Looking Back - June 2011

We kept busy all summer - from beginning to end.  Here are a few pictures from our June adventures.

Nick took a business trip to China, where he visited Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Shanghai.  This is a shot of the Shanghai skyline from The Bund.  The Bund is an historic waterfront area, very different from the view across the river. 

When my parents came to visit, we all went down to Philadelphia for a day.  It was our first time down there, so we took a bus tour.  Later we went to Independence National Historic Park, and saw the Liberty Bell.  Brandon discovered that the park rangers carry trading cards with various historic people and places on them.  In order to earn trading cards, he had to answer questions posed by the rangers.  He collected quite a stack that day, and learned some history in the process. 

Laedyn celebrated her 4th birthday on June 7.  She requested a Tinker Bell cake.  I managed to work Tinker Bell into a caterpillar cake I'd been wanting to make.  The caterpillar cake was baked in a specialty mini cake pan from William Sonoma, which I'd been looking for the perfect time to use.

One weekend, we stumbled upon Daniel Boone's homestead.  He lived on this property until he was 16 years old.  The building in this picture is a barn, added by later owners in a style seen frequently in this area.

Later owners of the property dammed the steam and ran a sawmill.  It looked like they run sawmill demonstartions on the site.  We might need to go back to see that sometime!

The kids and I took a trip to Ashtabula to visit my parents.  While we were there I was roped into helping run a massive garage sale in Mom's backyard.  Brandon said he loved the garage sale because it was a great place to "buy stuff you don't need." 

While in Ashtabula, we spent an afternoon at the beach.  The lake was still pretty chilly, so most of the day was spent playing in the sand and hunting for beach glass.

We also went to the river out at my grandmother's farm.  The water was just right for the kids to collect crayfish, tadpoles and minnows in their buckets.

Back at home, I finished organizing my studio space.  Mom found wooden CD racks at IKEA which are perfect for holding the smaller sheets of glass that I use in my glass fusing projects.

The kids started swimming lesson at the YMCA in June and continued those throughout the summer.  Lessons were four days a week in two week sessions.  The both progressed significantly.