Early summer days

Candid Moments at dinner....  what a wonderful life!

Butterfly Pavilion

One of the good things we've done, and tried hard to maintain, is a special Friday enrichment day with the kids, with Jake and me trading off weeks.  This week the kids and I went to the butterfly pavilion, which is actually best as an individual adult, in my opinion, but there is lot of activity revolving around kids.

Now that he is three years old, Xander got to hold (#3/36) Rosie, the Taranchula!  He was really brave, and even asked to do it again.  Way to go Xander!

Maya didn't seem all that interested in the butterflies, which really surprised me.  She did, however, point to every "tree" and " 'wer" she could.  Horticultralist?

Maya, in the lead... This way Xander!

Xander, Taking a break, hoping for a butterfly to land on his head.                           

Which it did! But, I was not fast enough with the camera. Luckily, the kids managed to capture the moment with their reactions, all the same. Priceless!

We had a little too much enery and needed to rangle some caterpillars.  Git'e'up!

 

I was surprised, but Xander was really interested in the magnifying glass, and how it made the butterflies bigger.  I couldn't get him to talk about the differeces between them, but that was probably asking too much.  Glad he had fun!

Watch out world... Maya's riding a bike!

Now that Xander has his new pedal bike, we've given the Strider to Maya.  Yes, that's right, my 16 month old is now on a bike- a walking bike, but still, a bike!  This was Jake's idea, but wow- was she excited!

At first Xander wasn't ready to give it up, but he's realized how much faster he can go on the pedal bike, plus we've talked up the fact that he is such a big boy now and the Strider is for little kids.  We're hoping this won't backfire if he has another little friend still on a Strider for awhile, which is pretty likely given his age.  Lucky for us Jackson, Xander's best buddy, is also doing really well with a new pedal bike.

So, back to Maya... look at that smile!

"Mom, I want to play with this again!"  Maya actually picked the bike up OVER HER HEAD to get our attention, but I wasn't fast enough to catch it with the camera.  I am continually amazed at this girl's muscles and determination!

One of the cutest things is seeing Maya in a helmet.  She LOVED the helmet, and we spent a lot of time taking it off and putting it back on her- a great game.  I'd bought this helmet for Xander at a garage sale when he was 18 months old and starting with the Strider. 

 Of course, the helmet was far too small for Xander's head.... and far, far too large for little Maya!

Is there anything better than a sprinkler in the summer?

Our good friends Alisa and Nasser and their kids, Ronan and Theo surprised us this week with a present for Xander's birthday (belated).  In addition to some new chaulk (awesome!) they also gave Xander a new blow-up lizard sprinkler.







Now, I'm pretty sure this was not an expensive gift, but it was PRICELESS in terms of enjoyment. Xander played and played and played in that thing, until the parched grass (it's been unusually warm this summer) was soaked to puddle status. Of course, that made it even better..... 

Maya, meanwhile, was enthralled with the slides...and at almost 16 months old she climbs up the down just like her brother.  No babies here... this is a little thrill seeker that has super strength and wants to do it all on her own!

Late afternoons in the summer, playing in the backyard with the kids.... it really doesn't get any better than this!

Play time at the WOW museum

We forget what a great little kids museum we have nearby, and that we have a membership.... weeks or even months pass, and then we "rediscover" the museum and I'm always impressed with the new things they've added, or that the kids find to explore.  Even better is watching Xander try to teach Maya how things work, or how to "play this game" and he really really wants her to play right along with him!  Of course, this only works about 20% of the time, but it's cool to see him so interested in her.  Maya especially is loving the music room, and she and the lizard had a staring contest for a good 5 minutes before they declared a draw.

This time they also had a special art project, painting with dry watercolor dust and ice-cubes, a sensory experience that both kids really enjoyed.