Girl Scout Cookies Anyone?

Emmy is a verifiable Brownie now, and to prove it, yesterday she was one of those annoying yet adorable girls harassing you to buy cookies when you're going into the grocery store!  This was the last day of cookie sales so she and Bella were snagging all the last minute buyers.  They did such a good job, they sold out half way through their shift.  (Well, Bella's mom and I might have aided that by buying a few boxes ourselves...)

Worms for sale

You wanna see something totally gross but totally awesome at the same time?  It's like "Fear Factor" meets "Survivor Man" meets "The Backyard Gardener" all in one...

Yes, that teeming mass of worms is the product of my backyard compost bin after one year.  Last spring I set up a black garbage can, punched a few holes in it, and started adding all the veggie waste from the kitchen to it.  Now I know you're supposed to turn it every other week and you're supposed to add a balanced mix of greens and browns to it, and you're occasionally supposed to add soil, but I don't always play by the rules when gardening.  I figured I was making enough effort just to hike to the end of the garden to dump my overflowing kitchen compost bucket into the thing and that was good enough.

And apparently the worms go by the same philosophy because I have never seen so many worms in one place!  Except on a particularly creepy "Fear Factor" episode...

So now my job is to spread this stuff in my garden bed.  Which is a problem.  Because at this point the mere thought of moving those worms makes my stomach churn and my face cringe in disgust.  I've been contemplating it for days now and I can't bring myself to do it.  I even tried to "assign" the task to Cannon, but he politely declined. 

Maybe I'll just stop calling it compost and instead put a sign out in the front yard advertising worms for fishing...

My newly expanded (3 times as big as last year!) garden

Master Kenneth

Every year the fourth graders go on a field trip to the Harbor History Museum in Gig Harbor.  I've actually never been to the museum but they say it's quite good.  Instead of just having the kids walk around the museum, they make the kids get into character by dressing like a child from 1901 (they are also given a typical name from the 1900's - London's was Kenneth).  They send home a suggested list of clothes and then the rest is up to you.  This is what we came up with for London - I think he looks adorable!  That hat really suits him! (Believe it or not, it was Stevie's when I first met him.)

Not only did they recommend that the kids dress the part, they also suggested they pack a period-appropriate lunch.  No juice boxes or fruit roll ups aloud!  I made some homemade oatmeal cookies and homemade bread for his jelly sandwich (yes, I was feeling particularly over-achieving that morning) and packed a pear.  The sheet said no oranges or bananas because you wouldn't have found those in Washington.

They have a mock one-room school house where the kids get a real 1901 class experience.  I hear the school marms even discipline those misbehaving by having them put their nose on a desk while kneeling on one knee or whacking them on the knuckles!  In case you were wondering, this did not happen to London.

London's class (he's in the back row left)

Enjoying his jelly sandwich on homemade bread



Retro Night Out

We were invited to a party for some people I know who are moving away.  As a fun way of sending them off, the party was a theme of "Say Yes to the Dress" (like the cable show).  The idea came from Carol (who's moving) who always wanted an opportunity to wear her wedding dress again.  The invite encouraged us to wear our wedding dress or any other dress that you never thought you'd wear again like a prom dress or a ball gown.

Well, I'm always game to dress up so I took a look in my closet to see what I had.  I dug my wedding dress out of the cedar chest and it mostly fit, well if you count a good three inches between the zipper meeting in the back.  Apparently your ribcage expands quite a bit when you have kids...

I also tried on a ball gown I had from the military balls in Okinawa and thankfully that still fit.  But then I remembered that my mom had sent me my high school prom dress several years ago.  From this I discovered that your hips also expand after you have kids...

Well, since I originally made the dress, and since I knew it would never be worn again, I made some modifications to it and voila! I'm "Pretty in Pink" again!  What fun it was to rock the 80s look again!

The party was at the community center on Fox Island and we all danced the night away to all the old 80s hits.  Of course the band, who were all high school students, had to ask their moms what songs to play but they were so thrilled to have a paying gig that they learned all the songs just for the night.  Of course it was a hoot to see the singer up on stage with his iPhone scrolling through the lyrics as he sang!

Wow, I really thought that was fashionable???

It was a little harder for Stevie to get into costume, but he tried to put together an 80s appropriate outfit.

Science fair

This year London had to do a project for the school's science fair and he chose to do a project testing an animal's camouflage ability.  He did this using Skittles and M&Ms as "prey" and volunteers as the "predators".  It was a lot of fun and I hope he learned a lot.

Setting up for a predator

Predator Emmy!

Emmy's results

The actual science fair was this Thursday.  The entire gym was lined with tables lined with projects - what a chaotic time!  London did a great job explaining his project and although the fair wasn't judged, I think he is a winner!