Slip-n-Sliding to the Chiropractor

Well, apparently my life is crazy during the school year, because I haven't posted since LAST JULY.   Hmm.   Laziness is abounding in many non-required areas in addition to blogging, such as dusting, car vacuuming, and book organizing.   As we speak, many books are organized in that they were pushed under the edge of my bed in the order I read them.  Soon, Matt will be able to lean over and pick a book that is peeking out from under his side, competing with his Cabela's catalogs.

Have no fear, because a new source of blog posts has come to light, as I found about 20 rolls of undeveloped camera film in the back of one of our junk drawers.   It would be admirable if I had found them from unprompted decluttering, but  I'm not that spontaneous, so they were actually a byproduct of a superfund cleanup of our kitchen in prep for renovation.  That's a post for another day...

At any rate, there were some real treasures in those rolls of film.  Most appear to be from late 2005/early 2006, including this charming vignette:

SETTING UP THE SLIP-N-SLIDE FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME

Yay!!  Fun with water!

Aunt Jenny and Daddy hook up the hose.

Ethan takes the first slide, and Meg goes next...

 NO!!!   I NOT YIKE DIS!!!!

Meghan is somewhat confused about how to go about this new activity.

Daddy decides to intervene assist. 

 Giving a little boost...

WHAABAM.

PULL BACK!! PULL BACK!!  TOO MUCH!!

Meg decides (miraculously!!) that This Is Fun.

It's a Slip-n-Slide Success Story!!

Do We Not Get Enough Snow As It Is?

 Seriously. 

It's exhausting being us.

Jumping into June... I mean July.

Signs of Summer around Casa de Cutshall....

 Post-recital haircut.

 Another Band Nerd is born.

Tree Climbing by the Ginger Ninja

Softball games

 The Return of Maco the Whacko

 Yeeehaw!

 Mini Golf at the Meadows..

Being Beaten Soundly by the PGA Pro

 Getting ready to send the kids off to Church Camp

 Time in the woods.

 It's been an awesome start to summer!!

I Thought His Head Would Explode

Ethan recently attended Lego Mindstorms Camp at the Kids College/Penn State Altoona. Getting in to the camp was a saga in itself, as we applied (and paid) in early May, only to receive a phone call that the camp was full. A 30 kid waiting list was also not welcome news, and disappointed sulking commenced. Ethan declined to attend any other Kids College camps and disappeared into his Lego Man Cave room and began building non-Mindstorms creations. The check and application were returned in the mail. Depressing.

The week before the camp was to occur, Ethan met me at the door, hopping up and down with the cordless in his hand. "You gotta call!! There's an opening!! At the thing!! MOM!!"

After talking him down off the newel post and listening to the message, I called to reserve and pay for the last opening. Ethan could not fathom that someone would drop out of this camp. I could not fathom that someone did not want to get rid of their 11 year old boy for five weekday mornings building robots. With Legos. In a Lab. With other 11 year old boys!! DUDE!

So here is a picture of the Brain (Pinky was not amused at having to ride along for a 40 minute ride to drop him off and refused to have her picture taken) with one of his creations:

We must prepare for tomorrow night.

Why? What are we going to do tomorrow night?

The same thing we do every night, Pinky

- try to take over the world!

Last Week, It Was Hot Enough...

To Fry An Egg!!

Last week, when we were in the grip of a record-breaking heat wave,

Meghan decided that she needed to check out an old myth:

After about 2 and a half hours, there was a hint of white starting to show.

After 2 more hours, we hosed off the sidewalk.

Apparently, it needs to be a hell of a lot hotter than 104' to fry an egg on the sidewalk.

I hope I never see a day that IS hot enough.