We set up the tent for camping out over the weekend. I slept out with E the first night and Jonesie had the honor the second night (with the rain).
We also watched The Princess Bride outside in our own outdoor theater. Very fun! except for the five mosquitoes that live in Oregon - all found me and feasted. It must have been the mongo glass of white wine I was sipping that attracted them.
Our family hosted a popsicle play date at E's new elementary school over the weekend and invited all of the families in his class. We had a great turnout with 20 of the 27 kids coming, along with parents, siblings and some grandparents.
Even E's new teacher came (she's below in the cute melon-colored capris and white tee). She seems quite lovely, experienced and friendly.
E bonded right away with his classmate Audrey. I am excited that on the first day of school E will be able to recognize some new friends in the classroom.
Yeah! It's Nana & Jonesie - in town for their annual end of summer fling. E is very excited to spend the week at home with his grandparents. Lots of projects and outings are planned. Tall House, Double Cup and I celebrated four extra hands to help take care of Em - she is all over the place these day.
FINALLY - relief from the heat. It started with dinner out with the Cedros clan to air conditioning. The kids cooled off with milkshakes. 
We had such a good time with cousin Kallie in town. Tall House, Double Cup was off in Costa Rica for the week and I don't know how I would have managed without her. She and E spent their days together playing, watching Spongebob and going to the park. When I would ask E at night how his day was, he would sigh and say, "perfect." He had never had a whole week at home - no preschool, no camp, no structured activities - and he loved it. I am so glad he got to do it with Kallie.
E spent a week at Grace Art Camp - it was SO fabulous! The theme this year was Scandinavian folktales - which as perfect for my little Scandi boy. E had some lasting doubts about his ability to create art. Part of his personality is wanting to do something really well right away. Writing has been a challenge because he wants to do it perfectly the first time. It's similar with creating - he wants it to look just so. I can already tell his week at art camp has given him tons of creative confidence.
This week he initiated creating a mouse house to put out in the yard. He gathered up bark and wood shavings. Then he asked his cousin Kallie (visiting for the week) to make a sign-up sheet on his blackboard for other kids to take a class from him in mouse house building. They hung out on the front steps for about an hour and got our dear next door neighbor to sign up. It was very sweet.
We went out for celebratory gelato about his camp celebration. You can see the camp t-shirt, flower crown and necklace - all things he made during his week at camp. He can also sing Mary Had a Little Lamb in Finnish!
E had a great session with lots of improvement. I can see the true beginnings of the front crawl.
Em enjoyed class much more than this picture shows. She went completely under at least half a dozen times and came up gulping but not crying. What a girl!
Just one day left of swimming lessons. E is still underwater more thn above water. He's a little fish - though still working hard on his crawl - that's a lot of coordination to master - video below.
Em loved her swim lessons and went under several times - she didn't love it, but she didn't cry. Her video is all play with Papa.
I am almost done rehashing our vacation trip. We finally made it to Crystal Cave. I grew up just miles from this tourist attraction - the longest cave in Wisconsin.
The tour was really fun - 70 feet underground. They had a wedding reception there once - but never again. Perfect for the goth couple.
There were hundreds of stalagmites and stalactites growing in the cave so we had to be super careful not to disturb anything. There were a few places where you could touch the walls - E loved it.
We love going to the Beavers baseball games. They are so family friendly and casual. Little Miss goes with the flow in the backpack and E bargains for as many treats and bouncy castle tickets as possible.
We'll celebrate the library with the Summer Reading Day toward the end of August - all of the participants in our program get a free ticket to the game. I love seeing hundreds of kids wearing their Summer Reading shirts at the same event.
We took the kids to their first county fair. E was a bit shocked at the reality of farm animal smells and held his nose through most of the barns.
Ths is a photo of my mom and E in front of the building that was once a one room school house that my great grandmother taught in and that my aunt and uncle went to school at.
Inspired by Kirstin's Muffin Tin Mondays, we tried out some Muffin Tin Madness (it wasn't a Monday). 12 little bites put together on the fly. E was TOTALLY into it. He even went for the cucumber salad which until now was avoided like the plague.
Next time I am going to plan a bit more for some more adventures.
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