Halloween dress rehearsal

Vote for your favorite costume. All modeled by the very fashiony posing Kaleigh.

Cinderella, with extra fashiony arms and smirk.

Little maid Kaleigh.





Cheerleader.

Princess.










Prom Queen.

Unfinished late 60's girl (need some brown polyster pants to complete).











Witch with (lazy!) cat.

State Fair time!

Today Don and Kaleigh went to the Illinois State Fair. Don wasn't eager to go on the first Saturday of fair week, with the weather all nice and everything, expecting major crowds. But he decided if they got going as soon as they could in the morning, it could be all right. And it was. They got off the bus at the fairgrounds at 9:00, and got on the bus to go home at 5:00!

Kaleigh wanted to go on the canoe ride at Conservation World, but Conservation World didn't open until 10:00. They looked in some nearby livestock barns, with goats and sheep. They saw some sheep getting sheared. Baaas of boredom and annoyance resounded throughout the sheep barn. Like consumers waiting too long for something not worthwhile.

Finally, Conservation World opened. But it turned out the Voyageur canoe ride didn't start until 11:00. Sigh! Don and Kaleigh poked around in various tents in Conservation World, looking at replica mastodon and giant ground sloth bones, playing in a water table (where you make channels for water and toy boats to course through), and pedaling a bike to see how much it takes to light an incandescent bulb vs. a compact fluorescent. There was probably more that Don can't think of right now. Kaleigh petted a bluegill fish, and a crawdad. (crayfish? crawfish? craydad?) They decided to take the fairgrounds tram over to the food area and come back later for the canoe ride.

After eating their day's worth of trans-fats, white sugar, and white flour, they moseyed over to the kids' area. Kaleigh rode the bicycle course several times until Don got bored of waiting around. Kaleigh did a little putt-putt golf in a 4-H food bank tent. Then Kaleigh climbed into a smallish but real Cat brand digger, working levers and observing the air conditioning controls.

They went to the fire safety area and Kaleigh slid down a firefighter's pole a few times. Then they went through the fire safety house (more like single-wide trailer) and learned different safety tips for different rooms in the house. The event culminated in the mock-second-story bedroom with a smoke machine pumping smoke into the air, and the closed bedroom door feeling what. What to do?! Get down on your hands and knees, and climb out the window and down the emergency ladder, and in real life you'd go meet your family at the prearranged meeting place.

Then the tram pulled up, so they saw the chance to go back to Conservation World. They FINALLY got to go on the canoe, with about 20 other people. It was a BIG canoe. Kaleigh and everyone else seated on the outside got to help paddle. A fiberglass canoe through a machine-built lake.

It's time to go put her to bed, and I haven't even gotten to the chemistry tent yet!!

reading and raspberry riots, and other news

Yes, that's Kaleigh! She's reading her first chapter book to herself. She's almost done, after working on it for a couple of days. She signed up for the library's reading program, and we're almost finished (over 18 hours in six days, and counting...). We've been reading good books by Robert Burch (one of my new favorite authors), and Clyde Robert Bulla. When you have good books to read, and it's hot and mosquitoey outside, it makes for a lot of reading time! Kaleigh picked up the Boxcar Children, one of her favorite books, and found that it wasn't so hard to read those intimidating chapter books after all. And we parents are enjoying much appreciated quiet and down time.

The raspberry patch is starting to yield. We are about 10 inches of rain above "normal", and everything is lush and large this year. Kind of makes up for last year, I suppose. Kaleigh has enjoyed raspberries in her yogurt, and her parents are looking forward to raspberry wine!

Yesterday, Don and Kaleigh went to the Juneteenth celebration (for more info on this holiday, see http://www.juneteenth.com/). It was within biking distance! They had fun, and Kaleigh bought a bracelet with her own money. It's her good luck bracelet, and she's never taking it off, not ever, until the next time she gets a new bracelet.

Kaleigh moved her bed into her room a week ago. She has enjoyed waking up with Cozy the kitty snuggling at her feet. She also enjoys waking up and being able to play without worrying about waking up her parents. Ah, freedom! Her parents are enjoying this also, especially the part about sometimes sleeping later than 7 a.m.

Through the library's summer reading program activities, Kaleigh attended both a cheer clinic and a pom pom clinic. She had fun learning about these fun sports, and took home a white t-shirt (mud girl says, "I've never had a white t-shirt before!) and a set of silver poms. She also had fun playing Little Sally Walker.

the recital!

Kaleigh was very excited to have the opportunity to take ballet and tap lessons this year. She danced with 10 other girls. They did their ballet recital to the song Dance Your Dreams. They did their tap recital to the song I Love a Rainy Night. They had fun, did well, and Kaleigh got to stay up extra late!

