Father's Day, An Iron Man race, a Friendaversary and other fun things

Usually, I first download all my pictures to my draft as a visual reminder of all the little "happenings" I want to recount, and then proceed to write out my post; but I am having a small problem lately: For some reason, either my computer or this server has decided to paste pictures in reverse chronological order. I'm going to try to work with it, since I can't figure out what happened or how to fix it. I hope I can figure this out soon, but please excuse the strangeness for a bit.

Today we went to our small town's 4th of July parade, and I wanted to catch up on all the other stuff before I posted on here about it. The first month of our summer was spent on scheduled activities: VBS and swim lessons. I think this is why we have spent these past two weeks at home with renewed appreciation for quotidian pastimes. Kids have spent a fair amount of time playing with their neighbors and having fun crafting, playing, making messes- I mean, movies, at home. 

A couple times, the kids have come in the house asking for a dollar because they saw a neighbor's lemonade stand, and yesterday they decided they wanted to have their own. Since I had already granted wishes this week, when they had their little party the other day (more on that shortly) I told them I wasn't up for another trip to the store to buy lemonade, cups, etc. So they put together a collection of their toys and called it a "try-it stand" and had their little neighbors basically rent the toys for a try it. I wish I had taken pictures! But a lot of their little friends were new acquaintances and I didn't know if it would be ok to take pictures. They had fun (even if not everyone was kind about their unusual take on the traditional lemonade stand) and I think it gave them an excuse to talk to other kids from around the block.

Playing outside with friends has been part of the daily routine. Their friends are two unrelated girls around Mr E's age who live very close by. They all have a lot of fun together. Sometimes they play in the tree house (today they took the telescope up and looked at the moon), sometimes they come inside to play with Barbies, and most of the time, they move between all three front yards to play all kinds of games. And of course, they party. Haha. I think it must have been my kids' idea because they planned it all themselves, told me what ingredients to buy (wrote a shopping list in fact), and picked out a present for each of their friends. I really didn't do much- it was all them. 

After all that prep, they had their little Friendaversary party. I took a picture of them celebrating:

This is right after Miss E finished decorating:

 

I think they are opening presents here. All the presents were small, used toys or very inexpensive trinkets from the store (a small perfume bottle, playdough, a used Barbie doll, things like that).

The prep work involved decorating cupcakes to look like sheep. Why sheep, you ask? Because why not. And also because they saw it in a Netflix show. They seriously did it all themselves by following the step by step example given by the cartoon characters. I am still very impressed.

The kids are not the only ones with crazy ideas around here. I have also been working on a small project or tw...enty. I don't know what bit me, but I decided to cross a ton of things off my list this summer. Quijote has done so much as well! I really need to go back to that still unwritten post about our recent home improvement projects and brag about my handy husband!

Inspired by his work (have I talked about him replacing the faucets yet?) I started painting the rest of the bathroom fixtures and the walls. This is what it's looking like so far:

The new faucet. it's so pretty....

I painted the fixtures to match the faucet.

And the walls are a bit of an experiment.

For a few years now, I have been learning about living in an eco friendly way and trying to make changes wherever I can. Because I love art and crafting, I've been doing a lot of reading on mineral pigments, natural pigments, and such. I also have been studying classical paint-making (tempera, oil paints etc) and have finally decided to try my hand at it. Crossing fingers that this works!

Picture of my eco friendly wall paint below:

 

And me, in my pajamas, feeling pretty proud. Hopefully I had good reason to be this happy with myself. The idea is that the mineral pigments provide a low-VOC color palette, and the texture of the ingredients makes for a breathable layer that still manages to seal VOCs from old layers of regular paint. And finally, mineral oils used as binders can also have a slight insecticidal and fungicidal effect! Time will tell.

I took the next couple pictures because Mr E asked me to. We have had a good week or so of rainy weather. The kids have really loved it. They get to play in the rain and step in the puddles and wear their rain jackets. They both have asked for their own umbrella, but the last time I granted that request, said umbrellas were used as swords, so I'm reluctant to do it again ... Maybe they're old enough now to know not to cause mischief. Haha. Or maybe this one umbrella is enough =P . Next year?

Flowers and plants are loving the rain, too. I do think there's a little rust going around because of the constant humidity, so I'll use Neem oil on them after the rainy spell is over, but everything still seems pretty happy. And I haven't had to go out and water by hand in a while!

That tiny trailing plant in the center (below) is my luffah vine. It's an investment plant because it needs almost two seasons to give fruit. And it's looking really small to me. Crossing fingers.

