Everyday Summer 2012 Part 2

Nicolas has been busy putting together Lego scenes from Lord of the Rings.  To help publicize the new Lord of the Rings Lego sets, Lego currently has a contest running from now until mid-August.  Using your own Lego sets you are to recreate scenes from the movies/books and upload them to Lego.com.   Nicolas entered two different scenes into the contest.

The final charge at Helm's Deep

The final charge at Helm's Deep

The Battle of Pelennor Fields

Close-up of the ship

Nicolas also likes to dabble in the kitchen.  His best creation this summer is lemonade from freshly squeezed lemons.  Let me know if you want the lemon syrup recipe:)

 

Doesn't this look refreshing?

Caleb has been busy scraping and painting the shed and the bottom part of the house.  Nicolas has helped with some of the painting (Seth helped for about 15 minutes).  I will post before and after pictures as he completes his projects.

Seth finally learned how to ride a two wheel bike.  He does not like to try new things especially if it is something he doesn't master right away.   Thankfully, he persisted and after two days of consistent practice he now loves to ride bike up and down the sidewalk with the rest of the kids and neighbors.

We have also enjoyed swimming at the YMCA this summer.  No sand, no sun, no towels (they are provided) makes for an easy afternoon outing!   And that reminds me of a Sethie story...

Russ took the kids to the YMCA for a swim a few weeks ago on one of those hot, hot afternoons.  After swimming they all broke up in pairs to shower:  Lydia and Anna in one room; Russ and Nicolas in another; Seth and Caleb in still another.    After showering Caleb came out of the shower room with a slightly embarrassed, slightly amused look on his face.  "Did you hear Seth out here?" he asked.   Since the rest had all been in their own little shower rooms, they admitted they had not.  Evidently, Seth had been singing "How Great Thou Art" while in the shower.  Now, before you imagine how sweet that that would sound in a little boy's voice, you have to understand that when Seth sings, he sings in the more classical opera style--very loud and with lots of vibrato (too much Il Divo?).   Since we are all aware of how Seth sings, we found this quite amusing.  "The singing wasn't so bad," Caleb admitted, "but when Seth took a break from singing to shout, 'WHERE ARE YOU FISHY?  FISHY WHERE ARE YOU?' into the toilet bowl, I started to get a little embarrassed."   Since the teenage brother is so conscious of looks and appearances the whole scenario just made me laugh.