Pirates, Dragons, and Dance Friday, Oh My!

Reward after 4 weeks of writing
Also, gonna keep writing

Over the past four weeks, I have attended Teachers Write, an online summer camp. As I mentioned before, this year I was determined to give it my all. I am proud to say that with the exception of two days in the Adirondacks, I was able to post my writing every day. And even on those two days, I read through the comments and posts when I got reception. I've doubled the length of my story, writing 10 single-spaced pages, adding 5,000 words. In the past week I've added over 2,000 of those words. I guess you can say I'm hitting my stride.

This morning was our last day to post a snippet of writing for feedback. I was unsure, with so many pages as candidates, what to submit. In the end, I landed on one section that I felt was the heart of my story. If I was going to get feedback, might as well get to the heart of the matter. After hitting submit, I hit the road and headed out for a day of adventure with my friend Mas and her family.

You remember Mas, right? She is one of my favorite reading buddies. Basically she hears about all the good books, sends titles my way, and I fall in love. I found out about Jon Klassen this way, and Oliver Jeffers, and...well, the list goes on. Many moons ago I blogged to celebrate the birth of her first child, Oliver. Well, Oliver is 5 now and starting kindergarten!! And he has a little brother, Elliot, who is 3. I can't believe the speed of times sometimes.

So I have to tell you that spending any amount of time with Mas, Walter, Oliver, and Elliot, feels like it should be documented as "what I hope my life might look like if I ever decide to have children." There is so much joy, creativity, patience, and letting go of any sort of current rules of parenting. It's a lovely mix of the good ol' days and whatever it is that makes 2017 beautiful. After relaxing on the beach of Walden Pond, we headed to their new home. While about to snack on some good ol' fashioned PB&Js and pizza, Elliot showed me a picture in a face paint book. "This is what I'm going to be," he told me. (Or some version of that.) I smiled thinking that would be adorable. But no, he meant right now. I looked up to see Mas already had the face paints and brush ready to go. While Elliot chomped his pizza, he was transformed into a pirate. I was trying not to take pictures of everything because the whole day was so darn amazing. Mas gave me permission to blog about it though. :)

Steps at the beautiful Walden Pond

Oliver, now 5!, wears a bow tie for ranger activities

Wanted, reward 100$

Gettin' pirated

Dragon wings

Pirate + Pizza = Party!

This was on their road. Nobody knows why it is there. 

For your Dance Friday video, I'm offering a link to a news report about this lady in Rochester, NY who tap dances and she just turned 100! Amazing! The best video is on the TNT Dance Explosion Facebook page but they didn't post the video on youtube so I can't share it with you. You'll have to settle for this news report instead. (Not really settling. :))
http://13wham.com/features/bright-spot/bright-spot-tap-dancing-birthday