Sunshine July 23, 2007

We All Scream for Ice Cream! July 23, 2007

Better Together July 23, 2007

There's no combination of wordsI could put on the back of a postcard,No song that I could singBut I can try for your heart,Our dreams, and they are made out of real things,Like a shoebox of photographs,With sepiatone loving,Love is the answerAt least for most of the questions in my heart ,Like why are we here? And where do we go?And how come it's so hard?It's not always easy,And sometimes life can be deceiving,I'll tell you one thing, its always better when we're together        - Better Together, Jack Johnson

What a 4 year-old should know… July 17, 2007

We hear so much of this- what a child should know at every age. Shall we focus on the integrity of the person’s confidence and spirit? Eventually every child will know what they need to know simply by living, loving, and being loved. Who set this timetable? By whose standard do we compare our child(ren) allowing competition to drive their learning and be the barometer for their self-esteem?

Here are the goals we should be trying to achieve for our children by age 4:
http://www.magicalchildhood.com/articles/4yo.htm

Picking! July 16, 2007

We went peach and apple picking with some friends at Henrietta Creek Orchard and had so much fun!

Here we learn from the farmer/gardener the correct method to peach picking. Always tap the visible side of the peach first before grabbing to pick.

This is why…

Elijah checks out the observation bee hive. Did you know that eating honey local to your area is like getting allergy shots for environmental allergens? Buy local and bee healthy!

Rounding out the morning with a game of tag with the boys.

Masterpiece July 16, 2007

“…why should your child have to listen to what is not interesting? I invite you to consider the possibility that, if free to create her life, a child can grow up to create life experiences that don’t include listening to unwanted lessons… Maybe your child is the teacher and it is your time to learn.” – Naomi Aldort

Muckin’ Around July 16, 2007

One of the kids’ favorite things to do is to put on boots and grungy clothes and explore in the wild areas of our neighborhood. After some pretty heavy rain, we got very wet and muddy. LuluBelle came with us while Winky (who is either too much of a lady or a very big-boned cat- stayed home to keep the couch warm).



The best place proved to be the drainage area (that keeps our neighborhood from flooding in the fast and furious rainstorms).

Lulu needed a bath after this excursion (so did we)!

"Size Matters Not" – Yoda July 11, 2007

Here’s what we did the other half of the 4th of July- of course, it was the sunny part… Feeling spontaneous and attempting to escape the weekend crowds, we went to the Ft. Worth Museum of Science and History which is currently featuring the Star Wars exhibit with the actual costumes, ship models, etc. that were used in the films. Chris was in his glory checking all this stuff out and showing it to the kids a bit (who thought it was all rather weird).

Sadie and Elijah experiment with placement of different length magnetic legs and weights to get their ‘robot’ to balance on flat and tilted surfaces.

Here they are playing with little R2D2s figuring which wheels, treads, etc. will work for different kinds of terrain.

The children’s area was lots of fun. Their favorite part, as far as we could tell, was shopping in the little grocery store. Elijah doubles as a pretty proficient cashier.

Digging for dinos. A huge outdoor area complete with stream where the kids took part in an archaeological dig. Oh and then Sadie made sand angels…

Rain, Rain, Go Away July 5, 2007

Happy Independence Day! We took part in a children’s parade along with hundreds of other die-hards. The skies opened up as we were making our way toward the starting point and didn’t stop pouring until after the entire parade and partial festivities were over. We had fun anyway!

Sadie got a flag tattoo.

Elijah eats a hot (wet) dog from perched atop his bike.

Once they realized they couldn’t really get any wetter, all bets were off and the puddles were open season!

Two piles of clothing and two naked kids made their way home.

Wet, wet, wet! July 4, 2007

The rainstorms are brief but VERY heavy. While out at a restaurant last night, the waitress asked us where we were parked. This is why…

After an absolutely beautiful day, the skies broke open again and the all-too-famous flash flooding began once again. Our immediate area seems to drain fairly well (our driveway/garage in NH was much worse but almost everywhere else is feeling the impact of all of this rain one way or another. Our biggest concern is making sure that the pool doesn’t overflow and follow the slant of the patio into the back of the house. As you can see, we had to drain the pool (garden hose from pump to driveway) once again today.