Dreaming of Winter

I am trying to think cool thoughts today. I love winter time! Sometimes I think Alaska would be a good place for me. I get so peevish and weary when it is hot. My kids get more fractious. There has been a lot of fighting going on in our house today. Nothing seems to work as planned and that only makes it worse.

To escape the heat today we thought we would head to the Children's museum to which we have a year membership. We got in the car and drove to the light rail station. (We always take the light rail because I don't like driving into the city or having to pay to park. Light rail is free for us.) There was not a parking space within 5 blocks of the train station. I drove to the next station up and it too was packed to the gills. I refused to walk with my 3 kids 5 blocks to the train station so after half an hour of driving around just looking for a place to park we went back home accompanied by a lot of tears and gloominess. I cranked up the AC and we played with trains, knights, pirates and blocks all afternoon instead.

Tuesday is the day I usually go to a cycling class at the YMCA. The kids always enjoy going to the Kids Corner to play so they were happy to put their shoes on and head out to the car again. When we got there the power was out at the YMCA due to the excessive heat. So again we were headed home without getting to do what we set out to do. The kids didn't get so worked up by this one. I told them we will just go home and watch a movie with the AC going.
I know some people love the summertime. I am not one of them. I am miserable and uncomfortable. I much prefer the cold weather. I love having hot chocolate, warm soups and breads. Sweaters and socks are lovely. I don't like feeling sweaty. I love curling up with a warm blanket to watch a movie or read a good book. I can actually go outside without feeling like the air is closing in around me.

How many more weeks of this do I have to make it through? I have only sunshine and smoke filled skies to look forward to for weeks and weeks.

How am I going to make it?

We need another Vacation after our Vacation

We headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the 4th of July weekend. The small community holds a little parade.
There were all sorts of old time cars, horses, people walking through just waving flags. And these jokers.
Almost turns your stomach!

Our kids had such a great time playing with their cousins.

Fireworks are never allowed in the county but especially this year. There was already enough smoke in the air to give everything a sort of hazy look. So Grandma arranged for a 4th of July Pinata.
My husband made the comment that this was a funny way to celebrate the 4th. A mexican game where we beat a flag? Well the kids had fun and ate a bunch of starbursts and skittles afterward. We found them stuck to them, the floor and many of the chairs in the house.

And there was lots of swimming. Grandpa's pool got a work out. All the kids had a great time jumping off the board over and over, squirting each other with water guns, or just toodling around the pool.

Ian shows no fear when jumping off the board. He just flies through the air like superman.
I never could get a picture of Henry jumping off the board. He did it several times but he would often get up there and bounce and then get off and let one of the other kids jump in.

Swimming at Grandma's is a highlight of the summer.
Every night while at Grandpa's house we take The Walk. This is just a stroll up their street. It is good for the kids to burn off some energy and the adult to burn off a few of the calories of all the good food served for dinner.

Cousins make the walk so fun!

The kids also helped Grandpa harvest some of his garden. They all love to go out with him to check his crops. This was a funny carrot they found.

They called it the Love Carrot.

So now we are back home. I still have to unpack everything and get it put away. The kids are sleeping in, which is great! They sure need it. We have had a number of late nights.

Thanks again, Mom
We had a great time.

I gave in

Ian loves his playmobil knights and every time we go to Target or the Hobby Shop he checks out the Playmobil toys that are available. He has been asking for some pirates, or Gladiators or firemen or whatever he sees, for a long time. Today while out shopping the kids found some pirates. They were very convincing that they were "for School". I hate to admit that I gave in. We came home with a pirate for each of them. Now they are talking about needing a pirate ship or the pirate island that they also saw. For the moment the pirates are happy to be storming the castle and defending the treasure box.

I really can't make this a habit. It is only $6.00 today but tomorrow who knows?

Pirates, Pan and Cowboys

I always love starting a new month and I have planned some fun things for us to study. Since Sophie is the oldest and the one who really is supposed to do school. Everything is usually planned around her to a certain extent. Well this month I have chosen things that I know the boys will really enjoy.

Today we started reading Peter Pan. We have read the Disney version many times and have recently added the Disney movie to our collection but I wanted to read the original book. So today the boys thrilled when I told them it was our next read aloud. I am sure this one will go quickly so I may go on to read Peter and the Starcatchers. To go along with our reading I have also been borrowing every pirate book I could find from the library. So our shelf is stocked with all sorts of swashbuckling tales (I haven't read through them all yet so we will see how they go).
I even found a CD at the library with Pirate music. I am sure this should be fun!

As our artist for the month. Sophie was disappointed that we didn't have one last month (since I just never got around to picking one). But I picked Fredric Remington who did paintings and sculpture of cowboys and the wild west. That sounds fun to look at. I know Ian especially will enjoy looking at cowboys. Sophie and I are reading Brighty of the Grand Canyon as our night time read aloud book and the cowboys will go along nicely with that.

