Bonding

My boys getting some "kiting" in, with daddy showing the little boy the ropes. ( er, no pun intended )

Don't they look just way too cool? :)

A Respite from the Blistering Heat

It was as if we had been somehow teleported to Brigadoon or something.  A few days ago, it started raining and didn't stop till this morning.  We hardly saw the sun at all, until today, and the weather was cool.

It had been in the 100 F s for a while now, and it was starting to just get everyone and everything down, it was so searing.  Imagine my delight when it didn't get above 67 F one day :)

Of course, tomorrow we are going back into the 90s, and everything is already starting to dry out, but it was good while it lasted :)  It was crazy rain, but we sure appreciated the 4 1/2 inches that we got over the few days.

 

"But we didn't get to go to the sunset today!"

That was the little boy's woeful cry when we came home late tonight after running a few errands and eating out.

He has come to expect our nightly ( seems weird to say "nightly" since it remains light till past 9 pm ), short walks to the sunset with Henry, and to say goodnight to the sun.

It was much easier to do so during the winter and spring months, but now that we are in the throes of summer, it is a little bit more difficult to muster up enthusiasm to go out into the 100 degree weather.

 

Granted, by the time we go, at about 7:30 pm, it might have gone down a few degrees to perhaps 90 F, but still.

Children's Art and Literacy Festival

We do a library run with the little boy every week, and borrow at least 20 - 30 books each time.  So when the Children's Art and Literacy Festival came along, it was a grand adventure for the little boy.

We started off at the NCCIL, where there was an exhibition of Walter Wick's work, and especially highlighting Seymour, the little ?marionette? toy that would be hidden in his Can You See What I see / I Spy books.

We walked around the different pieces of artwork, trying to spot Seymour.

Then we walked down to Everman/Storybook Park, and took a ride on the Seymour Express!

The little boy had fun trying to spot the 20 little Seymours hidden in the park,among the different Dr. Seuss characters and whatnot, as we chugged twice around the park.

After the train ride, we walked a little way and made a circuit around downtown in the trolley.  The trolley was bringing the townsfolk to the different participating destinations around town.

We took a short breather by the Vera Minter Memorial Park on the way back to the library.......

where we were in time for a book reading and "pirate" activities upstairs in the auditorium.

4th July 2013

Our 4th of July celebrations started the night before, with the city's fireworks display, at Nelson Park, by the Zoo.  We parked over at the Expo center.  We were there about an hour before it was scheduled to start, and already there was a sea of cars everywhere, as we drove up to the coliseum.

There were people parked on the sides of the streets, with the back of their SUVs open and sitting right at the back, or hanging out on their lawn chairs.  There were even some young guys tossing a football back and forth. People were really getting into the July 4th mood :)

 

We watched most of the display from the front seats of our car, with the little boy on my lap and having the best seat in the house :).  He didn't remember the fireworks from last year, but he was really excited and didn't mind the loud booms so much because we had the windows up.

It was a wonderful display, lasting about half an hour, with music synchronized over the radio, on KBCY 99.7. Little boy's observation  "After the fireworks is over, it turns into a cloud!", referring to the smoke trails left over in the sky...

We got out of the car for the grand finale, and were surprised that there weren't any mosquitoes.  By then, it was feeling very pleasant outside.

The celebrations continued the next morning Hillcrest Church of Christ for the Annual 4th July Hillcrest Neighborhood Parade.

As with the years past, the little boy wanted to get out and about and explore "while I wait". He did slip and scrape his elbow while balancing on the sidewalk thingy, but bounced right back up, and continued exploring.

Side Note : What on earth could be more adorable than this little boy in his muscle shirt???!

The main attraction for him, however, was the dirt.  He spent a lot of time "planting rocks and acorns and sticks".

He wasn't even aware of, nor was he very interested, when the parade finally started :)

He did stop playing ONCE, when daddy came by to get him because they were tossing candy out to the kids :)

When the parade was over, everyone moved on into the multipurpose room/hall for home made ice cream and cookies! Talk about a sugar high!

The little boy chose a few cookies and some chocolate ice-cream. "Chocolate ice cream is the best!"

That night, we broke out some of the fireworks that we had saved over the years, and the little boy got to play with his very first sparklers ever :).  He thought it was cool, but didn't really care too much for the ones that flew up in the air and exploded. :)

Even daddy and mummy got in on some of the Sparkler action :)