Summer days

I love it when the traditional warm (non humid) New England sunny days happen, even better, when they occur across the whole weekend. We were lucky this weekend as that was the case.

For the first time we were able to take the motorcycle for a weekend get away to a friends house, stuffing the bike hard bags to the brim with some clothes and odds and ends. The drive was great and one of the things I love about the motorcycle is the peace and serenity on the drive, this time was no exception.

Our friends have kids and they are the type to always come up with some experiment or activity to do with the kids. This weekend? Plaster of paris sculptures! Though there was also a brief adult toy activity that involved rockets launched into the stratosphere, but seeing as they went into the stratosphere, they never returned and this activity was fairly quick!

The plaster casts, that was fun, using the sand box to each dig out a shape, make our mark on it and poor plaster in. Impatient me wanted to see them within 30 minutes, after all that's when the container says it was solid?! The next morning we dug out a foot, a heart, a target sign, a funky african/indian looking mask and a stranger yet bigfoot looking shape having stepped on a shell.

The heart? That was mine, I'm an engineer, not an artist and well, that heart shaped bucket was all I needed to set the stage for plaster!

we spent the day swimming, eating and of course getting a bit too much sun. The evening, talking and hanging out by the fire, counting the stars with one of thier daughters. It was one of those priceless and touching moments, giving me long pause as I thought of Magpie. Both Eric and I were wishing she were already home and commented more than once how she was missing out on all this. It's hard not having her here already, but she's so real to us already that she's in on every thought as it is.

We received the heart wrenching and warming book pictured above. It's part of the Half The Sky work and I've been eyeing it for some time now. They picked up a copy for us and I can honestly say, if you are thinking of getting it, you should. The eyes of the children in the pictures, well, they'll make you ask yourself and them more questions than you could imagine. It's breathtaking, haunting, real. It captures the look I've seen in so many blogs, so many adoptive parents blogs on the day their children join their family, that shell shocked, distant, longing look. It could break your heart. I know if Magpie has 'the look' it make me want to know even more, what the days before she met us were like.

The weekend close... poor Zane, just after we picked her up from the kennel along with Ginger, brought her home and well, stung by a bee. Yelped like crazy, then it was over. A little golf ball nugget on her neck as a souvenier.

Hope your weekend was special in it's own way too.

(our secret pal gift arrived, more on that next)