Another wildlife adventure we got to experience this weekend was with a coyote. We were sitting on the patio in back when all of a sudden we heard a rustling in the woods and something hop out into the field. Mike knew right away that it was a coyote, and Lucy ran to the edge of our yard to let it know who was boss. What was freaky though is that the coyote just sat in the field staring Lucy down. It wasn’t until Mike came out with the pellet gun that it finally took off. A neighbor tells of a tale of another neighbor having its full-grown golden retriever dragged off and eaten by a pack of coyotes. No more midnight potty breaks for Lucy.

Probably too difficult to see, but here is a shot of the coyote working his way further back and onto the bike path.

I might as well post about our 4th of July festivities since the pictures are already uploaded. We were invited to the Morton’s home for dinner, and then we set off to watch the downtown Kenosha fireworks shoe. Dinner was a delicious assortment of Greek (tzatziki) and Chesapeake Bay (crab cakes) cuisine. We provided our favorite strawberry/greens from our garden/toasted almonds/vinaigrette salad and 4th of July cake.

The fireworks show was fabulous, and we had front row seats. There was a plastic fence keeping people from getting too close. Good thing it was there because we witnessed some fireworks sparks hitting the grass not more than 50 feet away in front of us.

We also brought over a watermelon. Annie insisted on holding it during the drive. Mimi can’t stand to not do everything Annie does and was quite upset during the drive.

All the kids with their glow sticks.

And the show begins. Just some random fireworks shots. ‘Twas fun playing with the fireworks feature on the point/shoot.

The kids watching. Notice Annie holding her hands over her ears.

And the finale. It turned out to just look like a big fireball in the pictures.

How was your 4th?

Another feature of the membership is the lake on the property that has its own beach. I kept meaning to take the girls there last year, but it just never seemed to be warm enough, or we’d have other stuff going on. Finally, I took the girls over there on Saturday when the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. The girls loved every minute of their time there. In fact, they met up with another little girl their age and hung out with her and her sand toys for the rest of the time at the beach. I immediately decided we needed to get some of our own beach toys and spend lots more time there. Of course, this decision seemed to bring on chilly and/or rainy weather this whole week so far. Tomorrow is supposed to be back up in the 70’s and sunny, but we have to babysit some friends’ kids in the middle of the day. Maybe we can squeeze in a quick visit in the morning. Cross your fingers for us that the weather will cooperate tomorrow all day.

Here’s Mike getting ready for the first batch. He’s so proud! And, yes, he’s growing another mustache. It will be shorn very soon if I have anything to do with it. He usually tries to pull this one when he goes out of town by himself.

It takes about 2 of these bowls of strawberries for each double batch.

And the results. Just in case you’re wondering, there are 46 jars total. I really hope we don’t get sick of strawberry jam.

Mimi wasn’t so successful. Somehow all the strawberries she picked ended up in her belly.

Annie was quite the worker bee. She filled up an entire basket with suitable strawberries. She was so proud of herself and even asked if she could get a job there. When it was time to pay up for our pickins’ Annie actually asked the teenage girl who worked there if she could have a job, too. We’ll see how she feels when she actually reaches the legal employment age.

The final results of our labor. One family donated the 6th basket to us because it would have taken a bit longer to pick that last one. Thanks to the Johnsons for that.

All the kids (minus 1) who “helped” with all the picking and 2 families’ worth of strawberries. We sure will be busy making jam.

We started our jam session last night, but only got through one double batch which resulted in 20 8 oz jars. Two more double batches will probably be needed to get through the rest of the strawberries. Do the math, it’s a LOT of strawberry jam! Mike and I debated whether we should make that much jam, but I reminded him about how many pb&js I make each week. I’ll definitely post about it with pictures when the job is complete.

Crossing the finish line.

Somehow I convinced myself that this new town we live in produced perfect weather all summer after the beautiful summer we had last year. I rarely, if ever, had to run the air conditioner, and there was only a handful of humid days. The locals tried to convince me that last summer was not the norm, but I would hear nothing of it. As I sit here in my air conditioned home with the thermostat cranked almost as low as it can go and with the sultry, 90+ degree weather since the weekend, I’m starting to believe that I was a little deluded last summer.

Look at how close this cheetah got to us. I’m sure all he was thinking was, “SNACKTIME!”

Doesn’t he look cute enough to cuddle with?

Fierce leopard (he’s actually yawning).

Peacock in a tree. The peacocks were free to roam around the park.

This peacock felt compelled to show off his plumage to the concrete wall.

The kids got along so well with each other. Mimi hasn’t stopped talking about Dylan since he left.

We had our own little zoo in the backyard this afternoon. Mike spotted this garter snake while out in the yard and demanded that we all come outside to see him even though I had just put the girls down for their nap. He’s actually pretty long–about 2 feet. Annie declared, “He thinks he’s famous!”

While Jake and Stephanie were here we had the girls sleep in their sleeping bags on our bedroom floor. The girls love doing that so much, and they asked if they could nap in them today. Of course, I had to put them in separate rooms or else it would have been party time for the girls. Each girl had their lovey sleep in a sleeping bag as well (the storage bags for the sleeping bags). Mimi has her horsy, and Annie has her red bear.

The dog sometimes naps in with Mimi and sleeps under her bunk bed.

Mike has a new toy. An AR-15. He bought the various parts and then put it together himself. He’s very proud of it. Not sure why he needs such a scary-looking gun, but he apparently has a bunch of buddies that are also fairly new owners of the same gun. Peer pressure, I suppose.

And wouldn’t you know it, all the other little girls at the party also decided to come as princesses.

Mike also decided to join in on the fun and wore one of his jumpsuits, an ascot, and his aviator sunglasses. Unfortunately, the people at this particular party didn’t seem to grasp Mike’s uniqueness. He got a lot of inquisitive looks, and one guy asked him if he was supposed to be a sailboat captian. Poor Mike, nobody will ever understand his “vision” (including his own wife).

I went to pick up one of those green alien men left over from our alien party and realized this particular one was actually taped to the paper under it. After reading it I couldn’t help but snap a picture of it. Apparently, Annie was trying to explain the meaning of love. She clarified for me that the flower (the dead one taped to the right of the alien) represents “love” and the alien represents “not love” since aliens are bad.

We treated everyone to an entree of spaghetti and space balls.

Another dish we contributed was alien soup. However, it was forgotten and didn’t get eaten until dessert the next night.

Alien autopsy strawberries.

Alien bread.

The prize for the evening. The maker of this cake went all out. When I questioned that the icing should’ve been more green I was corrected by the “fact” that alien skin has more of a grey tone. My mistake.

The alien decorations: alien creatures, little green martians, yellow slime, glow sticks, and green and black streamers. We went all out.

The wives minus one who arrived later.

The girls are now home from school and keeping me on my toes. Annie wants to be constantly doing something fun. Today we set up a job chart for the girls where they earn stickers for tasks and get rewarded after so many stickers. They (mostly Annie) are very excited about it and are constantly asking what job they can do. I wonder how long that novelty will last.

Yesterday the girls attended a costume birthday party. I’ve got pictures and will more about it tomorrow.