We did manage some old-fashioned fun at Sam’s birthday party today, despite temperatures in the high 80s. Sack races were a big hit. So was tug of war, until the casualties (mostly elbows in faces, I think) grew too high for parental comfort (I think the kids would have kept going). Best thing of all for Sam: she got …

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Aw, yeah. We have dried corn cobs for making dolls tomorrow at Sam’s birthday party. Maybe only two kids will make dolls. Probably the boys will turn them into guns or projectiles of some sort, but that’s okay. I dried my own corn cobs! The corn soup I made from the corn was pretty good, too.

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Grand-mère gave Sam her old dollhouse for her birthday yesterday. She estimates that it’s from the 1940s and the style of dress of the dolls and the accompanying furniture definitely supports that estimate. Check out the ash trays!

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At Boxerwood Nature Center in Lexington, VA there is a wooden stage on the edge of the woods. There’s also a giant chair in the meadow, a piano in a field of grass, and a large wooden chess board next to a clay Ogre head vomiting out straw, but at this particular moment the kids were drawn to the stage to put on an …

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It’s the 1980s all over again! Cabbage Patch mania with Aunt Skip.

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Well, not the green tomatoes. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with those, but the tomato plants are pretty much done for the season. Jalapeños and green peppers are still coming in, though, so perhaps I should learn to make salsa verde.

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A while ago (a long while ago…) Sam announced that she wanted to grow her hair long and donate it to Locks of Love. Two of her friends have done it and it sounded like a great idea at time (oh so long ago). We have regular battles about hair care now. Our solution of late has been to keep Sam’s hair in braids nearly …

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