Fire pit progress: 2 months

Zac spends all of his freetime on non-rainy days working on this project. It's shaping up nicely!

Summertime activities

The new neighbor lady (Kelly) showed Alice how to do chalk art using tape to make it look like stained glass.

The kids (mostly Simon) spend a lot of time fishing at the little fishing hole behind our house where the creek feeds into the pond. Simon loves to tell the story of the time he caught a little sunfish, but before he reeled it in, a bass came and ate the sunfish and HE CAUGHT TWO FISH AT ONCE.

Simon checks the garden several times a day and will talk at great length about the corn, Alice's cucumber, and his flower. If he doesn't end up in some nature-related career, I will be very surprised.

Cozy as a cat

It's almost impossible for Alice to simply put on her pajamas and get into bed after her shower.

Swimming

Today was our fourth day at the pool, and Simon is getting pretty good at swimming. He accepts absolutely no instruction, but just keeps up his self-training regiment.

Alice's 9th Birthday

A couple weeks before her birthday, Alice made her wish list. Since it's illegible, let me translate it.

1. Hover board

2. More canvas paints

3. Gold spray paint

4. Clay

5. A Ninjango lego set

6. Chalk

7. Diary of a Wimpy Kid book

8. Markers and pens

9. A fishing rod

(We got her everything except the gold spray paint.)

We started the day with a yummy breakfast of cinnamon rolls, sausage, eggs and fruit. We also had the traditional cake reveal.

She made a lot with the air-dry clay.

Here she is a day or two later ready to head out with her new fishing pole.

Alice's last day of grade 3 and age 8

Pool time!

I finally finished my work and meetings for the school year (although I still have some meetings scheduled throughout the summer as we prepare for adjusting to our new reality next year).

So on Wednesday we went to the pool for the first time. For some reason I forgot to actually take pictures of the kids in the water.

Alice with her friend Lily from school who lives in our neighborhood. Her mom and I text each other whenever we're headed to the pool so the girls can play together.

Revolution

It's not enough to be in a pandemic and a recession. Now people are finally noticing police brutality (particularly against black people). There have been large-scale protests in every state, and the messages are even showing up along the greenway in Cary.

Simon and Alice

With the old neighbors gone and the new ones not quite moved in yet, Alice and Simon have been forced to play with each other.

Little Brother

I found this note from Simon to Alice in the hallway this morning. It says, "Ha ha, my team is better and your snake skin is missing. Ha ha, you lose."  I asked Alice how she felt about it, and she said she didn't care because she couldn't read it.

But what do you expect from a little brother who loves to drink pickle juice?

Eno River Day 4: Cole Mill, Green's Hole

On our fourth day at Eno River, we drove to the same place as the previous day. Since the weather was kind of cloudy, not many people were there and we could play in the great spot along the trail fairly close to the parking lot (there were already people here yesterday). The kids had a lot of fun! There was even a deep little swimming hole where Alice could swim.

Simon found these two claws that he examined for a long time.

Eno River Day 3: Cole Mill, Bobbit Hole Trail

On our third day at Eno River, I evidently grew tired of taking pictures! But we found a great spot to play along the Bobbit Hole Trail.

Eno River Day 2: Pump Station Trail, Laurel Bluffs Trail (north)

For our second day at Eno River, we went to a different area of the park that I'd never been to before, but a friend from work recommended.  We loved the Pump Station Trail, and it had a really cool creek. The Laurel Bluffs Trail was along a deeper part of the river and didn't have good play places. The kids would also get really stressed out and whiny whenever the trail went too far away from the river, which happened a lot on the Laurel Bluffs trail.

At least they found one good spot to play.

Eno River Day 1: Fews Ford, Buckquarter Creek Trail, Holden Mill Trail

We're finally getting all of our plumbing redone this week, so while our house is full of workers, I'm going to take the kids to play at Eno River every day all day.

For the first day, we parked at Fews Ford and hiked north along the river. It was a really beautiful day and after spending most of the past two and half months in front of a computer, it was so nice to get out. It was kind of chilly, so they kids only waded a little bit.

This monstrosity that Simon spotted is a Dobsonfly.

They played "arctic sea birds" for a long time at this last spot at the end of Holden Mill Trail.