Summer Lovin'

One morning Cannon got out the painting supplies.  He set up shop in the middle of the busiest intersection of the house and proceeded to paint an elk in a peaceful meadow.    He declared, "Now I will paint my emotions."  Good idea.
It's summer.  Summer is the time to do all those things you don't have time to do during the rest of the year.

And certainly no one can say that we don't know how to have a good time in the summer.  I mean, look at these party animals.
Kidding.  It's rather pathetic and it didn't last long.  Just long enough for me to recited "Rub-a-Dub-Dub, three men in a tub."  At which point I realized at least two of them were too old to be sitting in a tiny kiddie pool together and have it be cute.  

But HELLO!!!  This IS cute!  The boys reading together and Peter being adorable with the kitty. 
In very happy news, the three kitties (Batman, Two-Face, and Alfred the Butler) are all happily settled in their new homes and no longer our responsibility. 

On July 10th Faith was practicing her backhand springs on her mats at home and she landed weird and CRACK!  She hurt her left hand middle finger.  She's tough but she was pretty bent out of shape about this injuring (pun intended).  Later that afternoon I took her into the Instacare, where I was pretty sure X-rays would be taken so the Dr. could tell us it was just a sprain.

Alas... she did indeed break her finger.  In a splint for 6 weeks and absolutely no weight on it for 8 weeks-- bye, bye gymnastics and piano practice.  She's a little sadder about one of those than the other.  I bet you can guess which.

So she can't do backhand springs... but she can play pickle ball!  We are very new to this sport, but we're pretty big fans already.  It's fun and can be enjoyed by all abilities. 

 Grandma and Grandpa Cannon are quite good and play regularly and they came down and schooled us (both ways) in the game of pickle ball.  We loved it and have taken ourselves to the courts a couple of times since.  Abe's old tennis skills are definitely giving him the edge over the rest of us (our immediate family).  Dad and Bev are definitely better! 

Cannon might be a close second.

 Grandma Cannon took a tumble while going for a ball.  It was most impressive how she went down, rolled and popped back up.  I'm telling you, I don't know how old she is (she doesn't like to reveal that classified info) but I think she should be feeling pretty good about herself!

Team Middle Kids and I tried our hands again a few days later. Anyway, we have a craving for more pickle ball!