The Banana is turning into a strong swimmer (she has an amazing butterfly stroke . . . I love watching it).  Last summer we didn’t have a chance to do swimming lessons, so this summer we jumped right in at the beginning of the summer when we had a few…

Last Friday was a perfect, calm day, so we brought out some fancy, thick watercolor paper and paint out to the deck to be creative.  I love that dragon with a taco, straight out of Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin. 

Last weekend I drove my second kidlet to North Dakota to drop him off at International Music Camp.  It’s always fun to spend one on one time with this kid, and we had a fun, fast trip.  We started late in the day on Saturday and drove to Devils Lake,…

We visited the train museum.  We hadn’t been there for a long time, and it was a lot of fun.  One of my favorite parts of the train museum is the mail car, where you can climb up in the car and see how the mail was sorted and delivered…

School ended!  The next day we drove to the cabin to retrieve Cousin Alex for a 5 day “Camp Aunt Rachel.”  It was a busy adventure, and I have some images I will share soon.  We drove back to the cabin for a few hours of lake fun with the other…

Cousin Alex spent the weekend and the first part of the week at our house for “Camp Aunt Rachel.”  Among various other fun things, we of course went to the beach on Sunday night.  Alex really wanted to go to the sandy beach, so even though we got a late…

We headed to the rocky beach after a cold, rainy weekend.  It was a peaceful night.  The kidlets were off and about climbing on rocks a distance away.  The wind was blowing the water away from shore, but it still swelled in and out of the big rocks.  I love…

Two years ago The Banana trained to run the 5K race at her school’s annual Cougar Chase, but then she broke her foot and couldn’t run.  Last year she was still having some foot issues and couldn’t run a long distance.  But this year was finally her year!  She loved…

On the cello I learned several etudes, and I am learning to be patient as I slowly put together some pieces that are a bit challenging for me section by section. At the piano I learned a piece by Debussy, an accompaniment for a student, and another for The Banana.…