robotics class

swim buddy

haven't a clue, but Max really liked this... swim buddy.

A view into the future

Granted, when this happens for real, she'll be able to see over the wheel, but OY!

This is from the weekend before school started up, and Max was at a friend's. So Ave and I did 'girl stiff.' Like getting done up at the makeup counter at Macy's.

And the outfit - a preview of halloween. We got her a fair maiden outfit at the rensesance festival this summer, with the understanding that it would be her halloween costume as well as a great prize for that day.

dancin' feet

crazy sock / sock hop at summer camp a few weeks ago - Max asked me to make him some calvin and hobbes socks. pretty good, considering the medium...

duck world

went to duck world (more commonly known as Bass Pro Shops) for absolutely no reason other than to get out of the house. They were having a 'special' weekend, with various events and displays not normally there. One of which was a photo shoot. The kids stood in front of the generic nature background, and poof they layered it up with digital stuff to make it look like a magazine cover. I think it is quite funny that the 'monster buck' that Max supposedly scored is alive and well. Silly, but free, so what the heck. The kids also got to try their hand at shooting compound bows and shooting paint ball guns.

That duck world - it's just a hootenanny!

whiskers

This is from our first day in Moab - about 20 minutes into a bike ride the first day of our trip, Ave crashed and split her chin open. Turns out the entrance to Sand Flats Recreation Area has Preprinted maps to the hospital, with the fastest route highlighted. We spent 4 hour hours getting 4 stitches. Took 4 versions of pain meds, last of which was a general sedative to calm Ave enough to get the stitches in. She was a little hysterical about the whole thing.

The doctor called her stitches whiskers - and one of the nurses told her there was a whiskers fairy (distant relative to the tooth fairy?). Ave chose not to put the stitches under pillow a week later - she still has them. Bleh.

the rest of the bike story

When I posted about the bikes all finished, I looked for previous posts to reference back to for the in progress pictures, and discovered I never posted them. Oops. So here they are.

early on, sanding off stickers and paint:

afterwards, with mud sullying the beautiful paint:
all in pieces, right before final assembly:

hmm, grinding again

one of many coats of paint:

taking masking tape off after painting:

Ave, all sideways, with finished beautiful paint:

Ave helping with Max's paint:

Both bikes did survive the roll over and got home safely. Thanks goodness, after all that hard work!