Summer wrap up

School is starting Monday so it's time for a summer wrap up.  My posts have been a little sparse since we have been out and about having a good time so here it all is in one giant post. 

We've spent a lot of time at Grammie and GranDad's pool.  Buddy Boy's swimming has really taken off.  He is a little, or not so little, fish.  He loves it.  It's good to see him enjoy it so much after a few false starts with other sports, (gymnastics, soccer, basketball...).  He enjoyed watching bits of the Olympic swimming.  He liked the races and they both liked the synchronized swimming.  My Girl's favorite event of the Games was gymnastics, especially the rhythmic gymnastics with the ribbon.

We took a day to go to the City and visited the Aquarium by the Bay on Pier 39.  It isn't a big place, but it was just right for our little day trip.  The aquarium in Monterey is great, but almost more than you can really take in in a day.  The kids loved the jelly fish and the moving walkway through the tank tunnel where sharks swim over your head and sea stars stick to the sides.



They also enjoyed getting up close and personal with the octopus.  If you aren't very big, you can climb under the tank and poke your head up into the bubble inside.

Here is photographic proof that I was there too.  I was the only one who wanted to touch the ray in the touch pool.  It was a strange little animal.  I swear it was poking it's head out of the water to get a better look at the people.

One day instead of vacuuming the living room as I had planned, we made teddy bears.  Buddy Boy had seen the pattern in a kid's craft book and really wanted one.  I had left over brown cotton fleece from a jacket I made for myself.  We used the wrong side so it would be a bit softer and fuzzier.  They each helped with the sewing by sitting in front of me and pushing the pedal while I guided the fabric around the curves.  They got better at the stop and go as we went along.  Fortunately my machine has a half speed setting.  My Girl has a bit of a lead foot.  The bears are named Cocoa and Strawberry Shortcake.  Cocoa and Teddy Panda are great friends, but Cocoa tends to get lost a little more easily.  That's not good.

Our friends from Israel were in town for their annual visit to Grandma and Grandpa so we got to spend time swimming and playing games together.  One afternoon we even tie dyed shirts.  They turned out great.

My Girl has announced that she is only going to wear white t-shirts that are either plain or that have designs on the front.  No colored shirts and nothing pretty or fancy, only coool clothes allowed.  One morning after being awake for all of about 3 minutes she said she wanted to make a rock star t-shirt.  Fortunately we had a several old white t-shirts from when Buddy Boy was that size, freezer paper, and paint.  By 8:00 am she had her rock star shirt.  Depending on the context she also looks like one of Dr. Seuss's Sneetches, or a Dallas Cowboys fan.  Later she informed me that she IS a rock star and needed a guitar shirt.  So we made one of those as well.  We even stitched little guitar strings with silver thread.  One of these days we may even make concert t-shirts for her band, the Fireflies.

 The garden is gaining steam.  The green beans are doing fantastic and the tomatoes are starting.  I planted four different varieties, sun gold, early girl, better boy, and Amish paste.  The sun gold are a prolific super delicious golden orange cherry tomato.  The Amish paste are an indeterminate cousin to a Roma.  Yummy yum.  Since I'm the only one who really likes fresh tomatoes there is a lot of marinara in our future.  That is the reason for the paste tomatoes.  While Grammie and GranDad are out of town we have been watching their garden.  I'm not sure what variety this monster is, but it is HUGE.  It isn't quite the two and a half pounds you see on the scale.  The head and bunny ear arm are adding a bit of weight.  I didn't notice that when I snapped the picture, but it clears the two pound mark at 2.015 pounds.  We also have it's smaller relative that weighs in at a pound and a half. 

Perhaps Buddy Boy caught wind of the Curiosity space mission to Mars or maybe not, but he decided that he needed to go to Mars.  My Girl said she didn't want to go, but he told her that she didn't get to because he was taking Teddy Panda.  Here he is taking pictures of a martian.  Strangely, Mars looks a lot like our back yard, only redder and slightly out of focus.

We spent our last day of vacation at the beach.  It was finally a beautiful sunny day.  Summers there can be cold and foggy.  The real beach season is just starting.  We build the lost city of Atlantis and played in the surf.  The water was unusually warm, which means it wasn't freezing cold.  Sadly, I forgot to take my sunglasses off when I went in a little deeper and I lost them when I got knocked over by a very sea weedy wave.  Oh well, that's the way it goes some times.  It's been years since I've done much more than sit in the sand with a wee one.  For some reason this just confirms to me that I need more sea water in my life, not less.

I started off the summer rather apprehensively, but it has been good overall.  It was better when I let go of the idea that a lot of academic stuff ought to happen.  We went on field trips and visited Happy Hollow.  There was plenty of reading.  Buddy Boy loves to read.  My Girl is reading on her own now as well.  We did a little math by playing Black Jack and doing Bedtime Math.  There wasn't much writing except what happened during play.  So there were some secret spy notes and party invitations.  Buddy Boy did complete writing a game in Scratch.  It is pretty basic, but I'll brag and say it is great for a self taught 7 year old.  He also spent a fair amount of time immersed in Minecraft.  I don't mind.  As far as games go it is a good one and he respects the limits we put on it.  He knows that he has to keep up his bike riding or he won't be able to play. 

There were a few bumps of varying size along the way, but overall we had some really good times.  I almost, but not quite, wish there was more.