Solstice Festival 2012

 Saturday was our second time at the Blacksburg Solstice Festival. First, can I say how much I heartily approve of this phenomenon? Jon complains that I am a pagan, and I'm not, but I have some pagan sympathies. I think there is something natural and right about celebrating the solstices and equinoxes. Human beings need the seasons, and we need to mark them and celebrate their mystery and wisdom. So Blacksburg chooses to mark the longest day of the year (or the closest Saturday to it) with: hula hoops, a dog parade, carnival rides and games, water balloon catapults, face painting, a craft fair, live music, burgers, beer, balloon animals, and...alpacas? Goats? Yes.

And pot bellied pigs!

And tortoises. Like you do.

Note: Water balloon catapult.

This was a fundraiser. Across the street from Cabo Fish Taco's sand pit was another version, for kids, where for a dollar kids could play for unlimited hours and support Habitat for Humanity. We weren't going to participate, as we didn't think we'd have time, but then we turned around and Miles had disappeared into the sand. So we forked over a dollar and everyone enjoyed the sandbox experience.

One kid-related organization had set up a craft table. Noodle necklaces are high fashion.

Miles totally dug the bouncy obstacle course...

Until he got to the Epic Slide at the end. I'd like to say he got over his fears and triumphantly slid down the other side... but I'd be lying.

The carnival rides were a hit. Miles' first time even seeing such a thing. I haven't been to an amusement park in I don't even remember how long, which my former self would have found completely incredible.

You notice you don't see a lot of Adele. Solstice Fest was a bit rough for her. She was woken from her afternoon nap by Miles, and then fell asleep again just 45 minutes after we had to leave. She wasn't able to sleep at the festival with all the noise, so she was pretty much a wreck. We're brainstorming ways to make life on the go easier for her...

So to conclude, welcome Summer, long days, and abundance. When we next update, it will be from Rochester, where we're having Ultimate Family Weekend (and catching up with a couple of friends, too!). Happy 90th birthday, Grandma! Can't wait to see you!

Miles & Adele

 Miles has been going through this stage where he's in love with Adele. He lights up when he sees her in the morning and pitches his voice really high and says "Hi sweeeety!" He wants to hug and hold her, has been sharing some of his favorite toys with her, and will happily sit and play with her for rather a long time, for a toddler.

Some of you know about his trick of having imaginary "conversations" with Adele, where he'll provide her with lines to say. Usually the conversations run along these lines:
Miles: Hi Adele!
"Adele": (in a weird, gravelly, smoker's voice) Hi Miles. Miles, the trees are blue.
Miles: No, no, Adele, the trees are green.
"Adele": (still gravelly voiced) Oh. Okay.

And it goes that way, with her positing false things and him correcting her. Now, though, he's changed her voice to a high, breathy treble and she's been allowed to be right about most things.

I can't help but wonder, as enjoyably adorable as all this is, when it's going to break, and he's going to decide she's really not that cool a companion, or when he's going to perceive her as a threat. Trying to enjoy it while it lasts. Occasionally wonder if he think she's his personal pet... I'll think about that later.

So he wanted to feed her the other night, and he did it admirably:

He was quite patient, and she opened her mouth better than she usually does for me. Siblings fond of each other? I'll take it, for however long it lasts.

Father's Day Hike at Pandapas Pond

 Something you might not know about Jon.... he loves hiking. If we were living a different sort of life, he'd be classified as a hiker. He aspires to hike the Appalachian Trail someday (in the literal, non-euphemistic sense).

In the meantime, he gets to take us to Pandapas Pond for Father's Day. There really isn't a lot to say about these, except:

• We are breaking in our new Ergo carrier! I'm already SO glad we sprang for it. It will see a lot of mileage this summer.
• We saw a man catch a fish and a boy catch a frog. Miles got to pet the frog, various dogs, and attempted to pet a gosling. He was menaced by its parent. 
• We saw a couple of bullfrogs, bees, dragonflies and a water snake (awesome). But no turtles. Whatever, turtles.
• Miles has an invisible dog! Its name is Snandy and it is alternately black with white spots or white with black spots. Ask him about it. 
• We had a swell time and an excellent Father's day. Jon picked the restaurant: El Rodeo, the Mexican place at First and Main. We heartily recommend!

Learning about moss.

I'm all business, apparently.

Backseat buddies.

Oh, and this happens:

Adele learned to crawl and to get into a sitting position from her tummy in one day. Or at least, we first observed her to do these things on the same day. Let the babyproofing begin!

Modeling

 More cornstarch. More baking soda. More water. New outcome.

 

Modeling clay! The texture is sublime. 

Miles has learned to say, "Oh boy oh boy!!" It's pretty great.

Food coloring actually effectively dyed the clay without dyeing our hands.

Clay wolf. Per Miles' commission.

Clay Elmo. Same.

Adele's enthused about the operation, though she's not quite sure what it is.

This week is going from awesome to awesome-er.

Artsy Craftsy

One week in and I can conclusively say: I love summer vacation! I wondered sometimes, at my desk, if summer vacation would really be a vacation with two tinies under age 3 to mind. Answer: yes. Yes it is. I have breakfast, I play, I engage in nap wars, but it's all still recreation (yes, recreational war. are you with me? Good).

We are having a good old time, soaked in sunscreen and sweat, trooping around Blacksburg and playing creatively at home, too. I've got a Wholesome Summer To-Do list, and I can scratch a couple of things off of that now. This week we made homemade bubbles (below) and homemade modeling clay (to follow) using recipes from this blog. Special thanks to Bekea for pointing it out to me a couple months back!

All you need for the homemade bubbles is corn starch, baking soda, water, and liquid dish soap.

The best part is experimenting with different household materials to see which makes the best (and biggest) bubbles. We had a few other items to try, but once we discovered the cookie cutter approach we got kind of distracted:

You have to keep mixing the corn starch so it doesn't settle.

In general, the smaller ones and the most complex shapes (Halloween witch, not Valentine's day heart) made the best bubbles.

Grendel is dying to join the fun.

I'm a bit too excited about this day.

The small, complex shapes gave us some cool Siamese sibling bubbles.

Literally hours of fun. And no, it didn't get old. I'll show the results from our modeling clay experiment when I get a bit more screen time (hard to come by these days!).

This week we plan to check softball games, hiking, swimming and face painting off our list. This is empirically way more fun than Pinning about summer.