Jelly Belly

Gma came to visit, and on the one day free of scheduled activities, we went to tour the Jelly Belly factory. The boys really seemed to enjoy the factory tour. There was a catwalk that went all the way around the factory floor with windows at kid level, as well as adult height (no photos allowed). They were both glued to the windows, watching the machines work. Jelly Belly samples at many of the information stops helped a lot too! At the end, they each received a small bag of Jelly Bellies, and they were so excited, they wouldn't let me put them in my bag, they insisted on carrying them. The Jelly Belly portraits are amazing works of art. We also liked the car.


We didn't get a lot of pictures from this visit, but we had lots of fun playing with Gma and taking her to all of the boys' activities..school, music, soccer, swimming. Such a busy schedule.

Arts and Construction

The boys did some painting today. Zachary managed to get more paint on himself than he did his projects. Here's a nice spot I missed during the initial clean up.
Alex worked on building this track most of the afternoon. It is all one continuous loop-de-loop and he even included some landscaping trees.
Over the weekend, we discovered that the boys are super climbers. There is a look-out tower along the Shoreline Trail that is about 9-10 feet tall. Zachary was at the top before Phil had a chance to start. Needless to say, Alex wasn't far behind. (Sorry, no pictures this time...next trip out.) We also conquered a climbing wall at the park.

Both boys started swimming lessons last week. It is still a bit touch and go, but by the end of his second session, Zachary was kicking and flapping his arms and "swam" 3/4 of a length of the pool. My camera batteries died, but they have been replaced and I'm ready for next week!

First Day of School

This year Alex is going to school 3 days a week. When we got to school, I asked him to find his cubby and stood back to watch. He found his and told me "here it is! It says A-L-E-X!"
Later, on the way home from a shopping trip, he told us "I have two new toys. One new toy at home, and one new toy in the car with me. So that is two."

So, on the first day of school, he practiced spelling and math! Way to go Alex!

Alex and his best friend Seamus at school.

Hiking

The boys were leading the way on a recent hike at Tilden Park. We started out from the Little Farm where the sheep chowed through our celery offerings in record time, leaving us with time to wander around the paddocks. We saw a buck ahead of us on the trail and then we could hear him walking in the woods next to the trail. As he emerged from the woods into a grassy clearing, Alex asked "what are those black things?" They turned out to be a flock of wild turkeys. Our real destination was Jewel lake. There is a high road, and also a forest road. Since we didn't have a stroller, we took the forest road. The boys thought it was really cool to be in the forest, and since there is this great boardwalk, they couldn't even get lost!
There were quite a few turtles sunning themselves on logs and on floating welcome mats. Do you see all 4 in this picture?
We decided to loop around the lake, and ended up on a more challenging trail. The boys were climbing over trees, ducking under them and tripping on tree roots. Zachary found a little marsh.Back at the playground, Alex was showing off his climbing skills.

Before and After

Before

After