Summer fun with the bugs

I cracked open this new Japanese dress book months ago to start making some summer dresses for the girls. I made some other dresses from Japanese patterns and they came together pretty easily, so I thought I'd try some more. Phooey! I tell you I had to turn my brain inside-out and spend considerable time pretending I can read Japanese in order to get this dress traced properly. Fortunately, I've made a bubble outfit before, so I kinda knew what I was looking for and what I was going to do with all the pieces. I was so frustrated I put it away for a long time thinking that the sewing would be equally as challenging. No need to have worried, the sewing part was very easy and it can be finished beautifully with all the seams enclosed. Nice. I used some nice white linen from Joann's. I stock up on this stuff whenever it is on sale. I wish they carried more colors. In the end, I like the patterns from the Japanese books, but I think they may be better for inspiration. I could probably find a pattern for a bubble dress written in English and save a lot of frustration. But on the other hand, does it do me good to take the more difficult path? Does everything need to be easy? We've been trying to fit in some family fun lately going places like this and this. Great places to visit with kids and not too annoying for the grown-ups. Look at this awesome ant. It's really huge and made out of wood. They had a bunch of different bugs like this at the Arboretum. They reminded me of how people make softies of all kinds of bugs and animals. I've been wanting to make some new stuffed animals lately, but I'm not sure yet what I want to make.
We went to the Arboretum because Betsy has had a hankering for a walk in the forest. Well much of it is really more like a well manicured golf course without the holes. But
we finally found some good looking woods to walk around in. I told Jim to drop me and the kids off on the path and then he and the baby could go wait at the end of the trail for us. He could listen to the "crosstown classic" and Tess could sleep. Off we go into the forest and toward a low swampy area. We must have been the only warm-blooded, carbon dioxide breathing mammals to pass through this section in a long time because we got absolutely swarmed with mosquitoes. We all ran as fast as we could, flinging and slapping our arms and legs. It was crazy! I've never seen so many! This was the only photo I could barely get. I'm surprised there isn't a mosquito crowding the lens. Man, that guy should have made a giant wood mosquito sculpture, that would have been fitting.