Circus camp is over!! The kids seemed to have a great time and so did we (although John & I were wondering if we'd survive it - reality TV has nothing on us!)
Remember the bonfire from last week? Well, boys being boys, they discovered the charcoal/ash that's left makes great body paint. That was followed by hosing each other down (our well water is 55 degrees) so that required a lot of hollering as well. Then there was "streaking" from bush to bush (it's a good thing we don't have neighbors in sight!) followed by trying to sneak in the back door with laundry baskets over their privates. And that was only Monday!
The building of the tepee -saws, dead branches, old tarps (who needs electronic games?!) kept them busy for hours. The two extra kids are Corey & Kelsey (our friend Leigh's great nephew & niece who were at Circus Camp as well).
I did manage to pick a couple of gallons of blueberries on Tuesday, not all of which went in the freeezer.
Finally, finally the big performance on Friday night. In the three middle photos, the kid on the tightrope is Maverick; on stilts there's Corey, Dillon, ??, & Win (blue tee shirt); and then Win on the left in one of their clown routines. All the kids did multiple things - diablo yoyo-ing, unicycle, tumbling; clowning; juggling etc. but my little camera is not much good with action shots - trust me, the kids were much better than my photos.
And I almost forgot to mention - we finished the latest Harry Potter!!! The kids had Friday morning off - on performance day they go in at 1 and stay for the duration (good thing too as I'm not sure we would have finished HP otherwise). Oletta read fast, the boys were up a half hour earlier than usual (on their own accord) as they were determined to hear the outcome before they had to go to camp. The boys even skipped breakfast (NOT something I would normally support but it was Harry Potter after all!) I finally sent John (who had napped through the chapters he had joined us for) after homemade donuts from our Amish neighbors to tide them (who am I kidding?)/ME over until the story was finished. Oletta finished the last chapter while they ate lunch. "The show must go on" but I'm not sure that would have included having to wait to hear the end of Harry Potter...
So is that a circus dog? No, that's Uncle Bridge's dog, Roscoe who just looks like he should be in the circus. Bridge came up to go to the performance and stayed an extra night with us. August is upon us. See the white on the horizon just beyond Bridge's head? That's typical August weather for this part of the world. The fog sits in the valleys until mid-morning making it look like we're surrounded by lakes. It also means fall is not too far behind. Where does the time go?
Listen! Can you hear the quiet? Everyone's gone with only the sound of washing machine purring in the background. Bliss!...
