dragonfly days

hooked

Some of you know that Jack's favorite show is River Monsters. Last week he asked if he could go fishing. We're not big fishermen around here. Steve goes with his grandpa, but Zac doesn't enjoy it. I told him I would take him to one of the local ponds. When Steve heard the plan, he immediately offered to go along and help. That was a good thing since the last time I went fishing was around 20 years ago.

This past weekend he took his money and bought a rod and was ready to go. As in- bouncing off the walls ready to go.

Two minutes later, he had a bite.

He did throw the fish back. We have a strict you kill you eat it policy, which makes it hard for a picky eater.

It was also nice to see these two connect on something. It's hard to find common ground with a nine year age gap.

That was the only fish caught tonight.

On the way home they were already planning the next trip. I think Jack is hooked!

scenes from the last week

Shell sorting activity.

Learning about penguins.

Sunday craft, ribbon mobile.

A visitor?!?

We had a free weekend- no rugby, no lacrosse, just free time.  We all needed that. Zac, Jack and the girls went for a day long hike. I treated myself to lunch, then came home to clean and organize my project space while watching a classic film. Loved every minute of it.

Today the weather was gray and a bit cold. I did my weekly errands then came home and forced everyone to watch the Muppet movie with me. I miss the old Muppets. This was close, but not quite.

On the list for this week:

• dance classes
• fun and fitness
• rugby practice and a day or two of lacrosse.
• A long weekend for the kids
• Easter!!
• Art festival
• car show(?) for the boys
• park day
• rugby game
• some major housework.
• getting the chicks moved out into their pen.
• library
• potting some plants.

And I think that is all.  Oh, and enjoying the weather to the fullest.

spring is coming.

Today we made the first of many visits to the garden center.  We are hoping to start planting tomorrow.

We have two bedrooms painted, one left to go. I'm not sure when we'll do that. We are fighting some serious project burnout. It's all looking much better, but we also want to enjoy some of the break.

See the paint on her right ear? She just couldn't stay out of it. Sweetie is missing us all. Every time someone sits down she jumps in their lap ready for some love.

scenes from the weekend 3/12

Okay, scenes from the weekend and the big Monday.

Some kitty love.

Chocolate chip banana bread and blackberry banana bread

Painting the horrid paneling in the bedrooms.

new peeps

Not pictured- the lacrosse games gone wrong, date night, garden work, hiking and rock collecting, an older boy getting a job(!!!), and lots of good weather.

On the list this week:

• Spring break! Everyone is off school and Zac is off work.
• Which also translates to project week: garden, painting, chick tractor
• lots of time outside enjoying the nice weather.
• rugby and lacrosse still
• another date night hopefully
• The Lorax- really want to see this. It's one of my favorite Seuss stories. 
• Sleeping in. Please?....pretty please? 

And that's all. It's enough though.  Right now my bedroom is torn apart. We'll probably end up sleeping in the living room. Yes, I think that list is enough.

here kitty, kitty.

We have a new member in our household.

Her name is Sweetie. It's the perfect name for her so we won't be changing it.

Jack and Sweetie made fast friends.  I think she'll fit in just fine.

Vacation day 6 + 7

 

This was our last official vacation day.  We decided to spend the day at Sea World again. They have a deal right now that gives you a pass for the year for the same price as a day pass.  So it was kind of an easy decision to go there again. :)

First though, a picture from our the beach in front of our hotel that morning. We were right down from the naval training base and if you were there at the right time each day you could see something like this.

First stop was the animal adventure area. Jack was able to pet the alligator and learn a bit about them.

Then to a mini pool to touch star fish, anenomes, and horseshoe crabs. Jack flipped the horseshoe crab over to show everyone how they can flip themselves back over. There was also someone there teaching about the animals.

There was a sloth nearby. Points for references here. :)

 

Back through some of our favorite areas. Like the shark exhibit.

A couple of rides. And then it was time for our Dolphin Encounter.

Meet Razzle.

We were able to feed Razzle.

Touch him and learn a little about dolphin anatomy.

We also gave him a few commands and he did a few tricks for us.

After the dolphins...

We met the eels. I've never been a huge fan of eels. Can't say it's changed either. ;) We talked with the person in charge of them and then had the chance to feed them some squid. I passed. Jack did though and he was one of the only ones who got a bite.

That's him with the squid in the tube. Yuck.

We visited this sick sea turtle again. Then it was our to turtle reef to feed the sea turtles.

We were able to hold a sea turtles shell and learn a bit more about their anatomy. We also learned about ways to help save the sea turtles.

After that we went to the Shamu show again. This time sitting dead center in the splash zone.

Luckily we only got a few drops. Disappointing for Jack, but it is February and I didn't want to freeze.  We had a great view. After that we hit some more rides.  Then he wanted to watch the Sea Lion show again. 

