Mess test

As I'd anticipated, the Boy didn't make it through last night's sleepover. In fact sleep didn't even get a look in. He changed his mind and bailed out. Luckily he decided to do this at bedtime - packed up his bag and announced he was going home - so neither his hosts nor his parents actually lost any sleep because of it.

He rejoined his buddy today (no hard feelings) for a swimming outing. The Man did some more trail blazing at school this morning (heavy duty stuff this time, hacking out a new trail), then went to mow in our own yard this afternoon. The Girl had fun at her friend's house, then had more fun at her final Brownie event - she has now 'flown up' to Junior Girl Scouts.

And I've mostly been sorting and tidying and hoovering, though like the weeds in the yard, mess in our house has a rampant life of its own: turn your back on a nice tidy room for more than a minute and you can guarantee that someone will find something to discard in the middle of it - and then before you know it a whole load more mess will have rushed in to keep it company.

Trails and tracks

I don't know if it's the weather or what, but no-one in the house can keep awake this evening - except of course the Boy, the only one who should by rights be in bed by now. He is busy conducting a noisy re-enactment of Disney's Cars in the sitting room while the Man and I have been taking it in turns to fall asleep on the sofa. The Girl is not at home, but sleeping over (perhaps) at a friend's house.

The Man deserves to be tired because he did his bit trail blazing up at school this morning. The rest of the family went along too, but as there were chainsaws involved I supervised the kids elsewhere on the site. We explored several of the existing trails and I got a sense of just how extensive the property is, and how many mosquitoes live on it.

After lunch we delivered the Girl to her distant play date destination, and the Boy to a different one closer to home. When I went to collect him later he was having a whole lot of fun with a sprinkler and a paddling pool, then on a bouncy castle, then in his friend's bedroom full of train track. Not surprisingly his only thought on leaving was 'When can I play here again?'

Good fellers

This afternoon we joined in one of those work days up at school that we occasionally attend. There were jobs to be done indoors - such as getting staples out of the walls in preparation for a new year's worth of work to go up. Also outside - re-filling the sandbox, putting down new bark chippings under the play structure and other such tasks.

Meanwhile the school's trail blazing project continues apace, and there was much roaring of chainsaws and piling up of branches as another new path was cleared.

There was a good turnout to help, the scheduled jobs were soon done and some of the workers rewarded with doughnuts and apple cider.

The ice is right

I delivered the kids to friends' houses this morning and then set off to Siena College for the inaugral meeting of the New York Capital Region Fair Trade Coalition.  It was an interesting gathering - a mixture of retailers, advocates, not-for-profit representatives, educators, and volunteers.  I think we'll mostly act as a support network for each other as we pursue the activities we're already engaged in, but we'll also find opportunities to work together, welcome others to join us and generally try to give fair trade a higher profile.  It's exciting - this is the first regional (as opposed to single town-or-city-based) fair trade initiative in the USA, so we're blazing a bit of a trail here.

This afternoon I managed to get the Girl to a skating lesson.  It doesn't seem at all the right time of year for ice-skating, but actually when it's 89F and humid out, a rink is quite a comfortable place to be.  I sat in the bleachers and chatted to a "skate-mom" - she has three figure-skating daughters - and learnt with growing apprehension just how much time and money it's possible to spend if you really get into this sport.  One of the daughters had just bought a new pair of skates that cost $1,200!  And unlike a quality musical instrument or whatever, skates wear out...  Yikes.  Still, I think there's a way to go before we're aspiring to that sort of investment.