One Fish, Two Fish

Sending off the Spanish Armada

I gave Jackson "The Dangerous Book for Boys" for father's day this year. It is full of fun things for boys (and moms...I like them too) to learn. Jackson has had fun doing some of the things with Thomas and Nicholas. One thing they did was learn how to make paper boats. Thomas LOVED making paper boats. In one day he made over 50 boats out of scratch paper and newspaper. It happened to be a Monday, so we decided to walk to the irrigation canal and send them off. Jackson never misses an opportunity to teach the kids something, so he told them all about the Spanish Armada, and we pretended we were sending it off. Is putting 50 boats into the canal littering? I felt a little guilty about it, but we did it anyway.

We sent them off 5 or 6 at a time and ran (I sat) to see if any of them made it around the fast flowing, treacherous bend. Most capsized on that part, but it was really exciting when one made it.

It was really stressful for me to have the kids that close to the canal. It holds SO much water and flows really fast. Grown people drown in it every year. We had strict rules for the kids to either stay back 3 feet or hold a parent's hand. It does give me comfort that Jackson is a good swimmer. I would drown for sure.

Thanks Thomas for the fun FHE activity!

Es

I can't even begin to express my awe and love for this little girl. She is one of the most precious things in the universe. She is so full of life, love, intelligence, humor, interest, genuine concern for others, helpfulness, beauty, and unique personality. Her qualities blend so well with Thomas and Nicholas's individual qualities. I love the age she is at, because you begin to see those unique traits emerge so strong. Here are a few (a lot) of different expressions I want to remember.

P.S. I printed a blog book about a month ago and absolutely love it. Because I liked it so much, I decided to put all of the pictures I want to print on the blog, so I can do a book each year. Hence the volume of pictures lately. I'm sure a lot of them look the same to most of you, but they are all endearing to me and have little things in them that I want to remember.

The Duck

Nicholas loves making things out of Legos. This is a duck he made. You can't see it very well, but there are two flipper-ish looking feet and a piece that looks like a beak.

Arc De Triomphe

A friend gave the boys this model kit of the Arc De Triomphe for Christmas this past year. There were thousands of little bricks, a bottle of glue, and an instruction book. It was fun to do, but a bit beyond the boys' attention span. It sat on top of our kitchen cupboards for long periods of time without being touched. I finally pulled it down and said, "This has to be done by the end of the week, or we will not finish it." That motivated Thomas, and that week he and I spent a lot of time gluing rows of bricks. All in all, it was fun and I'm glad we finished it.

We left it out for a few days, took pictures, and then had a smashing fest out on the driveway before retiring it to the trash can.