Summertime, and the living is easy...

It's officially summer, and the froggie sprinkler has - with great fanfare - made its first appearance of the season. This week is vacation Bible school (VBS) about which there is great enthusiasm.

Grampy came last week for a short, 36-hr visit after attending to some business in LA. We had a great time visiting with him, and managed to get Roo's stitches taken out just before he arrived. I also just barely had time to apply for my CA state drivers' license and pass the written test that accompanied that process... having discovered in OR that my NH license was expired. Good thing I had 14 hours in the car driving home from our camping trip to study for the test on my smart phone...

Rogue Valley, OR camping weekend with Eriksens

Great times! Love those Eriksens. Worth every minute of the 730 mile drive :)

Body issues...

Last week, at the monkey's request, we traced each of the kids' bodies on large paper and then they decorated them (pictured). We did this one in preschool co-op and obviously the idea stuck. They did a really nice job with them, and we cut them out and hung them up.

On the same day (Tuesday), I took the four little people with me to Bed Bath and Beyond to purchase a few gifts, including one for our mother's helper who graduated high school last week. The big two disobeyed me by running along the check out line in the store - just for a moment - while I was waiting to pay, and Roo tripped and fell. When she stood up crying, she was bleeding significantly from her forehead... The cut was only 1/8 inch wide but quite deep. She had to get stitches - actually one stitch, to be exact - pictured here. Our pediatrician did it (I was thankful not to have to hit the ER), and she was a trooper. I was proud of her. It will come out tomorrow... For a "first time a kid gets stitches" incident, it all went very well and was generally an underwhelming experience - thankfully!

Marshmallows and milestones

Our friends from San Diego, the Welds, stopped by for an overnight visit on Sunday night en route up to San Francisco for a family reunion. Their baby girl, Evelyn, was born a month before the mouse arrived, so our families are in newborn mode together. We had a lovely visit with them and the big kids - their Michael (5) and Kathryn (3) plus our eldest three - greatly enjoyed playing together. After dinner we roasted marshmallows on our "back yard fire pit" (quotation marks not gratuitous) atop the fire pit which was a hit.

This morning Roo plunked down next to the mouse in her little chair to read her a book... Very sweet. And littlest is two months old today!

Boys, girls, and babies

Monday we had our final pre-school co-op meeting of the year, kind of a 'review of the year' theme where each kid drew a picture of the outing(s) they most enjoyed to share with the group. And then a shared snack. It was supposed to be at a local park, but a rare wet So Cal morning meant we met at our house instead, since I was the coordinator for the morning.

It ended up being a really fun morning, all the more as this particular group had never been to our house so the kids were very excited to have them there. During the free play it was amazing to see how fast and intensely the boys and girls split off into stereotypical activities for each.

Boys:

Girls:

Next year Roo will participate in a 4-year old weekly preschool morning, in homes and less outing-based, with some of these same kids which will exclude the olders and youngers. I'm sure she'll love it. [Monkey will be participating in a homeschool "academy" in Santa Barbara that covers history, art, drama, and music in a classical way, among other activities.]

Also this week a big milestone for the mouse; she has slept through till 6:15 the past three mornings! Hallelujah; what a star, and her mom couldn't be any happier...

The goose and her counterpart

There's a family in our preschool co-op who has three children, the third of whom is a little girl who was born the same month as the goose and has the identical name (the full, longer version). An uncommon name so these two commonalities together are rather surprising.

All year in preschool co-op they have rather ignored each other as toddlers will; then all of a sudden today at a birthday party for one of the kids, they took note of one another. They actually even played together a bit! First friend for Goose; so endearing, I snapped a few pics on my phone. Same height, same hair length, even the same bedhead spot in back of the head! Loved it.