Mask and Trident

And...THIS is what he made today during quiet time.

Summer of Swimming, Part I

For the previous two summers, we have tried to help Benjamin learn to swim. The thing is, he's just not the kind of guy who learns well in a group class in a busy pool. First there are all the distractions of a hectic environment - and of course he is observing it all...the kids in the more advanced class diving for rings, the lifeguard talking to a child on the deck, an old man shuffling to the hot tub, the Bandaid coming off of someone's knee in his own class.

If that were not enough, he is also feeling insecure about his own ability to swim, and he's feeling shy about being in a class with kids he doesn't know, and he's trying to figure out just how serious the instructor is about keeping order. As a result, his coping mechanisms kick in: clowning around and trying to make the other kids laugh, talking baby talk because that is how he feels inside, acting like he doesn't understand the expectations, because, we all know, sometimes it's easier not to participate, especially if we are afraid we might fail.

But I've got this kid's number.

So when someone gifted us with some money for extracurricular experiences, we put some of it toward private lessons for Benj and Sadie. And what do you know? In five lessons the kid learned to swim.

He still attempted his old stunts, but Miss R would gently and firmly tolerate none of it.

As you can see, Sadie was eager to get in, get moving, and get dunked. If the teacher merely mentioned the next activity, Sadie was throwing up her arms and lurching toward her.

Always wearing a smile, even as she sank like a stone, little feet running madly underwater.

Anyway, it worked. While not proficient, Benjamin can at least put his face in the water and attempt to swim from one side to another. No more tears or complaining.

Then there are these two:

They sat with me and watched.  Oli decided that he might like swimming after all. More pictures about that to come!

Catching Up - Kinder Grad!

Last May we had a graduate in the house. For the special day, the kids learned a couple of rewritten pop tunes - hits that got worked over to talk about their school memories, soon-to-begin summer vacation, and going into first grade. It was pretty darn cute.

And ever since receiving that diploma, he has told people that he is in first grade. Pretty excited about that, he was. 

Now that I am finally posting this, we are only two weeks away from school starting. What?! I can hardly believe it.

In a Yellow Submarine

Sweet Baby Cayeb turned one last week, and there was a lovely submarine party to celebrate! We took lots of photos in the submarine prop, but none captured the kiddos' personalities so well as this shot.

Spring Sprinklers

Back in May, wildfires rushed the canyons and neighborhoods in our part of the county. It was a long week. Long because of the uncertainty, the friends and businesses forced to evacuate; long because of the unyielding heat. Long because much of life - schools, extracurricular and social activities, and in some cases, jobs, were on hold until the burning could be controlled.

We were home in a stuffy, sweltering house with not much to do for long periods of time. Where could we go? Parts of freeways were blocked off, air quality was terrible, and places with air conditioning, like the mall, were packed.

And while it seemed so contrary to the worry and the waiting, we needed to bring some joy to the moment. We needed to get wet. We needed to break through it all and laugh. This is what happened.

Catching Up - Spring Break and Mud Party

Day Three of Spring Break involved mud. Lots of it. We invited our friends over to make mud pies, enjoy a volcano, and squish dinosaurs through a prehistoric landscape of sorts.  Before we look at those scenes, however, let's talk about Mentos geysers, which was the way I intended to kick off this day of messy fun. I was hoping to be really impressive.

I did some research, you see, some research on how to make one of those Coke bottle explosion things...which I learned was actually not an explosion but a geyser. And I consulted Pinterest for the details on exactly how to get the best results. What I came away with was this:

1. Use a liter of any dark cola - the brand did not matter, but the dark brown colored ones worked better than, say, orange soda.

2. Make some sort of chute that would get the Mentos into the bottle fast and almost all at the same time.

3. Watch out. A geyser could be eight feet tall.

Em...not so much.

After moving all the kids back with all my safety first talk I dropped those suckers into my 70 cent bottle of el cheapo cola and...

Wah, wha, whaaaaaaaa...

It was a wimpy fizz that lasted about six seconds.

