Summer Camping

June sure did drip slowly by... But at least we got to celebrate Father's Day! The kids' gifts were related to fence work - new work clothes and a bug zapper to help with mosquitoes. Owen gave Dad the "Best Dad Award", and Hadley came up with some clever acrostics. Chipotle was had, vanilla cupcakes were made (in the stand mixer, of course!), and there may have been some honorary Dad naps taken. A good day for all!

We did VBS out of a box at home this year. It was kind of nice to go through it at our own pace together, but we did miss some of the socializing aspects, as well as a break from each other! The children's ministry team did a fantastic job organizing all of the activities and supplies for us, right down to the daily snack! We used these cups for a variety of stacking races, bowling, and memory games.

We had fun opening a different bag every day and uncovering new crafts, games, and music to break up the monotony of our days. 

One of the crafts was to decorate a rock with the week's Bible verse (Hebrews 12:2), and then place it somewhere to bring joy to others. We put ours by the mailboxes, and one of our neighbors posted a thank you on our neighborhood site to "whoever put this rock here" because it was just what they needed to see that day.

In other exciting news, our inflatable pool finally arrived! Kids have had so much fun in this mid-size pool on our patio. Their favorite thing is to pretend to be alligators, because that's the best way to submerge yourself in 2 feet of water. Ha!

Free online classes have been a lifesaver this summer! Hadley got to do an art class and practice her drawing techniques, they both learned some basic German, and Owen heard a couple of lectures Coyote Peterson gave about "Bites and Stings" that he has sustained over the last several years. 

The latest camps this week are cooking camp for Hadley and chess camp for Owen. Chess camp is a little dry for pictures, but cooking camp is set up from our church like our VBS box with recipes, ingredients, and materials for a snack, entree, dessert, and craft each day. Hadley is loving it!! And most of the recipes have a red, white, and blue theme for the upcoming 4th of July. Who knew you could dye butter and paint your grilled cheese for extra patriotic points?

And when in doubt, Lego!

Post-Fence Post Post

Our constant companion throughout May and June has been the SE re-fencing project, which makes this our Post-Fence Post Post. (Dad joke!) I didn't get a good overall before picture, because how do you do that with a fence? Let's just say this has been on our list since we moved in, and it needed to be replaced! Here's the best overall DONE picture I have. Isn't it pretty? Hubby worked so hard on this fence, pretty much every evening 5-8pm, and weekends to finish!

Now for some before-and-afters. The neighbors' dogs have surprised us a few times and the bricks really weren't cutting it anymore. The last section just got finished this weekend and all that remains is some varnish on that section, hence the different color. (Of course there was at least a week of delay in getting the last boards, since there seems to be a shortage in the Houston area, and then a week of rain delay after that.)

There were more than a few spots where bricks shored up the gaps and the bottom of the pickets was either in dirt or rotted out all along. We're not sure, but this may have been the original fence.

The finished view from the street, hiding the AC.

Now let's take a look at the in-progress working pictures. The first pieces to come down! No turning back now. Hello street!

And the first section brought the first major issue. The old fence post was precariously squeezed between our house's main water line and the AC slab, which made it nearly impossible to remove and replace. Solution: move the fence forward and dig all new post holes. It was a lot of work, but getting rotting, old posts encased in concrete up from two-foot deep holes isn't really any easier.

Hubby did at least 85% of the work on this fence! Our neighbor dug some new post holes, as well as removed wood and spread dirt. Owen even put in a few days of work here and there, mostly during demolition, but J also planned, shopped, and picked up all supplies (no small feat in these COVID times), dug post holes, mixed and poured concrete footers to keep the posts from rotting at/below ground level, measured, cut, and framed ~100 feet of fencing, placed and nailed pickets, and varnished everything. He may have gained a few new tools to ease the work, but his work ethic and sweat equity was impressive!

And here's Hadley's contribution. Ha ha!

The last pieces going in (amidst the Saharan dust cloud)! Two months' of work, almost done... Now some rest, hopefully, before we start the back fence. Eek!

Summer, Making Do

Another month begins and blurs right into the last one, with more time at home. We started off June with a trip to the dentist. Things are returning to normal, right? Well, except for the extra masks required, temperature scan, and only 4 chairs in the waiting area, each 6 feet apart...

Our in-house baker extraordinaire was pretty excited when I got out the stand mixer to make some cookies one day. The kids pretty much took over and handled it all by themselves, except for the oven part. They made oatmeal raisin cookies because Hadley found the recipe in the oatmeal container. They were delicious! Before we put the mixer away, she convinced me that we also needed to make some banana bread.

To stave off boredom, we've been trying to learn some new skills. Hadley took an online "Fun with Yarn" class, where the instructor tried to teach 200 kids how to knit, crochet, macrame, and do friendship bracelets via Zoom. It was a little hit or miss, since that sort of thing is better done in person, but at least we learned how to do some basic stitches we can maybe revisit and expand upon some time.

Our immediate neighbors have been so generous with their backyard pools, which has been a lifesaver on these hot summer days! They gave us free rein when they were out of town, so we took full advantage of that, even with a night swim. Our neighborhood pool is remaining shut, so we are pretty bummed about that, but so glad to have awesome neighbors!!

And we've decided to open our circle just a bit during the quarantine to include these friendly neighbors. It really does wonders for the kids to be able to socialize with other kids! It's already been 3 months with pretty much just the four of us, and the kids haven't even been in a store during that time. They've been troopers, for sure, but it definitely helps to have an outlet outside and to vary the faces you are talking to a little!