The 200lb Paperweight

 I was adamant to Eva.  I do not have the patience to use a sewing machine.

I have tried.

But she was positive that is what she wanted for her birthday, a sewing machine.

But then, Tia Linda came to the rescue.  She bought Eva 2 sewing lessons.  We did them, but she absorbed very little.  I even later booked an additional lesson with Annabelle.

I was pretty sure I had just bought a 200lb paperweight. 

But then she surprised me.  One day, she busted it out, and went to town!  Just look at the beautiful pillows she created!  I am so very proud of her.

Apples!

 One of my favorite newer traditions is apple picking!  Dyleva goes just to climb the trees, but we really do use the apples.  We always make a couple pies, one for Papa, one for us.  This year I want to make apple sauce with the ninos.  

We first started going with friends from my work.  Now we love it so much, we go every year.

Today we came home with 2 huge bags of apples!  Wow!  We have a lot of work to do this week!

Roller, Roller, Roller Coaster!

 Two years ago our family rode the Viper.  None of us loved it, except Jeff.  Although it gave Dyleva bragging rights.  

"I've ridden the Viper..."

Last year, thank god, we had the year off due to Covid.  

This year, it seems we picked up where we left off.  We spent the day there a couple weeks ago with all of their cousins and some addiitonal friends.  Well, let's just say Dylan decided he was ready.  He was petrified; but he did some of them anyway.  He did all of them except the Ride of Steel and the Predator.

Well since that day, he has been OBSESSED with roller coasters.  He has been reading about them, building them, creating power point slide shows about them.

Today we went for a couple hours.  Dylan just finished off the rest.  He rode both of them.  He was very nervous, but extremely proud of himself at the end of the day.

Front row!

Van Gogh

 Titi invited us to go see the Vincent Van Gogh exhibit.  After months of driving past the massive tent down the street from us, we finally got to go in! 

The first part presented much information about his life, set to the backdrop of paintings.  I found it fascinating, and beautiful.  My mom always told me he cut his ear off and sent it to his girlfriend.  I still don't know about that...

After that, we entered a very large room with panels in the middle of the room.  

The entire room became a panel for his art.  It moved, converged, meshed.

It was wicked cool!

In the Heights Hysteria

 Back in June, the boys had a hockey night.  I took Eva to the premiere of In the Heights.  After the love of Hamilton and Lin Manuel, I figured that this would be the next step.  

Well, we loved it.  Although she didn't reach obsession status until she got her cousin on board, she soon memorized all the lyrics, bought books about the play, and has watched the movie 20 times since.  

We have had a viewing in the yard, full-on volume, a viewing at the McKay's house, and a viewing at the beach.

It's catching on!  Even Dylan is starting to like it!

Lego Madness

 We took a four day hiatus from the beach.

I payed bills and did laundry.  We also tried (unsuccessfully) to find Mom's rose bushes.

But I told Dyleva.  This is your time.  Play.  Enjoy.  No running around.  

Well both of them chose legos!  They played for three days straight!

Here are Eva's creations:

Here are Dylan's creations:

3 Weeks!

 One of our summer traditions for the past 8 or so years, is to rent our cottage on the beach.  The situation has evolved over the years, but basically our family likes us, and asked us to put our weeks consecutively.  

We compromised by just taking 3 weeks, and returning home for a few days in the middle.

Our first week, we had the best weather the entire year.  It only rained once at night.  It was hot and sunny everyday.

Much to Dylan's displeasure, the waves were very calm!

Some highlights this visit were:

Gizmo's first beach experience.  He did great!  He is still unsure of the water, but doesn't mind the beach.

Dylan stepped on a bee while walking the dog.  Unfortunately, he then limped around for 4 days.

We sighted a skunk right outside our door.  He was cute and friendly, but a surprise nonetheless.

Eva and Dylan also tried waterskiing.  They had very good attitudes and I was finally ready for them to try.  They did great!

Photos from the second week: