two hundred and ten

This trio of wheeled contraptions has served us well over the past two weeks and I imagine they will continue to be well used in the coming month.

With Catherine and I riding our own bikes and Esme pulling up the rear in the trailer we have biked to the beach, to the playground, to nature class, and all around the neighborhood.

Today’s bike outing was to the MV Airport for a picnic lunch, some playground playing, some dog petting and a whole lot of airplane watching. A very pleasant destination, indeed. It seems like no matter how hot and humid the weather, the airport and the state forest always tend to have a breeze!

We are all having a wonderful time out on the trails- Catherine’s skill and confidence levels have skyrocketed, I’m thankful for the fresh air and activity and (judging from the pleasant singing coming from her shady, screened, rolling palace) Esme is enjoying the scenery as we roll along!

two hundred and nine

two hundred and eight

Esme shows us how to eat watermelon—with gusto!

two hundred and seven

After two weeks apart, Esme and her Papa settle in for a good snug-snug.

two hundred and six

Agenda:
Return library books
Buy a white t-shirt for tye-dyeing at Jr Campmeeting tomorrow
Lunch from La Choza, eat at a local picnic table

What happened:
Library- Returned books, renewed Zoboomafoo DVD, ran in to friend Morgan and played computer games for a while, checked out books, played chess.

Found a thrift store- poked around for a white t-shirt, browsed the rest of the store, became enamored with Garfield in the book section, realized the shirt didn’t have a tag, breathed a sigh of relief when the woman told us it was $1 (exactly what I had in change in my pocket!)

Went to La Choza, ordered, saw the rain and parked in a scenic location for a car lunch, Catherine saw that the forgot the cheese on hers, but she ate it anyway!

Super nice date!

two hundred and five

We had a short, crazy, wonderful, sandy, sunny visit today with Joanna, a college roommate of mine, and her family! This is only the third time we’ve been together since graduation in 2001, but we fell right back into place as soon as she stepped off the ferry.

It was great to meet her kiddos and to watch all our kids tumble in the ocean together! Let’s not wait another seven years, okay?

two hundred and four

Our girls haven’t seen many full length movies. Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Tangled are the exceptions to the rule, and even those don’t often get watched the whole way through.

Having seen Ratatouille myself a few years ago, I probably wouldn’t have considered showing it to the girls any time soon- the plot themes are a bit adult (heirs, wills, mean food critics, illegitimate sons…) and there is quite a bit of violence (old lady with the gun, for one) for our liking.

But there it was, showing at the Tabernacle on family movie night, so we went.

Catherine seemed to enjoy it. There was plenty of physical comedy to keep her interest. I think she followed the plot fairly well.

Esme, on the other hand, spent the entire movie asking, “what’s happening now?”. The whole movie was way above her and although she made it through to the end, I doubt she really enjoyed it. She moved around from seat to seat and bench to bench and didn’t focus much at all on the movie.

All of this leads me to wonder- If I knew that the movie wouldn’t be to our liking, yet they really wanted to go…was going the right decision or would we have all been better off getting to bed on time with a nice story?

two hundred and three

two hundred and two

Sometimes, when you hear the parade coming, you just have to run out in bare feet so you don’t miss it!

two hundred and one

Ever have one of those days when you know that the thing you least want to do is going to be a really good thing? And you still don’t want to do it?

I grudgingly brought the girls to our neighborhood kid’s talent show this evening. I was hot, tired and really just wanted to be in bed. We had a late night last night and a busy day today and I knew (as parents do) that we all should have been asleep instead.

But in the end, the talent was cute, the girls were (mostly) well behaved despite the yawns they tried to stifle, and Esme ran into a little girl she had met last night. They picked up where they left off and ran off, giggling in the post sunset darkness.

Not what I wanted, not what I planned, but exactly what summer nights call for.