stuff we've been up to

I'm definitely into the dog days of summer now -- not only am I not good at photographing what we're doing at this point, but I'm finding almost zero motivation to actually post about any of it! But trust me, we're continuing to have fun, and here's a bit of proof:

In the first photo, J is hunting for jewel weed pods to pop with his cousin, K.


I took J to see a community theater production of "Cinderella", at the same Theater Guild that hosts the Youth Chorus he sings with. He just loved the production, and knew all of the kids in the Children's Ensemble (they also do chorus with him). He had the opportunity to be involved with this production as well, but I didn't think we should sacrifice our entire summer for it (rehearsals were 4 nights a week when it got close to performance time, and the show ran for 3 weekends -- yikes!). He does think he'd like to be in a show, though, so we're planning on him participating in a low-key children's theater production later this fall.

Playing football in the front yard.

We finally sheared the last 3 ewes -- sheesh, it's ridiculous to be shearing in August, but we just couldn't find enough dry time before now where the fleeces were dry enough to shear! (As it was, one of them was still a little damp, but we took the fleece off of her anyway -- it was already ruined from staying on her too long, and at this point, it was just important to get it OFF. At least the other two fleeces look really nice.)

A Mancala tournament has been ongoing this past week. Zoo Boy wins every time. It's not that his strategy is particularly developed, it's just that he's the most observant child on the planet, and he can see every mistake his opponent makes, therefore being able to capitalize on it. Fortunately, his brother isn't sick of losing to him yet.

Fun at the lake, as usual, this time with their friend, Russ, along! Even though swim lessons are done for the summer, we're still swimming almost every day.

Zoo Boy running down the beach, his favorite way to dry off after swimming.

J drew this picture of a Pelican with a pencil on paper. Ok, so that might not seem like a big deal to the average person, but J's favorite drawing medium has thus been his Doodle Pro, so I'm pretty thrilled that he's starting to creating some lasting art that isn't erased as soon as it's completed!

Pool party!

Zoo Boy took the kids' "Atlas of the Universe" outside one night this weekend to see which constellations he could identify in the night sky. He would have stayed out there all night star-gazing if I didn't drag him back indoors to go to bed. Even the swarms of mosquitoes didn't discourage him.