Next, Evan lost another tooth (with lots of blood and gore.) Celeste learned she loves lotion and is terrified of lizards. Connor went to a Young Men/Young Women activity that involved throwing colored powder at each other, and Elise made a nifty botanical display of the plants in our yard, just for fun.
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| There's a super scary lizard in there... |
We finally got our second piano! It's a brown Kawai, and the soundproof wall we put in the toy room works perfectly to allow two kids to practice at the same time. We got CM results back, showing that Evan passed Level 1, Elise passed Level 4, and Connor passed Level 5 with honors. Lastly, Evan and Connor participated in the Bach festival, and Elise did the CAPMT festival in Pasadena.
Ryan won (bid on) a Palm Springs weekend at the most recent Boy Scout silent auction, so we were able to spend Friday and Saturday night in a vacation home there. It was a nice place, but the house rules were that you had to leave it as you found it, which totally stressed me out. I took pictures of all the rooms to make sure I put the breakable knicknacks back where they belonged. We spent most of Saturday at the Palm Springs Air Museum, which I think was the best air museum I've ever been to. It helps that it specializes in World War II aircraft, which are the only ones I know anything about. We were actually able to see a real P-47 Thunderbolt and a piece of cloth artwork with Hub Zemke's signature on it (it had been made and signed at Stalag Luft I.) I also really liked the wall charts showing the primary aircraft used in the war, and the map of air bases on the coast of England, many of which are mentioned in Hub's books.
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| Too Many Pillows... |
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| Celeste had an appropriate reaction to Pearl Harbor |
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| P-47 Thunderbolt! |
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| Hub Zemke's Signature |
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| P-51 Mustang (Still Flyable) |
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| Some sort of antique transport plane (I forget what era.) |
After the air museum, we took the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway up Mt. San Jacinto and hiked around for a few hours. It was much prettier than I expected, and we learned a lot about pine trees! On the way back down in the tram car, Ryan unexpectedly ran into Jeremy Petty, an old friend from Hayward. Also, I think I did a pretty good job of restoring the vacation house's decor before we left the next morning.
The next Wednesday was both Pinewood Derby AND Daisy Derby. I was super excited that the Activity Days girls did their own activity right before the traditional Cub Scout one. Elise and Evan both worked extremely hard on their cars, and due to Ryan's strict feelings on the matter, neither one had significant help from a parent. Neither car won, but both were in the top quarter or so.
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| Elise |
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| Evan |
I can't remember if I've mentioned this yet, but Ryan decided on his 40th birthday that this year he would kill and cook a wild pig. He was kind of surprised when I told him I wanted to do it too. So, we both signed up for Hunter Safety classes back in early spring. Once that was done, we started the process of researching and buying rifles (something that takes especially long in California.) Ryan chose a bolt-action Savage in the caliber of 6.5 Creedmoor. We took it to the Angeles Shooting Range and quickly realized that we needed some expert help, so we hired a private teacher for a shooting lesson, which helped a lot. Making this goal into a reality is definitely going to take some time!
One day, Elise decided to take the younger two on a nature walk. For safety, I sent the kid phone with them, and they took tons of pictures. Apparently they ate lots of sour grass and had a picnic snack.
My Aunt Joyce actually took this picture of my mom, but I liked it enough that I stole it off facebook. And Ryan found the greatest license plate he's ever seen.
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