The Garden Begins

With a bit of girl power, the garden construction begins

A study in light and dark
This is a citronella candle by the fire

My New Best Friend

Meet my new best friend...

And a bit of Sammy silliness...

Fire!

First we go to Lowe's and buy the stuff for the garden and fire pit.

Next, we built the fire pit

We proudly show off our work

Fire pit built...bring on the wood...

Make fire!

And faces at Grandma.

Success!!!

Nocturnal Sightings

Owen found the video camera that we use to keep an eye on him at night.  My phone has an app to let you take pictures of what the camera is seeing.  This was the view from the camera:

Ah, Music

Owen decided to try out the new piano.  His hands are just a blur on the keys...

Pandapas Ponderings

I took the day off of work to have a girl's day out with Sammy.  We headed out to Pandapas Pond, one of our favorite hiking spots.

We started out with a lunch from Sammy's favorite sandwich shop - Jimmy John's.

Gymnastics is everywhere!

We didn't really get much walking in.  We found too many things to do everywhere we went.  We spent quite a while making rock sculptures next to the stream.

Years ago, when Sammy was little, she had her little heart absolutely set on finding a fossil.  She dug up half the yard trying to find one and was horribly disappointed when she didn't find one.  We may have seen a hint of that little girl come out as Sammy got excited over finding this:

After finding the one, we started searching around the rock piles to see what else there was.  We found an incredible specimen:

It's very hard to see the grooves that make up the fossils, so I spread some flour over it to make them more visible.  There are lots of different types of fossils in this one piece.  Below are some closeups of the diatoms and bivalves:

After our amazing find, we decided that it would be fun to find as many kinds of fungi as we could.  The wet areas along the stream provide the perfect conditions for shrooms of all kind.

We also got to visit the geese, always good to see our feathered friends.

The car was really hot when we got out, so we opened it up and sat under a tree in the shade while it cooled off.  Sammy read to me from a journal where she had been copying information out of science books that I had given her.

On the way home we stopped for ice cream at the mall and snapped a pic in the mirror in the ladies room.

Piano

Sammy trying out a new piano.

Pastimes

Owen watching his favorite show: Wubzy

Laney and Sammy Again!

Summertime is for hanging out with friends.

You can also see some of the leftover damage from the Derecho.  Trees down everywhere...

Girl Power!

Laney's Mom took this picture of the girls and I just couldn't leave it out of the blog!