Newspaper

Yesterday's paper had a lot of blank pages, so the kids filled it with their own news. There were comics, updates on toys, Barbie news and a Mommy head fuzz check. (3% more fuzz than the day before!) Cracked me up. It was worth having to wait to read my paper.

Fire Island

We took the ferry over to Fire Island to visit friends who are renting a house right on the beach. Christina swam in the waves like a fish, and we all hung out on the beach most of the day. The kids enjoyed the hot tub until we kicked 'em out so the grownups could use it.
It's the kind of place where the kids can walk down to the market and get ice cream, and go to the ball field and play by themselves. And deer would walk right by.

Poppy's 80th Birthday Bash

George is 80!

We had a luau party in our backyard for John's Dad. All of Poppy's children and grandchildren were here to celebrate.

Brookhaven National Lab

BNL offers Summer Sunday tours for families. Today's theme was about their National Synchrotron Light Source and invisible light, but we loved the Whiz Bang Science Show. Two scientists blew up hydrogen balloons (Matt and my favorite!), froze stuff in dry ice, and lots of other cool experiments.
Christina got to go up on stage to get splashed by water from a pole that was vibrating and made cool sounds. Matt raised his hand and jumped up and down (despite a warning that this might hurt) to get picked for an experiment about static electricity. It was pretty funny to see a group of kids holding hands, all cringing and shrieking at the same time.

Sagamore Hill

Pop Quiz: what is Sagamore Hill?

Teddy Roosevelt's house in Oyster Bay! Poppy joined us for the tour, and bought the kids souvenirs. We also checked out the Theodore Roosevelt Museum. Matt liked Teddy's sons, Quentin and Archie, who did pranks like putting bullfrogs in a visiting senators bath.

Camping

We camped out at Cedar Point County Park, waaaay out in East Hampton. It took us 2 hours to get there, but we got a great spot and John and I managed to get the tent up before lunch without any major arguing. (We figured out the next morning what those leftover pieces were for.)
The beach was rocky, the bugs had a feast, our air mattresses deflated by morning, dirt and sand got into everything and we had a great time!

Randy Schader Fan Club

Our pal Randy came to visit all the way from California. He just hung out and experienced a regular day with us. Christina and Mackenzie made brownies for dessert, and we sat around the fire out back awhile after dinner.

In the morning we dropped Randy at the train station, took Christina and her cello to Summer Music camp (that I almost forgot about, but her friends mom called me), and left the rest of the kids at school for Summer Rec while I went to my regular appointment at 1o am.
Picked up Christina from Music and went to the dentist because her palate exander came out. We shopped for some camping equipment before getting the other kids. That darn palate expander came out again, just when I had three of their friends swimming in the pool with us. Convinced John to come home early rather than get all these kids picked up, and went to the dentist again. Spent the rest of the evening packing for a one night camping trip. Yippee!