Happy Fourth! Father's Day Robots! Summertime Heat!

I think this is the 6th Fourth of July that we have spent with our neighbor's parents at the houseboat. It has become one of the highlights of the year for us. Each time is special, each time is awesome. Becausee the weather was so hot, we spent a lot of time swimming and floating. Especially Rosalie, who didn't want to leave the water, maybe for hours. 

Barb showed Rosalie how to row the dinghy. 

 The scene on the water was lively. Boats, boats everywhere.

The houseboat neighborhood is so cool. Even the "alleys" are full of novelty, like these geese having supper.

We went to visit Barb's garden, the community P-Patch near the houseboat community.

Finally, after dessert, it was time for fireworks. We lounged on the dock(deck?) and  had a gorgeous show, right above us.

After the show, all the boats that had parked in Lake Union headed home in the dark and post-firework haze. We snuggled into sleeping bags on the dock, listening to the party boats drive by (Rosalie slept through most of that cacophony, impressively)  

 until all the traffic on the streets died down, so we could get home without sitting in the car in traffic for a couple of hours. Wonderful day and evening. We were tuckered out by the end of things, for sure.  The ride home was a little hard to remember for some of us. 





Okay, rewind to Father's Day!

Michael's wish for his day was to make robots and motors with his family. Rosalie was disappointed,


but she muddled through somehow. :)

Many uses for googly eyes, by the way.

 She's no slouch on her own, I've got to say! She knows about resistors, breadboards, and can set up things like these LED lights by herself already. I had to have Michael explain to me what she was doing. She zipped through this project like it was nothing, but there's some cool patterns you need to understand to build this.

 This strangely hot weather has led to all kinds of lovely shenanigans. Last-day-of-school ice cream with friends,

Water fights with neighborhood friends,

,
keeping cool in the shade with younger friends,



Using mud as a cooling/recreation tool,

and indoor outings, like heading over to REI for swimming and biking supplies.

REI has some cool stuff. There's the kayak climbing structure,

And a cool display to explore upon entering the store. Right now they have this fantastic yurt that I want to move into for the summer. They had it all tricked out to look like a college dorm room. I was in heaven. Rosalie and I hung out in there for quite some time.

Other activities this summer so far include learning how to ride the unicycle (Rosalie's P.E. teacher let us check out a unicycle for the summer, how cool!), and of course, oodles of summer reading. We are so proud of that reading kid! Once she's immersed, she'll read anywhere, anytime. 

I've even seen her reading upside down, hanging off the couch. 

Note the awesome unicycle-practice bruises . 

T

Right after school got out, we went to visit Mom and Stan in Oregon. We did a tour of the small town near their house, which used to be mining town and is full of charm.

 Their property at their house is full of charm too. Great fairy-house-making potential.

Rosalie's first camp of the summer was last week. It was a cooking class at Pacific Science Center. The last day of camp the kids made a restaurant for us family members to attend. Here's Rosalie about to turn in her order at the "kitchen." 

After her shift, she was able to join us in the meal. 

That day, as most days lately, was a beautiful one at the Science Center. 

Today Rosalie found this picture of a crown, and decided she'd make her own, out of paper and cloth and plastic gems. Check it out! Such a creative kid.

Wowza. Such a busy few weeks since the last post! Hope you are keeping it cool, easy and breezy.