Heat Wave

The weather is scorching hot here. Last weekend we disregarded the heat and went to pick grapes at a vineyard about an hour's drive away. Actually, we hoped to pick grapes, peaches and apples. But turned out that peaches were all killed in the late spring frost and apples weren't quite ready for picking.

But the grapes were excellent.

We picked a lot of grapes and also had some grape slushies. These are always great!

The entire last week we mostly stayed indoors. This weekend we thought about going to a lake, but it's been record heat today, so we tried staying indoors as much as possible. Except, of course, at some point we went to Target and got a slip-n-slide, which was, conveniently, on sale.

So the rest of the day was pretty great. We set the slip-n-slide in the shade and ran it for a little while. I think Chris and I enjoyed it just as much as M did.

Our 4th of July - Done Right

Finally, after years of mediocre 4th of July celebrations, we finally got it right! And yes, we've got pix to prove it.

But first, if you've ever had to spend a holiday weekend with a four-and-a-half year old who's going through a phase, then you know how we felt on Day 3 of the long weekend (and tell me honestly, is there an age when they don't go through a phase). On Day 1 we poured over the Events section of the local paper, critically assessing all the offerings - this one's too crowded; that one's too expensive; this one is outside and it's way too hot. Well, let's just say that on Day 3 we were ready for just about anything in order to get M busy.

First, we went to the Bond Park in Cary for an event that was called "The Old Time 4th of July" or something like that. At first it was kind of boring and crowded, plus we missed the children's parade. Unexpectedly, M got quite taken with the little Bond Lake and spent a while watching the ducks and throwing little twigs into the water.

We were just about ready to head home when the Doughnut Eating Contest was announced. Needless to say, M was only too eager to participate. But first we had to wait for 1-3 year olds to eat their doughnuts. Then it was the turn for 4-7 year olds. To my surprise, everyone got the same size doughnuts - the big, nay, giant ones, even the littlest kids.

Another thing that surprised me was M's adherence to the rules. To begin with, he waited very-very patiently for the doughnut to be tied to the string (oh, yeah, I forgot to mention - it was eating doughnuts without using one's hands contest). He then waited for everyone else to get ready (and there were lots and lots of 4-7 year olds) and not once tried touching the doughnut that dangled right in front of his nose. By contrast, some 5-year old girl nearby ate most of her doughnut right away, before it was even tied to the string and had to be issued another one.

But that wasn't all. When the contest began, most kids used their hands to hold doughnuts. But M is not like most kids. He did not, would not. He followed the rules and, whenever he felt like grabbing a doughnut, just clenched his fists. Needless to say, he lost the contest. However, I'd say that it was the classic case of "losing the battle to win the war" since he got to eat his entire doughnut quietly, enjoying every bite.

There were plenty of doughnuts left over after all the kids were done so the contest was open to the 18+ category. Wadda ya know! Chris decided to enter. He did really well and showed some amazing doughnut eating prowess. Yet he lost to some dude who seemingly inhaled his doughnut.

After a short break it was time for the sack race. I was worried 'cause M never tried anything like this and jumping isn't something he is very eager to do. But Chris encouraged M to enter the race and was absolutely right. So what that M came in dead last! He really loved the experience and didn't fall or trip once!

But it was getting very hot and after a celebratory hot dog and lemonade we headed home to cool off and get some more ice-cold water. We then drove to the Joel Lane House. Last year we went there, they had all sorts of cool period crafts and games and the whole living history thing going on. Except last year M fell asleep in the car, so we parked in the shade and then took turns running through all the festivities and hurrying back.

This year was very different. M participated in almost everything even though he felt very shy. First, we stopped by the old colonial kitchen and, if it was totally up to M, we would've stayed there for at least an hour. He loves this stuff. He knows now why we can't have an open hearth kitchen in the house, so now he wants Chris to build it outside for him.

We also toured the main house and looked at the kids' rooms. What impressed M the most were the fireplaces - one in each room, and the fact that back in the days there was no electricity. He then tried his hand churning butter, writing with a real quill pen and real ink, making a lavender-filled satchel, a rag doll, and a tin ornament and pushing the pedals of both the loom and the spinning wheel. And then he volunteered for Her Majesty's Army and got to march around with a real wooden musket that was painted red.

We thought that after such a busy day he would fall asleep on the way home. No such thing! Instead, M and Chris grilled (salmon) and, after a dinner, went to the yard for some fireworks (sparklers, mostly). Except he tried stuffing sparklers into the barrel of his toy rifle, pretending that he was loading a musket. He also insisted on calling Grandpa and requesting 2 more rifles - one for me (red) and one for Chris (yellow) and said that Xander, our cat, would just have to scratch the enemies.

