The kids were pretending to be ghosts. Ez thinks it’s really funny to be scary. I wonder how long that will last.

These blankets were made by Aunt Teri. Gotta do something at those meetings… ha! We love them and you, my cool sis in Bong Leech… soon to be back in HB… home again!

India was invited to a birthday party for a boy. What to make him came up in conversation. I wasn’t quite sure, but I thought a terrarium might work. Just so long as we didn’t mention putting an animal inside this tank, for the parents’ sake.
I must say this gift was the largest and heaviest at the party. Have you ever given the largest present. It is sort of a strange feeling. Almost like we were trumping the grandparents… which I hope we didn’t. I think their gifts came on his actual birthday.
Once he pulled off the wrapping all the kids crowded around it. They ooooo-d and ahhhh-d (i’m making up how that is spelled. It’s allowed, I read it in a bookmaking book… for kids. hmmmm) for quite awhile.
Then India dropped the bomb. She let him know that he could put a fish in there. I had to remind her that we weren’t going to bring up that idea.
Whenever we give a homemade gift I always wonder if it is played with. I wonder if he will dig through this dirt like he does in his backyard. Maybe in the winter months. Who knows.

India’s filling it up with little dinosaurs and we hung a fly, butterfly and dragonfly from the ceiling of the tank. Yes, that is a real tree… hopefully it lives long enough. We also put in a little Hot Wheels car. If only to give him an idea of what to do with this mammoth of a gift.

I felt like this gift needed to come with instructions. I hope it is faring well and that it will have a long a prosperous life.

No performance to see that week, but she came home looking so lovely. Again a week of fun at Camp ArtReach. This last week of camp was clowning. She learned gags, how to make balloon animals, paint her face (although she got really frustrated and the teacher ended up having to appease the beast and do it for her).
I have seen other kids, on their mom’s blog living in some other state who-knows-where, learning to be circus performers as part of their home school learning. I think they were even in a real circus performance playing with rings or dogs or something. Very cool.
After India’s enthusiasm about this week of camp, two years in a row now, makes me want her to get more exposure into the mysterious world of the circus. Whatever, I have lots of hopes and dreams for my kids; what and how they should be learning.
Speaking of, after her first week back in school I have learned that India has only 20 minutes of recess a day. But I thought, “she’s got PE, that’s fun… right?” Well, PE is only twice a week. Can you believe that? It is a travesty. She really misses the fun of kindergarten. She complained there wasn’t any tub time or discovery learning in 1st grade.
How did I have no idea there was so little playtime in school? I cannot believe that kids need that much desk time to learn. I must have been in denial. Ahhh, I hope it isn’t as bad as I am imagining. If only we could have our network of Boston home-schoolers living here in Denver.
Enough of my rant and no offense to our teachers who may be reading this. I really have only a small idea of what happens in the classroom. On paper, it looks way too academic for my blood.

I’s gettin harder to pose… Not that I want to pose her. Rather, I should say she is getting more self conscious and a little gangly with her limbs lengthening.

She is always trying to get hugs and kisses from Ezra. He is typically telling her (and anyone else, except me) “Don’t touch me.” See his elbow? That’s him getting her to stay away. Classic.

Finally, the 1st day of school photo you’ve all been waiting for. It only took me a week to get this up.

We had a blast hangin in the street with kids, parents and firefighters. The Denver Firefighters Museum had its’ free day and had so many things for the kids to do. My kids ran an obstacle course to save a bear from a ‘burning’ building, put band-aids on injured bears they could take home, escaped a smoke filled room (ok, imaginary smoke with a smoke alarm letting them know they needed to leave). It was such an unbearably hot day. Thankfully one of the fire trucks had a hose shooting water high into the sky, hitting the street (and any hot persons) below. The kids could also douse a burning house (the fire would tip back on their hinges back once the hose hit them) with a real fire hose. So cool.
Here are a few images from the day:

Lots of cool dress-up. We need something like this for Ez at home since he loves India’s pink dress-up dress way too much.

Ready to save the day… and the bear

Ezra was so cute as he tried to grab that bear and drag him out of the tunnel. Is it terrible that India’s run wasn’t pictured? I feel bad, but Ez is just too cute to resist… she’s done all this before, is that it? Ok, guilty conscious talk will now end.

All smiles through the struggle.  It seemed to take about 3 minutes for him to get out of this thing:

Looking a little smug here. He did it and everyone was cheering him on:

Ah, I almost forgot to mention the crane ride. Yes, you heard me. We got to take a ride in a fire engine’s crane. I think we were up 80 feet here:

At the top of the world:

It rained for 3 days in a row. A strange time of the year to have that much rain, but I’ll take it as it comes. Our garden and grass needed the cool weather and moisture badly. After the rain the days were crisp and felt like Fall (today we’re back to 93 degrees). Monday was the perfect day to photograph and I had two willing subjects who were a lot of fun to get to know. Here’s “A Man and his Dog”:

Should blogs show things as they happen? I am not one to blog everyday so our everyday things tend to get left behind. Here are a few of our activities that were forgotten this summer.

The typewriter that played the piano at the art gallery on Green St… next to where we lived in Boston:

The gazebo at this park:

Ezra making friends the day we tried to pick strawberries in MA:

India’s art camp.  This was the story telling class.  They opened by greeting the north, south, east and west while the teacher blew her conch shell.

The snake dance:

India preparing her costume/puppet/visual aid to help tell her story.  “My name is India.  I am a story unfolding.”  She loves her art camp and I love all the art/cultural things that are incorporated in each class.

Pudding pop mess.  Joys of summer.

Our tree that is no longer.  Notice the bursting planter box?  We want to save our stairs so felt we should destroy the tree.  So sad to loose something so beautiful.

4th of July!  How could this be forgotten?  I’m bad with blogging!

The hat that India made mostly on her own.  Zach and our neighbors in the background.

Oh yes, and India riding without training wheels… on the 4th of July also.  It was a big day.

This was awesome.  The Country Western Family Night concert in the Englewood outdoor amphitheater.

My friend Heather and I decided we should shoot together at least once a month. July was her pick of location. This awesome mural wall on Colfax is what she chose. Lots of fun for her Transformer loving boy.
Stay tuned for future installments…

Then on the swing afterward while the sun was setting.

We have done a lot of things that have not made it onto this blog. Since this is the last week of summer for us, I thought I should post some of the highlights.

May:

E’s scooter ride.

I’s bungee ride

Photograph of Grandpa taken by E… most are not nearly as good as this.

June:

Story time at Jamaica Pond.  Good to be with friends.

A couple more from E.

Waiting for the Green Line.  Forever as always.

Near the Basketball stadium.  Can’t keep track of it’s name… is it called The Garden again? and I in front of the longest suspension bridge in the US… or is it the world?

Wall art in North End after eating Pizza Regina.

The many faces of E.  Thankfully he kept his fingers out of his mouth!

Both kids at the Public Garden. This is before dinner at Upper Crust.

These are after dinner and ice cream.

Have you ever been? Do you love it? Would you ever consider being photographed here?

These photographs only show a few of the very retro rides and sadly none of the signs or ticket booths. I couldn’t do them justice with my point-n-shoot camera with no tripod and diminishing light. I took a few images that show some of the things we did that evening. You will get a feel for the place at least.

Disclaimer: these images taken with a rinky-dink camera.

Many of the kid rides were very similar. Round and round in a circle. But you could tell they were built in a by-gone age.

We found the boys from our perch on the Farris Wheel.

So many things at the park inspired me. Even the bathroom.

Beautiful sunset from the train ride around the lake.