3 days left

Wednesday: hump day

 Lu gets a little reading time in before nap. "Chooooooo"

 And a special thanks to GranBon for her letter that arrived today with these fun stickers! Fun for the whole family and the thing that got us from dinner to bed. A beautiful gift.

And a stunning self-portrait from Moo who was enamored with the special playback function of our digital camera.

4 days left

Tuesday: Starting to taste the finish line!

 Oh my goodness, why did I not have this stroke of genius earlier? What better place to get Lu her walking practice?? Here is Moo "walking with her". She is as ecstatic as a birthday girl in front of cake!

 Moo finds a secret hideaway in this tree. For those who follow the exploits of this young environmental savvy adventurer, can you see what he has his eyes on?

 Yep! One plastic water bottle tossed aside by some one who cares a little bit less than this little lad who makes a dead-on-sprint for the nearest trash can. Go captain planet!

 Yes, and here is what happens with four wheels and a little freedom. Oh the places you'll go.

 Moo lending sis a helping hand over that big water hose.

 Thanks to cousin Selma for this summer-fun idea of chalk drawing! Unfortunately it paled in comparison to the open road sidewalk.

 We gave bubbles a short go as well. Moo used to suck in rather than blow out, so his bubble-blowing has dramatically improved over the past year.

 Lu wants to use big bro's bubbles. Big bro is not accommodating.

 But Mom, I dumped all my bubble juice on my dress! What do I do now?

And the sad state of affairs of the rest of our park. Thankfully they are not remodeling the whole park, but wow...a sheer wasteland where our favorite playground equipment and picnic zone is! We hope they finish it before summer ends! Or at least before the pretty fall leaves start falling.

5 days left

Monday: 5 days left of Dad's loooooong course. What does Mom do in the 11th hour of full-kiddo detail? Take the kids for a walk....literally, no stroller, both kids must walk, we go as far as we can without falling down from exhaustion. So, we chose to visit Dad at Starbucks to cheer him up while he was working on homework. It is about one block. It took 15 minutes.

 Lu is trying to scale the wall behind our building...because big brother did it.

 Look! Two cute little people chairs! And two very tired children. Only 20 yards to go, but a good spot to rest. And a cat decided to come by and entertain us.

9 months after moving to this spot, I still have no idea why these dolphins are in front of this photo studio. I've never seen any brides posing in front of their parking lot. Ah well, it entertains the wee ones.

Note the slight bemused expression at Mom's request to stand under the dolphin.

Beat the Heat 2

On Sunday, we stayed in the air-con all afternoon and when the sun started to dip, (with an hour before bedtime), we raced to the beach for some quick sand and water play.

 Moo loves to hang onto Dad's neck and 'swim' around in the sea. But he's just as happy dumping buckets of water in the sand and making little lakes, dams, and waterfalls.

Lu love-LOVES the water and would swim by herself if she could. She loves practicing her walking into the sea and floating with Mom. She likes to sit in the lakes Moo makes on the beach.

Beat the Heat 1

I was so excited to hear from a friend of another restaurant in our area that is kid-friendly! Dad has been gone 12 hours/day for 3 weeks and it has just gotten hotter and hotter. Last Friday I decided to take the kids to find this place in the hopes that Dad could join us later. As it turned out, he got home much later and missed all the yummy food. (Frowny face.) The kids and I had a very nice meal though. Check out this shady playground!

 Lydia is waving to two birds on the adjacent chair who kept eyeing her pizza.

 Isn't this a magical place? I bet it is beautiful at night. Only crazy foreigners with little kids eat at 5:30!

And the best part? The restaurant comes with a nanny who will play with your kids while you eat!

At long last!!!

Hooray!! After a long two weeks of demanding to hold Mom & Dad day and night for walking practice, she just up and left me today - no practice steps....eight steps in a row straight to Dad! It was so perfect because Rick has been gone long hours the past couple weeks and she must have been waiting for him. He came home early today and she nearly leaped off the couch with excitement to see him. A half hour later, she was walking! No warning. She did some steps back and forth between us.....step, step, crash...step, step, crash....and then she walked clear across the room to.......big brother! So sweet. I can't wait to see what mischief she gets into tomorrow!! (No, I can wait. I think I'll sleep in.)

4th part 2

 One of my few successful baking operations!

Couldn't resist...Happy birthday America!

Scratch that last post...

 Forget what I said about staying clean. As long as it is under his control, mess is possible! What started as an innocent pre-"quiet time" activity - sticking foam stickers on his arms and legs, quickly went wild when we found those ever enjoyable washable markers!

 And this is what happens when you allow markers to be part of closed-door quiet time.

Surprisingly, he does not draw on anything other than himself. Occasionally paper, but no walls or furniture. So, I count it a blessing.

And who couldn't love that face?

Happy 4th of July!

 There were so many fun projects on pinterest, but we stuck with one simple one. Loo was way into painting her hands...Moo was way into keeping his clean. :)

Our finished project! We're supposed to add white star stickers to the blue field, but we don't have any, and I kind of like them just as handprints. Moo was disappointed not to include his thumb...his whole hand should have been painted if it was going to be painted! :) Ah well....artists!

they're cousins...identical cousins...

And if she had been a they.....we might truly have this sneakiness to deal with.

Moo photography

I taught Moo how to take the pictures today....and this was one of his first shots. I was impressed he could even hang onto the camera and depress the shutter button....let alone get a whole face in the frame! Well done!

Paint the town Red

Here she goes...15 months tomorrow and she is getting really serious about walking. You cannot see the fatigue in my eyes in this....our 25th lap around the coffee table. If I let go, she immediately commences crying, so she's not there yet, but she wants it.....bad!