July 2009

4th of July 2009
We enjoyed another great 4th of July at the Balvanz’s house. There were 2 main themes to this year’s festivities. The first being “unplanned fashion coordination” and the second being the “deep philosophical ponderings of the difference between legal and illegal fireworks.”

It seems the oldest and the youngest of the girls were on the same brain wavelengths when planning what to wear on this holiday as we have the matching Grandmas (Kathy & Lois)…

…and the matching First Grade Divas (Reese and Jordana)

Our First Grade Divas provided some of the day’s entertainment. They had lots and lots of fun swimming.

Then a petty argument over a spied rabbit occurred and all of a sudden Jordana burst out “You ruined my vacation” followed by Reese answering “You ruined mine too.”

The majority of our day was dedicated to lighting off as many fireworks as possible and then debating why some fireworks are legal and why some are illegal.

Illegal fireworks....

Blowing things up or burning with illegal fireworks

The inebriated rationale behind this debate is that illegal fireworks are safer than legal fireworks as one takes more care where, when and how to light them off. Whereas with legal fireworks one seems to wave these sparklers all around throwing off sparks and ash which can burn anyone or anything.

Aaren making his final observations on the topic for the day.

The day and evening was topped off with another fabulous fireworks show at the UNIDOME

Ricky’s First Driving Lesson

Ricky got his very first driving lesson in the field at Uncle Larry’s farm behind the wheel of Grandma Lois’ mini van. (Sorry the video is so shaky, but I was running with the camera.)

Summer 2009

Crystal Lake Hatchery & Baum Lake

While we were in the Fall River Mills/Shasta County area we took some time to go and visit the Crystal Lake Hatchery. We got there right at feeding time and it was something to see all of these “growing” fish go crazy after the food.

We also spent some time feeding some of the more unusual fish at the hatchery.

Crystal Lake was much more peaceful. There were many pelicans fishing alongside the human fishermen. However, we saw neither land any fish.

The turtles sunning themselves on the rocks seemed to have the best seats in the house.

Father’s Day

Rick’s Father’s Day 2009 was a very low key one. He unfortunately spent the morning at urgent care dealing with a “swimmers” ear infection. But when he arrived at home the kids were ready to welcome him with presents and Ricky treated him to a movie that afternoon.

Iowa Vacation 2009 – Uncle Larry’s Farm

One of the highlights of every Iowa vacation is a visit to Uncle Larry’s farm and this year did not disappoint. He always has a menagerie of wonderful animals one of the latest additions of which is a peacock.

There were also lots of baby animals; a white calf, baby ducks waddling after their Mommy, and brand new quail and pheasants which fit into the palm of your hands.

We got to spend some of the afternoon at Uncle Larry’s and Aunt Linda’s camp site. It is very beautiful and peaceful. The horses came over to say hi while we cooked dinner.

Fall River Mills Pioneer Days

We were fortunate enough to be able to join our friends, The Sapers at their cottage in Fall River Mills for a fun and relaxing weekend. While we were there the small town (located about 70 miles east of Redding) was holding their annual Pioneer Days. They were raising money to finish roofing their round wood barn.

This was a very neat area of the town as over the years they have collected and relocated many historical buildings from nearby Ft. Clark and even held some re-enactments of when the Fort was occupied which was during the Civil War era.

The kids though it was very cool how they could “lock” each other up in the jail.

However, Jordana was the only one interested in attending the school.

It was a really fun time.

Daisy Garden Party

The final Daisy Girl Scout Meeting of the year was their Garden Party where the girls got the first year completion certificates.

But first they had to burn off some steam and play some fun games.

Thanks so much to Miss Valerie and Miss Bambi for getting the girls off to such a great scouting start.

Strawberry Open House

We attended our first Strawberry Open House this year. Ricky got to take us on the 4th Grade tour. We started off the tour by enjoying all of the displays of art and science projects while listening to the band in the Multi Purpose Room.

Then we were off to Mrs. Paschke’s and Mrs. Padgett’s 4th Grade class.

Ricky pictured with his Bale Grist Mill 3D model (see previous post for details).

Baskin Robbins Field Trip

The final field trip of the year for Mrs. Basche’s Kindergarten class was a walking trip to Baskin Robbins.

The class had just finished their unit on money so each student got to order and pay for his or her own ice cream cone.

Afterwards there was time to burn off all of that sugar by some well earned playground time.

Posted by Jena