Our summer vacation started a week ago, officially, and we have embraced it with open and welcome arms.  When I was a kid, and especially a teenager,  I absolutely abhorred summer. I think there are a few different reasons why I disliked it so much.  Some of the most obvious…

Dr. Peds had spontaneously taken Mr. SP, The Banana, and Mr. TOF to the cabin to meet up with Auntie Dot and the cousins.  YaYa was at youth group at church, and at the last minute before the sun disappeared, I decided I would go to the beach after all.…

A lot of the kids in our neighborhood play soccer, and for more than a year now, Mr. Trouble on Feet has been waiting to join their ranks.  He plays with his soccer ball in the yard every single day.  He located Mr. SP’s old soccer cleats a long time…

Mr.  Trouble on Feet is great at sleeping in.  Unlike all of his older siblings who were up at the crack of dawn from infancy until the time they started school (when they suddenly wanted to sleep in and had to get up early), Mr. TOF sleeps regularly until 8:00…

Mr. Trouble on Feet likes to do things with people.  All the time.  While he’s doing things with the people he loves, he enjoys chatting.  He talks about everything and anything and never stops at all.  Mr. TOF does not like it when his parents nap in the middle of the…

The weather here keeps oscillating from warm and bright days to damp, cold and windy days.  Those dips down into freezing or almost freezing temperatures have helped keep the bug population at bay for the most part, somehow without hurting the wildflowers and new leaves on the trees.  Fewer bugs…

Mr. Trouble on Feet has just recently really started to draw shapes that represent certain things, and even resemble the object they are representing.  I love watching this process and observing the things he decides would be good to draw.  The other day, for example, he drew a monkey, a…

  Sunday was cold and windy.  It was even colder and windier at the beach.  At the top of the hill it was barely 45 degrees, and at the bottom it was even colder.  I’m sure with the strong winds off the lake that the wind chill was in the…

  Mr. SP, YaYa and Dr. Peds were all signed up to run the 5K race at the Cougar Chase this year.  YaYa has been running long distances in track all spring, but she was not feeling well the morning of the cougar chase and stayed home.  Mr. SP was…

One of the best ways to start learning the arm motion for cello vibrato is by sliding a tennis ball up and down on the string while the other hand runs the bow.  My kids think it sounds like a bizarre bumble bee and looks crazy too.   I learned…