Summer Doin's

Dog days are getting nearer - what a scorcher this week! I have to say my camera has been on vacation lately, but I have a few shots from June that I can share. I so dislike posting without pictures!

In early June we traveled to Lexington to meet the newest cousins - twins Peter and Ethan. Oh, what rejoicing on their arrival! They are just beyond precious. Molly in particular was so taken with "the babies" that we have had to play "Peter and Ethan" with dolls and bears ever since. 

We are anxious to see them again for their baptism this month.

Naturally, outdoor activities are most popular lately. We are blessed with an amazing park system in Louisville, and have enjoyed visiting as many as possible. 

 

One of our favorites, Cherokee Park, is home to the wonderful Beargrass Creek, perfect for wading and exploring. The kids can watch minnows, gather shells, skip rocks, and whatever fun adventures come to mind. It's breathtakingly beautiful, and what a treat in the middle of the city...

 

 

 

 

Up the path, water cascades from limestone cliffs. It feels like an alternate world when you're here, a little bit of heaven! We had a gorgeous, breezy day - this was long before the heat wave hit.

 

 

Closer to home, bikes, balls and frisbees are favorites. The kids have a neighborhood friend now, so it's easy to get them outside to play. However, they have outgrown the kiddie pool and always want to go somewhere to swim! We have visited some of the "splash parks" in the city park system, but haven't found a pool to frequent, so far.

 

At the end of June, Brendan turned 9 years old! We had a little celebration at home, with a clown fish cake.

A few days later, Grandma took the kids (and Daddy) to the amazing Holiday World water park for the day. I had the whole day at home to myself... I may have had almost as much fun as the kids! It was the highlight of the summer for them - unfortunately, no pictures were taken. No matter. They still talk about it every day and look forward to visiting again someday (tomorrow, if they had their way!) 

Now we are looking forward to spending more time with family and friends in the coming weeks. We finally traded in our disintegrating van for a nice, reliable vehicle, so it's been a pleasure to get out and around more. After 4 years with no AC in our car, we are positively in heaven as we beat the heat on the road. It's truthfully at the top of my gratitude list right now! We'll be reuniting with our old playgroup this week, celebrating my brother's birthday with my family, and attending the twins' baptism next week. August will bring Molly's birthday and State Fair. Just the current events of a pleasant, busy summer, with lots of everyday life in between. More to come as the weeks unfold...

Ordinary Time

Oh, hello again, lonely blog! After the merry mayhem of the holidays and the richness of the liturgical feasts that defined them, we are ready for the wholesome simplicity of ordinary time, with its rhythm and predictability. The problem is that I can't seem to find a groove to get back into here! The past weekend was devoted to organizing and packing away. I'm hoping it's given me a little momentum to retake control of our home life, even though I haven't started to feel it yet. Monday is always hectic here. Tuesday, things usually settle in again. We'll see what this week brings.

Ordinary time brought a definitely non-ordinary outing here. The kids were blessed with the opportunity to visit the Newport Aquarium near Cincinnati over the weekend with Auntie Ann and Grandpa. It is so expensive that we haven't been able to make the trip previously. Even though Jeff and I couldn't go this time, we were happy the kids got to experience such an adventure! We heard all about it in the evening, and new recollections keep popping up through the day. What an amazing place...

We are so thankful that our generous family made it happen for the kids! Jeff and I had the house to ourselves for about 8 hours, which was definitely strange for us. We were ready for everyone to come home!

In other exciting news, a new nephew made his appearance January 9th. Jeff's sister and her husband welcomed their second child, Joseph. We were able to meet him last Saturday and visit the growing little family. Such a dear baby, and it makes those newborn days seem really far away for me - can you believe it's been two-and-a-half years since I was the one holding a lil' peanut? He sure is a sweetie:

The rest of this week I am planning to hunker down and focus on our learning activities. We have had tons of fun since Christmas, lots of building kits and "fun" learning opportunities. I'm hoping to bring back a little stronger emphasis on literature in the coming weeks. For now, check out this great new game we picked up on a recommendation from family friends: Blokus. We can fit it into the math slot, or call it thinking skills, strategy, spatial relations, eye-hand coordination, or whatever you like. Really it's just a barrel of fun for all ages, and we're all addicted. Fun, fun!

Hope everyone is having a good week! Come back soon for more updates.

Autumn Doin's

I have been so busy with school, preparing items to sell at my first-ever consignment sale (as a seller) last week, and organizing our many outings when Jeff is home! Thanks to the great kindness of someone special, Jeff and I had a night out over the weekend, where we took in a concert by Straight No Chaser, and ate at the Paula Deen Buffet. This is from a different location, but exactly what it looked like.

There are just no words. On both counts: Heaven! Ya'll just have to do something like that sometime soon. It was truly food for the soul! We had such a lovely, lovely time.

Saturday we tried Round 2 of apple picking - this time at the big commercial orchard quite a bit further north, Joe Huber's Family Farm. After no rain in the forecast for several weeks before or after this day, we managed to get there in the middle of a downpour. Fortunately it cleared up quickly, and we were able to play, picnic and pick apples. Yes, there were plenty and they were beautiful! I was happy to get Fujis, which are our favorite variety. The departing rainstorm left behind this beautiful fall sky, my favorite kind of fall weather.

We spent a long time with the goats - the babies were just too cute. Molly loved them!

Riding out to the orchard!

Reaching...

This time, we got a pile of apples. This just makes me happy!

So worth the wait! When we got home, we made some rockin' Corn Chowder, baked spaghetti squash from the farm market, and the freshest apple pie ever. Very good day. Hope you had a great weekend too!

