Sometimes

Sometimes they wake up, put on pants and sweatshirts and head outside.... to finish building their redwood trees out of dirt.... or to have a cap-gun shoot out... or fight over who will get the rope swing first.  At 7:12am.  They come back in reluctantly for breakfast.  Porridge, Chloe's favorite.  Sometimes eggs and sausage.  Evan eats as much as his dad.  Chloe downs her glass of milk and they are back outside.

Sometimes they spend hours making up stories and playing them out.  They ask each other "Do you want to be Flynn and Rapunzel?"  or "Do you want to be horses?  I'm Hawk because he's fastest.  Who are you?"  They run in and out, out and in.  In character.  Always narrating:  "Flynn couldn't stand it for one.more.minute.  He HAD to go to the bathroom....  *door closes*..... Flynn burst out of the bathroom door in a whirlwind of speed as he couldn't wait to get back to his secret mission.  Blondie!! Where are you?!!"  And so it goes.

Sometimes they appear in a storm of angry words at the back door.  "MOM!!  He hit me!" or "I'm never playing with you again..... No!  You're the dummy!  No -- you are!  No -- YOU ARE!!!   MOM!!!!!!"  So we settle on the couch for some hugs and a book.  They are always up for reading.  And cuddling.

Sometimes they sit on the floor in the living room or their bedroom with art supplies strewn about, and draw for hours.  They have been making butterflies for weeks and show no sign of slowing down.  There are paper scraps (always from Chloe's new projects) and pencil shavings, stacks of paper and books for leaning on.  All of it gets left behind as they rush off to the next important thing.  Usually food.

Sometimes they build a giant slide on the basement stairs using cushions from the couches.  It's dangerous.  It's really loud.  And also frustrating on laundry day.
Sometimes they play chess.  When one of them is playing me or Todd they root for each other.  Chloe is really amazingly good at chess.  Once, she had her dad in checkmate within 6 moves.

Sometimes I look behind me in the car and see these two little beings that I am nurturing to adulthood and wonder, how did I get so lucky?  I also wonder how many stuffed kittens really need to be in the car at one time, since they seem to have multiplied and are in every nook and cranny of the backseat which seriously impairs my view.  Hmm....

Stay Cool

It's almost 90 outside and nearly as hot inside, so.......

Refreshing :-)

Side Note:  Did you see who learned how to swing by herself in the background???

Babysitting

We had the pleasure of taking care of three little Ackerman kids this week, and with lovely weather, we spent our afternoon outside together.  Baby Jairus was an angel, as he does not know how else to be other than perfect.....sigh......

Grace and Evan hung out together talking about their favorite things, climbing the tree out front and swinging a lot.  Evan boasted and described in great detail the workings of his rock crawler and rope swing tricks.  Grace was all ears. She happened to bring her current favorite book (which Evan also loves).  I love the sound of giggles and snorts and belly laughs interspersed with reading.

Chloe and Lilah set up horse camp in the tent.  They were really not happy with the camera-faced-woman sneaking up on them.  Chloe turned her back on me and Lilah leaned away.... then Chloe curled up in a ball while Lilah slunk to a hiding space in the corner....

Then they zipped up the door.  Privacy is apparently necessary for horse camp.

It's not often our friends get to come to us, so this was a really nice change.  When it was time to say good-bye we didn't have to drive home.  :-)

Bits & Pieces :: Early May

 What we've been up to....

Evan and Todd did a little dissecting of a dead carpenter bee to check out under the microscope. 

Inside -- roads and villages and cars.

Outside -- getting a flower bed ready for the kids to use this year. 

Our cats used our 'garden' as a litter box all winter so it's not usable for veggies anymore..so we joined a CSA instead.   But flowers??  We can do that.

Almost every day my amazing sister and Ajay come over to play.  He is the sweetest little thing I've ever known in my life. 

New toys -- paper umbrellas from the craft store = hours of creative fun and playing. Who knew??

The rainbow of colored pencils in the "color family" that Chloe always has nearby are her favorites.  All very bright and surprisingly coordinating ;-)

The kids spent a couple weeks doing a secret project in their room for Mother's Day.  They surprised me with pretty butterflies hung all over the kitchen walls that they had meticulously colored and cut out. 

We ventured out for an evening at the beach to play in the sand.

Todd is always teaching Evan how to skip rocks.  Kids love to throw stuff in water.

Bedtime -- The kids are back to separate bedtimes again so Evan is up 30 minutes later than Chloe.  Hello lovely quiet and peaceful nights... we've missed you.

Art skills and five year olds are not usually in the same sentence, but this girl blows my mind.  And her work with scissors??  My jaw drops.

I haven't taken very many pictures of our days lately but we are all doing well.

GoodFlowers

Apparently the flowers in our neighbor's front yard smell good.  

Really, really good.

Like, make a face-print-in-the-flower-bed good.

Ajay was mystified by this strange behavior.

Spring Days

Soaking up spring

Warm or cold

Rain or shine

:-)

Another Hair Cut

She consented (finally) 

because this way she could look more like Thumbelina, 

which is her current favorite book.