Month: October 2013

 

This past season, Eleanor has been a very, very lucky girl.

She got to go to Girl Scout Camp  twice — with her grandmas!

The first camp was the “Mom & Me” weekend camp at Camp Robbinswold on the Olympic Penninsula.  Brian’s mom, Kathryn, was able to come out for this event, which was organized by some amazing women in our service unit.

One thing to know about Girl Scout Camps: they have killer locations.  Robbinswold is a narrow strip of land that runs right along the water.  This was the first thing we’d see through the trees when stepping out of our cabin.  Ahhhh, nice.

 

 

 

This is our cabin, which we shared with about ten other people.  It was lovely, warm and snug.  The Downside: our bathroom was an outhouse in the woods.  C’est la vie.

This is from a hike to a little point on the water.  We saw seals in the water, swimming closer to check us out.  They were adorable.

One of the ongoing games at this camp was a challenge to find thirteen little paper cutouts of Alice (of Wonderland fame).  You can see Alice #1 on the tree in the picture below.  Eleanor and Kathryn hunted all over to find them all, and were rewarded with a bag of purple licorice from the game keeper.

There were also lots of games and activities in the lodge.

 

 

This past weekend we were granted a visit from my mom, Suzanne.  We headed up to Camp River Ranch for a campout organized by Eleanor’s own troop.

 

 

Camp River Ranch is enormous, a beautiful mix of forest, lakes, and rivers tucked into the Cascade foothills.

So large, in fact, that we got a bit turned around and had to take a photo of this map to figure out where we were supposed to go:

We got there in time for a geocaching workshop taught by one of the camp counselors.  Then we played “Strut Miss Sally,” a silly song-and-dance game that is  a favorite with our troop.  It’s kind of like the Virginia Reel, mixed with goofiness:

 

After doing another workshop on secret codes, we worked together to prepare, cook and serve a spaghetti dinner.  Our troop is amazing!

 

 

After dinner, we built a big fire and made s’mores.  My job was to lead the campfire songs, most of which I learned at the Mom & Me camp from September.  Getting all the girls to sing and be silly with me was the best.  I think it’s important for kids to see that adults can put aside pretension, loosen up, and play and be silly with them.  On the other hand, I do hope that no photos of me doing the Jellyfish Song never surface on the internet.  What a fun couple of weekends!  What a lucky girl is Eleanor.

The next adventure with Grandma & Grandpa: a drive through the country to pick some Halloween pumpkins.  We started with a hay ride:

And met a baby cow and its mother.

Katie held very, very still for face painting.  So still, in fact, that I’m tempted to bring facepaints to church just to replicate the effect.

After making s’mores and shipping cider around a bonfire . . .

. . . we finally got to pick our favorite gourds. 

Katie had a method for letting us know when she was ready to go:

Heh.

We followed this adventure with lunch at the Cheesemonger’s Table, which is my favorite place to eat right now.  Cheese, Gromit!

Once again, we have been blessed with a visit from my parents.  Katie couldn’t be more thrilled.  Especially since that means a trip to the zoo.

And by “zoo,” I mean “merry go round,” at least according to Katie.

It’s going to be a fun weekend!

Continue reading “Little Drummer Boy” →

It began when Katie and I saw these enormous pumpkins at the grocery store …

This one weighed 1666 lbs. and was planted in 1984. 

There was also a giant pumpkin carving.

Katie was kind of alarmed because the little girls hand had fallen off.  I didn’t even notice until she looked at the picture on my phone and cried.

There were more autumny things inside.  I loved this exuberant display of candy.

After school, William found a rake and piled up a fat stack of leaves.  He insisted I take a picture of him taking a “running start” into the pile.  Love it!

Katie and I spend our Monday mornings at Play & Learn, an indoor playground program in our neighborhood.  Imagine a gym packed with every kind of fun thing for toddlers and you get the idea.  Orgies a long way towards keeping my sanity now that the rainy season is here.

