Summer Phase 1

Well, it seems the summer came and is here to stay. I was a little afraid how we would manage, but it seems we are staying busy and having fun. Like last year we made a "Summer Action Plan" were the girls suggest things to do. It is a long list, but we are moving along quite well. The girls love to cross off things at the end of the week.

The first week after school ended Marlene went to "German Camp". It was an all day camp put up by GLS. It was great, they had full German immersion. The topic was knights and castles. The kids put on a play (Die schoene Melisande), sang songs and danced. They cooked together and did a lot of art projects. Marlene loved it, and I think, she is loosing her shyness about speaking German.

Finally we managed to paint Marlene's room. We wanted to do that since last summer, but the replacement of the roof and the weather had prevented that so far. We chose a good weekend, because temperatures in the high 90's made for fast drying paint.

The following week we drove to Bellingham to visit Jen, Zoey and John, who just moved there from Seattle. We had a fun day walking around and swimming in Lake Padden. It was the first time for the girls to taste salmonberries. They grow all around the lake. Another day we went with the Seawalls to the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma. It is always nice to mix the zoos up a bit. The zoo has upgraded its play area and the kids would have had a fun day just playing there, but we draged them to see animals, too. On Thursday we went to the beach at Carkeek Park. It was an extra low tide (-4 feet) and so we got to see a lot of sea creatures. We met Marlene's teacher Mrs Jenniker who is a beach naturalist and volunteers at the beaches for education.

The 4th of July we went down to Browns Point to celebrate with Mike Kristin, Laura, Kevin and Jack. Kristin's brother and his family were there, too. We had three 3-year olds, all born between Feb 12th and March 15th. The weekend was quiet at home. Jay is replacing the back part of our deck.