Daddy the Boy Scout

I forget how it got started, but somehow Alice learned that Zac had his old boy scout uniform and badges up in the attic. Whenever we would mention the attic for some other reason, Alice would ask if Zac would get out his boy scout badges to show her. But whenever she asked, we'd always be in the middle of something, or needing to rush off. Finally, she asked at the right time, and I told Zac, "You know, you probably have a fairly short window in life here where your daughter is interested in your old boy scout badges. You should probably seize this opportunity." So he did.

Picking up Simon = Fish for Supper

Our usual routine this year is as follows:
Morning: Sera waits with Alice at the bus stop and Zac takes Simon to school.
Evening: Zac picks up Simon and Alice; Sera makes supper.

But once a week, we have salmon, so I pick up both kids and Zac comes home and makes supper (we grill the fish and we all know that only men can grill, so that's why Zac always has to make that supper).

Simon loves salmon, so he is always happy when I pick him up from school because he knows we're having fish for supper.

(We were at a stoplight when I took this photo, don't worry.)

The crime scene

On weekend mornings, the kids wake up at 6am or some ungodly time like that, and we are generally able to sleep in until someone starts screaming or crying. However, what the kids do in the morning for two hours unsupervised can sometimes be problematic. Like this morning when I came down and noticed the kids had gotten in to the Sharpie markers, and Simon had taken to drawing on the kitchen floor.  (Thankfully, we have linoleum and the marker came off with rubbing alcohol.)

Saturdays of Mud & Mess

I remember, long ago, when Zac and I would look forward to weekends as a time to relax and recover from a week of work. We used to even read books, cook things for fun, pursue hobbies and interests, hang out with adults without any kids around (and without even discussing kids!)... But for many years now, say about four to six years, weekends are just a different type of work. We look forward to Saturdays and then we look forward to Mondays. Or we just stop looking forward to anything, and careen through the days where it seems like it's always a Monday or Saturday again.

So it was that we found ourselves at another Saturday. I know we'll miss these days when they're gone, and this blog will contribute to the nostalgia because it just captures all the fun of parenting with none of the agony.  I mean, look at these adorable kids painting!

Look at how much fun we had building bridges over creeks in the woods at the park!

Look at how happily the kids entertained themselves with mud by the river!

Look at the giant mess of the house!

Look at how much fun the kids had playing with scrap wood in the garage with dad!

The nut crushers

To pass the time at the bus stop, Alice and Parker often gather nuts and use rocks to crush them up.

Llama, llama, red pajama

 

Alice always used to spend lots of time just looking at books. Simon almost never does. So I was quite happy when I passed by his room and spotted him paging through his recent favorite book: Llama, Llama, Red Pajama.

Bottles in the bushes

I took the kids to the airport park to play this morning. The park is fairly minimal: a raised viewing deck, a grassy lawn, a few child-sized runways, a sand pit with a large metal spider to climb on...but the few times I've brought the kids here, they've managed to entertain themselves for a remarkably long time. Maybe less really is more.

Today, they crawled in a hole in the bushes and found two glass wine bottles. Those bottles kept them busy for two hours. It's not shown in this picture, but the park was full of fashionable middle-class families picnicking in the park, and my two kids, wearing play clothes, dirty, running around with wine bottles...

Durham Museum of Life and Science

We bought a membership to the Durham Museum of Life and Science for Alice's birthday, and I took her twice over the summer. We went together as a family for the first time since Simon was a baby. It's a great place and they had a blast.

Toothpicks and Play-Doh

Simon's school work

Simon writing his name

Simon has been obsessed with two things lately: paper airplanes and writing his name. Our kitchen floor is always littered with paper airplanes bearing variations of Simon's name on them.

It's funny how persistent he is with something that he sets his mind on. He works on writing his name at school.

And he works on writing his name at home.

Grayson & Family visit

On Thursday night our good family friends, Lindsey, Brent, Grayson and Brie came back into town and stayed with us for the weekend. We enjoyed hanging out with the grown ups, while the kids played together.

On Saturday afternoon we went to the art museum.

On Sunday morning we had a playdate with the daycare crowd at the nearby park.

 

 

Then, Sunday afternoon, they headed back to Richmond.

Go Ape

My friend Natasha (aka Izzy's mom) organized a morning out for the moms in our friends-from-daycare group to go to Go Ape, an outdoor adventure place that has a 3-hour course where you do ziplines, canopy walk challenges, and Tarzan swings (all while wearing a harness of course).  My friend Jenn (Anna's mom) dropped Anna off at our house for a playdate (read: Zac babysitting) and we drove to Go Ape together. It was a great morning of group bonding where I successfully did not dislocate any shoulders. It was funny when I sorted the pictures by time and noticed that the girls back home were having much of the same adventures we were having. I shall display the pictures in chronological order, so you can appreciate the juxtaposing of the images.

Andrea, Robyn, Sera, Jenn, Natasha, Hillary

  

Don't we look happier in the after picture?