Another summer goal was to get Sam off the glider and onto a pedal bike. He has good balance skills, but stubbornly refused to use the pedals whenever I suggest it.
I mention this to Ben today, that getting Sam to bike was my last goal. After we finished watching Thor together, Ben took the kids out biking. He beckoned me out on my phone and I saw this:
Yay Sam! Yay Ben!
I asked Ben how he did it. He said he knocked on the door of Sam's classmate, a precocious kid who has been biking since at least age 4. The kid's enthusiasm and confidence (and maybe some intimidation) must have goaded Sam into trying. He was flying in no time!
One of our summer projects was to build a patio for the cats to use outdoors, a "catio," if you will. I thought it would be a fun and enriching way to get the kids outdoors and working this summer, create some lasting memories and get some hands-on skills.
After drafting a couple designs (reminding the kids to aim SIMPLE for this first project) we were ready to buy supplies. This was the first of MANY trips to Home Depot this week. Hooray for minivans fitting 10 foot poles!
We measured and cut the poles down to size.We got distracted by an enormous caterpillar. My nature app tells us it was a sphinx moth caterpillar.All hands on deck for sawing.They kids put together a preliminary cube.Once we had the cube made, we decided how to cut in more attachment points to add levels.So much sawing.Yup, that's even Sam lending a hand with the tools.Working all day in the July heat makes you HOT! Snow cones were well-deserved.Once we have our final form, it was time to color. Both for looks, and to prevent UV deterioration of the PVC pipes.Jack became quite adept at drilling.
It took us three days of work, refitting, getting more supplies, trying different things, waiting for paint to dry. It took about two days for me to cut and sew the netting in place. In fact, I gave up on giving a nice finish to the joint into the door frame, instead sloppily tacking and taping it into place. At some point you just need to sprint to the finish! Maybe when the weather cools I'll go back and finesse that part.
(Also, I had another back spasm in yoga class on Tuesday. So between working on the project I was popping ibuprofen and icing my lower back. Didn't let it deter me from accomplishing out goals!)
Saturday we declared it finished! The pet door was already present in this house, we just never used it before. We put in a log for fun and Sam added netting scraps "for comfort."
Finally it was time to release the cats!
They LOVE IT. It was even sprinkling rain, but they stayed out feeling the sun and the breeze for a long time.
As I write this post, they've been in the catio for 1 1/2 hours. Freddy goes in and out but Nimbus settled down for a nap. We take turns keeping an eye on them in case they find a way to escape or get caught in the net.
I'm glad the cats love it and have a space to get outdoors. But I'm also proud of myself and the boys putting in all this hard work.
Twenty years ago Ben asked me out to dinner at a Chinese buffet. Twenty years later we are still very much in love and going out to dinner as often as we reasonably can :-)
Jack's summer has been focused on mythology. He devoured the Percy Jackson series in the first two weeks of summer break, then set upon all its companion books, as well as other mythology series by Riordan. While we were in GJ, he enjoyed being quizzed by our family about Greek myths. Although Jack knew every god we could come up with, He was disappointed to find out there was a book called The Odyssey, and his knowledge from the Magic Treehouse version apparently wasn't strong enough.
Ben recently got Jack a copy of D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths to encourage his newfound interests. This afternoon Jack bounded downstairs and proclaimed that he was ready to make up for losing the quiz on Helen of Troy. I offered to film a video response, and he readily agreed.
I decided to break-in the minivan with a quick trip to Grand Junction. The van served us well. Comfortable drive, good gas mileage, and fun movie watching (until the kids got too nauseated).
We had a great time, visiting mostly with Waterhouses, and Saturday morning with the Masons. I got to help out at the soup kitchen with my folks. It was a chilly weekend, so the boys couldn't jump into the pool immediately. By Sunday it warmed up enough and they spent a good chunk of the day being fishes.
We had a picnic on the Monument and were excited to see a whole herd of bighorn sheep gathered there. We went yarn shopping (my parents are enablers ;-) and Lego shopping. We got the telescope out to see Jupiter and her moons. And more swimming :-) These pictures are exactly in order, but I think you get the gist. It was a great summer indulgence!
Learning to read and write is hard. Sam made great strides during Kindergarten. I'm trying to keep his brain in the game with reading and writing over summer break. There are two letters he didn't master in reading. He complained yesterday that he was still frustrated by identifying b and d. Whenever a word starts with one of those letters he pauses, hesitant to sound it out, because he's not sure which sound to make.
I did some research to see if there was a good trick to help kids remember the difference. I found this great idea and, as I suspected, Sam took to it with gusto after lunch.
Focus on which part comes first, the line or the circle. For b the line, or "bar" is first. For d the circle, or "donut" is first.
Now replace those with a Twix bar and a chocolate donut and suddenly the kids are eager to form d's and b's - d starts with a donut, b starts with a bar.
Even the third grade grad was excited to practice his b's and d's.
The memory device seems to actually work. Sam wrote "sudway," noticed his error, and changed it to "subway" without me pointing it out!
They were engrossed with writing until Freddy started toying with my flower. Not even chocolate can compete with a prancing kitty.
I feel like my days are nonstop since...early May? Today I packed it full: yoga class in the AM, then a quick change before selling my car. Sniff! Sad to see my Versa go, but after driving my van for a week the Versa seemed so small cramped! I felt like Alice, suddenly too large for her house. I went down to Carmax and they offered me a fair trade, and got it all done in an hour's time. I had just enough time to scarf down lunch before taking the kids to the library for a special show.
As part of their Summer Reading events, we saw Magic Rob! I registered the kids a while ago, figuring magic was a slam dunk way to spend Friday afternoon in June. Jack was excited by Sam dug in his heels. He loosened up when I allowed him to bring some blocks in a fanny pack "for my entertainment." After less than two minutes Sam had forgotten his blocks. He even shot up his hand to volunteer (along with most every other kid, neither of my boys got a turn to help). I did not expect the magician to be a version of Chris Farley for kids, but the kids were rolling on the floor with laughter. After the show, during the meet-and-greet with Presto the bunny, I embarrassed Jack by telling Rob that Jack is an aspiring magician too. Rob was genuinely excited to hear about that and pulled Jack aside to ask him about his tricks and to give him a trick coloring book to take home. Jack was glowing with pride. Pictures and video of the show are below.
The Golden library where we saw the show is right along Clear Creek, so the boys waded a little bit. They were shocked how cold the water was. It's snow-melt, guys!
Home in the afternoon gave me a chance to sit down and do my billing work for a while, plying the kids with backyard hammock-time and popsicles. Then Ben and I blitzed through the house cleaning. A brief but intense summer storm had me running to shut windows, and we lost power for a few seconds. After the storm lifted I went to the bank to deposit my car check and get McDonald's for the boys. Ben and I enjoyed Indian take-out with his friends. We hosted Gloomhaven at our house tonight. Between serving and cleaning up the kids, helping set up their movie, and baths later in the night, I had a few moments to myself to eat samosas and watch some youtube. I'm ready for a slower weekend tomorrow! Just a birthday party at lunch and an Alamo movie with the fam on the schedule.
