A New Hobby

Zach now has a new hobby...building skin-on-frame kayaks. Here are some pictures of the first one he finished a couple weeks ago. The frame is made of pvc conduit and plywood. He attached everything with string and glue, no nails or screws.




He covered the frame with a piece of canvas and several coats of laquer. His baby is 10ft long and weighs 22lbs. It's a bit wobbly in the water when sitting still, but once moving, it can go pretty fast. It's really neat!





And yes, he found walkers in a dumpster to use as sawhorses.

Camping, part II

Abi got to try camping out again this year. This time it wasn't Daddy and Abi on their own, but Mommy, JD, Matt, Joann and Jesse all joined in the fun! No fear of the crickets this year! We made hobo meals (meat, veggies, potatoes all wrapped in cabbage leaves) over the fire...




S'mores for dessert...


and some time for catching fireflies and doing sparklers before bedtime...



It was good practice for our canoe camping trip we'll be taking in August...where there will be no option of going inside to a bed for the night!

Delaware

We enjoyed a great weekend in Delaware, visiting family and, of course, the beach. We stayed two nights with my cousins, Bill and Nannette and their son, Caleb. Friday, at Lewes Beach, where there aren't many waves, the kids were able to get used to the idea of swimming in the ocean. We arrived just as a storm was blowing past. After a neat cloud display, and watching it rain out on the ocean but not hit us, the sun eventually came out. Saturday we headed out to Rehobeth Beach in the afternoon. We did get rained on there. But we still got to dig in the sand seaching for crabs and jump in the waves (really only Abi did that...it was pretty chilly) before the rain came. As we drove to Delaware on Friday, Abi was sure that she was NOT going to swim in the ocean because of the whales. This video's kinda funny because you can hear her exclaim about there not being any whales, hooray, hooray, hooray!



I don't have any pictures of this, but Nannette, Abi, JD and I went for a hike around a pond and saw a black ratsnake climbing up a tree. Nannette and Abi were bold enough to go poke at it and touch it's tail. That has certainly been Abi's story to tell everyone since we've returned home.

Fun Times

Abi went to the Garden State Discovery Museum with her Oma and Opa. She had a lot of fun being a doctor and a chef at a diner among many other things, including being INSIDE of a bubble!



Recently a local campground also hosted "Philadelphia Zoo on Wheels" day. The "Zoo" part of the festivities was a little disappointing (they brought along a hedgehog and a snake) but the kids enjoyed the other free activities like the moonbounce, beanbag toss, fishing (for plastic fish), and FACE PAINTING...that was the highlight for Abi.

1st birthday!

JD turned ONE on Saturday. We had fun celebrating his birthday with a picnic party in the evening. Zach and I tried to make a pinata the night before the party, but we were reminded that they need more then one night to dry. So on Saturday morning, we pulled out all the drying tools we could think of...hair dryer, heat gun, oven...it ended up bursting from the heat of the oven. Well, now we know for next time. But the weather was perfect and there were plenty of other games and water toys to use outside.


One homemade carrot cake by Oma, One homemade strawberry pie by Grandmom...the desserts were a hit!!



Unfortunatly, Abi was fighting a fever so she received a lot of cuddle time with Grandmom, which I don't think either of them minded.

Fair Days

The Arts Alive Festival came downtown again this year. Abi has been waiting for it ever since it ended last year. She constantly talked about getting her face painted and going on a horse ride (actually it was a horse-drawn carriage). Well, she did get her face painted again this year, this time on both cheek, but unfortunately missed out on the carriage ride. The line was too long, then when we came back it was time for the horses to rest.

Abi almost went for a ride on this trackless train (pulled by a lawn mower), but as soon as the engine started and they were ready to leave, she screamed "NOOO!!"

The conducter graciously gave her ticket back and Abi thoroughly enjoyed the moon-bounce instead.

The icing on the cake, the perfect ending to the day...one chocolate cupcake with a large gummy butterfly on top. What more could a 3-yr-old ask for?

Hint of Summer

We had an unusually warm week at the end of April and the kids had a blast playing in the water! Almost everyday Abi asks to get the pool out again. She's not convinced that it's just as fun to play in cold rain puddles.

aww, such sweet siblings