Lucy used a jump rope to hang a line that crossed the length of her bunk bed. She’s actually quite good at tying knots. She hung lots of scarves and handkerchiefs on there – and told me it was what people used to dry their clothes “back ago.”
As previously stated – Lucy is enjoying soccer. She excitedly told me as she was getting dressed for game #2, that it was her “VERY second game!!!”
Today Max is attending his first day at the Artios Academy in Santa Barbara. Artios is a program that meets once per week providing enrichment activities for homeschoolers. The topics of art, music, history are taught with a Christian world view. The local Santa Barbara chapter has decided to start the day with a 15 minute session of announcements, singing, prayer. This is designed to help the kids get calmed down and ready for instruction so that the first period teacher doesn’t lose instructional time. They are calling this time ‘chapel’.
Since Max has always been homeschooled, we were trying to describe to him what a ‘school’ day would be like. Last night we mentioned that he will start off with a ‘chapel’ period. Once he heard the word chapel, he made the connection. He said, ‘So this will be like Victory Ranch but without the fun.’
UPDATE : Toby called while I was writing this up and said that Max had settled in nicely. She had stayed for the first period to help him get accustomed to things. Whew!
Lucy has been waiting 2 years to be old enough to play soccer. She was so excited to play in her first game this past Saturday. She loves the uniform and loves the running. She also likes that she wears her hair in braids for the game.
Here are some pictures of Lucy in the AYSO Under-5 Red Lady Bugs uniform.
She has recently learned to wink (but only with the right eye).
A couple times per week, my Uncle Jim composes an email that contains 8-12 political cartoons. Max loves to look at these emails. He loves the way the artist draws the letters, the people, the characters. He reads them and asks me to explain some of them. The ones he really likes he has me leave on the screen so that he can copy the pictures onto a piece of paper. His favorite seems to be ‘Mallard Fillmore’ penned by Bruce Tinsley. Below is Max’s most recent copy.
Here is the original strip :
Last weekend, Poppa and YaYa came up for a short, almost non-work day. The drywallers were in the middle of installation (still) and there wasn’t any work to do. The only work we did was measuring for baseboard, doors, moulding, etc. Rowdy had joined them for this trip and so in the afternoon, we went to the beach to give Rowdy the experience of the ocean. He promptly lost his retrieval bone in the surf, so Poppa would throw seaweed out into the surf and Rowdy would dive, swim, run and stumble for it. Lucy kept Poppa well supplied with washed up seaweed. When we were walking back, we passed the Carp Boating Center where they rent Kayaks by the hour. I thought that Max would enjoy a trip in one, and planned to go Sunday after church.
We went to the early service and Max and I headed down to Ash Beach. As we talked, Max told me that he was a little nervous. When we walked up, we saw that there was a large group of people standing around, outside the rental place. We were told that kayaks were not being rented because there was a special event going on. Pretty disappointing for me, but Max consoled me and told me that it was OK that we didn’t go. I think he was a bit relieved. We went home and played Monopoly Jr. Lucy won.
Yesterday, I decided to try to go again. We got to the shop at 10:45a, and it was all closed up. The sign said that rentals were opened at 10:30a, so I was confused. I was also distressed by the sign that said that rentals were $20/hr for adults, $10/hr for kids. I had it in my brain that the rental would be $10/hr for me and $5/hr for Max. I had brought $30 just to be safe, it looked like I was going to need it all.
At 11a, the high-schooler who ran the shop rolled up on his bike and leisurely began to open. I didn’t say anything about the late opening, but immediately began filling out the paperwork. I casually asked what the cost would be and he said $15/hr for the both of us. Hooray! I was happy to trade 15 minutes of waiting for basically half off the published price.
The guy was very helpful and quickly got us into the water. Max had to wear a helmet when launching through the surf, but once we got past the surfzone, he took it off and donned his Dodgers cap. We had been instructed to keep the nose of the kayak perpendicular to the waves and so Max was adamant about keeping it narrow, as he called it. I tried to turn towards Santa Barbara, but Max started complaining about not being narrow. So we paddled straight out and straight out and straight out. The swells were constant and quite fun for us. We would bounce up and down. Max would get splashed when the nose dropped into the trough. Being in the back seat, I didn’t get wet at all. Max said he wanted to be in the back next time. It was good to hear that he was interested in a ‘next time’.
We cruised in after about 45 minutes. It was *much* faster going towards the beach than away. We rode the waves into shore and returned the kayak. It was alot of fun. During the walk home, Max asked if we could go again tomorrow. Soon, I’ll be looking on Craigslist for a 2 person kayak of my own.