sugar boot and weasel: Busy Day

It was gorgeous out. The weather was perfect (and hot enough for me, which is rare!).

Bastian ate blackberries for breakfast.

I suggested he paint with them in his new sketchbook.

Then we tried a leave print, which didn't work out so well. I'm assuming it's because I used a rock instead of a hammer, which would be more even. I don't actually have directions for this activity, so maybe there are better ideas out there about how to do this. It seemed simple enough in my head. Jon hated all the banging as he was in bed still.

Bastian and I painted together. I painted the butterfly we found last week outside Vidstar. I bought this sketchbook partially to do a family drawing time and partially as an idea book for my new writer's group.

I really don't do watercolors, but I like how this turned out.

Meanwhile, Aleks dug up all the bricks in the back of the house looking for bugs, slugs, and earthworms. He also sat watching Mud Dauber Wasps for a long while in a mud puddle.

Then we had to rush out of the house to go to the dentist. I'm not taking him back there though. Stupid me let them do a fluoride treatment. Never again. We rinsed it out.

Back in the car, Aleks asked me about jewelry stores. He asked if there was one nearby. As it happened, there was one across the street, which we passed just as we were having this conversation. We passed another before I figured out that he wanted to go to a jewelry store "to see what it is like." A third came up on the left, but when we pulled in the parking lot, it looked less fancy and more like a pawn shop. So we turned around and pulled in the big fancy parking lot of the second jewelry store we originally passed. Inside, Aleks was disappointed to not find large multi-colored jewels in all the cases and instead, tiny sparkling bits set into necklaces, bracelets, rings, and earrings.

We made our way around the whole store, looking at the different colored pieces. A woman asked if we needed any help and I explained that Aleks just wanted to see what it was like. She then helped to point out more varieties of colored jewels set into individual pieces. There were red, green, blue, violet, deep purple, orange, and brown. We saw large strands of pearls too and I tried to explain about oysters before Aleks lost interest. He really wanted to buy something, but decided it was all too expensive. I didn't even make mention of blood diamonds, so go me for restraint. I finally got curious enough to ask about the reasoning for wanting to see a jewelry store. I asked if it was because of The Great Muppet Caper, which we watched last week, but Aleks said it was because of Scooby Doo. Of course.

After assorted other errands, we stopped in an antique store. I just quickly browsed to see if there were any cheap fiesta ware pieces (not that I can even afford that at the moment). Aleks had a root beer from the hardware store, so I had him wait by the door, lest he spill it. Just as I was getting ready to leave, I noticed the display case up front with all the giant pieces of tacky costume jewelry. I lifted Aleks up to see and he was thrilled! He liked the pieces there much much better than the fancy pants suburban store (though none of them were real, I don't think). Admittedly, they were much more fascinating and unique. I've been a fan of rhinestones all my life thanks to my mother's incessant thrifting habits.

We also went to the post office to mail off Sigg bottles and nursing pads. we stopped at the hardware store with the screen that Bastian cut up so it could be repaired, and to the leather repair/dry cleaning/alterations shop to drop off my boots so they'll once more have proper soles for winter.