Here I go disappearing again

I know you are all dying to know what I've been up to and where I've been. Sorry about my absence. I did try to blog one night but was having internet issues and I quickly gave up. I know I could have written an entry and posted the next day. Well, I thought of that the next day. Not when it would have been helpful. I'm slow sometimes.

We took Friday off and spent the day with my folks. My mom and Violet worked on doll clothes for Violet's favorite doll. This doll was actually mine when I was a girl. Made for me by the aunt who Violet is named after, well middle named after. My dad took me out to the wood shop of a friend of his. My dad is a carpenter and wood worker, so I've grown up surrounded by fine woodworking. But man oh man, his friend's work blew my socks off. He's been to classes around the country and has earned the degree Master Woodworker. Dad wanted me to see these spice cabinets he makes. The were fabulous! I'd love to have one. He sells them over over $3000 a piece. I'm not getting one. :grin: He does wood inlay. I can't describe it, just know it was fine art.

But I did get a bag of asparagus that he picked while we were there. He also picked us some rhubarb. I traded my mom all the rhubarb for all the asparagus. We grilled the asparagus over the weekend. She made strawberry rhubarb pie.

Most of the weekend I worked. I had so much to do. And I knew I'd be busy this week so I didn't want anything left over to do.

Yesterday I spent the morning running errands, then we did some school work, then Violet had swim lessons. One of my errands was to go to the Girl Scout council office to pick up a set of flags and a parachute and toys. Today was our big park date with the Juliettes. Our Daisy friend was bridging to Brownies.

We got to the park and low and behold there was a big preschool in the area with the shelter that we'd hoped to be in. We scouted out a smaller park area with tables that was empty and set up shop there. We ate our lunches, then tried our hand at a flag ceremony. It was the first one for most of the girls. And my first one to lead. We did okay. But it could use some work. It did accomplish its goal: to introduce everyone to flag ceremonies so they'll have some clue what to do at one.

We didn't have a bridge handy, so we decided to have "Sunshine" bridge to Brownies by crossing the play equipment and sliding down the slide to Brownies. It was fun. I brought the girls cut flowers. It wasn't formal, it was rather silly, it was unorganized, it was fun. Just what all the families involved really want.

Since I was getting the flags at the Council office, I decided I should get something else too, so I had checked out the small parachute and a box of toys for it. It was a 12 foot parachute and we couldn't have handled a bigger one. We played games with it and tossed the toys around on it. Violet got really upset that one of the things in the toy box was a set of 6 stuffed owls to bounce. She thought the owls did not like bouncing one bit. But put the puff balls on it and she was fine.

I was pleased that Violet did pretty good at the park. She had a meltdown about the kids crowding her on the play equipment. But she wore her sash (none of the other girls had theirs this time) and she participated in the flag ceremony. She talked while we were eating lunch. And she played the animal charade parachute game: one girl gets picked at a time to cross under the parachute acting out an animal. Violet was a cat, a kangaroo and a gold fish. She picked gold fish on the last round when the girls each picked their own animal to be. She even went "bloop, bloop, bloop" across.

When we left (already exhausted) we drove 45 minutes to the Council office to return the stuff, then went to the library before coming home. Violet asked to take a relaxing bath when we got home (she'd gotten a bit muddy at the park). She was in the tub for an hour.

We're getting ready for bed now, exhausted, but with a couple of days off coming up now.