Whitewater Festival

We attended a festival at the Whitewater Center a few weekends ago. The weather was gorgeous and there were a ton of people there. They had a nice section for the kids with an enormous slide, face painting and crafts. The boys really enjoyed watching all the rafters and kayakers. They were pretty bummed when they found out they weren't old enough to participate. Of course, now they use everything as paddles and pretend to kayak down rapids. Lucky enough for Blake, once he is 8, he can start taking classes there for kayaking. He is pretty excited about that.

Jakey

Who needs a bed

Yet another place we find Parker sleeping when we come upstairs for the night. This one just doesn't look that comfy though. Notice the nightime snack next to his "pillow"!

Potty Learning Update

Parker has made progress with learning to use the potty. He has successfully pooped on the potty several times and is now wearing a diaper only at nap and bedtime. His favorite thing to do is to pee in the woods! We were at the creek and he had to go so he picked a tree and let loose. A little while later a couple was walking their dog and it peed on a tree. Parker then said "look, that dog peed on a tree like me!"

Ready for some football

The brainwashing started early in this house. This was football opening weekend. The boys were gearing up for the game and getting ready to eat "guy food". Help me!

Let's talk Boogers

Yesterday, we were driving in the car and Parker kept saying "I have a booger, I need a tissue". So I would grab a tissue and pass it back to him. After the third time of him asking for a tissue, Jacob says "Oh, just eat it." Ewww. And yes, Jacob is our booger eater. Thankfully, Parker was just as grossed out as we were and said "No way". Kids can be so gross.

Future Architect?

We all know how much Blake loves building things. He always said that when he grew up, he wanted to draw houses like his Daddy. So yesterday, we read the story of Mother Holle and then he was to draw a house from the letter H. He was working very intently and creating quite a bit of detail (like a stone pathway) when he stops and looks at me and says "I thought about putting a floor plan on the page, but then I figured you just wanted the letter H, right".

Bits of Summer

Watermelon slices the size of your head

Turning your fingertips and face red.

A sunflower garden outside the kitchen window
Making lunch without clothes
Fresh made pumpkin muffins devoured before lunch

The summer flew by, as it always seems to. We just finished our first week of HOMESCHOOLING (yes, that does say homeschool). Blake is loving it, as am I and so far, things are going really well. One of our most sacred activities in our weekly rhythm is our days at the creek. His eyes lit up when he realized we still will be able to have "creek day" even though the school year has begun!

And for those of you interested enough to keep reading, we are using a Waldorf-inspired curriculum. In as few words as possible, this is an education style that teaches the child through their head, heart and hands. It is a very gentle and holistic method of teaching, meeting the child where they are developmentally as opposed to pushing them into academics too soon. We absolutely love it!

Parker

Peter and I came up to bed one evening and found Parker lying in the hall like this. He had made himself a cozy bed of blankets! We thought the one slipper sticking out was pretty amusing as well.

Diggin

A boy and his dog

Metamorphosis

This teeny, tiny caterpillar was eating up my sunflower leaves, so we decided to bring it inside and hopefully watch it metamorph into a butterfly or moth.


Exactly one day after bringing him in, he started to make his cocoon!
Notice the silk threads around him...that means it will be a moth.


It took a little over a week and one morning this came out of the cocoon!
We put him back out on the sunflower leaves so his wings could dry and he happily flew away later that morning.

Fireboy

Who needs pants

Blueberries

The best part of summer for Parker: Blueberries! He would eat a pint in one sitting. I think though, he may finally actually be tired of them.

Outdoor time

We are usually outside after dinner every evening letting out that boy energy before bedtime. Some of their favorite activities are playing baseball and racing their bikes.

Batter's Up

Our driveway and front sidewalk has a slight slope to it, so if the boys start off in the garage, they can build enough momentum to roll down the driveway, turn onto the sidewalk and make it to the corner. They LOVE doing this!

Serious baseball face

This is the infamous green tricycle. Our neighbor is letting us borrow this and once Parker got on, he rode it around the house every waking minute! After day 2 of this, he got a pretty serious leg cramp (he could never pedal on anything until this tricycle). At one point he was asking to bring it to bed with him!