So all in all, it was a great 4th of July. We just need to work on our doughnut eating and sack racing skills and the next year's 4th will be the best yet!

So here we are enjoying the fireworks.

Maker Faire NC 2011

It happened, it finally happened! Something I've been waiting for since last year - the Maker Faire NC! Ok, so what it was just a 1-day mini-Faire. It was still absolutely amazing. Besides, now I know what to prepare for when we go to the big HUMONGOUS Faire in NY in September.

There was so much going on at the Faire that it's hard now to write about it in a coherent way. I tried taking pictures, but lots of times it just didn't happen because I was either busy having fun or there were just too many people around hustling and bustling.

To M's great delight there were LOTS and LOTS of robots. In fact, the very first thing that we did was to watch robots play hockey (M is the blond shortstop in the middle of the row of spectators). Actually, Chris and M watched and I took an opportunity to learn a bit about tatting (something I overheard the other day on NPR).

Then we walked around a bit and M got to try a sewing machine. He said he liked it, but at that point he wasn't much at ease with the whole experience, so I'm not sure if he really did or not.

Fairs and festivals like this are pretty hard for M to get through. He gets overloaded with all the sights, sounds and movements of hundreds of people. So he withdraws, shoulders raised and voice very-very quiet until he finds something so interesting that he gets fully absorbed in the process, forgetting about the discomfort and the overwhelm.

This time around M started to warm up weave a rope and keep it too! He was so happy and proud and made sure to impress it on us that he was going to use the rope in all sorts of construction projects.

But what truly changed the whole Faire experience for him was the Thinker Linkers. He stayed there for a while, building with the linking boards.

It was really a very cool thing. He still has some fine motor problems and playing with Legos (even Duplos) can be a very frustrating experience. Smaller or smooth surfaced blocks present a different problem as he has a hard time lining them up just right to make the entire structure stable. So I was a bit apprehensive. But never fear! M did need just a bit of help at first, but once he really got into it, he was doing just fine.

And he stayed with the Thinker Linkers for quite a while, at least half an hour if not longer. Eventually another, older, boy joined him and then the boy's dad. In the end, they built a "superstructure" as M referred to it. And then the rope came out and M tried to weave it through the structure and make it do something that only he knew.

Other notable finds included a real Star Wars light saber, a display of rockets (yep, M is still heavily into rockets and a trip to a hobby store isn't too far in the future) and a giant marble run.

If I had to narrow my list of Maker Faire "Wow"s to just 3, these would be Thinker Linkers ('cause M did so amazingly well with them), a huge marble run ('cause I love marble runs and Rube Goldberg machines and dream of one day creating a giant one to go all around M's room and then downstairs into the kitchen) and a Feltronics board ('cause ever since our experiment with Squishy Circuits I've been looking for similar preschooler-friendly ideas).

Grandparents Visit

Finally, my parents found time in their busy schedules to visit. Yeah, I'm complaining! Mostly because they promised to be here for 4 days, but then changed everything to just 2 and a half days. So I feel that I'm totally within my rights here to kvetch loudly.

I dunno about your folks, but when my 'rents are in town, they tend to be very busy along the gender lines. My mom takes over the kitchen and the garden. My dad takes over the yard and the couch. This, by the way, is not a complaint, but a sincere appreciation.

I mean, c'mon, here are two senior citizens (at least by Kohl's standards) who first barrel down I-95 (Dad's always behind the wheel and he tends to interpret "95" as the speed limit), then unload a ton of goodies (mostly food stuff, but this time also a mattress and a couple of very heavy IKEA bookcases). Then they spend 1-2-3 days working before climbing back into the car for a return trip. But not until they write us a check (I s'pose for time well-spent).

Anyway, this time around Mom brought lotsa plants for the garden, mostly herbs. So we planted those. And Dad spent the morning hours (when it wasn't too hot) cutting down the bushes 'cause that's where we want to put our expanded veggie garden and a fruit "orchard" next year.

We also made shashliki, a summer-time Russian tradition. As most other Russian dishes, it's extremely labor-intensive. This is no burger-flipping! This takes time, skill and patience - from marinating the meat (no store-bought marinade either) to building a fire, to actual roasting.

Consequently, no drinking happens while the process is, well, in process. Here you see my hubby is taking a beer break while chatting with his favorite mother-in-law. And his favorite father-in-law is patiently explaining the finer points of the roasting process to M. M loves this and is all ears. Cooking on the open fire is quite possibly his biggest love (after Star Wars that is).

