Beach - August 27, 2014

I took the kids to the beach for a few hours yesterday, and it was a beautiful day.  The sun was shining, but it wasn't too hot, and the waves (red flag) were so much fun!  The waves were pretty intense, so the lifeguards weren't allowing boogie boards, but the kids had plenty of fun body surfing!

 silly girl

The waves were a little intense for Kate.  Most of the time, she was content to be in water that was just to her ankles.

These two had so much fun together.  It was really nice to see them enjoying each other's company and getting along so well.  I am really happy that I didn't invite any friends along because they would have missed out on the fun they had together.

Collin and Reagan spent most of the time in the water.  I hung out with Kate at the edge of the water as she scooped mud and threw it into the ocean repeatedly.  She loved seeing the seagulls, and just wanted to pet them, but they weren't sticking around for any of that.

After lunch, we climbed up and slid down the sand dunes for a bit.  Kate did a great job keeping up, and she loved it just as much as Collin and Reagan.

When Collin and Reagan returned to body surfing, I helped Kate make faces in the sand.

I wanted to get a good beach selfie, but the few I took didn't come out great, so this will have to do!

I also tried to get a nice picture of the three kids; this is what I got!

We had an almost perfect day at the beach; having Tom and Tyler with us would have made it perfect!  They both love the huge waves, and I thought of them a lot while I watched Collin and Reagan body surfing.

Neves' Annual Party

On Sunday, we went to the Neves' annual party.  I didn't actually get any pictures of the Neves! Next year, I'll have to remember to do that!  This is always a fun time.  The kids enjoyed being right on the water, and we just hung out, ate, and enjoyed the company.

It was a beautiful day!

 Collin and Reagan spent a lot of time in the water on the floats; it looked very relaxing.

 Kate was so cute listening to the ocean in these shells.

Overall, it was a wonderful day spent with family and friends!

Soccer

Today was opening day for rec soccer.  Collin and Reagan had games at the same time on opposite sides of the field, but Kate and I managed to walk back and forth and see some of each game. Somehow we lucked out with our timing and managed to see Collin and Reagan playing at the right times!

In past years, Reagan has had at least two girls she knows on her team, but this year she only knows one of the boys.  She is making new friends!  Also, because soccer has an August 1 cutoff for each age group, Collin plays with kids that are a grade younger than him, and he usually doesn't know any of the kids on his team.  This year, however, his good friend Matthew is on the team!

While I was watching Reagan's game, Collin took a ball off the face pretty hard, but Matthew's mom told me that he handled it well and kept playing.

Both teams lost today, and I honestly can't tell you how anyone played, but they look pretty good in these pictures.

Face Paint

At least once a year, I mix up some homemade face paint and let the kids have fun with it.

 This morning, I mixed up 2 teaspoons of corn starch, 1 teaspoon of lotion, 1 teaspoon of water, and a few drops of food coloring.  I ended up adding a tiny bit more water to get the right consistency.

The girls were VERY excited!

 

I may have added a little too much food coloring (or maybe it was because I used gel food coloring this year; in the past I have always used the regular food coloring) because even though the girls bathed as soon as they were done painting, Kate had a bit of a pink hue for the rest of the day.  I thought she looked like Pinkalicious.

Writing Camp

Collin and Reagan attended writing camp at North Monday through Thursday from 9:30 to 12:00. They weren't really excited about the whole thing, but they both enjoyed the week and asked to do it again next year!

There was an article about the camp in the Spectator, and look who they decided to photograph!

On Thursday, families were invited to come in to hear some of the writings by the students.  Collin read a haiku poem that he wrote, and Reagan read a story she wrote about where she is from.

Here is a video of Reagan reading her work:

My video of Collin reading his haiku glitched, so I made him read it again for me when we got home:

X is for Xylophone

I cut out the different shapes with xylophones in them and would ask Kate to find a specific shape. Once she found the shape, she glued it to the paper.

 Kate had a little trouble with diagonal lines.  She wanted to draw straight lines.

The rainbow water xylophone was a lot of fun!

Kate helped add the food coloring and water to the glasses.

Here is a short video of Kate playing the water xylophone:

Our final X activity was making a construction paper letter X xylophone based on directions from No Time for Flashcards.