Sam was "cooking" outside today with the neighbor boy. Here's the recipe for what they made. Sam calls it "Bad Guy Soup."
Bad Guy Soup
Fill a bowl with dirt.
Catch as many grasshoppers as you can - in this case, one - and smash them. (If your mom discovers what you are doing at this point, you may have to smash them further to make sure they have been "put out of their misery.") Add to the dirt.
Add rocks to taste.
Stir it all together while laughing maliciously: "Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!" until thoroughly mixed.
Though it may seem like it, I'm not exaggerating on these directions one bit. I thought they were being pretty imaginative, but when they started the sinister laugh, I knew I would have to put this on the blog.
As you know, Seth had appendicitis this summer. Then Elena went delirious with a high fever. Now I have whooping cough. Ironically, I had planned to get the vaccine for whooping cough right after the baby was born. At least it's me and not the kids - I'd hate to watch them go through this. The only disadvantage to it being me is...well, I'm the mom. And we all know how much gets done around the house when Mom is sick. Seth has done a great job of stepping up and taking care of things as much as he can, though. I'm on antibiotics so I'm not contagious, but they don't do a lot to help improve the symptoms. Chances are I'll just have to ride this cough out for the next few weeks.
I figured as long as I'm too sick to get much done, I would update the blog.
The month of July was spent mostly at the pool. Elena mastered going off the diving board in the deep end by herself without a life jacket. She was pretty proud of herself. Sam was also very good at going off with his life jacket. Unfortunately, every time I brought my camera they wouldn't go off the board so I didn't get any footage.
At the end of the month, we went camping at Storybook Land in Aberdeen, SD with several of our friends. The kids had a blast. While we were there, we went to a show with Lakota Hoop Dancers. At the end, any kids who wanted to come up and learn how to dance could do so. I was able to get footage of that. Here are Sam (green tank top) and Elena (white tank top, green shorts) doing a "traditional" hoop dance:
