Mr. Black and Elizabeth

It is a balmy seventy degree day here today.

I have a million things I should be doing to get ready for the early morning bargain hunters at tomorrows garage sale. It seems I have lost the wind in my garage "sale". I know that was bad. The forecast for our next two days is predicting rain and that makes me very frustrated. I have so much stuff that needs to sell because I am beyond tired of looking at it and dealing with it and tripping over it. I am pricing to go - so it all better go!

I promised the kids a beach trip so Hailey and I picked Evan up at the bus stop with lunch and pails and shovels packed. It was amazing down there. The lake was like glass. Why is it never like that on the days I have to ride that dreaded ferry? The kids finished their sandwiches and juice pouches and immediately started fighting over who gets to use the blue shovel. Ugh! In an attempt to snuff their fuses I suggested that we play their "game". This game is one of Evan's favorite things in the world. It was made up by him and Grama. Evan is Mr. Black. Grama is Mrs. Brown and Hailey is Elizabeth. Sometimes Spencer plays with them - he is Mr. White. The game up until now has consisted of them making forts in the basement and then leaving their forts to hunt or find food and to stay safe from the "Bobcat" - otherwise known as Dickens. Today we made the game about pretending to be shipwrecked on an island - sort of my own personal homage and farewell to LOST. Evan was enthralled. He immediately took to the beach to look for driftwood for a fire. After his fire was "high" - his term - he ran to the water pretending his shovel was a fishing pole and vowed to catch us some Nile Perch for dinner. I honestly can't get enough of his imagination. He played so nicely up until we had to head back for Hailey's nap. I just remembered that he never did give me a name.

Elizabeth bringing her fish to the camp.

Mr. Black foraging for firewood.

I was so grateful that there was no wind because I wanted to bring my new camera down to the beach, but was not looking forward to getting sand in all the crevices which is the case with my other camera. I tried to convince the kids to let me get a few shots of them by telling them they were for the posters that we would hang up to say that we were missing on an island. They bought it for about a minute.

I love this picture of Evan for some reason. It just looks to me like you can see his mind working.

There's my happy boy.

And there's my boy that has had enough of my camera in his face.

It was a great reprieve - now back to work! Keep your fingers crossed that we sell it all!