It's surrounded by society garlic, cherry tomatoes, zinnias, garlic chives, rosemary, a much happier morning glory vine, and the roses. 

Here are some pictures of our trip to see my brother and his wife compete in a triathlon called Iron Man. They both qualified for the world championship! We made a quick trip to cheer them on and watch them cross the finish line, walked around campus a bit, and then we drove home.

Kids were pretty tired and slept on the way back.

In late June we also submitted the paperwork for my green card renewal. I have mixed feelings -so many mixed feelings- about the whole thing, which could take up an entire post if I let it, so I'll simply announce that we're now done, and waiting for approval. Biometrics appointment should follow if all goes well, and then a new card should arrive soon (in 6-12 months sigh) Please pray all goes well. If you pray for us, please also pray for my family in Juarez/El Paso, who are dealing with serious health issues. Your prayers are greatly needed and appreciated.

As I mentioned, we have also had a few crafting sessions. This is a picture I took after Miss E made a Barbie doll t-shirt all on her own. All I did was help her thread the needle. She made a pattern from another top, cut the fabric, and hand stitched all the seams herself. The neckline is pretty bad, to be honest, but everything else is truly very well done!! I was very proud. The high waisted capri pants and belt were made by me.

And here she is painting. Miss E watched me re-paint the old stretchers I have in the bathroom, so she grabbed hers from her bedroom and asked me to re-paint hers in white. Then she decided she wanted flowers. The previous art was a group portrait of her best friend from school, Mr E, and herself- but she didn't seem very heart broken about replacing the once beloved image. Is it a good thing she doesn't miss her friend as much anymore? Am I making assumptions? I don't know, but it was bittersweet for me. Again- I have mixed feelings about it. 

These pictures below are from Father's Day. We celebrated Quijote with a small gift chosen by Miss E - who was especially concerned this year about getting it just right, and did tons of browsing until she found the perfect thing. And we also went out to eat at a restaurant we love because it has a sandpit for the kids and peace and quiet for the parents. Also- their burgers are sooo good. 

Hope he had a happy Father's Day. Love you, Quijote!! I really do think you're there best dad my kids could ever have.

I have a gift I'm going to give my own dad when I visit my family in Mexico in a few days. I hope he'll enjoy it. Little by little bit, I've been putting together a man crate of sorts- grilling tools and such- to go with the new outdoor oven and grilling area he just constructed in the Anapra house... Looking forward to seeing it all in action!! Those of us who grew up under the protection of loving father figures are unusually blessed. My own dad didn't have this blessing, but he made sure his kids had a great man to call Papá.

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Though it should have been the first thing in the list- one more little bit on the fun of crafting. Miss E, Mr E, and I do a lot of crafting while Quijote is at work. He has been having very long days at the office and we have been trying very hard to clean up and receive him in a nice, clean home each day. But first, we make a mess!

 

Our kick-off project this month was a couple backpacks for Mr E's stuffed dragon and for Miss E's Barbie dolls. 

Miss E did the photo editing :)

Of course, after making those, we had to make tiny books, pencils, and even a tablet, to put in the backpacks. We've also made more shirts, dresses, a couple pairs of pants, boots, and even a small wooden crib for Barbie's baby. 

Miss E knows three stitches now- the blanket stitch, the regular straight stitch, and the back stitch. She needs a quick review each time after not having done any sewing in a while, but then her muscle memory kicks in, and she's off --making entire garments on her own now! 

Playtime always follows. 

Mr E has also taken a liking to all our crafting- though he is still in the "made to order" stage that Miss E was in until this year. Hehe. He still mostly enjoys asking for very specific things -ideas he comes up with or sees online. Like when he watched a YouTube video on cardboard recycling, and asked me to make him this T-Rex costume. He showed me the video so I would make it exactly like they did in the clip. He did have to wait a while, for when we had enough cardboard boxes to make it with. And here it is: 

He's a happy boy in his cardboard costume. Today he asked me for "a bunch of little buildings" to play Godzilla with. Quijote told me to empty out a few tea boxes, and that we did. And so Mr E's T-Rex costume became a Godzilla costume for a day.

Lastly, the kids have been writing scripts and making them into short videos. They call them "movies" of course, though they're only a few minutes long. Quijote and I, and even the dogs, have been made to participate in these short films to an embarrassing degree- which is why you will not see the videos here :)! But I wanted to record the memory anyway.