A new twist

At the local flea market the often sell fresh fruit and vegetables at great prices and this week was no different. We came home loaded with mangoes, strawberries and yes, a yellow watermelon. Lukas could not wait to cut it open and exclaimed: It is the best one ever! Come and visit and try it for yourself if you do not believe Lukas!

Language art

Noah got a bit creative while helping make salad the other night. The cucumber just begged to be a C and then the rest followed to spell out the name of Noah's best friend: Coby.
C cucumber,
O colander
B bumpy red pepper
Y a nice thick stalk of broccoli - in Noah's opinion this is the best use of broccoli... to spell his friend's name.

Mistletoe

A summer missile toe

Babysitting?? or just plain old fun play time??

The occasion: friends who needed some baby sitting care for the day which then gave us the perfect reason to do some fun and messy stuff outside and in. Lukas and Noah acted like junior teachers and worked with the little ones and a few extra friends that tagged along while we shot marshmallows over the street, made gigantic bubbles, sent off rockets over the roof line, watched vacuum cause and effect and messy paint experiments. All in the name of science as the boys are so fond of saying...

Exploratorium

San Francisco is not that far from where we are, and well worth the trip for a visit to the Exploratorium. Lukas and Noah along with their friend Harry got front row seats for the cow's eye dissection, and had a blast pushing, pulling, connecting, dragging, swinging and constructing while exploring and learning. A great and fun day and having a friend come along made even the long car ride palatable.

Two boys and spare time...

Lukas and Noah have an entire garage full of this and thats, which to most normal people appear to be just a bunch of junk. Mamma cringes each time she had to enter this space of unknowns since it does not lend itself to neat and tidy organization, nor is she allowed to de-clutter. As much as it pushes her out of the comfort zone, it is well worth keeping for the enjoyment, exploration and invention of boys.
This past Sunday, the boys re-purposed wheels and wood from the go-cart and made themselves a dolly. Taken for a test drive it was clear it was missing something, but what? Well, it clearly became obvious that it was missing a comfortable chair, which quickly was added to the contraption. The boys very proud of their work to Mamma for a drive on the road before settling down with a cold Diet Coke. Just another Sunday at the Severinghaus'

Santa Barbara part 2

Outdoor bookstore, where we could have spent days browsing

Drawing competitions

Boogie Boarding

Body surfer, all suited up, bell bottoms courtesy of the Pacific

Searching for the Frisbee in the ocean, no luck finding it..

Surfer dudes

We spent the last week of June in the Santa Barbara area with the Severinghaus' family. Almost everyone was able to make it and we had a fun week of sun, sand, cloud, sight seeing, ice cream eating, yogurt sampling, shopping, eating, napping, playing with relatives, chatting and visiting, sipping fine wine, hot tubing, staying warm by the outside fire place, did I mention eating? and for some of us surfing... It was a week filled with joy and memorable moments that we will long cherish.

Santa Barbara with family

Sunset

Another sunset

Hot tub on the patio overlooking the Pacific

Five o'clock cocktails

Hiking

Climbing, observing, exploring

Staying warm around the fire pit

History lesson at the Santa Barbara Mission

Playground playing

Ice cream, what else????

Like father, like son. The electronics were everywhere in the house... lost count of the phones, pads and pc's

Sand castle building