That evening we headed over to Seaport Village for dinner and a walk.

We ate at one of the restaurants right on the water. After we bought some hot sauce for our hot sauce lovers here and some cupcakes for ourselves.  Then back to the hotel to pack up and get ready for our return trip.

The last morning we ate breakfast out on the patio. We had a sea gull stalking our french toast.  Then it was time to head home. The normal 8 hour drive took us 10 hours because traffic was so bad. We didn't get home until almost 9. And it was oh so good to see everyone else again. We had a wonderful time, amazing really.  We also missed everyone soooo much.

 

 

 

 

Day 5

Oops. I forgot one little detail yesterday and edited the last post. I forgot to add that we were able to touch and hold an already hatched shark egg. It was very cool.

Day 5 or Wednesday, we decided to head to the zoo.  

Jack was a bit burned out by this day. He was starting to miss the rest of the family and his routines.

I love gorillas. Once upon a time I wanted to visit the Congo and observe them.

The bus tour was a big hit, especially since we sat on the top of the double decker bus. Luckily it didn't start raining until we were done.

Going on the tour gave us a better idea of where we wanted to spend more time.  Watching the baby giraffes for instance.

And the rhinos.

The last time we visited this zoo they were just finishing up the panda exhibit.

The aviary's were a big hit with Jack.

Who am I kidding? I enjoyed them too. 

Things I don't like- sky rides. Things I like even less- sky rides when it is windy. By the time we reached the other side I was about to loose my lunch.

And right after this is when it started to pour. We stopped for a quick souvenir and then headed back to the hotel to warm up and dry out.

That evening, we headed to the Hard Rock cafe for dinner.

He really enjoyed looking at all the memorabilia.  Afterwards, we headed to the mall next door for dessert.

 

Happily we found it. :)

 

 

Day 4

On Tuesday,  we checked out of our hotel, grabbed one last Starbucks and headed south. 

First stop Sea World. Luckily it was a beautiful day.

We decided to sign up for the Up-Close Tour.  It was one of our favorite parts. First we went behind the scenes and talked about the dolphins and got a glimpse of the mama and baby dolphin in the back, along with some other species. 

Then we saw a sea turtle that was being treated. Next up we were able to see the labs where they test the water and  the operating room.

After that we headed over to the shark lab.

Where we saw the egg incubator.

I don't know if you can make out the shark in the egg, but it was very cool to see in swimming around in the egg. We also were able to hold an already hatched egg, very cool.

Then we were able to touch the sharks in this tank.

Someone was really thrilled about the whole thing.

I think I want a display of shark jaws in my house. Seriously. I should live in a museum.

I would highly recommend the tours. We both learned a lot and enjoyed seeing some of the inner workings. The tour guides are more than willing to answer questions. 

After the tour we had some lunch and walked around some more. It was getting hot out and we were feeling the it, so we bought some hats. Jack picked a fedora, of course. I took whatever hat would fit my big head. They only had one.

We took in the dolphin show. It wasn't like the one I remembered from years past. A lot less dolphin and a lot more human acting. It was neat, but I really enjoyed the dolphin shows. Right after the dolphin show we headed over to the Shamu show.  We really enjoyed that.

Jack was praying to get wet. I was glad we didn't. :)

We stopped by the tide pool after the show to see some starfish. Those have always been a favorite. Then we walked through all of the aquariums.  It was getting late, but we had time to make it to the sea lion show. That was definitely Jack's favorite.  He loved that you could dance and work with sea animals. :)

Then it was time to go. We checked in to our new hotel, down in the bay.  After that we headed out to find some dinner. That turned out to be a lot harder than planned. It was Valentine's day so everything was packed. The only resturants near by were expensive bars, no thanks.  After trying to find another place, we finally settled on Subway. Gotta love it. 

 

 

Vacation day 3

After getting a glimpse of the ocean the night before, Jack was determined that we spend the next day at the ocean. It worked for me. The weather was iffy at best and I didn't really want to pay a fortune to get rained out of an attraction. We headed to Torry Pines beach, which was very close to our hotel.  He was mesmerized.

It was a perfect day for picking up some shells and playing in the sand.

But someone couldn't stay out of the water.

And it was windy and overcast.

And once he got his shorts wet in the freezing cold water, he was pretty much over the ocean. :(  We decided to leave and get something for lunch. I was hoping to persuade him to go back to the beach, but it wasn't happening.   We also walked aorund a few shops in Del Mar. After that we decided to head for the Children's Pool in La Jolla.

It's a wonderful place to observe harbor seals up close.

It's also a pupping ground.

Although one of us enjoyed the spray from the ocean. :) I asked if he wanted to go back to the beach and play and he said no. I told him he didn't have to get wet, we would just play on the beach. He said, "I'll get wet, no matter what. I just can't help myself."

