A trip to our home town.

We went "home" for an art show today. Of course, we had to go our favorite Chinese restaurant there. In the first photo, Bug is pointing to the mark they made the last time we ate there before we moved...almost 2 1/2 years ago.

Bug visits an old friend, Mudboy.


She's very silly. If you've read this blog for any length of time, you've seen other photos of these two together. They go way back. He was even at the pirate party she had when she turned 3.
How awesome is this horse statue? It's made from found objects.

Not real easy to see, but Bug really liked this bird sculpture.

Of course, we can't go on a drive without a good book.

Green belt!

Bug tested for her green belt tonight. Here are a few photos:



11 kids tested for belts tonight. Here's a group shot.
Bug with her instructor, Mr. T.

Dragons!

Bug recently made, wrote and illustrated a book about dragons (heavily influenced by the movie How to Train Your Dragon) and sent it to her author/illustrator friend, David LaRochelle. Today, she received a letter from him. She was SO excited. She gave me permission to post the pages from the book and her letter from "Tall David". If you haven't read his books to your kids, you really should. We highly recommend The Best Pet of All and The End (that's Bug hugging David in the photo for The End). You can click on the pictures to make them larger and easier to read.










Notice that the Reading Dragon is reading "The Best Pet of All" by David LaRochelle. Here's the letter she received today:

Sidewalk chalk

Bug has been busy with the sidewalk chalk lately. This sentence made me laugh. (I did like the proper use of commas, though.)

Summer fun

Bug & I checked out Riverfest today. She got a wristband that gave her unlimited time in all of the bounce houses. She was thrilled. It also gave her access to this...It was odd hearing parents shouting at their kids (who were having fun) "Use the gun! Use the gun!"




I couldn't find Bug at the library on Tuesday night. Finally, I spotted her on this comfy kid-sized chair.
This is her current favorite outfit. The hat was purchased at a garage sale some time ago. I just found the t-shirt & skirt at Goodwill. After I asked, she assured me that it is ok to wear at lion shirt with a leopard-print skirt. Whew.

REO Speedwagon

We got to see Three Dog Night and REO Speedwagon. Bug was pretty excited, as she'd met REO's guitarist, Dave Amato, earlier in the day. Both bands sounded great. I still remember listening to Three Dog Night (8-track!) on my brother's stereo (when he wasn't around).

Here she is, before REO started playing.

After the show, we got to meet the rest of the band.

This is the bass player, Bruce Hall.


Neal Doughty, keyboards.

Her new friend (see below), Kevin Cronin, vocals.

With Dave Amato once again. He's the reason we got to be there.

Drummer, Bryan Hitt.

When she first met Kevin, before she could get him to sign her backstage pass, he heard the fireworks outside and said "You want to go watch the fireworks?" and off they go, out of the tent. I followed behind and tried to catch them. In the photo it looks like she's just following him. I wish that I'd been quicker with the camera.

She caught up with him later to tell him that he was a good friend. He asked if she got good grades. She nodded, then told him she was homeschooled. In this shot they are discussing homeschool and school buses. (we got to ride one there from the parking lot)

Geocaching

Bug & I have had fun geocaching the past couple of weeks. We've found about a dozen caches and NOT found several more. We always seem to find SOMETHING, though.

She found this deer jawbone down by the river.


Yesterday we found a snake skin.

Birthday round-kicks!

At karate class today, the other students got to line up and give Bug her birthday round-kicks.

Bug is 8! (also, Mandarin links have been updated)

Bug is 8 today. I don't know how that happened so quickly. It sure has been an eventful 8 years. 8 years full of art, music, pirates, dragons, volcanoes...oh, and HATS. Lots of hats.

I love this shot of Bug laughing. It's so very much HER.

Here's what brought it on...How to Train Your Dragon Mad-Libs.

She just finished reading book 2 in the series (from the library), so was THRILLED to get book 3 as a gift today.

I think this shot sums up her day.

Pre-birthday party

Bug's birthday is tomorrow, but since we had friends coming to visit we had cake today. I made it yesterday and banned her from the kitchen so that she had no idea what it looked like.

Here she is this morning, getting her first look at it.

After lunch at the Chinese buffet. She LOVED the Wall-E candle!

I offered her a choice: hand or eyeball....she chose hand. Since it had black and gray icing, here's what her tongue looked like: