Another Brick in the Wall

RITE OF PASSAGE: A piece of the kids' childhood is gone. It has been relocated about 300 feet to the west, to be exact. We passed along an outdoor climbing structure toy to a neighbor across the street.

If I'm not mistaken, we inherited the toy from my cousin John's family and it has served us well. But at least week's neighborhood barbecue, a 3-year old neighbor took up residence in it and her mother said to me, "If you ever want to get rid of that, let me know." 

I told her that mostly it was used for drying laundry at this point and that we'd happily pass it along to her. And so this morning, that's what we did (after I gave it a good cleaning and CeeJ and Bee gave it a goodbye).

CHILLY: This a.m., Christian worked on trying to get our beloved Honda (with its quarter million miles) to be cooler on the hot days. So what did he use in his battle? NASA TECHNOLOGY! Oooh baby!!!

I'm happy to report the CR-V is as cool as Atlantis in orbit. ;)

WATER WORLD: This afternoon we took the time to make a long-overdue connect with CJ's BFF from kindergarten at one of our favorite spots - the International Fountain at Seattle Center.

Here the three are, with CJ and Bee in the foreground. 

After an hour plus at the fountain, we walked over to a quieter spot at the center - a wading pool between Key Arena and the Vera Project.

INSULATED: This not-very-fun weekend Christian and I spent installing insulation in the addition. Totally not fun. Did I mention it was not fun? 

As I was cutting some foam board insulation for part of the wall in Annabelle's new bedroom, it somehow occurred to me that the material would make fun shields for the kids. So, I cut them each a shield.

Annabelle chose to decorate her shield with a double heart with a peace sign around it and four happy faces and four suns. Very non-warlike, if you asked me. :)

CJ chose to put a radioactive icon on his shield. "Anything that touches the front will melt."

That's more like it. 

HISTORICAL: A couple weeks back I took the time to do a 'this day in history calendar.' I have been referencing it, and tonight, after the fountain, as we were sitting at McMenamins for happy hour, it occurred to me that today was Berlin Wall construction day. 

And so we had a makeshift history lesson.

Fortunately, I was seated in West Berlin as I constructed the wall.