summer life

I flat out love summer.

our weekend

a friend's pirate birthday party
dinner outdoors at our favorite neighborhood restaurant
Seattle Sounders soccer game
entertaining friends
evening on the beach

The weather was gorgeous.

have a lovely weekend

Here we are at the end of our second week of summer vacation. This past week the boys spent their mornings at a nature day camp at Discovery Park. And we've swam, spent time at the beach, ate outside, played games, done lots of kid crafting, made banana bread, lego ships, listened to MJ, made our own coloring pages, made a vending machine out of strawberry cartons for use in a future tree house, and watched a movie. (Yes, I'm feeling a bit exhausted this Saturday morning.) I've been reminded of the great importance of playing outdoors a LOT every day; this has resulted in some nice evening walks and trips to the beach. Last night I saw the first ripening blackberries in my neighborhood.

Here are a few great links from the past week:

If you haven't already, be sure to visit this lovely blog. I only discovered it a month or so ago, and I feel like I've found a long-lost friend.

Chelsea has started a great Portland street style blog.

Public piano installation!

One more rhubarb dessert - our favorite yet (dessert recipe is at the end of the link).

bright and beautiful

Yesterday was filled with sadness for me. It was hard to get my brain around it all as more news kept coming in and I was hearing and processing it in the midst of a pedicure, building lego trains, baking banana bread. At the end of the day my sadness has resulted in a wave of nostalgia for my childhood. I remember admiring Farrah's hair; I remember huddling around a television with friends and being absolutely electrified by the moonwalk. I was in junior high at the time, and we all tried it. Of all the media I looked at yesterday, this piece about the moment that made Michael the King of Pop was the most compelling to me.

My favorite boutique is just around the corner from where I went for my pedicure yesterday; I really love Canopy Blue. Thank you so much Summer for letting me take these photos. I hope they add some brightness to your day.

Have a good weekend!

in my neighborhood

I'm not going to win any blog awards with a title like that, am I? Oh well it's all I could think of. I've been wanting to show you these bits of beauty I've been noticing on my running route this past week. The fireweed always makes me so homesick for Alaska. What's catching your eye at this moment in June? You fill in the blank: late June is tall grass, is fireweed, is....

happy days

(see the eagle?)

We've been enjoying long happy days at the beach.

This week's corner view topic is music; the most profound, life changing thoughts I've encountered about music are found here.

Excerpt from Brian Eno's piece for NPR's This I Believe:

'I believe that singing is the key to long life, a good figure, a stable temperament, increased intelligence, new friends, super self-confidence, heightened sexual attractiveness and a better sense of humor. A recent long-term study conducted in Scandinavia sought to discover which activities related to a healthy and happy later life. Three stood out: camping, dancing and singing.'

Happy Wednesday to you!

the makings of a great summer

For us, summer is a fine balance between having enough of a plan to keep everyone happy, and having the sense that our days are free form, relaxed.

Some things we enjoy doing:


Indoors:
*Use recycling bin contents to build 'robots', forts etc. Remember the recycling rocket?
*Make puppets (we make them out of paper bags), then have a puppet show.
*Make playdoh
*Write and perform a play over the course of a week, collecting costumes and props from around the house.
*If you knit, crochet, embroider, sew, needlepoint, felt - teach your child how!
*make a nature journal
*make/keep a summertime scrapbook
*Cooking projects: make butter, make jam, bake bread. Summer is a great time to try new things. Kids often find it exciting to make something they've previously only seen come from the grocery store. For simple, kid friendly recipes that kids can be fairly independent with, we particularly like Salad People and Pretend Soup. The recipes are picture based/doesn't require reading.
*Conduct science experiments. We particularly like those in Mudpies to Magnets (preschool age)

I'm a big proponent of rotating toys. I often put two or three things out at night for the boys to find to do in the morning, like a puzzle, game, building component, craft.

I always have on hands lots of:
*melting beads - the boys make things with these all the time
*loops for making potholders
*crayons, paint, stickers, stamps, construction paper, glue, tape and more tape

Lakeshore Learning is a good online resource for supplies, as is Discount School Supply.

Bare Books - I love these so much! Abbott likes the blank comic books they sell in addition to the blank books.

Outdoors:
*sidewalk chalk/paint
*picnic in the front (back) yard
*hiking - in our neighborhood and elsewhere. Finding and playing with sticks is often the best activity I can offer my boys.
*plant seeds and watch them grow
*scavenger hunts, treasure hunts
*star gazing. We love H.A. Rey's book The Stars
*jumprope, play frisbee, baseball, basketball, stomp rockets, bubbles, scooter, rollerblade, bike...
*lots and lots of unstructured free play time!

Around town
*local library's summer reading program and other programs for kids (the ones in Seattle are fantastic, particularly at the downtown branch)
*tour your local recycling plant
*farm tours
*visit a thrift store/garage sales to buy some things to supplement your dress up/costume box


Websites I like:
Jan Brett
Kids Craft Weekly
Art Projects for Kids
Kiddley - isn't being updated anymore but has lots of great ideas (via Elaine)
The Magnifying Glass - an online nature journal for kids
National Geographic Kids
The Discovery Channel

Magazines we like:
Highlights Puzzlemania
Ranger Rick

Resources:
Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts
H.A. Rey's book The Stars
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder
The Pocket Guide to Games

Audiobooks:
AudibleKids
RealeBooks
Candlelight Stories
RIF Reading Planet
Book Club 4 Boys

Book Ideas:
Reading Rockets
TeachersFirst 100 Best Books
http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/


I have a feeling it's going to be a great summer.