Let summer begin!

We had summer weather for a while, now, but since it is officially summer, rain and cold have returned. When we walked to school on the last day before summer break it was raining and cold. It actually felt like the first day of school in September and I was thinking of carving pumpkins.

The last week of school had been a long holding pattern. We had three additional schooldays because of the snow last winter. Given the amount of snow, it is amazing, that we only had to add 3 days, but luckily hell broke loose during Christmas break. We had swimming on Monday, we spent a lot of time with our 4th grade rainbow pals, and we got to witness the 1st Annual Egg Drop. The 4th graders got a project to design something, in which a raw egg can be dropped of the school roof without breaking. The kids came up with all kinds of designs and surprisingly enough only about 20% broke. Everyone had fun especially Mr. Brooks, the custodian, who got to throw them from the roof.

On Tuesday Marlene had her last baseball game with a party afterwards. We made baseball cupcakes. On Thursday was Field day, where the kids get to play for half a day on the lower field, carnival type games. Every year it is organized by a group of dads and we definitely had a change of personal, with new games and new events. Fiel day is as well wacky hair and hat day. For the first time I sprayed the girls hair pink and they just loved it.

Last weekend was summer solstice and that means Freemont Fair and the big Solstice Parade. After 12 years in Seattle it was my first time and I really loved it. It is definitely an alternative parade without high school marching bands and diesel powered floats. Everything is manual and different. For non-Satellite's to give you an idea, it starts with the naked bikers. Some are dressed up, some have their bodies fully painted. It is quite a sight. We saw the Superhuggers, the largest kickball rolling over people, who laid down to be rolled over, the Spagettimonster, the bellydancers, Sambagroups, and many more. The girls had their faces painted and wore their tie-dye shirts. After the parade we wandered around the booths of the fair. Here we participated in communal art and sampled many different granola bars. It was a lot of fun and we will definitely do this again. Happy Summer Solstice!