A weekend of outdoor activities... Well the weather here has been beautiful and we have tried to take advantage of it in as many ways as possible. Saturday morning the kids headed right outside with daddy as he mowed the lawn and took care of the yard (I got to sleep in, hooray!) then we were off for lunch at an outdoor cafe in our neighborhood. After breakfast it was off to the park for a walk, we found a stage and the kids put on some shows for us and ran around having a good time. They really can be hams just like Serona when they want to. Then it was off to a friends house for a very fun outdoor birthday party - froggie theme. All the kids ran around the yard and kept sliding into a little blowup pool, they also had a very small baby pool that they all insisted on piling in for a "hottub". There were quite a few kids there ages ranging from 10 months to 4 years old. The 2-4 year olds played very well together and the parents were all amazed that they were very good about lining up and taking turns and there were no real squabbles. Then cupcakes and ice cream and presents and hitting the pinata and it was quite a good day. We headed home and let them run around the yard for a bit more before dinner (until the bugs overtook us) and then dinner, a bath and bed.

Today we started the outdoors again this morning with a trip to the bagel shop and a hike in the forest, a picnic lunch in the park, some playground time and then flying a kite - a good family day. We headed home and took naps and then headed back outside for a little while to play with the neighborhood children. The bugs once again led us back inside for dinner, a bath and bedtime. Tonight as I type however the children are still awake and watching a movie (after falling asleep), both seem to have come down with something and have been taking turns being sick (lucky us) so they are cuddled up together under a blanket, laying on our futon watching Little Bear (A video series I even enjoy watching with them). Serona is outside building bookshelves (isn't he awesome?) in our garage for our basement.

Even though we spent so much time outside they still managed to fit some "schooltime" in - by their own choices. Both asked to do some file folder games each day. Our son worked on his shapes, colors, pattern matching and family groupings and our daughter worked on addition, subtraction and sounding out words to match to pictures. They both had some special quiet time with me to work on their subjects and both worked on puzzles individually and together as well. We worked on a sticker book with our son and our daughter reread some of the books she made herself. They both had some art time both on their easel and on the sidewalk with chalk! And I'm sure there were many other things I am forgetting about. And I'm not even going into detail about all the "teachable moments" and lessons we had spontaneously throughout our outdoor weekend.

Peace,
Tenn