Beach

Today was a beach day...

it is getting to be a habit.

A Refreshing Coat of Paint

I was going to get rid of these chairs.

They were part of my old deck furniture and I replaced them this year with my much covented round table. I gave the rectangular table that went with them to the new neighbors to use on their patio. They aren't bad chairs they are just a pain as deck furniture goes at least for me and my deck. But I decided to keep them as lawn chairs and give them a fresh coat of paint.

Alexa wanted to help me paint them. She also helped me repair and paint the front porch last week. You have to plan to quickly go along behind her and wipe up all the drips. She really likes to help though.

Here is how they turned out.

We put the cushions that I picked up last year at a discount store on them, and I was pretty happy with how they shaped up.

Garden Update

We had lettuce with our dinner tonight. Doesn't It look yummy? We have been picking it for the last week.

We picked our first 8 sugar snap peas today. We are hoping for lots more as there are plenty of blossoms and the plants have been taking over the carrots for weeks now. In another week or so we should pick our first green beans as we have lots of little ones.

Summer Cleaning

This is what the back of my car looked like today after the girls and I spent the day cleaning out things we don't want. Alexa got rid of the most as parting with things is harder for Chloe. There are some books in the box that I got rid of too, but most of it came from their rooms. We dropped it off at Goodwill this afternoon lest anyone have any second thoughts.

They were promised snacks of pistachios on the way to Goodwill.

Library Stock Up

The kids went to check in today for the summer reading program at the library. Having read for the first week they earned their t-shirts.

Then they stocked up on reading materials for the next well....

likely just a few days at the rate she goes through them. As of dinner time (it was a rainy afternoon) she had already finished two chapter books and all the pictures books she checked out. That is just her pile too. Alexa has her own stack checked out on her card.

Alexa's Book

I am finally getting around to sorting out all the things the kids came home from school with in the last week. We looked through it when it came home and promptly left the piles until I could deal with figuring out where to put everything. I am trying to scan and post some of my favorites.

"The best thing about me is that I am smart."

"The best thing about kindergarten is reading."

"The best thing about IAA is art."

This is a double page.. "The best thing about our community is our bike path."

To the Beach Again to the Beach Again

At the hardware store yesterday (of all places!) the girls pestered me for floaties. In truth theirs from the past four years had finally died last summer. So I relented which meant of course we need to test them out.

It's a rough summer isn't it?

Ice Cream

No idea why they were so amazed that I could put the ice cream in a cone for them.

Also no idea why she is wearing fleece. It was 75 degrees out.

Today's Play

I offered to watch two of the girl's friends today as their mom had a meeting attend. While it was likely to be another warm day (although only 80's today) I wasn't sure I was ready to take four kids to the beach. Setting aside the size of my car for such purposes. So we set up the backyard to allow for some water play to cool off. They invented a fun game called run and jump into the pool.

Then there was fit all four girls into the pool.

They also decided to play a dress up game.

There was a dolphin, Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, Tinkerbell's fairy friend, and a bumble bee named bumbles.

Tinkerbell was not thrilled with his role in the activities.

Yesterday

Just a quick note about our activities yesterday. Here are some of my candles on the deck.

Notice anything? How about here?

It was so hot yesterday it melted my candles, so we were at the beach again. Different beach, some of the same friends and some others. I forgot a camera so just look at yesterday's pictures and put Chloe in a different swimsuit.

Beach Day

When the temperatures hit 95 we hit the beach. Heck we often hit it before they hit 95. This was just a good excuse.

We packed a lunch and made a day of time.

I had some friends from work join us and one friend brought her nieces. The girls had a lot of fun together.

Occasionally we got them to come in and eat.

A Girl and Her Library

Today was the first day that kids could sign up for the summer reading program at the city library. This girls love this program. It is Alexa's second year to be able to participate and Chloe's fourth. Chloe approached the start of this program as if she were preparing for a high profile sporting event. Last night I went up to her room and found this pile next to her bed.

I asked what it was and she said she was getting herself ready for the start of the reading program. These are her back up books in case she finishes all the library books she checks out and needs reading material. Seriously. We biked to the library today and she carried back this pile.

We will probably be back there in another couple of days for her to stock up again because as soon as she got home she started a timer and spent the afternoon like this.

After dinner she wanted to read some of the books Alexa brought home. I told her if she read them to Alexa then they both could count the minutes.

As you can see Alexa was pretty excited about that. Alexa also took advantage of the face painting available at the library today. She passed on being able to talk to the mayor though.

Frogopolis

Today we headed out to break in Chloe's new bike. I never expected that she would want to ride as far as she did her first real ride of the summer. All total we covered about 8 miles. The majority of it Chloe was so far ahead of Alexa and I, she was nothing but a blue dot. We stopped at the remote little beach on the northern end of the bike path. The kids did some exploring.

Then they found this little guy.

He was living in a small creek that fed into the lake. They set about renovating his space that they renamed Frogopolis.

Chloe dug him deeper trenches and Alexa built him some houses. I hope he enjoys the new features.