Stack of T-shirts from Land's End.         $50.00
Stick of Super Strength Deoderant         $2.50
Water bill for 2 showers a day                $40.00
Two, 11,000 count Perler Beads             $14.00
One Pair Asics Running Shoes               $80.00
Three cans Coppertone SPF 50 Sunscreen $15.00
50 smiling kids and happy parents        PRICELESS

I am sneaking in a moment of blog time quickly while the rest of the family watches TV. Here are some of the things we have been up to since June!

A part of our summer for the last three years has been spending one day a week with our friend Ella Ubben. She and Mieke stopped to say hi to our friend Shari who owns a salon in Hudson. The girls made themselves at home.

The Kids' Adventure program in Hudson has been a great summer job for me. One week we got to meet the major and tour City Hall. The little kids thought they met the president!

We've been to the Youth Pavilion and the last week we will go to Hansen's Dairy. Such a fun group of kids!

 The craft of the summer has been Perler Beads. Little tube-shaped beads are arranged on a grid and then pressed with an iron to melt them together. It takes hours and lots of concentration. Even snacks cannot draw kids away from the lure of Perler Beads! Wha-ha-ha-ha.

 We made a paint pendulum out of a bucket and a dish soap bottle. It's a splatter paint kind of contraption. We hung ours from a tree and painted a banner for the program.

Another wild experiment was melting crayons with a hair dryer onto a piece of paper. They turned out cool but we really needed a stiff art canvas or board to work with as our paper curled when it dried. And it took a long time to melt the crayons.

And another favorite, the Fake Sleepover. We made microwave s'mores and watched a movie.

And of course lots of pool time with Mieke. She has mastered jumping off the board and the high dive. I think my heart is still at the bottom of the pool.