Summer isn’t summer without fireworks out on the gravel driveway. Nothing too fancy – mostly sparklers and bottle rockets. Our neighbors are blowing up all the big fireworks this little redneck village can handle.

As I mentioned in a recent post, Kaya spent two weeks in June at Camp Mudd, a nearby day camp. Every other Thursday night they do an overnight campout and invite the parents out for skits in the evening. Calen and Ian went with us, for old time’s sake (they both went there for years).

Kaya is in the oldest group this summer and wrote their skit herself, a parody of the parody song “I’m on a Boat.” Their (much cleaner) version was called “I’m on a Bus” and was by far the best skit of the night.

Meanwhile, Joshua had his last game of the baseball season last week — his team is undefeated! They regularly beat opponents 24-5 and stuff like that. It’s his last year of coach-pitch, so it was fun to watch them have a great confidence-building season. (He’s down on the lower right.)

Aside from baseball and soccer, Joshua has been busy starting piano lessons. He loves it and is catching on so fast! Here’s evidence … comes home from baseball and goes straight to the piano to practice. Fern would be proud.

With no urgent need for wood chopping, Farmer Chip has turned his attention to other yard-related projects, including the garden. Last weekend we mulched with newspaper and straw. Not much produce yet, but it’s doing well and we’ll have plenty by the end of the summer.

I love our place in summer, with everything green and blooming and alive. We have a ton of baby’s breath everywhere this year.

I would take a picture of me sitting holed up on the couch with my laptop, feverishly trying to finish the book and apply to grad school, but that wouldn’t be very exciting. When the book gets published and I get accepted, I’ll take a picture of the wild party!