Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles

I totally forgot that I hadn't downloaded these pictures until I was downloading the pictures from Joshua's camera that he'd taken on our adventure the other day (another post) and found these. I will sometimes grab Joshua's camera and use it if 1) my battery is dead (happens often), 2) I don't feel like lugging the bigger camera around, and 3) if it is handier to grab.

This was a pinterest idea...cut the toe portion of an old sock and cut the bottom off an empty water bottle.  Unite the two, dip them in bubble solution and BLOW!!  And then you get Bubble Snakes. We had fun with these for half an hour or so one day at the end of June. My plan had been for me to get them started, and then I could go back inside and do the dishes or something (read). But it never happened. But we had FUN!

Grace did quite well...after we got her to understand that you exhaled not inhaled...and once the bubbles stopped coming out of her mouth :)

And as sometimes (but not often enough) happens, Grace was worn out and collapsed in the chair while I was getting things cleaned up and lunch ready.

Staying Cool

It has been hot lately. And since our trailer isn't exactly a nice cool place, we needed to go cool off somewhere. Wednesday we went to the city pool because it was free swim day...at $3 a person, it's best to go on those free days :) The boys just finished swimming lessons today, but they still wanted to go back. Besides the cost, my sunburned back still hasn't recovered from the pool. We'd had other plans for the afternoon (they weren't keeping cool plans), but they'd fallen through. So I told them to go to the bathroom, put on tennis shoes that could get wet, swim trunks if they wanted to and I had a surprise for them. Joshua figured it out before we got half way up Main Street because I'd said it involved water, but wasn't swimming. And we drove up Old Etna to Grease Flats and headed down to Etna Creek and had fun wading, splashing and throwing rocks for about an hour. Nathaniel told me it was "The Best Day Ever" (I love that kid...any day we do something fun is "The Best Day Ever"...makes me want to come up with something almost every day to hear him say that)  We will be going back (the kids hope Monday) with Brian so that we can explore upstream and downstream...I told the boys that carrying Grace and trying not to slip wasn't the best with me being the only adult. I could just see myself slipping and falling and Joshua trying to figure out how to get me back to the car :)

Heading down the forest service road to the ford in the creek...they were pretty excited.

I think he'd just been splashed in the face by a falling rock (courtesy of one of his younger siblings). After he slipped, fell and banged his knee on a rock within the first 5 minutes we were there, I realized that I hadn't had him put on his old taped together glasses. Not wanting him to do something to the two week old new glasses, I had him take them off. He could see well enough to get around, but was happy to see details again when he put them back on.

 I took this picture with my cell phone to send to Brian.  We'd gotten treats at the store on our way and Nathaniel was still finishing his.

She wasn't too sure at first about her crazy mom making her walk in cold water on slippery rocks...in fact, she kept asking for Daddy. (I don't think she thought I knew what I was doing). But once she discovered that I'd told her the truth about us going to a place with a lot of rocks, well, then she was happy. She threw lots and lots of rocks into the creek.
The obsession this girl has with rocks - I think she'll be a geologist someday.

Must always have big walking stick. I told him to smile for me, and he had to get posed first. Can't believe how big this kid is...the first time we took him here to wade...he was barely walking...time sure flies.

This was taken almost 9 years ago...July 26, 2003

Not his usual cheesy smile, but almost :) He was thrilled to get to stomp around in the creek, throw rocks and he even had a smaller version of Joshua's walking stick until I got tired of him trying to use it and almost knocking himself or someone else over, so I took it and chucked it downstream. Joshua was going to rescue it...I finally got him convinced to let it go!

As you can see, this tired her out pretty good (sadly this was about 4 pm she finally went to sleep around 10 tonight). I looked at the blog post I did in 2010 when we took the kids there the last time (why we don't go up there more often to cool off, I don't know. It's five minutes from the house and as Joshua said, "It's better than the pool 'cause it doesn't cost us a penny!")

Here is a flashback to August 2010...the kids sure have grown and changed...and in some ways, haven't changed a bit.

http://leehappenings.blogspot.com/2010/08/this-and-that.html

Nathaniel's Kindergarten Graduation

Our kindergarten graduate...when I heard they were going to do graduation from kindergarten, I was really curious. I'd been surprised last year when they had a graduation from preschool, so I guess I should have expected one from kinder.
They had a very cute little ceremony - at the beginning of the school year each child had been asked to bring in a binder. All year long they'd put special pieces of art work in these binders. And they'd made scrapbook pages with pictures from different events (one of these days I need to scan some of those pictures for my own scrapbooking!). The kids had not seen the final binders, so they were dying to get their binders and see what all was in them.
The teacher said a little something about each of the kids as she called them up to get their diploma and binder.
Nathaniel was the 2nd or 3rd kid called up, which was nice, because by the time kid #24 or whatever was called up, Grace was beyond sitting still so I could really pay attention. I videoed Nathaniel's presentation with the camera,but for some reason I can't get it to upload to the blog.
Nathaniel enjoyed kindergarten, but he was so ready for summer vacation!!

With Mrs. Veryla (the class aide...she was the class aide to the other 6th grade class way back in the good ol' days when I was in 6th grade!)

With his teacher, Mrs. Lang...one of the first few days of school, Nathaniel asked me if Mrs. Lang had been my teacher (valid question since his classroom was the same one I'd had for kindergarten)...I told him no, in fact, she hadn't even been born when I started kindergarten...

Fourth of July

While my favorite July holiday is actually July 6th, we did have a fun July 4th. Brian set up the slip n' slide in the front yard and the kids had fun. Grace took a little while to warm up to the whole getting in the water thing, but she (with some help from mommy) finally got in and had fun with the boys. I finally figured out how to keep ponytails in her hair - I put three in and by the time she took 2 out, she'd kind of forgotten about the 3rd one :) We'd also (courtesy of pinterest for the idea, though I added our own creativity to them) made soem 4th of July decorations the day before. In the afternoon, we went to my parents for BBQ and cake (early birthday) and homemade chocolate chip ice cream (that Brian made). In the evening we went out to a friend's from church where the kids played with more friends from church (trampoline, marshmallow guns, basketball...) until it got dark and then we watched the teenage boys do a firework show and got home sometime before 11. Below are the pictures of the decorations, the water fun and a little prank.

SPLASH!

Posing for Daddy to take a picture.

smiling at grandma & grandpa when they walked over from the store

The triple pony tail...quite patriotic :)

Our festive holiday decorations (I painted the wooden flag several years ago when we lived in Winters)

Brian & Joshua like to have fun with water...and dumping it on each other when they're not expecting it (like a glass of cold water dumped into the shower)

I'm so glad that the camera cooperated and took this picture at just the perfect moment :)