mommy put in new ear plugs and I was fine.

Emmerson looked silly with the ear plugs since his ears are so tiny. Mommy said he looked like Frankenstiens monster with the pink things sticking out of his head!

Mooooo.

Strange to see this in a fireman’s parade.

We came home and played in the yard and then got cleaned up. After our bath we went outside to catch lightning bugs.

The neighbor girls came out to help me and I had about 20 by the end of the night. They are gong to sleep on the dresser near my bed.

I enjoyed the fireworks at 10pm and then Mommy tucked me into bed. She said I was asleep within 1 minute of tucking under.

When we arrived today it was raining so we played inside for a bit and then when out to check out the yard. I checked my garden that I planted in March. I had one pumpkin plant growing, 4 pepper plants and a TON of sugar snap peas. We picked the big ones to snack on… super yummy.

I LOVE eating sugar snap peas… just not the pea pod.

These were the biggest and sweetest peas I have ever had!

This one was as big as my thumb!!!

I spent a long time trying to catch this red squirrel. This is not a “darn squirrel” like the ones that eat Grandma’s birdseed. These are babies but are almost full grown. They almost look like chipmunks.

I made some new deer soup with crab apples, bird seed and slugs… yes SLUGS! Ugh!

I spent an hour trading silly bandz with my friends. I got over 50 new bandz that I didn’t have before! I am Very happy about that.

My hair is getting a bit long in the back and we have been talking about cutting it a bit shorter.

Miss Lori from across the street is a hairstylist and came over to cut it for me. She took off about 3 inches!!!

It still goes nicely into a pony tail.

Now to just get those side and bangs to grown out to the same length. At least it is less bulky in the back. Mommy said it washed and brushed really nice tonight.

Day one in Ohio draws to a close and I am ready to go to bed. EXHAUSTED!

It was HOT outside!

22 Kids crammed into a 10×10 room that at least half was roped off. The summer docents were practicing and getting their speeches down.

We all waited on the porch to do the laundry.

Then we lined up go have our turn. I was always near the front of the line… sometimes I got there first and others I made my way to the front. Mommy took me to the back a few times for cutting other kids in line.

I soaped, washed and scrubbed my assigned clothing.

then hung it up to dry.

My friend Bobby helped me a little because I couldn’t get the clothespin on the line.

We did a water pail race using a horse feed bag.

We played with some old fashion toys… I loved spinning the hoop.

I could get it to launch pretty far!

We made Button Buzzers at the end and wrapped up a hot morning in the village. I am glad I had so many great friends there to share the day with me!

Daddy taught me how to air and fire.

Then he attacked me!

I chased back and got him a few times.

Daddy kept shooting Mommy… the innocent bystander!

Here I come Daddy!

Ganging up on Mommy again.

The aftermath. It was actually pretty fun to clean up since it is kind of wet and sticky.

I made a huge ball out of the waste all over the yard.

What a neat reward!

I sat on Mommy’s lap and was very excited to start banging away and making noise.

I listened very well to the teacher. He would say words and we all would bang out the words on the drum. My favorite was “I eat peanut butter every day”.

Bang bang bang…. so much fun

Mr. Steve was an awesome instructor and I can’t wait to go to another drumming circle.

Look at all those kids!

The teacher called some kids up to dance and they were dancing right in front of me and I got a bit over whelmd. I covered my ears and hid on Mommy’s lap… our key that the event is over. We had a blast… just wish the group is a BIT smaller next time!

Check out their link for coming shows:

http://givingtreemusic.com/

I laid perfectly still for a few minutes and just took deep breaths.

I sat in “easy pose” and did some deep thinking and breathing.  

We played lots of fun games and did many fun dances. At the end all the kids sat on the stage and sang “I am brave and I am bold”. I just wanted to sit on my mat. The teacher had me sit next to her and I participated right until the end of class.

I am very eager to go back next week for another yoga class.

It was not very crowded for the VIP event.

While we waited outside I loved the HUGE inflatable cobra!

Finally inside and ready to go. I was completely overwhelmed by the number of snakes, lizards, frog and turtles there were.

I didn’t really ask to keep anything. I was fascinated by all the cages. I want more cages!

Oh, and this chameleon! Or one of the 2 inch long baby ones.

These would be cool as well. But we don’t have a sandbox or a place big enough to keep them.

I was really amazing to see how many different types of snakes there were. I got to see a lion cub, a sugar glider, rabbits and a few other NON reptiles as well!

I kept running far out into the water… sometimes too far.

We played in the tidal pools. We floated boats, build a castle and dug for cool shells.

Daddy helped Mrs. Lynn with her computer upstairs and then came down to play for a bit and enjoy the end of the day.

Mommy too!

Here is my cool castle made of castle building pieces.

We watched a wonderful sunset.

I am EXHAUSTED! Zachary, Emmerson and I played in the hot-tub for a while and I turned a nice bright pink.

What a great afternoon with great friends!

I did awesome kicking the length of the pool with the float.

When my teacher took away my float I totally lost it. Meltdown of the century! Mommy and Daddy opted to end swimming lessons for the summer since it is not a skill versus will situation. I have too much anxiety over swimming.

All aboard the dinosaur train!