The weekend before the Fourth of July we had a huge storm blow through here with major damage to power lines, trees, etc. Power was out at my place for over two days, and I was lucky to get it back then. Since the temperatures were in the high nineties, my sister suggested I come up to PA a couple of days early. They had power, and the whole Haber tribe were going to be in the area. I had planned to be there just before the Fourth for a couple of days, but since my house was uninhabitable (I don't do 95 degrees in the house well), I gratefully accepted.
As always, we had a great time together. The swimming pool stayed busy, and the children (all seven of them) got along very well. The contingent from Maine doesn't get down very often, but all the children always act as though they had just seen each other the day before and get on with it.
One of the crafts we did was to make puppets (crafts are my "thing" with the children). The older girls made sock puppets and the younger children made bag puppets (with a good bit of help). Here are Elizabeth, Kaylan and Ava with the sock puppets followed by Jack with his lion and Jake with his bluebird.
At that point I thought we were through with the activity. Silly me! The older girls decided they needed to put on a play with the puppets and went off into a huddle where they wrote a script, named the puppets, drew scenes to change, made up a song to go with it, and informed me I was to be narrator. Bear in mind that the girls are 8, 7, and 6 years old. Of course I went along with it, and when the boys wanted to do the puppet show, too, they were graciously permitted to roar and tweet on cue. All the household adults were commanded to participate as the audience, and here was the result:
You get a side view, and not a very good one, because I was trying to take pictures, direct the performance, and serve as narrator. The whole thing was viewed by doting parents and grandparents (and Auntie Em, of course) as a rollicking success.
In my childhood one of my favorite books was
The Secret Garden. Kaylan was reading it and she told the others, so the older girls formed a Secret Garden Club. They scooted off where the little folk couln't find them, planted seeds in pots, and wrote in journals. I was allowed to photograph the event because I admitted to reading (many times) the book in question and loving it.
The older girls do a lot of dress-up activities using scarves and such furnished by their grandmother, but Elizabeth is the one who loves to model for me and has definite ideas about the poses I should capture.
What is it about stairs that draws children to them? I call these the stair-step cousins.
Emily and Abby were often there. Abby, as the youngest, just did her thing, while Emily often stuck as tightly to Ava as she could (and Ava was happy about it).
Here's Abby sporting her happy smile.
Emily tends to be very self-contained and entertains herself very well. She does like it, however, when she uses the toy phone to have someone (pretend to) answer it.
It was hot and the pool was very popular. Jack and Jake had a lot of fun together in the water.
And both of them took great pleasure in drenching their dads.
The three older girls all swim very well. Elizabeth has come a long way since last year and is a very proficient swimmer.
Emily thinks about swimming but didn't want older people to help. When Ava took over the instruction, Emily was as happy as a clam and did very well! Ava is a loving and encouraging teacher.
No Fourth would be complete without fireworks, but since the really younger children (4 years old and younger) don't like loud noises, the fireworks we had were minimalist. It was enough. The children sat on the driveway and watched as Uncle Len set off the fireworks, giving their opinions about each one by the expressions on their faces.
As always, I had a wonderful time. It left me with happy memories to tide me over when I got home to a non-functioning heat pump that has only recently been restored to health.
