Yummy Tomatoes!

The best way to eat a tomato ... right off the vine

A Little Morning Music

This morning after breakfast, Lucy started dancing and singing the same thing over and over. I wasn't sure what it was until Jeremy said "Lucy are you singing, We all Live in a Yellow Submarine". That was it - she was singing "Yellow Submarine" and dancing. I called it Two-old Tia Chi (She had her own moves and was repeating it over and over). Here is a little video of her telling me what she was singing. Grandpa Noonan - thanks for introducing them to the Beetles!

Outdoor Adventures

This weekend we took a two day camping trip to enjoy the approach of Fall (though it wasn't as Fall-ish as I would have liked). What a wonderful time! Samuel said this morning "I like outdoor adventures better, indoor adventures are just plain." We hiked and camped, ate marshmellows/smores, enjoyed the creatures we found along the way, slept cozily in our tent and enjoyed time with one another.Our fearless leader on all nature hikes. He wanted to use his stick sword to fight through the wild wood, defend us from the tree monsters and sneak ahead with Daddy on the trail and "spy" on Lucy and me.
Sweet brother helping Lucy down the trail
Lucy found a worm she wanted to keep as a pet. He didn't last long. She decided she wanted to find a bunny rabbit instead to be her pet. I told her if she found one and caught it she could keep it. She was very upset when we went to a near-by nature center (Dauset Trails) and found out that most animals eat rabbits - including the owls, fox and bobcats. She did seem fascinated by the "bob-kitty-cats" we saw at the reserve.
High Falls

Camping Part II

Camping Part III

We enjoyed the falls, the steep hikes and a little bit of fun in the river/creek.A boy and his stick
Cooling off in the creek
Wading in the water
"I do it by myself-s, Mama"

Gardening with Lucy

Today's harvest

All you ever wanted to know about Cooties -

A few favorite games

Right now Lucy's favorite game is...COOTIES! (thanks Big Papa and Mimi) Anytime I ask her what she wants to do she says - "play Cooties!" Here she is yesterday morning play Cooties with me -


The children also enjoy playing with pattern blocks . We have the Melissa and Doug's magnetic version (thanks to my friend Christina's recommendation) to make playing in the car easier but inside we can also use a cookie sheet as a magnetic board so that two children can play at once.



We also play Candyland, Memory and some matching games. They also LOVE to play this fishing game -



So what games do you like to play with your children?

A few of my Favorite Things...

I thought I would share a few of the things my children enjoy right now -partly to remember what they enjoy and at what ages and partly to share ideas with others who are looking for good books and games - here are some things I caught them doing this week -

Reading - Richard Scarry books are some of my children's favorites. The books have busy illustrations and a variety of topics for the books. Samuel's first book was the Cars and things that Go book. We also love the What do people do all day? They both love these books and keep them occupied for while (this was what I found them doing Sunday afternoon).



Another book we love is the Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name - it is wonderful! I can't recommend this book high enough!

Let me know if you have some favorite books your children enjoy reading. We are always looking for new good reads - even if it is something you got from the library and we might be able to borrow it too. I'll get Samuel to tell me some of his favorite and we can share (I'm sure most of them will involve knights, swords and castles)

Creative Play

As you may know Samuel loves knights and loves to play. When these two are combined with his imagination anything can happen. I like to play with Samuel during his "rest time" when I get the chance and today - this is how it went (this is the short, very short version to give you an idea)

"Mama, you can be the green knights and I can be the red and blue knights. Here is your castle (the police man hat) and your guards (the frogs). I'm going to be the good knights and you can be the bad knights."

"Okay, we are going to do this (pointing to a book about knights in which a band of soldiers were protecting the peasants from the recreant knights - YES, he calls them 'recreant knights') - you will need a raft so that you can float up to the village. Look, according to the book, when the rafts arrive at the village they attack."

Therefore, my raft was a shoe box top. And YES, he used "according to the book" several times to correct the way I was doing things and "arrive at the village" - his vocab is funny at times - he assimilates new words so quickly.
oh, and of course we had to have village people. These were our village people - I tried to kidnap the potato head and bring him back to my castle (AKA the police hat) to be my castle cook and Samuel's knights tried to protect the potato head villagers - though, they didn't need much protecting because I was told they had invisible shields and swords to fight the enemies.
One time when I was attacking his castle I used a ping pong ball as a cannon and he said - "Mama, according to the book there are no cannons in this battle." OK. But then when I tried to bring up that knights don't have "rocket powered boots so that they can fly up to the top of the castle to avoid a sword fight" I was told "Well, Mama, I said we didn't have to do everything like the book because we can use our imaginations."

I love this kid!

A beautiful mess

Before I turned my back to help Samuel wash his hands...
After I turned back around...

A little artistic expression

We painted with brushes
We painted with our eyes closed
We painted with our fingers

First Day of School

It's that time of year again when school bells are ringing...even though it is only the beginning of August and still 95 degrees. Samuel had his requested breakfast of cheese grits and blueberries and then headed off for his first day of 4K.
With one of his buddies from last year - Kenneth (and Lucy in the background)

The Big One

Here is the story of "the big one"...
The summer we have tenderly cared for our watermelon hill and watched it grow and produce over 25 watermelons. This weekend we ate the biggest of our watermelons - and shared it with neighbors. Jeremy was very proud of the watermelon - it was about 30 inches in circumference and a little over 2 feet long and it had to weigh more than Lucy (maybe even Samuel!
One little redhead especially liked helping in the garden! Samuel liked helping Daddy sell some of the watermelons this weekend to save for a compost bin (and .50 cents for Samuel's piggy bank)

We shared our watermelon with our neighbors down the street and then gave an 1/8th to some new neighbors and 1/8th to Ms. Emma across the street.
Here are the Lucy's enjoying the ripe juicy summer goodness
Pure JOY!

The leftovers from 1/4 of the watermelon.