Creative fun

The weather has been beautiful for the past couple of weeks, so before and after school we get the kids outside.

The don't have a lot of time in the morning, but they do manage to have some fun.  Here we see them out on the driveway with our little portable radio.  The music is blaring, and they are getting ready to dance.

After school, we have more time, so after a brief stop for a snack they get more creative.  Can you guess what this is?

If you guessed a homemade obstacle course your would be right.  Here we see JJ at the starting point, Danica is waiting her turn, and Buppa is at the ready with his stop-watch to see how long it takes JJ to complete the course going all the way down the street to the white bucket off in the distance and back to the step-stool starting point.  What fun, jumping over flower pots, weaving around brooms, balancing on scooters. 

Back and forth, up and down, round and round they went adding things, subtracting things, perfecting the course until it was almost perfect.  All the while Buppa standing guard, and keeping time with the stop-watch.

Back to school

I know I am a bit late with first day of school pics, but I seem to have a real backlog to sort through.

This 3rd Grade girl is all smiles about going back to school

JJ is all set for 1st Grade even though he had a few butterflies about the first day.

Hugs for Amma

Hugs for Buppa

Mommy gets in on the act too.

And so we begin another year.  Zoom, zoom, zoom....

After school fun

The weather during the first full week of school was hot, hot, hot!  The kids came off the bus at the end of the day, red faced and sweaty, and in need of a cold drink and a snack.  After said administrations, we headed outside to play in the sunshine and fresh air for a while.

JJ had a little set of toy airplanes that he wanted to test fly.  It wasn't enough for him to stand in the grass and throw the planes.  He had to get the step stool out to give him added height.

The step-stool wasn't high enough either.  He had to get on top of the electrical box.  His middle name should be "climber".

Danica's good bike is at her house, but she makes do with this old bike at our house, and enjoys zooming up and down the street

Buppa has joined JJ at the "airport"...

...and they have made up a game to see whose plane will fly the furthest.

Dani continues to ride like the wind.

The snow will fly soon enough, so it is nice to get outside after school and soak in the sunshine while we can.

Industrious kids

Shauna was getting ready to leave our house the other night, and she said come on JJ gather your stuff together and let's go. He said...."Just one more minutes until I finish this row of knitting."
Shauna turned to me and said...."Well, that's one thing I never thought I would hear JJ say to me...Let me finish my row of knitting!"  What a hoot

Yes, he is quite enjoying making something with this knitting loom.

Lots of concentration.

Danica has graduated to the straight loom, and I think she is working on a scarf.

Lots of concentration here too.

Quite the industrious pair indeed.

Water play at the Mill of Kintail 2015

We arrived at the Mill of Kintail after our picnic at Blakeney.

While the kids checked out the new playground equipment, I found a patch of shade to rest and re-group in.

The kids didn't mind the heat in the sunshine at all, and gave the new equipment a good workout.

JJ headed over to the water fountain for a drink, but the climber that he is, perched on the fountain instead of standing beside it.  

On the way down to the river to play in the water, we made many stops so he could check things out all along the way.

He was quite pleased with himself that he walked out to this rock by balancing along this fallen log. 

He soon joined Dani...

,,,and they both got into the water. 

They spent a long time looking for crayfish, frogs and other interesting river life.

Dani found a neat way to cool off

Then they thought they would wash the rocks!

Picnic at Blakeney

Yes, I am still playing catch-up with my pictures from the summer.  It is so nice to be using a camera again instead of my iPad, that I find myself taking lots and lots and lots of pictures.

For our picnic, we found a table in the shade, but Dani wanted to sit in the sunshine while she munched her lunch. PB&J always tastes better outdoors.

JJ soon found a tree to climb.  This one was perfect, but it did lean out over the water which gave me a few gray hairs, but he managed to hang on tightly, and returned safely to shore.  Whew!

After lunch we all ventured down to the water's edge, and threw more than our share of stones into the water...kerplunk!

We then trekked further into the woods for another view of the water.

The water was really fast flowing in this spot, but Dani wanted to go into the water anyway.  She soon realized the rapids were too fast, and the rocks too slippery to enjoy safe water play, so I helped her dry her feet and get back into her shoes for the walk back to the car. 

We still had lots of afternoon stretching out in front of us, so we headed over to the Mill of Kintail to check out the new playground equipment, and then go for a swim in the river there.

Back to school photos at Riverside

I am running about a week behind with my photos, but wanted to post these here for my own records, so if you have already been over to AC's blogs and these pictures are old news, just skip over today's blog.

AC wanted to take some back-to-school photos during the last week of August, so one day during our last week of babysitting, we packed up a picnic lunch, some books, our cameras, and other odds and ends, and headed to our local park.

Danica was quite taken with these glasses frames, and I thought she looked really cute and studious in them, so they were added to a few pictures.  She is enjoying one of her favorite Ivy and Bean books, and JJ is working his way through a Transformer book. 

They were quite happy to pose for Buppa

She has it down pat.

Good friends

A real star.

Perfect summer time activity

This is my favorite one

Studious

Ready for a new year

Buddies

Shopping with the kids

I am still working through some pictures from our last week of childcare this summer so will take some time to catch up this week now that they are back in school, and I am trying to get back into a routine.

Buppa took JJ off in one direction and I took Dani in the other. 

Upton entering the store, we had to stop, so Dani could read all about the missing children.  She didn't just glance at the board, she studied it thoroughly.

Next stop was the book and magazine display.  Again, it was no quick stop. 

Of course we had to check out all the lip gloss and such.

Craft supplies were high on the list too.

I let her lead the way, and spend as much time as she wanted in each location.  At one point we ran into Buppa and JJ doing their thing, , but soon parted ways, with instructions to meet later for ice cream.

Oh oh, cameras caught her eye.

Finally, time for ice cream before checking out and heading home.

She was quite pleased to line up and check out her purchase all by herself.