North Point State Park

This is our family hiking and playing at North Point State Park.

cool old building along our hike

North side of Chesapeake Bay

a brick from an old building that once stood on the edge of this pier

but alas, Will will not obey

eventually I caved and we all went around the fence

that long thing at the end of the pier is a sunken barge

Fair Time

Yesterday the kids and I went to the Montgomery County Fair with my sister, her daughters, and her baby boy. I was a little concerned the kids would be ornery beasts because the night before the girls and I had a little campout and stayed up late.

The Perseids Meteor shower was expected to peak Sunday night to Monday morning, so we decided to sleep out in the bed of Will's truck (to avoid mosquitoes and other such bugs that love grass). Though it was squishy because it is a small truck bed, we ended up having a lot of fun. Will joined us for part of the time. I saw four shooting stars, and I know Belle saw more because she woke me up in the early (I mean early) morning hours to say she had just seen another one. I love stars, so I think it was just as magical for me as it was for Belle and Evee. When Evee saw the first one she said, "There it was, and then it was gone." She was amazed. It was pretty cute.

 

Waking them up for the fair

Evee was so tired

The kids and I had a great time at the fair. I am madly in love with fairs, by the way, so I was psyched.  We spent the whole day there, and were sufficiently worn out by the time we got home. I fell asleep on the couch that night.

I think Liam had the most fun. When he saw these calves he went ballistic and started laughing and running in circles.

Getting ready to watch skits of Green Eggs and Ham and The Lorax

Petting a calf. She was very sweet and patient.

Milking a cow. Evee was too afraid to do it.

Belle was actually pretty good at it and got it right in the bucket.

Liam was a man obsessed with this tractor. He was there for probably twenty minutes without budging. I would go over by him and he would shake his head and say, "Uh uh," like you're not getting me off this thing!

I wanted a picture of them all together, but Liam wouldn't move, so the girls climbed up on top. Evee looks concerned because her flip flop was falling off.

Evee's silly face

My crazy kooks

I loved the pig races. So cute and funny. There was a little horse riding area for kids with Downs Syndrome, which I thought was pretty neat, and they played "I See the Light" from Tangled, so the girls liked it, too. They had a toilet decorating contest. Pretty funny. Something I really found interesting was that they had a cow from India which is the breed that is considered the sacred cow of Hinduism. This cow was huge and looked so different from the cows I am used to seeing. But it looked like such a sweetie. I could see how one would not want to eat these types of cows. I said to my sister, "It would be like eating your pet dog." The man next to us said, "He looks like a big Golden Retriever." I wish I had a picture, but darn dead battery. Just imagine a cow that looks like you want to hug him or snuggle up to him. :)

We certainly had a fun time at the fair.

Some Fun Days

~ I typed this up last week but forgot to post it. So this is a little delayed ~

A couple of fun things this past week:

Last weekend my sister and her hubby went to Hawaii, so her kids came up and spent the weekend with us. Her four oldest range from 17-25 years old. And the youngest is nine months. We had a good time with those five hooligans. We walked to Rita's (best Italian ice and custard combo ~ the kids and I walk there often).

 

I don't know why we all look like we gained 20 lbs in this picture. Maybe the custard went straight to our hips.

We loafed around like a bunch of loafies. We made paper lanterns.

We played various games and did puzzles. 

And on Sunday after church we had a Disney movie marathon. Good times.

Then, because the kids loved the themed Pirate Day so much, Belle wanted a Pony Day. We had carrot cake for breakfast (really healthy, I know). We ran around in the field by us, dubbed the horse pasture, and had a picnic under our favorite tree.

I don't know why Evee was a boy pony (hence the tie) but I love this picture of her.

Then we made rainbows for Rainbow Dash on My Little Pony. Actually pretty much everything we did that day was themed around a My Little Pony book my mom gave to Belle. 

We baked chocolate chip cookies, danced, and had a tea party. These themed days take a lot of work, but the kids sure have a good time.

My Liberian Friend

So today is a double entry day. I just have some thoughts on my mind tonight and wanted to share.

I went for a walk tonight with my friend and her adult daughter. She is from Liberia and has been in the U.S. for three years now. I love learning about other cultures, and as my love is growing for her I also want to know about her background as well. So I asked her to share a little more about her life in Liberia. She told me a little about her experiences living there through the civil wars. Her daughter was five when they started and nineteen when they ended. She told me how they would hide in the bushes because the soldiers would come and they could look you right in the face and shoot you. For no reason at all. Can you imagine? So she would take her daughter and hide out in the bushes sometimes for a few nights at a time because she wouldn't know when the soldiers would come back. And without food. And then she would try to stay awake all night in case they did. For fourteen years. Fourteen years! I can't fathom living in fear like that for fourteen years.

I've heard so many immigrants say that the thing they love most about living in America is that it is safe. The law is the law. Now I would argue that isn't one hundred percent true, but comparatively.... we don't really have to worry that our soldiers will just shoot us.

Yet we work so hard to keep people out of America. People like that. People who have to always live in fear. People who live without food or shelter. People who live in unbelievably dire circumstances. And we just are lucky enough to have been born here. That's it. Nothing special we did. Just that our birth took place in this amazing country.

I am so grateful.

Pirate Day

I was planning on taking the kids down to the river again but noticed it was going to be rainy all day today. But I was determined to still make it a fun day. Remember the "So What if it's Raining" book from a couple posts back? Good children's book, by the way. 

So we dubsed today "Pirate Day". We dressed and talked like pirates all day. Well, Belle dressed like a princess kidnapped by pirates. You know her. She can never do anything the typical way. :) We renamed each room to be something like Mermaid Bay or Pirate's Cove. It ended up being purdy fun.

Belle wanted to look sad because she had been kidnapped :)

We went on a treasure hunt. I made rhymes for them to find that were pirate themed which led them to another clue. 

Clue found

 

Finding another clue

Here is an example of one the clues. It was the last one that led them to the map in the bathtub.

            Blimey, yar almost thar mate

            Glad to see ye are not yet shark bait      

            Yo ho, ye scurvy dogs keep goin’

            Get in your boat and get rowin’

               

To get clean here, first pull off yer bootstrap

To find me booty you must find the map

Look in the place that is white and shiny

The place where buccaneers wash their hineys

Found the map in a bottle in the bathtub

Treasure box found

Checking out the booty: gems, coins, and cinnamon chips

(weird, I know, but they love them)

Then we had a pirate lunch together and watched Peter Pan.

Pirate bananas and "cannonballs" (AKA roasted chickpeas) for lunch.

Liam saying "arrr" ...... or actually roaring?

And our pirate themed dinner.

Asp-arrrr-agus

Seaweed Stir-Fry (and that is legit seaweed)

Veggie Planks