Girls Nature Association Fundraising

I watched in a dazed stupor today as Alice, Robert, and the girl next door whipped up three different kinds of delectable treats, cleaned up the kitchen (including a load in the dishwasher, hand washing the rest), and sold said treats door to door in our neighborhood to raise money for a club Alice made up: The Girls Nature Association (GNA). They raised $9, bringing the GNA treasury to a whopping $16.33.

Alice cares about the environment, and the GNA has been a dream of hers for several months. They have regular meetings and a motto and an oath and a pile of leadership positions. So far, they have picked up litter and raised awareness on several environmental fronts including water conservation and air quality.

Anyway, all morning, I just kept thinking up reasons why this little plan of hers wouldn't work...she'd botch the recipe(s), no one would buy anything, she'd get discouraged after the first couple of "no thank you" responses and trudge home in tears, she'd find the kitchen too hard to clean, etc.. But I kept it to myself. I thought this was a safe place for her to fail and learn something in that failure. Boy, was I wrong. She did botch the recipes, but they sold anyway. The kitchen was awfully hard to clean, but she kept barking orders at Robert and the neighbor girl until it was done. The "no thank you" responses didn't seem to phase her this time. Hm. That truly was a surprise.

Thank you, dear neighbors, for buying my daughter's treats. I should warn you, however, that the GNA is planning to come back to your house every other day for the next few weeks to keep you well-stocked in treats. Thankfully, they are still naive enough to believe that if no one comes to the door, then no one must be home.

Here Robert is posing by another one of Alice's baked goods from last week: Aronia Berry and Pear tarts. Really, really yummy despite all those nasty sprinkles on top ;)

Matthew's foot on Day 4 of Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease. The white blotches in the middle of the red rashes are actually blisters :( Now on Day 7, the blistered skin has hardened and begun to peel away in large, crusty sheets that reveal raw, red, tender skin underneath. He still doesn't like walking much. And the rashes on his limbs are now all scabbed over. Worst case of this crazy virus that I've ever seen.

Here is a blistered hand on Day 4. He really didn't like me messing with it, so it's not the best photo. Poor guy.

A few sores around his mouth. He's been almost his normal self the last couple of days: sleeping well, appetite returning, getting playful again. He tackled Robert from behind today, just for fun. Robert thought it was hilarious and they chased each other around for a while. Even James got a piece of the "chase and laugh" action, making it a pretty good day for these guys to be brothers.