After that it was back to the hotel for a warm shower and some faetime with the siblings.  Then we ate at a pizza joint down the street. He watched a movie while I packed up our things, it was our last night in this hotel.

I'll continue the rest tomorrow, this post got a little long. :)  Tomorrow will  be all about Sea World.

 

Monday

We are enjoying our little babies so much.  They hop around the cage all day following mama. My favorite is the little white runt. She's a sweetie.

That's all for today. I felt like posting here so you get a gratuitous piggy pic. :)

 

learning all the time

Here are some pics of all the learning that has been going on around here lately. :)

As part of our study of Italy last week we talked about Pompeii and made a volcano.

Zac and Jack spent an evening building this robot. It is really cool.  I picked the kit up last time we we at Hobby Lobby for 75% off. 

There was a last minute choir performance on Monday at the library to welcome Santa.

 We have a new fish. His name is Zen.  We fell in love with the peace sign decor. Then at Zac looked me and asked why I am trying to change the fish. Peace sign, Zen, Siamese fighting fish. Lol.

There was also some dog walking and visiting animals at the pound and guitar lessons today.

good Wednesday

Today was a good day!  First we got our new charger back from a friend, there will be lots of r/c car driving this weekend! Next we went to the park and found Jack's scooter that we left there last Friday. I honestly thought it was gone and we were on a pointless search. You should have heard him when he found it. We've missed it a lot, it's a lifesaver for our very energetic boy.

Last we have a new friend.

Her name is Ginny.

Because he is Harry.  Our poor Harry has been down in the dumps.  As we would be doing school each day we would hear him let out what sounded like sad sighs a few times a day.  So we got him a friend. He is a totally different animal now.  We brought her home and put her outside his cage and all the sudden he found his voice.  He is talking away.  It is so cute how much they like each other. I feel so bad that he went so long without a friend.  We got him from someone who found them in their yard, someone dumped him. I think he was probably kept with other piggies in his old life and feeling lonely after we picked him up.  They have been talking for hours now, I only hope that they don't keep us up all night. :)  We all are really happy that he is so happy now.  And she is just a sweetheart.

Hope you had a good one!

the pecking order

Jack informed me this morning that something was wrong with our pecking order.  His favorite chicken is now getting pecked on.  I came out to find him sitting in a shair outside with Phyllis in his lap.  He stayed that way for quite a while, until I called him in.

"I picked her up and she finally relaxed."

 

making the best of a Monday

Fun at the water park.

Trying out the new merry-go-round in town.

And welcoming a new friend or two.  Meet Molly the rabbit and Harry the guinea pig.  Both are settling in well.

 

garden update

First of all, we are loving all the surprises in the wildflower mix we planted this year.

The herbs have gone wild! I am loving them!

But our main outdoor activity lately involves...

Watching all the baby birds learn to fly. We were able to observe this baby robin and it's mama interact and feed just a few feet in front of us.

Today it was this trio of youngsters.

With mom coming in to feed them.

A little sibling rivalry.

So neat to witness these moments. This last nest has been about 10 feet above the tree house which has made a perfect spotting place.

 

winding down

For some reason I had the thought that summertime would be restful and relaxed. Ummmm...not so much. :)  It's been crazy busy and everything seems to be taking longer than it should. I'm taking two classes right now, which presently has me wondering what I was thinking when signing up for them at the same time. I'm scatter-brained enough already.  As usual life has been setting out those not so gentle reminders to stay present.

The pretty baby in the picture above has been hanging out in my flower garden for a few days learning how to fly. Sometimes he sits on the railing of the porch right outside outr kitchen window while I am washing dishes. Today I ventured out and was able to get within a few feet and admire him, while he warily looked on.  I'm thankful for him, for his pulling me to the present day  after day during the busy time.

Luckily I think (ha, ha) we are at the end of the busy part for a while. Scout camp starts Saturday and the yard sale is Saturday and those have both been taking a good chunk of prep time this week. 

 

bird watching

A couple of our favorite daily visitors.

 

Our borrowed dog

We've been dog sitting for a little over a week. We love having Teddy over to stay because it gives us our dog fix. Lately Jack has been wanting a pet and I'm not sure he's gotten enough of a dog fix this time around. For instance:

• The day he was petting the dog and announced to everyone that he wsa petting a real, live dog! And how cool it was.
• The day he asked to give Teddy our last name. I gently reminded him he already had a last name and loving family.
• He gave Teddy another nickname--Snips.

I think we'll have to give the getting a pet issue more thought.

 

This sweet thing was given to us by a neighbor after their cat brought it home.  The hope is that we keep it until it isn't cat bait size anymore.

Jack has been begging for  a pet for quite some time and immediately wanted to claim this as his own.

And yes that is my hubby holding the bunny, he had been working in the garden.

duck, duck, GOOSE!

 

I think he is trying to smile in that last one. :) 

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.