While M is too little to rotate the skewers, he's contributing to the work process by using some fresh herbs to sprinkl the meat with some white wine (yeah, I know, this sounds weird - white wine with lamb, but it does work).

Another thing we did was picking blueberries with Grandma. We went to Smith's Nursery on a very hot day (after helping Grandpa with cutting down the bushes). Luckily, they loaned us a little wagon for M (it's a bit of a hike to the blueberry field although of course if you want to, you can drive there as well, but where's the fun in that?!)

Archemedes said "Give me a lever long enough and I'll move the world". To which I say "Let my parents visit long enough and I'll finish all my unfinished projects" (which, if you were to take a peek at my to-do list, is way more impressive of a feat than moving the world. For real.)

The End of School Year Post

Wait, what am I talking about here? Aren't we homeschooling? Not only that, but we don't really have a schedule so far (well, we're still pre-K and I don't think a formal curriculum or schedule is appropriate or needed at this point).

But it just so happened that our homeschool pre-school co-op wrapped up for the school year and we went to Lake Wheeler for the year-end party. It was really just a big playdate with some snacks. No learning activity was done this time and no books were read. Just lots and lots of free play. Beats any graduation party if you ask me.

That same week we also attended a Homeschoolers Showcase. It's an annual event that marks the end of school year for older homeschoolers. This was our first year attending (as visitors). It was so much fun that I'm considering claiming a table and preparing a presentation for the 2012 Showcase.

M and Chris got to attend as well. Finally Chris met other HS families and met some of M's friends from the preschool co-op (and their parents). He also got to see what older HS kids get to work on and accomplish (again, for now the only record we're keeping is this blog and a [small] stack of art work; oh, and all the junk Star Wars and junk Space Exploration toys we've been making).

M also loved the showcase. First, there was not one, but two REAL ROBOTS there, made by kids from the robotics co-op. M really liked the little robot that could pick up pipes and load them in the box. M kept "feeding" him all the pipes and admiring the 'bot. It's been over a week now and M still asks me when we're going to make our own robot just like that one, except with eyes.

Inspired by robots, M spent almost an hour by the huge LEGO table piecing together something or other. It is very hard work for him since he has such hard time controlling the tiny LEGO pieces. But he kept at it for a long time!

Finally, here are a couple of pictures from the Memorial Day weekend. Our good friends invited us over for some grill-and-beer action. There were other kids there - 5 more boys. So imagine all the fun they were having! After spending quite a lot of time slipping and sliding across the wet tarp (tearing up the lawn in the process), M and a few others settled down for an experiment. They were trying to fill up plastic bags with water from the sprinkler. Amazingly, this simple activity kept them busy for about 40 minutes or so!

Last Weekend - Chicken Tour and More

It's almost time for the long weekend and I'm finally catching up with work stuff. So I realized that I didn't post anything about last weekend.

Well, the big news, of course, is that the world didn't end. I wanted to be the first one to know so I stayed up 'til midnight Eastern Time. But then I thought well, what if the Rapture was scheduled for Central Time? So I stayed up 'til 1am. Nothing... So then I thought what if it's on California time, but at this point I felt too sleepy and didn't care much.

We had a long day on Saturday. First, we went on a much-awaited (by me) chicken tour called Henside the Beltline Tour D'Coop which I think is a pretty clever name. I think this is our fourth year going to this tour. It's not just the chickens that you get to see, but other people's yards.

And since most people who keep chickens here also happen to have some kind of veggie gardens, it's of particular interest to me. Also, most families on the tour have young children so their yards are very kid-friendly.

This year M was very interested in petting a chicken. In many of the houses we went to chickens are truly free-range, roaming around the yard. But catching a chicken is not very easy, as M found out. Fortunately, one of the houses we went to had a pet dwarf potbellied pig who just loved being petted.

The next day after the tour we went to pick cherries. I did mention some time ago that I am now on a Craigslist scavenger hunt. I search their free ads almost every day looking for things. One time I picked up about 50 or so magazines, mostly with recipes and gardening tips. Another time I picked up pine logs to edge the paths in the garden.

Then one day I saw an ad that said "come and pick cherries - free". Well, so we did. The place is kind of a drive from us, but we didn't have much else going on. So we went and picked about 8 pounds of delicious sour cherries. Now even taking into account gas money, this is a good deal. Besides, it seems impossible to buy sour cherries around here, even at the Farmers' Market.

And they are just perfect for pies!!! So Chris and M were busy making a delicious cherry pie from scratch!