Shooting

Peter Pan Park

This is my favorite park.  It's about 20 minutes away, up in Westminster.  So I treated it like a real outing - packed snacks and waters and a giant ikea sack of sunscreen and towels and spares clothes and such.  The boys had a lot of fun.  It's such a cute and well designed place.  I only wish there was more shade on the equipment, and it was closer to us.

Play-doh

Exploring Movement

Jack and I have been talking about what elective class to take next.  His summer school, Creekside Cubs, ends in a couple weeks.  There are some classes at the Apex center that would start in August and go into September, on top of his half day Kindergarten.  Earlier this year he was talking a lot about taking ballet again.  I told him he could try tap too, like me.  He wanted dance class, then faltered and says he wants tumbling again.  I ordered some tap shoes to give it a try.


Yeah, it took about that long for him to declare he wants to take tap classes.  Too.  Both tumbling and the ballet/tap combo.  Hmmm.  It's not really that expensive, but I'm not sure he will have the gumption to attend two classes a week, on top of new Kindergarten.  He's only five - I'm wary of over-scheduling already. 

But I'm going to have a hard time prying those taps away from him now.

A Study of Feet and a Carpet in Need of Vacuuming

Looks like Sam got a hold of my camera yesterday.  Behold, his first photography show.

 

Daily Life

Sam can walk down stairs using the railing.  But he gets scared of the height and prefers that I carry him.  My back is happy that Jack has been coaching him with a less scary way to get down.




Kids don't care that you are sleep deprived and behind on house work and memorial work and stay-at-home work.  Good thing they are super duper cute.



I need my 1-year-old teach my 5-year-old to do his own laundry too.  Sam even cleans the lint trap!

Moving Forward

Ben says I need to post so my top blog entry is changed, and I'm inclined to agree.  Things are still hard.  We feel very supported by family and friends, with generous help and kind words.  The memorial is this Saturday and I'm looking forward to it.  Some old friends are coming to town who I am excited to see.  All week I've been working on the slideshow for the program.  I put a lot more work into it than was expected, because it's for Brian, so it needs to be good.  Strangely, it's been a good distraction.  I think it's going to be a long year of echoing grief as we go on with life, but without our best friend in all his usual spots. 

Anyway!  Probably not what Ben had in mind.  I'll do a separate post of mundane stuff.

Brian

Thursday late at night my best friend Brian Omura died of a heart attack.  We are all in shock and grief.  We are okay though.  Time, friends, and laughter are healing us. 

Independence Day in GJ

Last weekend I took the boys over the mountains for a Fourth of July Gramp Camp.  We perfectly avoided traffic by making it an extra long weekend, and Amanda was able to come over too!  The boys did great in the car.  Once there it was all spoiling and fun - sweets, swimming, toys, and bugs.

I have even more pictures on my flickr photostream, like usual.   Here are some favorites. 

Tree sweater

"Mom? How about you knit a sweater for this tree? Sometimes I wear my short pants and I want to climb the tree. When I do the tree scrapes my knees on the bark. See? But if you put a sweater on it it would be smooth and not hurt me. See? It would just be this part. You only need to knit a sweater on this part."

Knitting project

I'm knitting a lovely shawl and about halfway done.  I took pride in dealing with a tricky part so I made a video to share.  Thought I'd post it here too for kicks.

Jackism

Ben forwarded me this explanation from Jack this morning:

"When you have a swim shirt and swim pants, together they make a swim suit.  It's called symbiosis.  Why are you laughing?  That's what it's called when two things work together to make something better!"

Indeed, Jack.  Clever boy.

Pics from the park this evening.

Kids are super helpful ;-)

A summer day's activities

Some shots from today.

Brotherly love and hygiene.




Sam very clearly called out "giraffe giraffe!" when we got here.



This was the boys for most of the outing.  Seriously.  Jack playing map master, looking at the pictures on it more than the actual animals, and Sam distracted by potholes, geese, and railings. 



I can't believe we've been to the zoo so many times and he's never climbed the hippo!



They wanted the train but it was down for repairs.  Sam is starting to wear out. 



Not pictured: 2 hour naps, dinner, and going to the gym.  Ben really earned his Father's Day mojo by squeezing in playtime with this before bed: