Dancing on the counter

The end of summer is coming to our neighborhood! So sad! Most of the kids around us have started school (our neighborhood has kids in 2 different public elementary schools, a charter school down the street, and a couple odds-n-ends kids who go to other charter schools- and most of them have started). So we spent this week working our way back into our school routines. I don't know why really, because it will all fall apart when I go to South Carolina to see my sister, brother-in-law, and their beautiful new baby girl, Tylie, and then we will take a family vacation to San Diego the next week, but in the meantime I guess it keeps us from pulling out our hair. It also explains why my blogging has slacked off lately.

Part of our school routine is a mid-morning walk to a playground a couple blocks away. Olivia and Jolie are just getting to the age of loving playgrounds, and Austin and Nyah are, for the most part, sadly out of that age. But there is a bit of trail around the park they can ride bikes or scooters on, plenty of "wild" areas to explore, and sometimes they find themselves hanging upside down from the monkey bars. King and Queen of the mountain

Run-away girls

Austin and Nyah riding back and forth down the trail, while the girls walk to the end.
One of the wonderful things that is recently happening is Austin and Nyah making their own lunches. I tell them when I am making lunch, but if they choose not to come in then they are on their own when they do get hungry. They are still learning the clean up part, but overall its pretty exciting to watch, even when peanut butter sandwiches with chow mein noodles on them are on the menu.

Jolie sliding- something she loves to do.

Hanging out together- its always nice to see that they DO get along.

Yes- following this video Olivia did have a good cry over the bump on her head.

Kennecott Copper Mine Visitor's Center

On Saturday our family headed to the Kennecott Copper Visitor's Center.

Haulage truck tire and our family thanks to the help of a Japanese tourist.

To understand how GIANT these trucks are, here is a picture showing a truck parked next to some port-a-potties- they don't even come to the top of the tires!!

Looking at the mine.

Getting a closer look In the Visitor's Center- looking at different rocks, metals, and minerals.

A favorite activity for my kids- pushing buttons!!

The haulage trucks only look small in the vast expanse of the mine.

What are we doing?

Enjoying the end of our summer!!

Then followed that beautiful season... Summer....

Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape

Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Pack meeting- Austin was supposed to get his Bobcat and a couple other awards, but the leaders messed up and I had a very disappointed boy on my hands. This is Olivia's house, that she makes herself and she is very territorial about it, which means she doesn't dare leave it for a second. Not even to eat peanut butter at the table.Helping in the garden- we were picking some of the corn.

Using the corn stalks to make swords.

Miss Jolie-Polie

This is the same desk used for Olivia's house, and you can see it has many purposes in their daily play.

Summer days with friends!!

Summer afternoon - Summer afternoon...

the two most beautiful words in the English language.

~Henry James

Jolie working on her fork skills.

Caged birds

Today my kids have chosen to not finish their work- they each have a chore and school list they are supposed to complete before they can play outside or with friends. As a result, they are caged up. From the picture above, let's see if you are thinking what I'm thinking-- Does it look like they are upset about being caged up or in any way motivated to complete their work? Yeah, I thought not. Maybe this will change when the neighbor kids who haven't started school yet come knocking on the door. Maybe. They look pretty happy and content.

This is the Place

Yesterday we went to the This is the Place monument and Heritage Village. There was a homeschool festival going on and I wanted to take the kids because this is the history time period we will be covering this next year. Well, I mixed up the hours of when the Heritage Village would be open and when the festival was going so, the we arrived just before the village was closing. Oops. I didn't take many pictures. Here are the few that turned out.

We had a good time despite not being able to do much. Well, we mostly had a good time. As you can tell from Nyah's face she ws not happy when we first arrived. She was upset we pulled her away from playing with friends. Once we were inside the village she cheered up.

Olivia riding the first train.

Jolie loves animals!! She was so happy to go to the petty zoo.

She kept putting her face up to the animals faces, like she does with Dade, to get them to lick her. This kind lamb obliged.

More at the petting zoo

Another train to ride-- much to Olivia's delight.

Walking through the village.

Family Activities

Camping out in the backyard- Actually the little girls and I slept inside, and Olivia threw a tantrum at 2 a.m. because she wasn't in the tent and I wouldn't let her go out to find her Dad.

Jumping on the bed

Out for a walk
Helping

We walked to a tunnel near our house which has lots of broken glass.

Austin felt the need to be a protective big brother, and Jolie let him!!

What can I say about this? These kids keep life interesting and entertaining.

Olivia & Cars

The elusive Austin and Nyah birds . . .

. . . older kids? Do I have older kids? I have noticed a couple strangers turning up for dinner, but its pretty unwillingly and they disappear as quickly as the food.

Austin and Nyah have BFF's all over the place, and because said BFF's will be starting school soon and friend playtime will be drastically diminished, they are intuitively milking every minute of every day running around barefoot and in grunge-y clothes, catching grasshoppers and praying mantises, soaking up the sunshine, slip-n-sliding, swimming, trading Pokemon cards, riding bikes or scooters, playing video games and watching movies with friend-- or as Nyah says, being a "wild girl" or boy in Austin's case. (They do get their chores and school stuff done in the morning too- but I'm not taking pictures of that- maybe I should.)

Despite all this, I have managed a few shots of these rare and hard to find species.

Nyah and her BFF Ethan- she has another BFF Luke.

Austin and his BFF Ethan trading cards

(I keep them straight by calling the BFF's "his Ethan" and "her Ethan)

If we didn't have a sand box I don't know if I'd ever see them.
Biking

Scootering

Having 2 Toddlers Means . . .

. . . always keeping my keys in my pocket because as soon as I go out any door it is closed and locked behind me, and of course all other doors are locked to prevent the little ones from escaping.

. . . discovering there are good and bad types of door handles. We have the bad type (easily opened handles that are pushed up or pulled down, not a door knob that has to be turned).

. . . never leaving a little one alone in the bathroom, unless I want to return and find the entire roll of toilet paper clogging the toilet, toothpaste and hand soap all over the counter and mirror, all the towels pulled off the rack, and the entire bottle of shampoo emptied into the tub.

. . . my t-shirts work double duty as basic clothing AND for running noses, wiping away tears, slobbering on while crying, bleeding on after falling down, and hanging onto.

. . . realizing I will never again sit or lay down without someone climbing on top of me.

. . . trying to open my closet door only to find I can't because everything withing reach has been pulled onto the floor and there are two giggling girls sitting against the door.

. . . summoning previously unknown bouncer skills for breaking up fights and refereeing play times.

. . . just knowing that every time I leave the kitchen I will return to find someone dancing on the counter.

. . . never going to the bathroom alone again.

. . . Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Zoe are our new BFF's.


Written in honor of my delayed recognition that Jolie is now a toddler and has been for such an obviously long time! I have still been thinking of her as my "baby", but as my excuse, I suffer from mommy-brain maladies caused by toddlers.

Hard work of little girls

You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing. What! Is it nothing to be happy? Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long? Never in his life will he be so busy again. ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762

Women gather together to wear silly hats, eat dainty food, and forget how
unresponsive their husbands are. Men gather to talk sports, eat heavy food, and forget how demanding their wives are. Only where children gather is there any real chance of fun. -Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook

A child is a curly dimpled lunatic. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him. -Pablo Casals

Look around you. Everywhere. They are there. In every home - lurking in dark corners ... small, bi-pedal entities with almost human brains play their
games in which adults are the pawns. They play and wait for the time when they will take over the world!
-John Blair Moore, Invaders from Home, Piranha Press, 1990, Book 1 of 6.