Katie is especially passionateb about the little tikes cars.  They are value real estate in the preschooler economy.

Playtime always ends with everyone sitting in a circle for storytime.  The woman running the program often speaks with an unfortunately cloying, high tone that I refer to aas

Primary Voice, but such is the price I pay cor sanity in the winter.

Yesterday we ventured out to see the 2013 Seattle BrickCon, known as the longest-running LEGO convention in the country.

In sum: an exhibition hall crammed with the most astounding LEGO projects people can imagine.

Brian and I decided that our favorite was the Super Star Destroyer being attacked by a giant red octopus.  Wicked awesome.

There was even a “micro” version of BrickCon itself . . . .

. . . . with a micro-Super-Star-Destroyer-attacked-by-octopus.  So cool!

Most of the projects were reasonably scaled, but there were two standout massive-scale projects.

One was an incredibly detailed replica of Rivendell from the Lord of the Rings films.  My photos really can’t do it justice.

Look!  The Dark Riders are getting attacked by the river horses!

Sooooooo many tiny LEGO flowers.  It truly boggled the mind.

However, that mind-boggle was quickly overcome by the other massive-scale project: possibly the grandest, most detailed LEGO Hogwarts, ever.

SO HUGE.  Little doors were built into the walls to show specific scenes from the book, like the Wizard’s Chess scene from Book 1, or Harry escaping on the Hippogriff from Book 3.

I wish I’d had a better chance to look around for more little details, but the crowds were thick and I had to move on.

Oooooooo, even the Quidditch pitch!!

Other Things of Note:

The Space Needle (this was the first thing the kids wanted to see)

Giant Elaborate Castle (it was sadly overshadowed by Rivendell, which was placed right next to it)

A “Crazy Town” that was put together by a group of siblings.  I liked this one, since it was obviously kid-designed and kid-built.  Excellent use of the pink “LEGO Friends” blocks, there.

R2D2 (the head spun around and lit up)

A Lady Gaga concert (the dancers on stage were automated)

EXTERMINATE!!  (There were a lot of Doctor Who projects)

Giant steampunk traction cities (there is an entire “steampunk” category for the exhibition, along with “castle,” “train & town,” “space,” “pirate,” “micro,” “cars,” “real world buildings,” “dark side,” “mechas,” “characters,” “2D,” and much more)

The rebel base on Yavin 4 from Star Wars (I was especially impressed by this one)

A spooky fun house inspired by the Joker from Batman (the little rides spun around and went up and down)

A scale model of a real-life Tibetian monastery

A timeline of famous battles in history (starting with two cavemen hitting each other with clubs)  — oh yeah, “battles” is another building category

This adorable VW bus & trailer!  (I wish I had the real-life version!)  I loved the “cars” category — they all had trunks and hoods that opened to reveal tiny LEGO engines, just like at a real car show.  Look at the tiny red cooler on top of the bus!!  [swoon]

The kids had a day off from school last Monday, and with a rare sunbreak from the rain, I decided to take them to the zoo.

Katie, funnily enough, has been asking to go to the zoo and ride the merry-go-round for weeks.  This is unusual because I don’t think she’s been to the zoo for 4-5 months.  It’s not often she remembers and talks about something that happened so long ago.

So: carousel, check!

 

Then I let each of the other children choose one favorite thing to see.  Eleanor is reading The Reptile Room in the Series of Unfortunate Events, so she chose the small animal house.  Featured in this picture are a group of Egyptian tortoises, the cutest reptiles ever.

 

 

Jeff wanted to see the Asian small-clawed otters, mainly because there’s a playground nearby with a zipline.  But know what?  Asian small-clawed otters are difficult to photograph.  Instead, I will present you with a very cute photo of all four kids sitting on the statue of the komodo dragon.

 

 

Lastly, William wanted to see the giraffes.  D’awww, his smile is adorable!