Rowan, Giving Me the "Jen Look"

I'll let you interpret the expression, but he really reminded me of my sister Jen in this photo. He's got my freckles and his dad's eyes -- but the look still has me worried.

Teaching His Sister

Rowan helps Jasmine hold Rosie the tarantula at the Butterfly Pavilion. She adores holding animals.

She Likes Her Noodles

The precursor to the bath.

Sea Monsters

It was running low on baking soda, but even so the submarine was doomed. If the enormous sea horse hadn't gotten it, the giant baby's foot would have. The brave seamen can take consolation in that they did manage to take down the unnatural beast with them

Guardian Yeti

The cats are generally concerned when we put the kids in the bathtub.

Cyndi Lauper Look-alike

Here's Jasmine lying in the bath doing her Cyndi Lauper impersonation. You can see her healing bruise. That was a nasty looking owie.

Some Fireworks Pictures

Most of the pictures that came out best were at exposure 1s (f/9, 100 ISO). I used the bulb setting for the first time, so it was all a big experiment. I was very surprised that they came out as well as they did.

July Fifth Celebration

My birthday was the third. I took the kids bowling where Jasmine knocked down her first pin all by herself, to the arcade where we won tickets playing skeeball and then went to eat ice cream and sorbet. When Theo got home we had dinner at Olive Garden.

The fourth I hadn't planned on doing anything. Maybe we'd check out the big displays from the top of our hill. Rowan tearfully explained it wasn't any fun if we weren't blowing anything up. Kai was easy going about it, but voted for exploding things. Still, I wasn't sure; Jasmine has had near panic attacks from loud noises like crying babies, vacuum cleaners and me blowing my nose. I took Kai and Jasmine for a walk around the neighborhood and found out that she thought fireworks were the bomb. Flashing lights definitely outweighed any potential noise problems, she squealed, laughed and jumped around and learned new words "BOOM!" and "FIRE!" I told the kids I'd look for any fireworks tents still operating in the morning.

After getting Rowan's swollen finger x-rayed (it was a sprain) and checked Jasmine for a concussion (she didn't have one), Theo directed us to a tent by on the way home. Jackpot! They were open one more day and were selling everything "buy one get three free" except for the big packages and big explosives. To the children's joy, I went a little nuts and bought two shopping bags full of explosives. When he got home, Theo asked me to sign a confession that the fireworks were entirely my idea. I appended it to the confessional relating to my bad jokes and spontaneous singing of bad homemade lyrics to pop hit songs.

We spent dusk blowing things up. After an hour and a half, I was a bit worn out and we called it a night. We have a few left over, mostly snakes, sparklers and smoke bombs.

Butterfly Soldiers

Not quite Buffalo Soldiers, but they certainly brought considerable focus to our Catch-and-Release Butterfly Day at Roxborough State Park. When one boy would spot a hapless lepidoptera and they'd scream, "Back up! I need back up!" Quickly the prey was surrounded with swishing nets that would rival any serious lacrosse game. Once caught, we'd take a picture of the successful hunter and the (amazingly) unharmed butterfly would be released.

In this picture, five butterflies were caught nearly simultaneously (Ryan on the far left has two). I think our catches spanned only five or six species including a couple skippers and a sleepy moth. We also had a brief stint catching damselflies, but I asked the boys to go back to the butterflies so the damselflies could go back to catching mosquitoes and biting flies.

Swimsuit Model

Well, the suit's a little big (3T), but it provides 50+ spf blocking UVA and UVB. I got it and the matching hat at http://www.shadysun.com/. The boys of course, wanted their own full-body suits as soon as they saw Jasmine's.

I meant to get the long legged suit (as well as long sleeves), but since it's so big, it doesn't really matter yet.

That reminded me of when Hobbes asked Calvin why he never wore shorts in the summer... Calvin responds that he IS wearing shorts and they reach his feet, thankyouverymuch.

Fashion Babe

I like this one, for the colors, the narrow depth of focus on her sunglasses and the swoop of the brim of the sunlit hat and of course for the beautiful little girl.

"Hiya," Says the Crawdad

Okay, I don't really think the crayfish was waving. She gave us a threatening open-clawed wave each time we smiled at her. Our friend Ryan showed the boys how to hold her to avoid the claws. After she was gently passed around, we set her back out into the creek in a deep section to give her a respite from other curious kids.

Examining the Grass

I've been neglecting our yard and the weeds are having a field day, or rather a field summer. One section of our yard is growing tall grass, a few inches taller than Jasmine. Like this early evening, she loves walking through it and pushing it aside. She likes to feel plants and we say, "Grass" or "tree" or "leaf" together.

Another new favorite activity is holding animals, generally invertebrates: tarantulas, ladybugs, earthworms and rolypolys. As per the Butterfly Pavilion method, she holds her hands flat, palms up and then squeals as the critter makes its escape off her skin.