The Kolariks: June 2017

Like a late-spring Oklahoma storm, the month of May blew in and blew over in a matter of minutes it seems. A whole lot of nothing was punctuated by some pretty spectacular events, and in the end - I find myself feeling pretty lucky.

garden radishes!

The "whole lot of nothing" around here looks like a lot of time spent outside, and spent together. It's been a little sad that Abby doesn't read books for hours on end anymore, and Bruce doesn't have Legos sprawled across his room nearly as much - but the trade off has been more cooperative play between the two of them, and I guess that's not such a bad thing. The kids are always hauling stuff outside to set up camping areas - or picnics - and they're ever on the hunt for bugs and animals. It's a great time of year.

because these kids can't help making "potions" in the swimming pool - I don't think we're going to be getting it out as much this year, but they still enjoy a good bucket of water!

since we've started planting potatoes in the old tractor tire sandbox and can't start fires in there anymore, we got a fire pit!

bring on the s'mores!

some cardinals built a nest in our bushes!

Abby for the win! She found this gorgeous dung beetle!

Bruce set up this bird feeder/habitat. He's convinced some birds will decide to live there...

the night time is alive with the sounds of these frogs!

they're pretty silly to watch and keep for awhile

looking for tadpoles - no luck

Bruce and Charlie found this turtle in the road, and after a trip to Walmart, he came to live with us for a little bit

I can remember reading or hearing a long time ago, that zoo keepers are always adding new or different toys to animal enclosures to help the animals sane. I feel the same way with Bruce, haha. Every week or so, we need to throw him a new bone to keep his creative juices flowing.

This month he has kept himself busy with a hammer and nails, along with the low-temp hot glue gun he found on Big Trash Day. He's still crazy about robots and crafts, and finds all kinds of interesting ways to nail or glue objects together in an effort to construct his robot models. I am trying to adapt a "why not" philosophy with parenting, hoping to curb my impulse to say "no" all the time to Bruce's schemes. I still have to say no a million times, as I'm calling after Bruce with, "Where are you going with the soap/salt/hammer/fill-in-the-blank?" as he's bounding out the door to the backyard... but I'm trying to get better about thinking through my reasoning behind the yes/no answers, and allowing him freedom whenever possible.

he's trying so hard these days to make pictures that actually look like recognizable things!

Abby is hilarious. And it's a good thing, too, because she's still a fairly difficult three-nager... She comes up with some pretty witty jokes, and genuinely makes me laugh all the time. I love that girl. Her latest cute saying she came up with, is she'll clasp her hands together and then lift her hands over your head and then around your neck, and say, "Look! I am your pretty necklace!" She also sings loudly about everything, all the time. If you ever think musicals are ridiculous because no one sings about their life like that... come on over. This girl does. It's fun, until it's time to get her out of the bath and she won't come "until this song is over."

Her favorite ways to play these days include filling up random bags from the play kitchen with things - play food, toys, clothes - and "go shopping." Then she doesn't really do anything with the filled bags, just brings them from the living room to her room, or her room to the back yard, etc. She also really loves coloring in coloring books lately. Neither of my kids have really ever been interested in coloring books before, but Abbs is all for them now. She also has started playing a lot with her toy horses more and more, which has been fun to watch. And just like her dinosaurs, she lines them up in the most random places - so you'll go in to start a load of laundry and be surprised by a Wells Fargo wagon campsite set up... She doesn't take a nap anymore, but often in the afternoons will want to lay in her bed for awhile and read, and she has recently discovered that books have a "smell" to them, and she's always inhaling the mysteriously satisfying aroma of pages.

Abby, the tech-genius, is always taking selfies these days

Some of the more exciting things around here have been celebrating Charlie's 38th birthday, going to see The Lion King Broadway show, and having the termite people come and kill the tiny buggers that have made their presence known in our house! We also squeezed in a couple of trips to the Lego store for various free events and the club meeting, and a couple of trips to the zoo and science museum.

we put all of our birthday/Mother's Day/Father's Day gift money towards this - and it was worth every penny!

waiting for the show to start - they were both a little squirrely during the show, but overall did a great job!

Some of my former students on "Senior Day" at the school I used to work at

birthday party water balloon fight!

digging for dino bones at the science museum

We also took four fields trips this month for school! We've been wrapping up the end of Kindergarten for Bruce, but plan to keep home schooling with a year-round schedule through the summer. With the public schools letting out for summer vacation though, we seem to always have extra kids around the house - which has been fun, but exhausting at times. One of Bruce's friends has even started joining us for school lessons. I don't know if she'll home school with us next year, but it's going to make the summer weeks of school more fun!