Fourth of July Week

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.

Kudos and Brickbats

Brickbats to the jackass who decided it would be fun to use my credit card for his or her purchases.  Kudos to the credit card company, which was onto it before the deed was an hour old.  I got a call from fraud alert and we verified valid charges and barred the couple of "not mine" entries almost immediately.  I have no idea where the culprit got the card number.  The card is still in my possession and I keep (and shred after validating) all credit card receipts.  A replacement card will be issued, but that means that a couple of charges that are regular and automatic needed notification of the change.  A pox on people who would rather steal than work for their money.

Annapolis Dockside Adventure

Baltimore is celebrating the 200th Anniversary of the War of 1812  and the attack on Ft. McHenry with one mega-celebration.  There are over 40 tall ships from all over the world scattered all around the Baltimore Harbor area.  Ft. McHenry has many special events and there are more events scattered over the general area.  The Blue Angels performed today and will do so again tomorrow.  I really wanted to go, but the reality of a healing but gimpy hip limits the length of time I am comfortable walking or just standing around, and I don't want to undo the good that has been happening.  So....

I compromised and went to Annapolis where only one tall ship is docked.  I figured at least I could get close enough to that one to try some pictures.  From the time I got there I had some nice surprises.  Between me and the Bounty (the ship that is docked there) was a Corvette show, with some really classy vehicles.  One of the license plates said it all.

 Here are a couple of my favorites:

Shiny, aren't they?  And the engines were as clean as a whistle.  After all, this was a competition, and cleanliness counted.

On to the Bounty, which is a replica of said ship and was created for use in the movie "Mutiny on the Bounty".  She has three masts, but one of them had communications gear on it, which I considered an anachronism and decided to ignore.  I was fascinated by the number of lines it takes to handle the sails and all that go with it.

By some judicious maneuvering onto a side pier I'm not sure I was supposed to be traversing (but there were no signs saying "don't") I got a fairly decent angle of the masthead.

 

The ship has a long, lean look from the front.

At one point there were canoeists paddling around her for a better look, and they probably had the best look of any of us. 

Just as I was deciding I was ready to move on to some errands, someone said, "Oh, look at the heron!"  There on the little pier behind me was a black-crowned night heron, a bird for which I had spent a considerable amount of time at Chincoteague searching in vain back in May.  Right there--up close and personal!

I know they nest in the area, but not downtown!  What on earth was it doing among all the people and boat traffic.  And honestly, I wouldn't want to eat anything that lives in the waters around the dock.  Yuck!  His destination became apparent when he flew over to MY pier.  Just as I was refocusing for a closer shot, a man who was crabbing yelled "Shoo!'', and off it flew!  The bird was heading for crabs the man had caught and had stowed in a bucket on the pier.  The night heron had to look elsewhere for brunch.

The trip was fun, it was just the right length, and I had side experiences I wasn't expecting.  Very satisfactory.  I'll wait till the Blue Angels fly over the Naval Academy again to watch them and be glad not to have had to fight the throngs I saw on TV tonight!

May in Nags Head

In between the beginning of the trip to NC and the final leg of it, Pat and Bob and I joined two of their children, spouses of those children, and children of those children for a week at Nags Head.  We had a great place on the beach with plenty of room for the 12 of us.  We were pleased to see that the beach restoration from last year was holding strong. The weather was beautiful most of the time.

There were plenty of good food and good times,  We started early on with a celebration of Emily-the-Younger's third birthday.  She was delighted with the whole thing.

Little Abby got into the spirit of things by wearing her ice cream, which was very becoming!

The older children love to do craft projects, and we had several to choose among.  Even Emily got into it this time.  Jake still would rather play with his cars, but I think the girls enjoyed it.  Here are Emily, Ava, and Elizabeth hard at work on one of the activities.

 Of course the beach was the main draw for the younger set.  The dads got into the construction on the beach with the youngsters and they had several projects going at one time or another.  Ben, Ava, and Elizabeth started the ball rolling but the sea kept sweeping it away.

Then Len and Elizabeth tried building a seawall to protect a little boat.

Of course that didn't last very long with the incoming tide, so re-enforcements were called in, both human and construction.

Then Emily got the idea to add a different type of re-enforcement and they set about doing it as a team.

But in the end, it was all for naught.

Meanwhile, the mothers and Abby looked on from a safe distance.  Abby was happy in her mother's arms, but she is a little young to appreciate the surf.

When the beach got to be a bit much, the pool provided a calmer atmosphere.  Even Abby got into it there.  She's quite the little water baby.

Elizabeth liked playing the regal queen of the pool in the float, giving her queenly wave, but she and Ava both swim very well.

The dads were good at catching the kids who wanted to go down the slide but needed a little help at the end.

And if we ever needed extra protection, there was always Superman Jake to the rescue.

It was a relaxing, happy week.  Even the clouds occasionally had stars in them.

 For family members who haven't yet had enough of my yammering, there are a few more photos at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/ejoyce2

May in Central NC

As I get older, driving to NC to see family and friends gets a little more difficult, so when I do it, I try to space things out and see as many folks as I can manage.  This May I went to see my sister Nancy and her family in Rockingham, stopping on the way (coming and going) with Doug and Colleen and also spending a bit of time with niece Sara and sister-in-law Martha. 

I hadn't actually seen Nancy and her family since last summer, so it was nice to visit in their new digs and have time to chat.  What made it even nicer was that sister Pat and her husband Bob were there from PA, so we had a real tribal reunion. 

Nancy and R.C.'s daughter Julie and son Chase are living with them for now.  Chase is a very active four-year-old with an impressive stance for swinging a baseball bat.  He often connects with the balls, too.

To say that Nana is proud of this little grandson would be an understatement.

One of the things we did while we were there was to go to the cemetery and check out things there.  When last all three sisters were together, it was to bury our mother, so we wanted to check out the state of the family gravesites.  We were pleased with what we found.

Nancy and R.C.'s grandson Brandon showed up with his son Bentley, and we all feasted on ribs barbecued by R.C. (with Bob's help). 

 It was a nice visit, and one we hope not to have to wait a year to repeat.

Easter Fun

Easter in Pennsylvania with family is always a special time.  This time I had a special project in mind and enlisted the aid of the older grandnieces, Ava and Elizabeth.  I have a project to do for my church this spring; it involves posed pictures.  I rarely do posed shots, preferring to catch my subjects in action, but my camera is relatively new and I needed practice with some of its capabilities, especially when it comes to incorporating the tripod.  The girls first posed in sitting poses and then they modeled some scarves from the dress-up box in the playroom.  I think we all had fun with it.  Here are a few of the results:

Of course the younger crew couldn't be ignored, but I just did my normal thing with them--made a valiant effort to catch them on the run.  At ages 3, 2, and 1, that was the best I could hope for!  If you can catch Abby looking out the window, you have a fighting chance.

Emily is more likely to be found on the run.  I think she was chasing soap bubbles but I'm not sure why she needed the shovel.

Jake stopped running long enough to show me a feather he'd found.   After all, Auntie Em is a lover of all things birdy (except when they decorate my car, the ungrateful little things).

The weather was beautiful, and it was a great weekend.