Having spent the afternoon as birds of prey attacking leaves in the yard, crawling through the chicken coop to capture chickens, and hiking through our neighbor's farm to the airline trail, the kids desperately needed a bath. I gave Lucia the fluffy pink bathrobe I'd found for her earlier this summer, and she loved it. How on earth did I end up with a girly girl???
First up, our favorite pyromaniac lights Daddy's cake.
Then off to the firepit to torch little pillows of sugar and pollute the lake with their charred carcases.
Notice the very cool long two-pronged stick fashioned by Nonno.
At this point, we've dispensed with the pretense of roasting marshmallows. Now we're just catching sticks on fire.
Lucia offers to share her gooey bounty.
Dante snapped this shot of the Minne Ha Ha, one of the big paddleboats that cruise up and down from Lake George Village.
He also snapped up this 13" bass before setting it free again.
Dante shows off the 19" bass that Daddy caught in 40 feet of water. Evidently fish get the "bends" when drawn upwards so quickly, and this guy was having serious trouble surviving.
Nonno, the famous "fish whisperer," tries to help it regain it's senses, to no avail.
Look how big our little larva has gotten on our trip! On the day we were leaving, he attached to the roof and molted one last time into a chrysalis!
Lucia got into Dante's gel and went way overboard.
London Bridge is falling down...
What is Daddy plotting? And notice -- Lucia's swimming a bit without her floatie vest.
A languorous afternoon by the pool.
Run, horsie, run! Sadly, the pink horse was not the winner in most races. 
Posing with Seabiscuit, whom we vaguely recall from the movie we watched before this same trip last year.
Riding the restored carousel in Congress Park.
Our new tent, with Daddy in it "sawin' wood" while the kids and I make bannocks on the fire. At midnight. 
We mixed our bannock dough at home, and just had to add the wet ingredients. Too lazy to find sticks to wrap the dough around, we cooked them in the skillet. Slathered with butter and jam, who could tell the difference?
The slathering station at approximately 11:30 pm. Notice the jar with leaves in it -- that houses our monarch butterfly larva. Have larva will travel.
Staying up late, eating bannocks by the fire.
The beginnings of black bean chili, the end of which I forgot to photograph.
The next night was veggie soup, forgot pics of the process, but here's a shot of the tasty final product. All chopped with Dante's swiss army knife. Next time we pack real knives.
Pippi sits atop one of the random woodland creatures at the campgrounds.
At the lake, Dante caught this little catfish. He also managed to fall face first off the dock and smash his mouth on the paddleboat below. Which hastened the exit of his loose tooth.
Now he's got a hole on his bottom left to match the one on the right. Luckily the tooth fairy has an updated location map when you're travelling...
Lucia, sporting her new yellow floating vest, but not realizing she doesn't need her butterfly tube any longer.
The not-quite-finished mini golf course at the campgrounds, with cool waterways throughout and some funky housing. 
I just love love love the 'Evening Sun' sunflowers we planted this year.
The bees evidently share my infatuation. Or maybe it's just that most of our flowers aren't big enough for several visitor at once.
This is shaping up to be our prize pumpkin for the year. We orded seeds from Johnny's Selected Seeds and they've all been such a treat. This variety is the 'Rouge vif d'Etampes', the red Cinderella-carriage shaped pumpkin.
