What we've been up to

After a weekend of recovering from our big trip, I shook off my jet lag and dove back in to regular life.  We went on playdates and cooked dinners and had meltdowns.  We didn't swim because the pool was still recovering, but I'm happy to report that it's finally back to normal.

On Wednesday, we attended Story Time in the Park.  A board member suggested it might be good free advertising to have teachers read stories in the park over the summer.  People would see kids having fun and the teachers being engaging and sweet and may get interested in our school.  We've had two story times already this summer, but this was the first one I was able to attend.  I brought the balloons and introduced the teacher; she took it from there.
 

Leo was right up front.

The teacher leading will be Serafina's teacher next year, Mrs. Mouritsen.  She had to tell Serafina to sit down and be quiet at one point so it's good warm up for the school year.

We've been also working on writing and reading.  They earn points for practicing these skills as well as being kind, cleaning up and doing "sports" (swimming, bike riding, playing catch).  The point system has been more for me to make sure I carve out some time to sit down and work with them each day.  It is such a struggle to get through just a few flash cards or lines of writing, it makes me realize I could never homeschool.  They earned enough points to get there first reward this week -- a trip to the ice cream store.

I'm still trying to get use to seeing Leo in glasses.

Yesterday I decided we should go on an adventure to the Oakland Zoo.  We've never been there and between camps, visitors and playdates, we don't have that many free days left of summer.  So, why not?

Here they are seeing the tigers.  

Playing at the children's zoo.

Giraffes.

Watching an elephant take a bath.

There were some rides too.

I also made some refrigerator pickles and carrots.  It was much easier than real canning and they turned very tasty.  I like how this picture makes it look like I photoshopped the jars in, but really it just looks weird because it's the inside of the fridge and I took the picture with my phone.