Summer reminiscing

Since it's now officially autumn, this post will serve to remember one of our fun hot summer days..  We went to a splash pad with Grandma, and the kids had a fun time.  It just so happened that we went on the same day that a local home school group was meeting there, so there were several kids our kids' ages there.

By far, their favorite thing was to stand under the buckets, which would fill with water and, once full, would tip over and douse them ...

We actually went twice, because it was so much fun.  The second time, Grandma came in her swimming suit, too, and the kids took that as permission to attack her with cups full of water.  I spared her the photographic evidence, but I won't forget the big smile on her face.  Truly a kid at heart!

As temperatures are cooling down now, this sort of activity doesn't seem as enticing.  But trust me, on a hot August summer day in Arkansas it was the perfect way to spend a couple of hours!

Mid-America Science Museum

An afternoon at the Mid-America Science Museum in Hots Springs, Arkansas, turned out to be an afternoon well spent.  

We went shortly after school had started for all the other kids, so the museum was not crowded at all.  Additionally, every exhibit we tried was in working order!  What a bonus.  We've been to too many science museums that had broken "hands-on" activities.  Never Fun.

The one downside is that the coolest thing at Mid-America is a an extra fee--we did not pay to enjoy the truly hair-raising fun that it offers.  Oh well, we still had a good time.

And after all that play, Grandpa treated us to ice cream and popcorn afterwards!

Painting, part 2

There's painting that is work and there's painting that is pleasure.  We spent an evening with the girls painting for pleasure at a studio in town called Abella.  We arrived to this wall of inspiration:

Yes, I'm blurry--sigh

We are inspired!

 After selecting a painting to recreate, we were given the canvases, paints, brushes and a small amount of instruction.

Then we began making each painting our own.

And my finished product.

I don't currently have pictures of the girls' paintings--I'll have to get pictures of them, and update this post in a day or two... come back.

Lessons From Italy Learned--Digging for Diamonds

Without a doubt we enjoyed all the traveling we did throughout Italy and Europe.  We saw incredible things and iconic architecture.  But you know, if you talked to the local guy in Aviano, it wasn't uncommon for him to not have been to any of those places, even though they were just a few hours from home.

It gave us pause--the U.S. has no shortage of incredible things and iconic architecture...will we travel to experience it?  I hope our answer is yes...so starting in Arkansas we took a day to visit the nation's only diamond mine to search for our fortunes with some of the family.

Brad supplied buckets for the troops, and we gathered a few random shovels and spades from Dad's house for the task at hand

I'm not sure how flip flops are appropriate shoewear for this job, but...

We paid our entrance fees (and hey, we weren't penalized for being non EU citizens this time--woohoo!) and walked into the park.

 And we tried to find the one spot where we would find riches

love this picture of my brother and his baby girl

 We dug, sifted and washed...

 And at least one of us was looking extra cute

 We took a few small rocks to the counter for the "expert" to look at them and let us know how big our diamonds were...

Okay, so it might have been just quartz, jasper and calcite that we found, but we found it together.

Welcome #5--Family

We were all very eager to head to Arkansas to see our family--the cousins just adore each other.  

So very blessed

Welcome #4--Road Trip!

After a solid week of running back and forth to Home Depot for the 22 gallons of paint it was time to head south.

Let's see how Clifford does--time to drive to Arkansas and see the family

Third Welcome--PAINTING! And more friends...to help paint

We couldn't have been happier to return to Ohio and to the house that we bought in 2006 (back before we had any idea we'd ever travel the world).  The kids wanted to make their rooms their own, so we started with an item to decorate their rooms (that required a trip to Target--no complaints from me--Ted, maybe one or two).  Using that item, we got paint inspirations and selected paints for all the rooms...Then we began the tedious job of painting...

 and painting

 and more painting

lots and lots and lots of painting

 and painting difficult to reach areas...

and friends who helped us

 sometimes they helped by keeping us busy

 or feeding us!