So we moved on to the vinegar and baking soda volcano which was not particularly impressive either, but allowed the kids to interact with it more which is always a good thing.

Baking soda and vinegar volcano

We built up the mud around a glass jar and the kids took turns pouring vinegar into the mixture and watching the foam erupt.

They just kept pouring and playing.

So these photos just show our mud pit area. I am so in love with how green the area is now. It was all brown and dead about two years ago.

I think we'll be doing this again!

Bathing Beauty

Little Rascals? Bonnie and Clyde? Thing 1 and Thing 2?

This is the work of one Sadie Eloise and a boy sometimes called "Oli Bug."

I was down the hall in my bathroom doing, I don't recall what...plucking stray eyebrows? Brushing my teeth for the first time that day (somewhere's around 4PM in preparation for The Papa's return from work?  It happens...), or perhaps applying another round of deodorant on that sweltering afternoon?

I was only out of sight of these two rabble-rousers for less than 10 minutes. Truth. I heard them cheerfully chattering, sounding sweetly happy, getting along...that last one was the tell-tale sign, the sign that should have had me bolting down the hall to see what was going on.

As it was, I sauntered through the house happily, thinking of how I had a chicken roasting in the oven and did not need to run around, a sweaty mess, before The Papa would return to a Really Nice Meal. And then I saw this. Only when I saw it, the toilet was still overflowing.

They did a sweet job, these two, of unwrapping an entire BRAND NEW roll of toilet paper and getting it all to fit into the bowl. They even tore up the cardboard tube and put it in for good measure. And then they attempted to flush the evidence.

So, yes, you are looking at a layer of water that covered the entire bathroom floor and extended out into the living area. It does have some nice reflective qualities. (Don't mind the water damaged wall behind the toilet. The folks who lived here before us also had a house full of kids and no doubt dealt with these types of events. That drywall is going to need replacing even if my kids are perfect angels for the rest of their time here.)

But the trouble with the mayhem caused by two and three-year-olds is that logical consequences just don't work. They can't exactly clean up a mess of this magnitude. So...Bonnie and Clyde got to sit on chairs for a Really Long Time and watch me as I cleaned it up, heh, heh.

Anyway, if counting my blessings I would say it was wonderfully fortuitous that dinner was basically done and I had the space in my afternoon to pull wads of paper out of the toilet and to wipe up oodles of water with half a dozen towels.

Those two do make an effective team, don't they?

Let's just hope we have sufficiently hidden the diaper cream: Vaseline, Mama?

And if you like stories like this, check out THIS blog.

Heirloom carrots on a hot day

Excuse me, I was sleeping here...

This was the scene at 6:45 one morning recently:

Isabella's little face poking out of a deep pile of Oli's clothes and toys.

See, Oli likes to get up long before anyone else is awake. And he likes to find others to hang out with at, say, 5:30 in the morning. And since he started getting in trouble for going into the older kids' rooms and waking them up (oh yeah, one night at about 3:00AM, he got Sadie to join him in exploring the garage...but that's another tale), he has decided to entertain himself by dumping every available resource into his roommate's bed.

Here's the adorable little perpetrator. Notice the stash he has worked up? Caught in the act!

A fire staff?

This is what happens when Benjamin gets hold of the preschool Legos. Can you guess what these are? Oh, please, do guess. 'Cause you're going to get at least two out of three wrong.

We'll start with the easy one - that triangle shape. Yes, it's a mountain.  But that tall thing? That thing that looks like some obelisk from an ancient culture? Something you'd find in northern Africa?

It is a sculpture of a person holding a fire staff. A fire staff. Whatever the heck that is. And, yes, that might just be the type of sculpture you would find in northern Africa somewhere.

But let's take that last one with a window/door thingie and a random eyeball on a block (that was probably an accidental placement).  THAT is the Lincoln Memorial.

I have never shown him a picture of this revered monument. I give all the credit for this bit of knowledge to Mrs. C, his fabulous kindergarten teacher. Come to think of it, I've never shown him a picture of an ancient obelisk or sky high sculpture, either. Perhaps inspired by the Washington Memorial?