Where does the Time Go?

My Mom told me that she keeps checking my blog and has been disappointed that I haven't posted anything in awhile. I don't know why I haven't written anything. I guess, we have just been busy living life and I just don't have the energy to write about it. But here is a quick update of how we have been spending our time.

1. We play at the park.

This is one of my kids favorite parks. The frogs spit water at each other. My kids just love to climb on them and stuff grass in the frogs mouths and see the grass shoot out when the water sprays.

Molly couldn't be happier when I let her get down and crawl around. She loves to get dirty just like her siblings. I don't have any kids that don't love to play in the muck.

2. Nature Hikes - We have been on a hike just about each week. On this particular hike we saw a mama deer and her faun. They didn't seem that concerned that a bunch of kids were watching them graze.

3. Library visits.
During the summer going to the library is way more fun. We make sure we go when they are doing an activity that goes along with their Summer reading club. This years theme is "Splash into Reading", so we have done pirate crafts and had a fish fairytale puppet show. My kids particularly like the intermission when the frog puppets came out and told frog jokes.

One week they even had one of the marine institutes in the area bring in some sea creatures. The kids actually got to touch, or pick up in some cases some of the critters.



Here is Ian demonstrating the right way to pet a fish, with just two fingers. Wait... he is petting a crab. Sophie above is petting a fish.

Henry had to pick up this decorator crab. This crab had little shells stuck on him. His spit is sticky and it glues shells onto its body to camouflage itself.


4.  Just playing outside as much as we can.
Here the boys are enjoying a big rusty tractor at a little apple farm near Grandma's house. From the look on his face, can't you just hear the sounds Henry is making. .


At this same farm the kids found some new kittens. Sophie was so excited to get to hold actual kittens. One of them even looks like her favorite stuffed kitten, Abby.

The kid have been having a lot of adventures right in our own yard. They have been making elevators in the trees to bring up stuffed animals. There have been all sorts of digging and dirt play. I just know they come inside and need a bath each day.  I guess this is what Summer is all about.

This little lady is almost 1. She isn't walking quite yet but is, oh so close.  She has suddenly become an eating machine. She is constantly hungry and eats and eats. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I weaned her and she is compensating. Of maybe it is because she has a number of red bumps in her mouth which will shortly sprout some more teeth.  For what ever reason, she is eating lots and lots of blueberries (her new favorite finger food), quinoa (a new grain we are trying to eat more of), and buckwheat pancakes. With a little green smoothie mixed in there each day, I think she is doing pretty well.

We are just living our every day, ordinary lives. It just doesn't sound that exciting when I go to write about it.  I can't believe the Summer is already half over. At a meeting I went to recently one of the other moms said that her kids only have about a month left of Summer vacation. I guess the public schools here are starting mid-August. I can't believe how quickly everything is speeding by. We still have lots to do with our California Studies. I don't think we are going to jump into our next school year anytime soon. Maybe we will start it in October. That would give us a few more months to enjoy being out and about and still give us time to give CA a fair study. There isn't any rush.