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.

Chloe's New Bike

Chloe finally decided it was time for a new bike today. She has needed one for awhile. However Chloe gets very attached to items and did not want to change from her old bike. It was way too small for her as she has grown so tall, but I wasn't about to argue with her over spending money on a new bike if she didn't want one. This week, however, something changed her mind that it was time. I have no idea what it was and likely it was just that she decided it was time instead of me suggesting it. At any rate we went to the used bike shop down the street to see if they had anything that she liked. Now I tried to convince her that a gear bike would be in her best interest, but she wanted nothing to do with it. Chloe wanted a one speed bike with pedal brakes. This is what she picked out.

It is a little big for her, but as the bike guy pointed out not by much. Given the rate she grows it will be a perfect fit by July. They gave it a good check over and attached the basket she wanted and she rode it home this afternoon.

I have to say the look fits her! I lowered the seat on her old bike and tried to interest Alexa in it, but she prefers this one...

Chloe told me, "You know Mommy half the time she doesn't even pedal." Um, yeah, I did know that.

Vacation Finally

After spending their first two vacation days at work with me, the girls wanted me to take them frog catching. I have no idea why this was the request, but after we got home and changed into boots we went to the frog pond. They caught about 20 frogs.

This is a catch and release opperation. They caught a lot of small ones some even still had their tails.

Chloe became fascinated with the large ones.

I have no idea why a kid terrified by the idea of spiders has no problem catching and holding frogs but we won't ask questions.

Alexa caught quite a few... which is good since she was the one campaigning hard to go frog catching.

She worked herself up to holding them, but was very open about just wanting to hold the small ones. "The big ones kind of freak me out."