Treehouses Revisited

Right before summer started, I had a post about the treehouses on exhibit at Cheekwood for the summer.  The first time we saw them, the architects were still putting the finishing touches on, so there was only one that was ready for us to play in.

All summer, we planned on going back.  But... we waited.  And procrastinated.  And we kept choosing to cool off in the pool over tromping around in the heat. 

But, August showed up and back-to-school time loomed just ahead, so we finally went.  This time we packed a lunch AND met up with friends, making our trip doubly exciting. 

Each of the houses is designed based on a classic piece of literature.

The Rainbow Fish treehouse is my favorite.

The "scales" are thousands of old cd's zip-tied to the frame.  Being inside there with the light shining through was like being in a tunnel of stained glass.

Why can't I just get a normal smile from my kids once in a while?

I was looking through photos the other day, and there are almost no recent pictures of me and either of the kids.  So, I chose to take a picture with Will after traipsing around in 90 degree heat with no makeup on. 

Oh, well, I still think those pictures are keepers.

I don't remember the book on which this next one is based, but it was a favorite.  We just called it the "Giant Ball o' Yarn".

The main attraction for my little guys was the pond and the tadpoles inhabiting said pond. 

 

Rock-throwing was the preferred sport, barely edging out trying-to-find-a-way-to-fall-in-the-water.

I know I said Rainbow Fish was my favorite, but maybe it was a tie with this one.  Those colors need to get in my house.

This one is based on The Giver, but, having never read the book, I couldn't tell you why. 

All of the kids had lots of fun on the Jolly Roger, trying out their best pirate accents.  By the way, my pirate accent sounds like a jumble of Russian, German, and Australian accents.

Fun was had by all, and now we can cross another activity off our summer bucket list.  Too bad my summer reading list just got longer.

Carports

We have a little bit of as Cars obsession around here.  It's not limited to the male side of the family, either.

I'm all for toys that the kids are both interested in, and that they'll play with together.  Except for the fact that whenever we leave the house, my wee friends feel the need to bring their entire collection of cars with them.

Combine this car caddy and my need for some sewing therapy this week, and you have a recipe for our new "carports"(or sleeping bags).

I took the kids to pick out their own fabric, and they did a pretty good job.


Sarah chose polka dots and jolly rogers:

And Will's flames and checkered flags:

Everyone is tucked in nice and cozy.

As a side note, the munchkins are putting sunglasses on everyone and everything these days, so Lightning McQueen got some shades of his own.

The Family Portrait Gone Wrong

Ahhh, Shark Week.  It always means a gathering of my in-laws in Florida.

No, not because they're bloodthirsty creatures who salivate at the slightest whiff of blood in the water.  They are just the opposite, and really some of the nicest people I know (am I laying it on too thick? Just pandering to my core audience ;).  The reason I start thinking of Mike's side of the clan is, almost every year since Mike and I have been together, we've piled in with them at their timeshare in Stuart.  Always at the height of Shark Week. 
*This year, programming has been pushed back until the 12th, so as not to compete with the Olympics.

Last year was no different, and we had the two munchkins with us.  It seemed like an opportune time to get an amazing family photo, and getting a good shot of the four of us by the rocks was high on our priority list.

Except, we kept putting it off until the very last morning.  You know, until everyone was sleep-deprived, spoiled by excess attention, and suffering from an overdose of family-togetherness. 

This was our best shot:

Lest you be fooled into thinking this is pensive, peaceful Sarah channeling Kate Moss, check out the very next shot:

There was a lot of stomping, whining, and tears.  And the kids were pretty terrible, too.

"Fine, you can have two Dum-dums and a Hershey's Kiss for breakfast.  Just smile for the camera."

Bribe FAIL.

"Are you sure it's just low blood-sugar, not demonic possession, Mike?"

"Sand on my hands! Aaaaaagh!"

Even though we're not making the trek this year, we'll always remember that golden morning on the beach, trying to force Satan's minions to smile for the camera.

Olympic Medals

Do your kids ever have these brilliantly simple ideas that make you stop and say,"Why didn't I think of that?!"

More and more that's happening to me.

Let me back up for a minute.  I LOVE the Olympics. That being said, I think I've seen a total of about 30 minutes of them this summer.  I'm in awe of the swimmers, can't get enough of world-class soccer, and I'm envious of those beach volleyball players.  Not to start any controversy, but I just don't understand gymnastics.  Subjective scoring just doesn't sit well with me.

Anyway, there are all sorts of cool Olympics-related things to do with the kids out there on blogland, and I wanted a little piece of the action.  Since we enjoy accessorizing around here, I thought we could make our own gold (and silver, pink, black, blue, and sludge) medals.  After all, we have our own Michael Phelps- and Dara Torres-in-training. 

Anyway, we followed this tutorial to make some medals out of salt dough. 

We mixed up some dough and dumped a whole bunch of gold glitter in it.  Those little hands sure had fun squishing it all together.

Then we cut out all sorts of shapes using any cookie cutters we could find.  Of course the biscuit cutter grew legs and ran off, taking with it any normal shapes, so we were left with bees, hearts, dog bones, sheep, and pigs. 

While the first batch was in the oven, I mixed up another batch to make hand and foot prints to stash for Christmas.

The kids had something else in mind.

Sarah had the awesome idea of making dinosaur tracks.  FOSSILS! 

They made tail impressions, footprints, horn prints, and I even gave them a few seashells to play with.

From there, it was all about tire tracks and pizzas.

I'm hoping Sarah will take over the cooking at an early age. 

It would have been cool to bake the dino tracks to "fossilize" them, but somebody started a food fight, so the dough had to go away.

Once we baked the things, paint shirts went on and the critters got to work beautifying their medals.

The medal-winners with their hardware.

"Look, Mom, I won the purple in interpretive dance!"

We thought our neighbors might like a couple for being champion kindergartners.

Happy Saturday!

Lemonade Stand

Tuesday marked the soft opening of Sarah Brown's Lemony-Lemonade Stand.  Our go-to-market strategy was pretty simple: whip up more lemonade and brownies than we could possibly ever need, park our stand at the end of the driveway, put the word out there on FB, and then proceed to drink and eat all of the product ourselves. 

I had originally planned to hit up Sevier Park right at the time the farmers' market was in full swing, but just getting the stuff to the end of the driveway was such a pain that I'm glad we kept it close to home. 

Over in the "Taking a Theme Too Far" category, I made Sarah a dress to match the stand.  I still want to make Will a lemonade-selling shirt, but I don't think sales is really in his blood.  He's all demolition.

I'm pretty proud of the stand itself because it was my first foray into hinges and casters.  We (my friend Kristen and I) just stood two of those crates from Michael's up vertically, hinged them together down the long side, put some casters on the bottom, and voila!

I still need some poles and a crossbar on the top for signage, and to possibly allow this to transform into a puppet theater as well.

Sarah showcased her new "fast moves", and we had "Beat It" on repeat.

I think pricing and location were major issues, but since this stand is on wheels and my little Scrooge McDuck has since learned what $10 really looks like, we are moving forward with confidence.  We are working on signage, but this week has me a little behind on projects.