Yesterday I went to Super Saturday at the Illinois State Museum. I did one of each project. The projects were a butterfly mailbox, a mailbox, a travel tic-tac-toe, and all of those three were made out of film canisters with punched holes in the lids and ribbon put through them. I got two pink ribbons and one blue ribbon. I made a tree out of a little paper bag and I decorated it with tissue paper. It's a redbud tree like the one in our yard. I colored two pictures on an Earth Day card. I colored it with crayons. I learned that Earth Day is every day. I glued garbage onto a big U.S. map that didn't have much on it. It was a collage project. I learned to save water, reuse and recycle everything I can, use both sides of paper, turn off the light when I'm not using it or when I'm not in the room.

I am getting into jump rope rhymes and I can jump rope better now. I wonder if I'll ever be better at it. I bet I will! Do you think I will? My favorite rhyme is right here: Cinderella dressed in yella, went downstairs to kiss her fella. How many kisses did she give? 1,2,3,4,5... Yesterday, I got to 7, but I messed up on the 8th one.

My mom went to a junk house and picked up some stuff for me. I am wearing some of it in this picture. She got me a makeup mirror with one side just a mirror, and one side a magnified mirror. I also got a white sequined purse, beaded fancy lady gloves, a blue cowgirl hat a little darker than the color of this writing with flowers around the brim. I also got a beaded cashmere angora sweater and a paddle ball.

My kitty Cozy is sick or something. He has a raw spot on his tail and he keeps licking it. He acts crazy at times, walking quickly around the house, jumping and then licking furiously. If he is still sick tomorrow, Daddy is going to take him to the vet.



These egg sandwiches say BOO!

red sky at night, zomban delight

There was a rainbow opposite in the sky, which we did not see, but--what a beautiful sight, after a day of steady rain. Kaleigh took this photo, shortly before Don arrived home from a 12-hour stint doing exams at SIU. Kaleigh and I left home this morning to attend swimming class at the Y. Afterwards, we went to the book club hostesses' home to play and chat until book club started. The girls read The Birdwatchers by Simon James, made birding journals, and then played long and hard, having a great time.

Kaleigh and I finished and started another book in the All of a Kind Family books series by Sydney Taylor. It's some good kid adventures, with a lot of girls. The book provides an interesting view of New York's East Side prior to WWI, and a social history of Jewish family life and customs of the time. I have learned a lot I did not know about Judaism.

Tomorrow is Kaleigh's ballet and tap class, practicing for the Big Recital. I have a feeling she would enjoy the class more if it was a plain old dance class, but she still likes to dance, likes her teacher, and her classmates. Afterwards, Don and Kaleigh and our friends Grace and Shannon are going to attend Toying with Science. As I explained to my mom, it's not-school for kids who go to school, but school for kids who homeschool. Don, called upon to answer all questions science in our house, is looking forward to it. I like science as an adult, but my knowledge is pretty limited. My junior high science teacher used to make up a lot of answers to questions he did not know, which I found out the hard way. I feel like I'm learning alongside Kaleigh now, and it's fun! I imagine she'll be able to teach me a lot after tomorrow's show. After the show, Kaleigh and her friend Grace are going to play imagination hardcore for a while. They always have terrific fun together.

We've had a stretch of decent weather, warm enough to be outside and time to be there. Don strung up the newest grape arbor, also a fence to protect the tulips and daffodils from kid feet. Kaleigh and I put a fence on the lowest 15" of it, and planted peas by it. We also planted Kaleigh's pink seedless grapes, plus two red currant bushes. I'm excited.

Seedlings are starting to come up in the seed trays. I have asparagus, rhubarb, arctic kiwi--much cheaper from seed, although they take a little longer that way. Also coming up are the dozens of open-pollinated heirloom tomatoes, seed saved from our friends' Gus and Andy's delicious tomatoes. I hope to have enough to keep me supplied with pasta sauce and ketchup, plus share with anyone who wants to grow their own and rediscover what tomatoes taste like.

Kaleigh has been enjoying the warm weather. Yesterday she grew, overnight. She woke up huge yesterday, and clumsy. First thing, she fell down the porch steps, and somehow managed to trip and stumble all day long. Poor kid. Today was better, fortunately, especially because gymnastics class was this morning. We also went to the library and were recommended the All of a Kind Family books, which are great so far. I love to see the pictures of old wood and coal stoves, people sitting around enjoying each other with no tv in sight. This book also has a lot about Jewish culture in New York from the turn of the century, so we're both learning a lot. This picture is Kaleigh with her friends Destini and Tink. They made a birthday cake. Can you see the candles?

Our friends Mike and Abby are back in town for a couple of weeks visiting. It has been great hanging out, talking, sharing ideas and information. They've been having a great adventure the last couple of years, getting a good education without indenturing themselves to enslavement to pay back overpriced loans. They are learning so much about gardening, herbs, living off-grid--so much. I'm glad to have them as friends and I'm really glad they can come back and visit!