Our composer for the month doesn't really follow the boy theme. Although I know the boys enjoy dancing around to Camille Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals already.

This line up for our studies is a big change from our American Girls units that we have done the last two months. But I hope to get the boys a lot more involved with the books and our subjects. I am sure Sophie will have a wonderful month too.

Not much going on.

I haven't had a whole lot to blog about recently. We are just doing our normal things and nothing seems exciting enough to post about. We are still "doing school" but very lightly. Since finishing the Felicity books last week we haven't finished our American Revolution studies quite yet. We are about half way through Johnny Tremain. I am surprised that Sophie is enjoying the story. Or at least she isn't opposed to it. When I say we are going to read or listen to it she quickly says "ok". She also doesn't mind telling Dad about it at dinner when he comes home. (This is one of our usual forms of narration.) We are also still plugging away at Liberty's kids. We are only about half way through the war. Ian always wants to re-watch the episode about the Turtle. Which was a very early submarine. Ian loves gadgets.
I also downloaded the audio files of the Burgess Bird Book for Children. We don't have the book and I can't get it from the library so we just listen to it and look up the different birds that are talked about in our bird book. Sophie always loves animal stories and these appeal to her.

While we listen to stories we often break out this game.It is a color pattern puzzle that we put together in different designs. Sometimes the designs are symmetrical and other times they are just haphazard. But the kids are getting really good at laying out a pattern. I have been helping Henry remember the colors using this game. He still gets a few mixed up but he is doing better.

We also play a lot of legos and even some knights while listening too.
No matter what we do we always end up with toys all over the house and a big mess of mixed up toys. So every evening we have to have big clean up parties to get everything back in their places.

Along with these few "schoolish" type things we also have been spending a good amount of time outside. The weather hasn't been ideal because of all the smoke in the air but we still head out to the park or on hikes around the block quite often.
Here is Henry doing the monkey bars. He is a very athletic kid. At 2 years old he is able to swing across the monkey bars. I don't even know if Ian can do this yet. Sophie has just started doing it.

We have also had a few birthday parties this week and those always cause a bit of excitement. We get to go shopping for gift to give and then count the hours and minutes until we finally get to go to the party.

So we have been busy but just doing normal life kinds of things.

Hike to Castle Rock

We went today on a hike with a few friends. I haven't taken the kids on a hike (other than around the block or to a nearby park) in awhile. So today we headed out early before it started to heat up again.
We drove up into the mountains about 20 minutes away from home and hiked to a waterfall first. Then we decided to head to a place called Castle Rock.
The kids loved castle rock. It was a large rock with lots of little caves and holes in it.
The kids had a great time climbing under, over, around and through the rocks.

It was the greatest place for kids to play. They could have stayed all day and explored.

They did make me promise to bring them back there again sometime soon. They want to make sure their Dad comes next time too.

Castle Rock was a hit!

Meeting the neighbors.

Today was such a beautiful day. We went out early this morning on a bike ride. Our goal or plan was the reach a park that is about 6 blocks away, swing and climb for about half an hour and then bike back home before it got too hot. The way to the park passes a house where we often stop to look at the flowers. Sophie remembers this spot was where we got a really good look at tulips earlier this Spring. Well today when we were passing the lady of the house just happened to be out watering her flowers so we stopped to talk to her. These walks have been great opportunities to meet and talk to our neighbors.

She told us all about the different flowers in her little bed near the street. We have noticed the Hollyhocks many times when we drive down this street. I didn't know what the name of them were until now. There were a whole assortment of colors. And they grew so tall.

She also showed the kids the snap dragons and taught them how to make the dragon mouth open and shut.
Each of the kids gave it a try and even Henry was able to make the dragons snap. I don't think they will ever be able to see a snap dragon now without remembering to give it a light pinch to pop that dragons mouth open.

This neighbor was so nice to us. We stayed there a long time admiring all the different flowers she had planted. She even offered to let the kids pick some of her cherries.

After picking a few, and eating a few we left with a small bag filled with bing cherries. YUM!

This little guy sure looks like he liked them! I think each of the kids ended up with the cherry juice all over their faces and staining their clothes.

We did eventually make it to the park and we played for a bit. On the bike ride home I noticed some flowers down a side street and we had to go and look at them.
Morning Glories, lots of them.

I don't know if you can see it well but behind Sophie in the below picture is a picket fence that lines the yard of a house. The fence is covered with vines and vines of Morning Glories. And those blue flowers were our in their full glory today.

It was a very nice trip to the park and we all had a great time.
It never did really get too hot today. We could have stayed at the park longer. If only all Summer days were like today!