Portraits

None of Jake in here but these are all daytime shots when Jake doesn’t tend to be around the house.

                     
During a lunch “picnic” on the back patio.  Beautiful sunshine.

We haven’t enforced nap time in over a year, but they used to happen once a week or so.  Now I’d be surprised if he takes more than one nap a month.  Quiet time is still going strong though; it’s good for everybody.

                   
Someone’s getting pretty good with that camera.

                 
Just another day . . .

And another sunny picnic :)

A small slice of our SoCal life.  Much more to come as I attempt to get caught up to and through Henry and Janet’s visit.

Arts-n-Crafts

I’ll go ahead and admit right off that I’m putting this one up here more for myself than for you.  This blog has effectively become the family photo album and there are some things I want a record of, like my children’s artwork.  Yes, I’m one of those moms that is okay with snapping a picture and then throwing 90% of it in the trash.  We’re not even one of those crafty families that is always making something but we have managed to hit a happy level of three projects per week: one at church, one at playgroup and (mercifully, only) one organized by still-not-crafty-but-improving self.

 
This was the first project I was in charge of for playgroup.  It was right before Halloween (as in, more than six months ago) so we read stories about monsters, I believe it was The Monster at the End of This Book, Where the Wild Things Are, and Leonardo the Terrible Monster, and we made this hodge-podge monster craft.  Then we had some extra supplies at the end so Logan and Naomi got to do a second round a few days later.

                                             
The kids painted these monkeys at another playgroup (not led by me).  Logan’s is the one on the right.  Naomi gnawed the feet off of hers the very next morning.

Yet another playgroup craft.  This was another one of mine; I did a sample mask to show the kids (and check to make sure the glue was going to hold).  Mine is on the left, Logan’s is on top, Naomi’s is on the bottom.
   Just a random stamp painting the kids did one day.  I pulled out some mini cookie cutters for them to use.  This currently serves as my computer screen’s background.

Completely random projects.  Yep, that’s it.

      
Here’s where I got somewhat, uncharacteristically organized.  We had a lot of success with various Advent/Christmas crafts and I wanted to do something to emphasize Lent/Easter, so when I stumbled across a free “curriculum” for a once-a-week reading/craft for Lent we ran with it.

                       
And these were the results!  (Logan on the left, Naomi on the right.)  

This was the final week’s project.  I photographed the rest of it before we finished because I didn’t really care for the last project in the “curriculum” and thought we might just skip it.  Then I decided to substitute what you see along with the Pentecost story to round it all out.

I’ve actually managed to carry on with the weekly craft project and Bible lesson, using the book “Big Thoughts for Little People” which is arranged alphabetically and doing a corresponding letter-of-the-week-type craft.  I haven’t photographed those yet though because we’ve only made it to “F” and I might actually end up saving all of those.  This is another step to full-fledged homeschooling and eventually I’m going to need to nail down some kind of record-keeping for that; I figure introductory alphabet lessons might need to be part of the records.

And there you have it!  Hope you have, are having, or had a wonderful day!

Surf’s Up

Aunt Rachel was already gone, but Uncle Erik had another few days so . . .

we went to the beach . . . 
  to watch . . .

Uncle Erik surf!!!  (Or at least try to.  I’m afraid he didn’t have much luck.)

                    
In fact, I’m pretty sure Logan spent more time standing on the board than Erik did.  (Hope you don’t mind my saying so, Erik!)  While he was fighting the waves, the kids and I had a fabulous time making dinosaur fossils in the sand.

         
On one of his breaks, Erik was kind enough to grab the camera and get a few shots of me with the kids.

I did try to return the favor and get a killer shot of him riding the waves like a pro . . .

but, unfortunately, these are NOT Uncle Erik.

               
Oh well, the sand time was fun, the weather was perfect, and it made for a great morning!

Next time you visit, I’m sure the surf will be in your favor.

Whales, Dolphins and Sunfish—Oh My!

There were whales that passed by Okinawa, but only seasonally and the best place to see them was off the far side of the Keramas, so you were on the boat for quite a while.  Here, though, we’re lucky enough to be in a spot where there is some variety of whale nearby almost year-round and they’re not far offshore at all.  Since Dana Point Harbor is only ten minutes up the road, that makes this a very fun and easy outing!

          
The gang getting ready for our last big adventure together.  Horrible half-portrait of me there so just go ahead and focus on Naomi’s exuberant grin instead.

     
Wildlife before you even leave the harbor!

You can see them all in this picture—the seagulls, pelicans and sea lions all piled up there.  And yes, frankly, those rocks do smell as bad as you might imagine.  (Those white drips aren’t paint.)
  We saw a whale right off the bat, who sprayed and showed it’s tail nicely for us several times.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a shot of the tail flukes, but this was a gray whale, actually one of the smaller whale varieties.  The blue whales also pass here and occasionally they see orcas as well.

                          
Some of the other scenery on the water that day.  Anyone want to take a guess at how much either the boat or the house costs?

            
Next up were the dolphins.  No lack of them in the area, but it was fantastic to see them all swimming and playing right up next to the boat!

I took an absurd number of dolphin shots; I wasn’t even looking at the camera, I was just pointing it at the water and clicking.  There were literally multiple dolphins in every single shot that I took—sorting through to find the best ones took a while.

 
It was a little chilly on the water that day, but Uncle Erik forfeited his fleece (and his dignity?) to keep the kids happy.

     
This exceptionally strange-looking beast is the sunfish or mola mola, the largest bony fish in the ocean.

We get a quick peek of a sea lion in the water . . .

      
and then we move on to a second, very large pod of dolphins.

  With that, it’s time to head back to shore and home for lunch/naps.  Not bad for a quick morning outing!