Dirt, Fish, Penguins, Bare feet, Chores, and Bikes

Dirt boy and his cars

Photoblog of Our Most Recent Adventures

Both Barefoot and Otherwise

Monterey Bay Aquarium. All of the boys, with the exception of Joshua, LOVE this place.

Why would anyone not like it? Well….do you remember when Joshua was ages 1-5, and he was obsessed with ALL animals? Remember how he could tell you every species of whale and what it ate at age 3?

It’s exciting for him to see these animals that he’s read about all of his life, but once he has seen them, he’s done. No need to stare at something for 2 whole minutes. Let’s keep this show moving. That’s just Joshua’s personality.

He has to be constantly doing. It’s a wonderful trait. He gets that from Alan. Alan is so bummed when we approach a weekend with no plans made.

I am euphoric when we approach a weekend with no plans made.

In fact, in recent weeks, I have enjoyed a little front porch sittin’ every day.

HUGE sea turtle

Daniel’s favorite exhibit is the penguins.

Dan’s happy place

As soon as we arrived, Daniel exclaimed, “Penguins! Penguins! I want to see the penguins!”

It reminded me of when we took Joshua to an aquarium, when he was five. My cousin Amber met us there. We walked in, and Joshua was all, “Whale shark. Whale shark. Where’s the whale shark? I want to see the whale shark. Is it over there? Is it in here? Let’s go. Let’s go see the whale shark.”

Amber pulled out her map and said to me, “Well, we’d better go see this whale shark first. Let me find it on this map.”

Wise words. We would’ve been listening to that all day.

So fast-forward four years. We made a bee-line for the penguins. Everyone else’s wish list could wait. No one can obsess and broken-record insist like a pre-schooler!

JD and Lightning McQueen take in the soccer practice.

Did you know that JD takes his shoes off everywhere we go and walks around barefoot? I don’t let him do this in indoor public places (mostly), but walking in grass is good for you. No, you can’t convince me otherwise. It’s good for the soul, so he pulls off those shoes every time.

Ok barefoot on gym floors in just plain freeing.

California has the coolest playgrounds.

We ended up taking the pedals off of this bicycle to make it into a ‘glider’ bike for Daniel. He LOVES it. He glides so well that we now need to buy him a regular bicycle. He’s a pro now.

I’d love to pretend like this is my garden, but this is my neighbor’s. We are just learning from her!

My neighbor was out of town, so she let Joshua water them. This is the kind of chore that children LOVE. After all, there’s water involved!

We do actually have a “school garden” this year to go along with science. We are growing watermelons and potatoes, but I put them so far from my line of vision that I only water them about twice a week, not nearly enough. They looked so sad by the time Dan and Caleb watered them today.

They don’t love vacuuming, except for Daniel. There’s something about watching kids do chores that makes me giddy.

I’m convinced that hard work develops good character.

Caleb’s map. We are learning about the ancient world this year. Do you see the person that Caleb creatively colored into the map? Sure, you see the face, but do you see the hand waving too?

drawn by JOSHUA, not Caleb as I said before!!!

I can’t tell you how bad I felt about this mistake!

As I showed the boys the blog, I congratulated Caleb on this super-cool robot drawing. Caleb looked confused. “I don’t remember drawing that.”

“Heh?”

“Hey!” Joshua chimed in, “I drew that!”

“Oh no! I’m so sorry, Joshua!!  I’ll post a correction on my blog. I feel so bad about that!”

Now that I know, it makes way more sense. This is more characteristic of Joshua’s art: asymmetrical and TONS of tiny details.

Caleb is a monkey-bar expert.

JD and I, enjoying our favorite beverages together.

I had no intention of sharing it with him, though.

Alan found this, EMPTY, on the kitchen counter and asked me, “Did you drink ALL of this?”

See, I never ever finish any drink. I don’t do this on purpose. It just happens, or rather, it doesn’t happen.

“Yeah. I guess I must have.”

“Are you sure Daniel didn’t drink any? Because it is 10pm, and he’s going wild up there.”

“Hmm. No, I think I drank it all.”

“You???”

“Haha.”

The next morning, Daniel confessed: “Me found your coke in the kitchen last night, and me drink it all. heheheheheheh”

“What! Well, that does explain a lot.”

We took the boys to the county fair. Dan was the perfect age. Caleb was able to ride almost everything. Joshua and JD were out of luck. They were either too big or too small for almost everything.

The big boys were so jealous. They wanted to ride it too.

the ferris wheel

view from the ferris wheel: city, ocean, mountains

golf course view from the ferris wheel

Daniel, reading his favorite Usborne books, while Joshua plays 3DS.

I hope you all have a fun week! I hope it cools off for all of us soon! When did I become such a cold weather fan??