Oh my, I just love seeing the hearts of my children laid bare on paper!
From left to right is Sage's Birthday Day picture, then a letter from Siena (written totally on her own, i.e., no spelling or other help from me), and one from Sterling. This last is particularly notable - again, no help from me - and very flavored by his recent love of Star Wars.
Happy Birthday, love of my life. I couldn't be me, without you (and wouldn't want to)!
May the force be with you, too!
Nearly a month late, our summer solstice mantle! We take our holiday celebrations seriously around here, even when we are running behind, and the solstice comes and goes and we haven't even realized it. Better late than never!
I love the idea of having a seasonal mantle, and a nature table, and so we do a bit of both. I chose the theme (seashore) and Siena set to work with all the goodies we conjured up. I love watching her artistic side come to life as she moves the shells about, adds a touch here, a bit of drift wood there. We both look forward to the change each season - I'm already thinking ahead to the Vernal Equinox, and what theme we'll until Christmas.
You know, summers are hard! After a year of being together 24/7, living life and doing school, we are suddenly faced with 24/7 of just living life, without the routine and structure to focus and manage our days! How families in school do it, I don't know, because it must be a tremendous shock to the family to suddenly be all together again for nearly three months... I'm struggling just to keep a lid on it, and we are used to being all home together!
Enter lots of fun activities, and the freedom that no routine grants. Yesterday we went to The Wave Water Park, in Vista, free for us with our LegoLand passes. Boy, the kids had such a fun time, and Daddy was able to join us for the day!
It is a small park - just a few different water activities, and really only one that Sage could do. The big kids were brave and tried all four water slides (over and over again), and Sterling was Really Brave and gave the "Flow Rider" - a water spot that is like riding a wave in the ocean - two tries, one a fast flop, and one a real success! But the vast majority of the day was spent floating, around and around (and around... and around) the Lazy River. Sitting in an inner tube (in the morning, when the park was still quiet), or hanging on the edge of mom's inner tube (in the afternoon, when the park was crazy busy), the kids had the best time just floating around and around. Did I mention, around? Yes, well, there it was. Sage was skeptical at first (prompting me to wonder just how long we would last at a park where this was her only ride), but by the end, didn't want to give up her lazy ride. We opened the park and closed it down again six hours later!
To top the special day off, we went out to eat for dinner, at a real restaurant that the kids really like ... and we splurged and got a hot fudge sundae for dessert. Summer life is just full of bliss, I kid you not.
Even though we are happily on vacation from school this month, we are still spending plenty of time in nature, and being to practice some techniques to make our nature study in the fall more meaningful. On Tuesday we learned something new to all of us :: dry brush watercoloring! Many of our friends bring their watercolor paints to the nature trail, and sit and paint. I had been thinking this was very brave of them all, and hadn't really considered it, but thought we might be able to just walk out the back door and do some nature painting, and see what happened ... and then I discovered a tutorial on how to do this method of watercoloring that didn't make a mess. I'm in!
So here we are, in our backyard, painting some simple scenes. Even Sterling wandered over and had a try at a palm tree (and a person sitting in it's shade), which says a lot for the power of three girls having a good time and trying something new. Keeping the brush and paints fairly dry meant that we had greater control over how the color went on, and for all of us that meant easier results. Even Sage was respectful of this new way to use the paint pot, and I think we are all very happy with the results!
(PS - the technique is very simple. Simply add a drop or two of water to each paint color, and let it soak in a bit. Then use a dry brush - I wet it and then dried it on a washcloth - to dab up some paint. The color will be strong, and because it isn't sopping wet, the brush will form more of a point like a pencil, and be very easy to direct on the paper. When changing colors, wash and dry the brush each time. Add a drop or two of water when necessary. This works so well because the paper doesn't get soaking, and it dries quickly. When I was done with the detailed work, I used a wet brush to diffuse some of the color on things like the grass and such. Viola! We are artists and didn't know it!)
Sage is still talking about "fireworks" and fun at Meme's house. So, here's one more photo to celebrate with!
