Art at the Station

The kids and I took a walk this morning . . .

. . . and found an art class painting a cafe near the train station.

If they'd known we were coming, they might have passed on the cafe and painted Joy's colorful pants instead.

Castles in the Sand

We decided this would be a fine day to visit the park.

Joy pushed her brother in the swing for a while . . .

. . . then built a sandcastle (and decided it needed some sprinkles).

Hmmm . . . what to next?

True Grit

The kids and I joined some friends at the beach today.

When I put up our umbrella, Joy immediately moved into sun and lay down. I thought she was a little young to care about getting a tan, but she explained that she was just trying to get warm in the sunshine (it was surprisingly cool there for a July day).

As for the liquid portion of the beach, this is about as close as Joy wanted to get to it. We tried wading in the ocean together, but having even a few inches of water rushing toward her feet was apparently unnerving to Joy, and she fled in terror at least twice before the water even got close to us. Eventually she suggested an alternative: I could pick her up and dip her feet in the ocean after the wave had rushed past me. We did that a few times, then Joy decided to spend the rest of the outing playing in the safe, stationary sand.

Daniel was content to do that the entire time.

He also ate several fistfuls of the gritty stuff. Ew. I can't see how the flavor or texture could be remotely appealing, but hey, he didn't ask my opinion.

Jedi Academy (and Cake)

Joy attended a friend's Star Wars birthday party this morning.

After some brief training in lightsaber handling (i.e. use sabers to pop bubbles) . . .

. . . the kids got to square off with Darth Vader himself. They were supposed to take him on one at a time, but the eager young Jedi all mobbed him at once . . .

. . . and Vader soon fled out the back gate to fight another day.

Um, young apprentice, touch not the red end of the saber. Burn you it can.

Tacos, Trains, and Dominoes

We took the train to Memorial Park again today.

The playground was fun . . .

. . . but the kids' favorite part was still watching the trains go by. My favorite part was trying some Al Pastor tacos at King Taco down the street.

And speaking of fun, Joy has discovered that she likes playing dominoes. She and I often play several games in the afternoons while Daniel is napping. It's probably educational since numbers are involved, but she doesn't need to know that.

Forest Getaway

We decided to take a little family camping trip this weekend.

Daniel would have been happy going anywhere as long as we took the lantern along.

We set up camp next door to my parents, and stayed up late eating Dutch oven cobbler, roasting s'mores, and watching the campfire embers glow.

This morning Joy and Papa woke up early . . .

. . . and Daddy and Daniel slept in late . . .

. . . then took a nice walk by the stream. We all enjoyed getting away from it all for a little while.

Classmate Playdate

Joy starts at a new preschool in the fall, and the mom of a fellow student arranged a playdate at the park today.

Here's Joy swinging with one of her future classmates . . .

. . . and Daniel being a backseat driver to the girl's sister.

There was some guy named Buzz at the park, too, but I don't think he's in Joy's class.

Joy's Holiday Star Shirt

I recently saw a fun craft idea on a friend's blog, and decided it would be a fun activity to try with Joy over the holiday weekend.

We cut some stars out of freezer paper (you can buy it at the grocery store, near the foil) . . .

. . . then Joy arranged them on a shirt and we ironed them on, shiny side down. Joy wanted to make a "J" design on her shirt - we won't tell her that it's backward.

Up at the cabin we painted the stars with fabric paint . . .

. . . and blow-dried them dry. We then added another coat of paint, and blow-dried again.

Once the second coat was dry, Joy pulled the freezer paper off . . .

. . . and voila!, a hand-made holiday shirt! Since it was a little big on her, Joy can wear it next year, too (hopefully she'll still think it's cool a year from now).

Fun and Games

Our family headed up to my parents' cabin for Fourth of July weekend this year.

There was bunting . . .

. . . and hunting. Rob and Joy never did manage to catch a blue jay, but apparently they enjoyed the suspense of trying.

Daniel enjoyed reading with Aunt Heather . . .

. . . and Joy discovered that she likes playing Chinese checkers.

And, of course, we had a lot of fun on the lake - until the fireworks started. Joy decided they were WAY too loud for her liking, and she didn't mind letting everyone know it. We're bringing her some earplugs next time.