I can’t believe how fast this summer is going by. We have a list of activities, projects and places to visit this summer and I feel like all of a sudden I am trying to fit everything in to our calendar. We have been spending most of our days at the pool. Ginger has taken up perfecting her flipping, jumping and diving off the diving board.   Last week we did manage family night at the zoo, dime a dog night with The Clippers, a lecture on The Sells Brothers Circus, ( the Sells Circus was based here in Columbus), and a local church festival.  We also spent a good deal of time lounging around with our new haul of books from our most excellent Main Library.

Today I asked what the girls wanted to do and this is what they choose:

a short hike to this:

Hayden Falls -a hidden gem not to far from us!

Followed by a picnic lunch in the park. A perfect afternoon!!

Broken humerus snowboarding with friends today.

Lucky he had a helmet on!

Bad timing!

We are leaving for an Unschoolers Conference at a water park for a few days, we have a quick ski trip planned, he has several circus performances coming up, helping out with a music video in the girls breakdancing class, and he and Joe were going to Jackson Hole for snowboarding and snowmobiling. (which may still be possible if he heals in a timely manner).

Ginger is sick and I spent most of the day at the hospital with Jake,  so packing and shopping for our trip is not happening. So, I will be cramming in what I can tomorrow and then off for a few days of R&R. I’ll be back next week, hopefully with better news. Or at least I’ll be well rested.

I took lots of photos at Circus today!

Among the many things they learn at Circus is poi.  It looks easy…but it takes a bit of work.  It is really relaxing and it is a great exercise, especially if your looking for something that passes the mid-line; like Brain Gym exercises do.

Ginger is anxiously awaiting the day she can join Jake and Molly in the Grimaldi Circus.  Today she decided she needed her own set of poi at home.  So we found 2 socks (cool stripey ones would have been more fun!) and we stole a couple of our dog’s tennis balls.  If you don’t have tennis balls you could use-rice, beans, another pair of socks…Stuff whatever you use into the toes of the socks.

Then tie some decorative ribbon  around the socks- I tied them low down but my kids moved them up a bit so the sock was more saggy.  You can google poi and come up with several sites with shopping opportunities, poi instructions and even classes.

Ginger has been practicing all night!

We live in a really active arts community.  With a OSU and CCAD in our city, along with  The Short North down, High St.,  there are many opportunities to not only enjoy art but participate in it also.  Last night The Short North introduced a new concept, Art al Fresco.  Most galleries stayed open late, hosting performances in their windows and on their sidewalks.  Artists, including my kids Grimaldi Circus, roamed the main drag.

This is just a small sampling of the fun!  Hopefully this will become a regularly scheduled event!

And on another hopeful note-I have fingers crossed that Ginger’s puking and high fever this morning at 5 AM will be quick to pass.  She has a very important Birthday to attend later this afternoon.  And I already made the potato salad dag nab  it!

Nothing feels quite blog worthy these days.  Seems like boring reporting.  Hopefully next week I will feel more inspired.  I am feeling  like the summer is slipping away-how pessimistic is that on July 13th?  At the end of every 4th of July my dad would say, “Well Summer is half over.”  I think I got it from him.

Anyhoo on to the weekend update:  Saturday morning brought the usual trip the our farmers market and lunch here:

at Rad Dog.  If you are local check out the schedule and have a tofurky treat-with condiments of excellence!

Sat night I got to comb my hair and put on my best flip flops to enjoy an excellent adult only dinner at The Bonefish Grill.  Can you say Mmm Mmm Great!  If you have some extra cash and a babysitter you should definitely check it out.

This morning we headed out for a bike ride.

And I spent a bit of long overdue time in my veggie garden.  I think there were steroids in that compost I added ’cause I got me some big veggie plants!

At this rate the tomatoes ought to hit the roof by the end of August! I have loads of flowers on all the veggie plants but I haven’t seen many bees and I am wondering if I need to head out with paint brush in hand for a little manual pollination.

I have nieces coming to town to visit this week, we have the Kidz Artz show to get ready for and evening circus classes all week.  Phew-more busy-ness!

..or is it “That’s a Wrap?”  Either way, the first week of circus camp is over. Five days of 9-3:30 worth of intensive circus work has everyone worn out.  If it wasn’t for my barking dog I would be still be asleep also.  Next week the class meets later in the evening, so we can all sleep in a bit.   Jake really attended this week more as a helper to the younger and newer kids.  A role he seems to be good at-but don’t tell him I said that, it may ruin his tough image!   But he  participated a good bit also.  To close the week the group had a small performance for families today.  And as always they learned lots of new skills and their confidence has grown.  A good show as always!

getting taped into their stilts

up and moving

Look, she moved up to  the taller stilts this week!!!

Jake took the time on lower stilts this week to try out some new tricks.

They also worked on trapeze, poi, juggling, tumbling and hula hooping this week.  Ginger and I stayed and did their morning warm up a few days this week and let me tell you-it was NOT easy.  This is some hard work.  Back to sleep!

It has been really nice to spend some alone time with Ginger this week while the big kids are at Circus Camp. This morning we went to COSI. Ginger loves to spend time in Kids Space but when we are there as a family she always seems to get short changed on her time there. Not five minutes after we arrived she was pretty much soaking wet from playing in “OCEAN”.

I hadn’t brought a change of clothes but suggested we head to the bathroom to dry off with the hand dryer.

That was good enough for her and off to Kids Space we headed for the remainder of our visit.   Thank goodness for easy going kids- so much more adaptable than my other two kids. I can take no credit for that personality trait-that’s all from her Daddy!!

This evening we worked on some watercolors and followed this tutorial that I have had book marked forever. I love some of the other projects on this sight as well! Molly ended up spending the night at a friends so we will definitely have to do this activity again when she is around; which is fine with both Ginger and I. We never seem to tire of watercolors!