Real quick -
The girl is growing in leaps and bounds in confidence and creativity this summer. She is climbing like a monkey, practicing 'figuring' and rudimentary reading, has started really developing her artistic sense (representational drawings, color block paintings, ubiquitous ballerina dolls), and has been mostly happy and a joy to be with.
The boy is going through his language explosion - suddenly he is mimicking everything. he gains words every day (although some of those words are indistinguishable from other words), and with them opinions and interest. He lives for tooling around outside or snuggling up with a book. He, too, seems happy and is fun to be around.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Twin Falls hike
This morning the kids and i went on a hike to the nearby Twin Falls. We were joined by some friends. I hadn't taken the kids on a 'hike' by myself before, but it went so well that i'm encouraged to try it again soon. And boy did it feel great to get out there - a warm day, but cool and peaceful beneath the trees.
The intrepid explorers set off:
As with many local forests there were lush landscapes and trees in all sorts of stages of life. Some of which made good hideouts.
While we got out lunch the kids practiced magic on a bench high on a cliff overlooking the falls.
See, really, there were falls in the distance:
We didn't make it to what is supposed to be the big payoff - a bridge over those falls - but at something nearing 3 miles round trip we felt like it was a good hike for us. The big kids would have liked to go further (but i think we were glad to get back when we did - still happy and moving along). Even the little kids walked some of the distance, and mostly did well to explore via backpack and let us get a bit of range in.
My partner in crime:
And my smiling company on my back:
And proof of a good outing:
The intrepid explorers set off:
As with many local forests there were lush landscapes and trees in all sorts of stages of life. Some of which made good hideouts.
While we got out lunch the kids practiced magic on a bench high on a cliff overlooking the falls.
See, really, there were falls in the distance:
We didn't make it to what is supposed to be the big payoff - a bridge over those falls - but at something nearing 3 miles round trip we felt like it was a good hike for us. The big kids would have liked to go further (but i think we were glad to get back when we did - still happy and moving along). Even the little kids walked some of the distance, and mostly did well to explore via backpack and let us get a bit of range in.
My partner in crime:
And my smiling company on my back:
And proof of a good outing:
bike gang
Last week i watched some friends' kids for a day, and they brought their bikes. That meant i spent the afternoon in a local school's parking lot with my very own bike gang. (If you look closely that is four kids on bikes there...)
Can you imagine how good it feels to know that my kids are out there riding bikes? The boy loves that tricycle, although his legs aren't quite long enough to make the pedals go round. When the garage door is open he beelines for his helmet. And the girl is making strides - she's getting fast, and adventuresome on her bike. More importantly, she is having fun.
Can you imagine how good it feels to know that my kids are out there riding bikes? The boy loves that tricycle, although his legs aren't quite long enough to make the pedals go round. When the garage door is open he beelines for his helmet. And the girl is making strides - she's getting fast, and adventuresome on her bike. More importantly, she is having fun.
camping!
So, we took the family camping last weekend. Two nights and two days with a smoky camp fire, camp food, dirty feet, and a blessedly close beach. It was awesome!
The kids did great. They tried all manner of shared camp meals (we went camping with a total of four families - four camp sights, 7 parents, 7 kids, the dog, and loads of fun), and slept well. Here is the boy in his first ever night sleeping in nothing but his bag:
(You also see here, one of his current favorite books - My Friends, *and how cool do we find it that he has favorite books?* - a beloved present from Team Neill when the girl was born.)
During the day the kids took trips to the park's playground, and to the park's beach. The playground was a playground, and valuable, but not inherently thrilling. The beach, on Hood Canal, was excellent. The beaches were rocky, but shallow for lots of kid play. And the life was terrific - clams, oysters, barnacles, crabs, shrimp, lichen, random beach succulents, un-recognized but thrilling bird songs, the dog...
I think everyone had a good time, and i'm so grateful and happy that we get to do this sort of thing!
The kids did great. They tried all manner of shared camp meals (we went camping with a total of four families - four camp sights, 7 parents, 7 kids, the dog, and loads of fun), and slept well. Here is the boy in his first ever night sleeping in nothing but his bag:
(You also see here, one of his current favorite books - My Friends, *and how cool do we find it that he has favorite books?* - a beloved present from Team Neill when the girl was born.)
During the day the kids took trips to the park's playground, and to the park's beach. The playground was a playground, and valuable, but not inherently thrilling. The beach, on Hood Canal, was excellent. The beaches were rocky, but shallow for lots of kid play. And the life was terrific - clams, oysters, barnacles, crabs, shrimp, lichen, random beach succulents, un-recognized but thrilling bird songs, the dog...
I think everyone had a good time, and i'm so grateful and happy that we get to do this sort of thing!
summer camp
The girl is attending a summer camp for a few weeks this summer - about 8 hours a week of playing outside, doing craft projects, and dressing up with other kids. Right up her alley. Here she is with the outfit she chose for the first day - she (thankfully) still has a kid's sartorial sense, but its interesting to see the progression. Note here that she picked out (carefully and deliberately) matching pink rabbits.
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