6/29/2009

Pause button

I am so not ready for June to be almost over. Seriously? I can’t believe we are past the half way point in our summer vacation. In a few short weeks we’ll be gearing up for school to start again. But I’d rather not think about that quite yet.
So what’s new around here. Week one of safety town has come and gone. Both girls love their class. So far the highlight has been riding the go-carts through a little village set up on the playground. They are back for week 2 of Safety town this week. I’m excited to hear more of their stories.
Other than that we’ve been running around like crazy people. In addition to safety town our last week has seen several play dates, a puppet show at the library, with a couple other miscellaneous activities thrown in there for good measure.
I’m busy working on school stuff. The idea of having three in school next year is slightly intimidating, so I’m trying to work ahead. I have a pretty good outline of what will be taught when for both grades. There are a few lessons that still need to be improved upon, so I’m working on my plans for those.
In other news we are starting to enjoy the harvest from our garden. I don’t know if I mentioned it or not, but some critter came along and gobbled up most of our pea plants before they were mature. We had about 6 that survived and are now putting out peas. Which no one will eat but me. But man, are they tasty. Our black raspberries are starting to ripen. Here in the next week I imagine we’ll have some to snack on while we work in the yard.

6/22/2009

Hang time

Summer is flying by at a furious pace. Of course we are attempting to squeeze out every drop of fun there is to be had. This week the girls are at Safety Town. The same program that Alex attended two years ago. Sweet Annie has been slightly anxious for the last few days about the start of class, because she didn’t know our home phone number. We’ve repeatedly assured her there isn’t an entrance exam, she won’t be the only one who doesn’t know her digits. Besides, she has a partner in crime, if she gets stuck her sister (who is also her classmate) can just pass her a note under the desk.
Speaking of Annie, she’s become quite the little bike rider this last week. My kids aren’t really bike riders for some reason. Alex and Louisa don’t show much interest in riding or learning to ride without training wheels. Annie on the other hand has happily left the training wheels behind and has moved on to performing little stunts as she rides.
So what else is new? Ah yes, the toads are back. Every year our yard gets inundated with little toads that are about one inch long when fully grown. This is the first year that my children have paid much attention to these little guys. So now every time we go out to play in the garden each kid comes back with a bucket with at least 10 toads in it, then they proceed to build little towns for them to live in.
We recently went to visit our friends the Alexander’s, who live in Columbus. It was good for the Mama’s to get caught up on life again. Hope taught my daughters to stand on their heads. They all played in the muddy wading pool. We planned another joint birthday party at the lake for Hope and Alex for mid-July. Good stuff.
Other than that our last week has seen a whole lot of running around to play dates and programs, with a trip to the lake thrown in for good measure.

6/09/2009

Summer antics

We’ve been back from our vacation for about a week now and are settling in nicely. All our clothing has been washed and put away; our slightly over grown gardens are looking respectable again, and we are ready to have some fun.
Since we have been back we have made our way to the family art center at the art museum. The children (and I) had a fabulous time creating a picnic lunch out of art supplies. Our meals looked quite yummy – almost yummy enough to eat.
We have also had a few play dates with friends. Alex is continuing his peer mentoring program over the summer. So he had a fun little play date with his buddy Ben, who has autism. There were a few play dates with the Rivera crew thrown in for good measure.
Now that everyone else is on summer vacation there are all sorts of fun summer activities that we’re excited about. Our library has a great weekly program for k-2nd graders that we’re looking forward to. Our church has a program called Kids Day Out, where all the K-4th graders meet and play goofy games at the church. So between those programs, our play dates, trips to the pool, and trips to the lake it’s going to be a pretty busy summer. Good stuff.
So yesterday I took the girls out in the yard because I needed summery photos for a project that I’m working on. I’m totally wiped out, end of the day tired. Screaming at my children who can’t seem to understand why I want their cooperation. Pretty sure that this is a recipe for disaster, but I have to try anyway. Not sure how I managed to pull it off, but I got a dozen good ones including these little gems. That pic of Louisa is currently my favorite one I have of her.

6/01/2009

Happy Returns

We are officially back from our road trip to Maine. We had a fabulous time on this year’s road trip. We left here on a Friday afternoon, and drove to Cleveland for our first night. On day two we drove to a town right outside the Adirondacks in New York, we made pretty good time these two days, since we had no fun pit stops. Day three saw us exploring the Adirondacks, including a stop in Lake Placid to see the Olympics Training Center. After crossing Lake Champlain we stopped for the night in Vermont. Day four had us driving to Bar Harbor, Maine where we clambered around on the rocks as the tide went out, and realized just how cold Maine is at the coast. Day five had us exploring Acadia National Park (fortified with several layers of clothing this time). Highlights include driving to the top of Cadillac Mountain where we had a nice view of Frenchman’s Bay, watching (and hearing) the waves go in and out of a subterranean cave called Thunder Hole, and a yummy seafood lunch in Southwest Harbor. Day six brought rain, (which made the chilly coast even colder) so we drove down to Portland and saw a couple of lighthouses before turning west to start our long return. Day seven saw more rain, but warmer temperatures as we made our way through the Catskill Mountains. The rain kept us from thoroughly exploring these mountains, but we did see a few cool bridges and a reservoir. Day eight saw clear skies as we headed through the Allegheny Mountains. We stopped to hike in Rimrock park – a park that had cliffs, with stone stairs carved into a crevice to climb up and down. We also stopped at Kinzua Beach. A sweet little park overlooking a beautiful reservoir. Day nine took us back through Cleveland, with a pit stop to see the movie UP. Which we rather enjoyed – despite the annoying 3D glasses. With that being our only lengthy pit stop, it still managed to take us 13 hours to drive what could have probably been covered in 5ish hours. Not really sure how Jory pulled that one off. All I can say is my husband has a personal bias against 4 lane highways.

So now we are home, refreshed and renewed. Already day dreaming about our next road trip.



the girls discovering a tide pool in Bar Harbor



Alex chillin on Cadillac Mountain
Louisa at the Allegheny reservoir

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