Rock Balancing & Things

The girls & I enjoyed a few hours at the river on Friday, in celebration of the last weekend before school starts. The Mr. dropped us at the Farmer's Market where, before venturing to the sandy shores near our shady tree, we spied the fruits & vegetables of the season all pretty on display. We also saw many species of doggy, too, which meant Pazely was in heaven! And Zoey got a giant watermelon-flavored sno-cone, which meant she was in heaven. And there was live music & samples, so I was, you know. Heaven. 

We ventured down to the river & made a comfortable mess of things, setting up a temporary chill-out zone near our tree. We call a particular tree at the park "our" tree. Or sometimes I refer to it as "my" tree. It's actually two trees, side by side. But we always sit to the left side, near our tree, not the other one. It's funny because sometimes we'll arrive at the park, making the usual beeline for our tree, & there will often be people sitting under our tree. I'm like, "Why are they sitting at our tree?" You know, like no one else is allowed to park themselves at these particular coordinates except us.
While we were at the park this weekend, Zoey took me directly under our tree & told me to look up. So I did. There were spiderwebs, no, spiderblankets & spidervillages all up inside it. Like, everywhere. Just thick, thick, all over.
I thought, "Ew. My tree is gross." So now I sit BESIDE it.

We were lucky enough to be the only ones at the river on this overcast day. Pazely wondered why we were the only ones. I told her it's because nobody else was crazy enough to step foot in that cold water. Pazely thought it was neat how her legs & knees felt numb.

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Have you seen stacked rocks before? I just think they're so cool. I tried to explain to the girls that stacking rocks is actually "a thing."

"It is?" they asked.

If you're unfamiliar with it all, you should look up images of stacked rocks or rock balancing sometime. There are even such things as rock balancing artists, & a Rock Stacking World Championship held annually in Texas. Who knew?

I'm definitely not on my way to the championship, but stacking rocks sure is fun to do. Pazely had a hard time getting her wobbly stones to stay put. So she made some mortar to aid in the wigglyness. That's pretty much against the official rules.
She's fired.

Here's a video I took of our afternoon at the river. I love the Cameo app for my iphone, by the way. But, golly, I need to pay more attention to the horizon. Crooked city! Haha! *sigh* If I had more time in my days, I'd devote them to learning about film-making. It's a secret/not-so-secret passion of mine.


HAPPY PLACE from Nikki/WhiMSy love on Vimeo.

Pazely started school today. The 6th graders got the whole school to themselves a day early. I love that. So now Pazely gets to join her sister in the middle school ranks this year. Just wait until the halls get crowded tomorrow though. God be with you, little one.

The girls have had their first-day-of-school outfits picked out (& laid carefully out) for 2 weeks now. They even had a practice run trying on their outfits. Is that normal? They've never done that before. But they are both SO excited to go back to school.
My big 7th grader (who is taller than me, & I'm 5'8") gets to wear makeup for the first time. I remember my mom taking me to the store & picking out makeup before I entered 7th grade. It's a rite of passage, so to speak. I can clearly picture the Cover Girl palette of eye shadow my mom & I picked out, in shades of grey & pink & blue.

Pazely's ensemble included a mix of this & that. But she loved it. A Peanuts cartoon shirt AND Peanuts cartoon pants AND lion earrings AND flip-flops AND rainbow colored sunglasses. And she rocked it all with a messy bun on top of her cute freckled head.

Just so you know, Pazely's first day at school was pretty much a success. She only got lost once &, unfortunately, dealt with a crabby teacher who couldn't seem to give slack to a newbie middle schooler. Shame on that woman.
Pazely has already picked out her two favorite teachers, she met a new girl (which was her goal this year, & the new girl happens to be her locker partner), she squeals nonstop when she thinks about going to school, & she has declared school lunches to be officially disgusting.

ME: Who did you sit with at lunch, Pazely?
PAZELY: I couldn't find my friends at lunch, so I just rolled down the hill.
*she pauses to pull a piece of grass out of her hair*
ME: Is that from rolling down the hill?
PAZELY: No. It's probably from when I was making grass angels.

I love that girl.

It feels good, once again, to get back to routine. In fact, I'm looking forward to putting the house back in order this first week the girls are at school. This summer I have become an expert pile-maker. There are piles everywhere, strategically balanced like those rocks. Nothing artsy about it. Just a big ol' tall mess. 

♥