Still Summering

I've been a quiet blogger this summer, I know.  With both Em and Ro out of school for three months, we've been field tripping and crafting our way through the days.  Recently, while cleaning in the craft room (code for frantically searching for something), I came across this list.

Em started the list with Ro chiming in every once in a while while running back and forth from Lego creating.  It's such a sweet list (with more on the back) that he wrote out the weekend that their summer vacation began.  We've ticked off quite a bit of the list but not everything... and not everything I  had hoped to do.  So, sweet readers, I hope you understand when I say "back soon, we are still summering".  As soon as Em and Ro are done in the bathtub, we will be off on another adventure.  I have just two weeks of summer left to savor with my sweeties!  So, back soon!
Love,
Hettie

Such is life, yes, but sometimes it stinks!

Last week, I was sitting outside watching the boys zoom up and down the street on their bikes and scooters.  Rob was practicing banjo in the cooling down evening and I was trying to capture my boys in don't-want-them-to-be blurry photographs.  Trying and failing!  Rushing rushing back and forth on the sidewalk, we enjoyed their laughter and "look... look at me mommy" antics.

From the corner of my eye, I spotted slow movement.  Hmm... my neighbor was making her way up the street with something big and green in her hand.  As she got closer, I realized it was a large branch off of her avocado tree.  A big branch with a teeny tiny nest.  I mean tiny!  It turns out a hummingbird momma had abandoned her nest and my neighbor didn't know what to do about the nest.  She thought Em and Ro would get a kick out of seeing the wee nest before tossing it in the trash bin.

We kept the nest.  The egg you see in the above photo is iddy biddy-- like the size of my pinkie nail maybe at most.  We kept it in the hot/warm garage and covered the nest with cotton balls while researching what to do.  Sadly, so sadly, the branch fell a few days later and the egg cracked.  It was a sad moment... while in all reality, the egg probably would not have hatched, it still upset us-- things like this happen every day and such are the ways of nature, but it happened here, to us, not on the National Geographic channel.  Something so little affected us so much.

We try to imagine that the hummingbird momma has made another nest and is sitting on a new pair of eggs... we wish her well.

In the kitchen with children

During the week, meal preparation in our family can be rather hectic.  Utter lunacy comes to mind on some occasions during Em and Ro's toddler years!  I knew they were curious about what we are having for dinner, but I found myself often shooing them out of the kitchen while I peeled, chopped and sauteed.

As they have gotten older and continued to express an interest in the culinary happenings of the house, I've begun to bring them in and teach them a few things here and there.  These little tidbits below have helped me greatly to have successful sessions in the kitchen with my children and I hope they will help you too.

Don't take it all too seriously.  Of course, observe hygienic practices, but spillage and "oops" will happen very often!

Everything does not have to be exact.  A lopsided meatball?  Okay.  Wobbly bits falling on the floor?  Okay.  Tasks taking 20 minutes instead of 10?  Okay.

Enjoy the one on one time with your child.  For our family, mealtimes are a great time to communicate about the day.  To come together and laugh-- to just be together and recenter.  As Em and Ro continue to help out in the kitchen, meal preparation is becoming the same thing.

And of course, complimenting your child on their job well done will have them simply beaming!  I remember my grandmother admiring my breakfast preparation of weak coffee, unwashed fruit and buttered bread.  Showing them that you love their effort and not the mistakes will go a long way.  In the photo below, Ro is pointing to one of "his" skewers of kefta that he made.  My husband is off camera, and I can hear him even now in my head giving Ro a compliment that kept a mile wide smile on his face throughout the meal!

If you love spending time cooking or baking in the kitchen and notice that your children have an interest in there too, grab a step stool and bring them in with you.  Your meal may not be picture perfect or exactly on time, but it will be a 5 star meal nonetheless!

An inch at a time

My summer days are often spent in a whirlwind of kid things.  Prepping meals for bottomless stomach boys, board games, reading in the tree house, field trips to museums and parks, crafting and cleaning up from crafting, photo-taking amidst giggly silly faces, more food prep and a load of laundry here and there.

My summer nights are much the same.  Bike riding and walks in the cool evening, ice cream drips and impromptu obstacle course making... more photos, more giggly silly faces, more of life.  So, with that in mind, my mind cannot keep complex crochet patterns memorized.  Enter the granny stripe project!

I found this pattern from Lucy of Attic24 last year and thought "one day I'll have patience for that".  It's not hard, just time consuming and sometimes boring if you sit and sit and sit at it.  My lack of time makes it perfect!  It is easy to set up and easy to pick up/put down whenever I want to.  I took every color of Cotton-Ease in my stash and made a pattern of not having a pattern and off my hook went.  I'm trying to do one stripe a day-- two rows at about an inch or so.  By the time school starts, I should be mostly done with it.

Inch by inch it keeps me crafting during hectic days and nights with Em and Ro and Rob.  It's what I have time for right now and that's enough for me.

Travel Town Field Trip

When my brother and I were little, one of our favorite places to go was Travel Town.  I've written about it before here on my blog as it has become a favorite place for Em and Ro to visit as well.

This trip to Travel Town was pretty wonderful.  A play date with friends who live far away... meeting in the middle of our freeway distances, Travel Town was the place to go.  Snacks and sunscreen packed, we piled in and off we went!

Just off the 134 Freeway, Travel Town is a fabulous and free way to spend a summer afternoon with your kiddos, or with any railway buff!  For Em and Ro, climbing on the steam engines and letting their imaginations take them wherever they felt like going, was an excellent way to spend time with friends.

Allllll aboard!!!