After many years, we finally upgraded our phones to the new iPhone 6. It has been a huge improvement in usability, but has been a bit of a headache as Apple changed the connector plug (still not the industry standard micro USB) a few years ago. So none of our old attachments will work. Apple …

Continue reading

Went on our annual pumpkin hunting fest to Craven Farm with our PEPS friends, the Richardsons and the Goldsmiths. Popo and Gung Gung were in town and joined us this year. The corn maze was razed by storm winds, so it was more of a giant crop circle, but the kids still had fun trudging …

Continue reading

Alton programmed his first video game in the Scratch language. Created as an educational tool to introduce kids to computer programming, Scratch is kind of a contemporary version of the LOGO language. Puzzle-like blocks representing object-oriented concepts are strung together, and the interpreter compiles this into code. Voila! You have a computer program! Alton has …

Continue reading

Nikola took her first tennis lessons this week at the Blue Ridge Club. She has really been enjoying it, although most of the kids there live in that neighborhood, so she hasn’t felt particularly included. But it meant that she got some new tennis skorts and we bought some racquets for the kids. It is …

Continue reading

We seem to be doing a lot of weekend activities on Mercer Island. Through the summer, Pioneer Park has several letterboxing trails. You first pick up the trail books at their community center (although they also seem to have them available at the trailheads), then follow the clues to each of the hidden locations. The …

Continue reading

We spent the afternoon at the Adventure Playground. On Mercer Island, this play area is a cordoned off area of Deane’s Children’s Park where kids can build structures in the woods. The park supplies hardhats, work gloves, toolboxes, nails and fasteners. The kids rummage for lumber, rope, fasteners, and anything else they can find in …

Continue reading

Ms. Fulmer’s 3rd grade class production of “Geology Rocks!” was an extravagant night of song and dance (well, the kids playing the part of “magma” did a little soft shoe) and mystery, as the kids searched for the elusive Professor Rock. Well, it was a 3rd grade play. But it had all the charm of …

Continue reading

Our dryer has been less and less effective, to the point that Shaynee wanted to get a new washer/dryer. We had an issue with the dryer the other month and the service man commented that it doesn’t generate a lot of heat and that we should get our ducts cleaned. From reading online, it sounds …

Continue reading

We got most of the planters planted last weekend. Planter 1: Giant pumpkin (this year will prune the extras off the vine to grow the central pumpkin big!), carrots (2 varieties), Bluelake bush green beans. Planter 2: Tomatoes (2 varieties), lemon cucumbers (did not try to separate the root balls this year), lettuce, carrots (3 …

Continue reading