It Came From The Basement

Visitors to our house who have had to share a bed with this creature will realize the momentousness of seeing her in the dining room of her own volition (for the first time in Frederick's lifetime, at least). Grandpa's visit seems to have reminded her that actually she quite likes humans.

Pools, Lakes and More

[Thanks to Emily for all the photographs in these two posts.]
As mentioned in previous posts, Frederick spends every chance he can get swimming somewhere. Emily has been weening him off floats and, hurrah!, here he is swimming completely under his own steam. Apparently he was very proud of himself and didn't want to quit. (This is Emily's mom's pool as featured in previous summer's posts.)
But things just get better and better. A few days ago, Emily took Frederick to visit her cousin Marcie (AKA: Emily in a dark wig) who was staying in a lakefront property in Fenton. Here Frederick waits for everyone else to get it together so he can get to the lake and get busy doing what he knows how to do best.
Finally, in the water! Here are Emily and Frederick, enjoying themselves on the lake.

Pools, lakes and more continued....

Here are Frederick and Emily, jet-setting around in a boat on a lake in Fenton.
Frederick clearly enjoying the good life.
Here he is, sitting on Captain Marcie's lap, learning how to work one of these things. (Marcie, beside's being Emily's cousin, was Thomas's former French teacher when he was in pre-K at Alpha Montessori--don't even MENTION Madeleine!)
And now, time for a quick snack.
And now paddleboats! (The person in the middle is Emily's nephew Zildjian.  Yes, his father is indeed a drummer.)  What next? Is it any wonder that Frederick is sleeping 2 more hours in the morning these days?

Fun in the sun

Frederick is already into his Summer routine of sun, sand and surf with Emily and is quite bronzed. Here he is at "Bluebell Beach" (an artificial sandy beach on a lake near here, only occasionally shut down because of e-coli scares) with me last weekend:

He's pretty confident in the water these days. Perhaps a bit TOO confident for my liking...

Flint Art Fair

Every year it gets incredibly hot for just one day in June, so that the Annual Art Fair can be uncomfortable, and this year was no exception. Some, like our neighbours Stacey and Bryce (who got featured on the front page of the Flint Journal for his troubles) spent the entire day there. We, on the other hand, were only really interested in the wares displayed by Jami's friend Stephanie Bills, whose "Monsta" creations have been crowding Thomas and Frederick's beds for years now. Here's what her stall looked like this year:

Remnants of Grandpa

Freshly mixed cement...


Tea - Earl Grey, hot...


An empty bed (not pictured: a heartbroken Eunice [AKA: the Cellar Dweller])


Smelly shoes:


The obligatory English Slippers:


Well, the first week had violent stomach flu, the second week had dying cars, but the third week wasn't so bad. It went by very quickly, and we'll certainly miss his kitchen tidying...
(What is it about my parents leaving their shoes behind?)

Finished!

Grandpa's 9 millionth successful shelving construction!

Keeping Grandpa from being bored 2: garage shelves

A short rest for Grandpa...


Then back to work -- on a new and bigger project - totally re-designing our garage shelving system.


But this time he has recruited a helper:

Keeping Grandpa from being bored 1: compost heap

What's this? Where's Grandpa?


And what's all that noise?


Aha! He's hard at work in the garage. But what's he working on?


Oh, I see! It's a little house!


Actually, it's a brand new super-tidy compost heap, to replace the midden heap that has just been used up on the new garden. And all made up of recycled wood! But not to worry, Grandpa gets to go to Home Depot for the next project...