Apple Orchard

Wouldn't you know, but the time the 90-degree weather finally gave up, the apples were finished and picked already! We almost didn't get to go to this sweet orchard recommended by a friend. But the very kind owner let us come anyway to picnic and see the animals. We were lucky to find a few small red apples left on one tree! Just enough to make it seem like fall at last. Here are some pictures from our day!

 

 

I wish I had taken more pictures - it was a lovely, fun day. We will be sure to put Hidden Hollow Orchard on our schedule for next year, and hope lots of our friends will visit too. Good people there. Now, bonus points if anyone can tell me what kind of bush/tree this is. It was gorgeous!

End of Summer

The scorching weather finally broke, and we have been outside at every opportunity! Weekends packed with fun outings and weeknights weary from slanting sunlight and fresh air add up to very little blogging lately. I know it's been too slow when my husband demands some new reading from me! Sorry, honey... and everyone else.

Here's a peek at what the last few weeks have brought.

A summer rainstorm creates irresistible puddles for jumping in:

Benjamin gets a new bike as an early birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa! By November, it will be nearly winter, so they decided to let him enjoy it for the fall months. Molly also got a snazzy trike. Everyone is riding in fine style this year.

Molly has a new friend: Build-A-Bear pal "Rosie" arrived from Aunt Donna in California. All girly and a perfect buddy for a new 2-year-old.

In early September we went down to the riverfront for WorldFest - a cultural extravaganza celebrating every corner of the globe! We saw these flamenco dancers, as well as African dancers, a drum corp, and a Latin band.

The food was amazing - we could have eaten all day long - but we "only" sampled Cuban, Jamaican, and Italian. We also visited booths selling handicrafts from everywhere in the world. What a treat to see the beautiful creations of so many diverse peoples! We are going to have to save money for next year and arrive earlier in the day to do it justice.

Being right on the riverfront on one of the most gorgeous days of the year was spectacular. The incredible views woke up my inner photographer! Wish I could have taken lots more shots, but juggling kids and camera was a little distracting.

We paid a visit to "George Rogers Clark" (of Lewis and Clark fame) and then loaded some tired kiddos back in the van to return to our American way of life. Fun, fun.

Wow, I'm tired just remembering that day!

Back at home we are working back into a Fall routine with relaxed studies, group activities and lots of outdoor time. Our learning space has been overhauled, although I am still tweaking in there... post to come on that, one of these days. Fall makes me want to clean, organize and decorate, although a lot more happens in my head than in real life, truthfully. The kids dragged out all of my autumn decor while I was on the phone one day, so I had to immediately put it all up. I guess having impatient kids is a good antidote to my natural inclination to procrastinate. At least we can enjoy it for a full 3 months this way!

No one is happier to see the end of summer than I am. I love the sights, smells and activities that come with harvest time, the crisp, energizing weather, and the anticipation building up to the holiday season. Happy Fall, ya'll!!

Summertime Cabin Fever?

Back in January's gloom, it would have been impossible to say or even think something so outrageous... but honestly! These last several weeks have seemed more dull and boring than a winter cold snap. We have been staying inside the house due to the soaring temperatures. If we were ambitious, we would get out early in the morning, but we're not that kind of people! Some days it's been too hot even to pull out the wading pool, because I have to be out there on supervisor duty (what with my gate still not replaced), and that's not happening when it's 96 degrees. Sorry. Even most evenings have been stifling and we stay in yet again. Too much time inside brings out some ugliness, doesn't it!

What to do when there is nothing to do? Well, thank goodness for media... lots of videos and internet time! Unfortunately that sometimes backfires and only causes more pent-up energy. We have read our big stack of 22 library books several times. Time for a new stack. My boys don't like coloring (what's up with that? I love coloring and always expected to do a lot of it when I had kids. Ha.)

But here's a look at some of the things we have tried. (Some older pictures, just to give you the idea.)

Lots of this:

and this:

Always, always Transformers:

Interesting structures appearing:

 Lots and lots and lots of this!

Thank you, Lord, for allowing me to live in the era of Legos. And AC. Amen.

I even resorted to this one day. Shhh! Don't tell anyone!

Here are a few other things we have been doing::

• Making juice pops
• Bendaroos (I hate those things!!)
• Waterpainting
• Completely disassembling a big wheel (Benjamin)
• Activity books
• Play-Doh
• Board games - Candy Land, Guess Who, cards, HiHo Cherrio, Cooties, etc. 
• Blowing bubbles in the house (gasp)
• Taking pictures like this with Mom's camera:

So I realized this parenting thing may take some extra work under these conditions. I have come up with some radical ideas to bust the boredom. Well, OK, one radical idea. I am calling it the "Arctic Dig".

I picked out a few of our plastic animals - you all have a bucket of these, right?

I put them in different-sized containers and covered them with water. Don't use too much or you will have aggravated kids!

Then I put them in the freezer overnight. Please note that I did this when the kids weren't around. Otherwise I would have had to fend off their eager attempts to "check" the ice every 20 minutes for 2 days. Counter-productive!

When they were frozen solid, I tied them up in a bag and put them in the deep-freezer to await the perfect moment of insanity that I needed avert. Trust me, it came along fairly quickly.

I gave each kid a couple of blocks of ice, a table knife and random kitchen tools, and let them go to work. They were ecstatic! We used pans with high sides to catch the water as the ice melted. I also gave them each a container of warm water to use strategically for "power-melting".

They hammered away!

Molly got her own block.

When all else fails, try your teeth!

Finally, they freed all of their "fossils".

Oh, what fun! I am pleased to say this kept them occupied for fully.... 45 minutes.

But at least it redirected the craziness a little and they had so much fun that I think I'll fill up the containers again. Little cars and other small toys might be fun to try in the next  batch.

Looks like the summer will continue long and hot, so I need a few more ideas. What creative things do your kids do when the weather keeps them inside for too long?