Summer Time!

Leila's had a couple of weeks to practice her walking, now, and has gotten much better at it. She stills crawls and walks on her knees, occasionally, but has learned to rely on her two feet to get herself wherever she needs to go.

She can climb up steps (but doesn't know how to crawl down them safely). She reaches up onto table tops whenever she can, to grab at things. I've had to move or pack away many of the decorations and houseplants I usually have around.

Our living room is now a giant playpen, scattered with toys, furniture moved strategically so as to block our little busy-body in and keep her away from hazards.

At right: Uncle Bill comes for a visit!

The two older kids have been on summer vacation since June 4th. A school bus picks them up mid-morning and takes them to swimming lessons in Elk Mound. Emma has Little League on Wednesday nights (Jon's been taking her to that and helping out the coaches).

Next Tuesday Michael starts summer band practice. His instrument of choice? The bassoon, of course!

After swimming lessons end, summer school starts. Besides reading and math, Emma is taking "Creative Writing" and Michael is taking a computer class.

None of these activities will keep them busy for more than a few hours a day, and all of our scheduled activities end in July. So there's still lots of time for free, unstructured play (and lounging around the house).

We have a few neighbor kids who are "regulars" at our house. Last night Jon tossed a baseball around with the kids (including a couple of neighbor boys) while Leila and I watched. Luckily we have five baseball gloves-- including several I have picked up cheap at garage sales.

Last night we ate strawberry pie, made from our own fresh berries. The strawberry patch in front of our house is full of ripening berries-- right now we're picking a generous bowl-full every day.

As you can see, our berries are now guarded by a little friend-- Mom picked up some garden gnomes for me, after reading my goofy post about being the "Snow White of Colfax." She brought them over about a week ago, when her and Dad came for a visit, and we hid them by different plantings around the yard.

I like them. Kind of kooky and very fun.

Other than that, we're keeping busy with the usual array of summer activities. Last weekend we went to two graduation parties and a birthday party. We also went to an art festival in Eau Claire, where we had our faces painted, watched belly dancers, and browsed booths displaying paintings, pottery, and jewelry.

This coming weekend we plan on going to Rhinelander. Several of my siblings should be around, including my sister Laurie. We're going to try to stop in Cornell as well on Sunday, on our way back, since it'll be Father's Day weekend and we want to visit both our fathers.

At left: Leila has her own swing in our back yard, now. Whee!

To close, I wanted to show this picture of my cactus-- blooming for the first time ever. It has a perfect ring of pink flowers all around it's top, like a crown. I've been meaning to post this, and after seeing Don's picture of dessert cacti blooming during his travels, the time seemed right. Enjoy!