Parasols!
Our new neighbors, a sweet little family of house finches.
We don't have a webcam set up (yet?) but we are monitoring their progress quite studiously, especially Calvin. He actually helped build the nest, the birds had been frittering around trying to get some sticks and grass to stick up on our slick two-inch porch beam, and so he twisted together some branches for the base of their nest. Dear man!
Impromptu photo session on a family walk. So many beautiful blossoms around!
Girls with our dogwood. Traditional (yearly) shot.
We borrowed "The Prince of Egypt", a 1998 cartoon about Moses, and played it for the girls while getting stuff done around the house. We were surprised to have both girls came to us crying their eyes out, because in it Pharaoh's son turned out to be mean, just like his dad, even though he had been Moses's friend when he was younger. It made the girls so sad!! We stopped the movie and talked about it and had just finished the retreat with George Papageorge about allowing kids to feel their feelings, not just dismissing their sadness, or trying to distract them. We let them cry, especially Eliana, who then felt sad about other things she thinks about, like loosing her grandmas. She sobbed! It made me cry, we all had a good cry. After a decent interval of really empathizing and feeling our feelings, :), I talked to both girls about things we can do when we feel sad, we can talk about things, we can write our feelings down, we can draw about how we feel. The next morning, Eliana came to me and asked me how to write: "Last night I was sad". This was what she made. Go, Eliana!!
Gardening at Grandpa's-- We're gardening! Not at our house because Calvin is fundamentally opposed to having anything else to do, but Grandpa is helping us by watering and providing a plot of soil, and I'm growing seedlings in a greenhouse at school. I love it! The seedling growing has been such a kick, how rewarding, they are growing! Maybe I'm a gardener after all! And if it all grows at Grandpa's house, that's okay.
Five K. I ran one! It was great! I had fun training, and it was the farthest I've ever run, (ran?) and I'm not sure I'm going to do it all the time, but I see the appeal.
Another family walk.
Eliana posing on fence, Quail Hollow Ranch. I had errands to run at our district office, and on a whim we stopped off for a lovely little walk. Walking around the ranch there was a huge red pile of redwood bark/sawdust, and Eliana said: "Ooooohhh! Look!! Cinnamon!" I tried to get her to say it again for a video, and asked her on camera: "What's that big pile there?" She waited, not knowing what I was trying to get her to say, and queried: "Horse fur?" So funny.
1 comment:
LOVE the family selfie!!! Love the walking in a row with Calvin and the girls.... Horse fur only makes perfect sense..... and I never thought you would have a green thumb- Mom would be proud!
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