Here are all the other photos from the rest of July!  One day I made salmon using the marinade my dad always used to make, and it was a delicious trip down memory lane.

Here are the kids getting on the bus to Badger.  The bus might have been their favorite part!

On my birthday I went to Manor Beach solo and had a lovely time.  Andrew and I also had a fabulous sushi dinner in the city that night.

The following weekend the kids helped make and decorate a cake for me.

Andrew also made my current fave dinner, fish tacos!  Yum.

Sarah got her new backpack.  Pandas, of course.

One day at Badger I saw a hawk swoop down and knock a nest of baby birds out of this tree.  The kids and I alerted John, the head of Badger camp, and he and his staff were able to get the nest back up into its spot and the mother bird came back!  We were very impressed.

Sarah enjoying some Italian Ice at Villa Maria.

We finished this amazing wood puzzle Andrew gave me for my birthday from Liberty Puzzles.  It was tricky and beautiful, with many specially shaped pieces like sea creatures and lighthouses.

Blaine (reluctantly) kept a journal this summer, since we wanted him to keep up with his writing practice.  Sarah wanted to keep a drawing journal as well, and here is one of the entries, “Panda at the Zoo.”

Blaine loved using the paddleboard in the pool at Badger.

We bid on the old fire truck steering wheels from the local playground that were auctioned off when the playground was being redone, and won them!  They sat in our basement for months, and this summer I finally got around to building a frame to hold them up!

A hike at Cranberry Lake.

We hit 20,000 miles on our car.  Does anyone care about this sort of information?  Probably not.

Lastly, here are the kids in their tie-dye shirts from camp, ready for Carnival Day on 7/31.

The kids did not start camp until July 8, which gave us a whole week off to do whatever we wanted.  We went to the beach, the Norwalk Aquarium, and the Met.

At the Norwalk Aquarium we saw a porcupine, a megalodon jaw, sea turtles, a shark feeding, sea lions, and meerkats.  It was Taco Tuesday at our favorite lunch place across the street and we got to watch Serena play at Wimbledon.  Then we tried to watch an imax film about the lunar landing 50 years ago but Blaine decided it was too scary.

On the 4th of July we started the day with the Flint Park races.  The whole family participated in the egg and spoon race.  Andrew won first prize on the mayor’s tug-of-war team, and we did not get far in the balloon toss.

After hot dogs, we went for some Carvel and the kids gave me the hand over face move.

In the afternoon we went to the party at the beach and the kids enjoyed listening to the band.  That evening we even lasted late enough to see the fireworks at Manor Park!

On Friday the 5th we got a late start and drove into the city in the afternoon to visit the Met.  Our main goal was to see the Temple of Dendur, so that was our first stop.  After that we wandered through the Medieval section and up to the Impressionist area but the kids quickly declared they’d had enough.  So we went up to the roof garden for some water ice.

We lasted about an hour in the museum — not bad!  Then we went next door to the Ancient Playground to relax, and met up with Andrew so we could walk to dinner at a place called Luke’s Lobster.  A successful art museum outing!

That’s about it for our week.  Here’s a bonus pic of Blaine with a funny paper animal he created — it started out as a cheetah and then became a giraffe.