Summer Is Here!

We celebrated the last day of school and the first day of summer 

 

with a trip to Padaro Beach Grill 

 

and a wander through the botanical gardens and nursery at Seaside Gardens in Carpinteria. 

Matt and Mary have really gotten into gardening and they went a bit nuts on their first visit to Seaside. 

 

It’s an amazing place. I managed to come home with just 4 new plants….

but I may need to go back when they restock their milkweed…

While we were at lunch, I handed Jac my phone and told her to see what she could find to take photos of. 140 pics later… she did so good! 

Jac and Leo got to feed the 2 chickens at the Gardens. Ok, Leo fed them because Jac was afraid they’d bite her…

All the pictures in this post were taken by Jaclyn, unless she is in them. 

May need to have a print made of this one…

Lizard!

Love this one

Drive-by stride-by shot

Water lily

Eyeball Sea

Jac decided today was Art Day. 

She dug through her big bin of ‘stuff’ - a 16x16” box crammed with craft supplies and odds ‘n ends - and got to work. (Click each picture for a close up view.)

She always knows what she wants to do and it’s always original. I just sit back and watch.

When I commented that today’s project looked like an eyeball forest, she said, “just wait, Grandma.”

“Now here’s the sea.”

“And look, I added a bit of throw-up.*” (We decided it was really kelp… 😂)

Definitely not something you see everyday. I love her imagination. 

* The ‘kelp’ is the green spot on the right, towards the bottom. She used cotton balls, sequins, gem stones, glue and food coloring (no paint). 

Bear Paws

This one took awhile, between vacations and sewing machine troubles, but it’s finally finished and gifted. Hooray!

I bought the kit in August 2023 while on vacation in Alaska (great souvenir, eh?) and started working on it in March, struggling a bit with the actual bear paw blocks (here and here). It went to the longarmer (here) and then sat, neatly folded, waiting (and waiting) until I again had a sewing machine capable of attaching the binding. (Still loving Princess Kokopuff!)

The backing looks like flannel but is ”just” plain old quilting cotton. I couldn’t resist that color plaid - it was too perfect to go with the bears. Hope my BIL gets lots of use out of this… as soon as it cools off. Of course we gave it to him on the hottest day of the summer (so far) when it’s 104° out. Think cool thoughts, Rich!

Lego Princess

Everyone but Jac had somewhere else to be today - 

Leia and Leo took a Red Cross certification class and Donovan had ninja training - so Jac and I sat and played Legos.

I dug out a no-longer-used thread box so she could sort her various pieces and use the lid to keep the cat (and Pop) from messing things up. (Pop moved her work tray  and pushed Jac’s color-sorted piles into one big group. The horror!) 

I’m not sure if she’s more thrilled with that (and the promise of another box when she opens the next bag of pieces) or the fish she made.

Ok, it’s the fish. How could it not be, with a tail and fins that wiggle?? Can you tell how pleased she is with herself?

Next up is an octopus! We’re both pretty excited. 

The Neighbors

 Sheesh. 

Put in a pool and suddenly you have all the neighbors coming for a visit.

And this one was LOUD. 

Jac and Donovan were thrilled though, so we’re glad he came for a walk thru. 

Summer’s Coming

We’ll have all 3 (sometimes 4) grandkids every weekday this summer

so we put some thought into how to keep them entertained.

We have a few day trips planned,

plus Jac and Donovan are signed up for swim lessons,

but this was our big idea -

bounce house** and side pool*. 

We did the big reveal today and I think they like it. 

We’re supposed to have a heat wave later in the week, so they’ll like it even better then. 

Only 11 days until school is out …

Crying cause she’s not the boss of both pools. 😂

* Leo and Leia are too big for the bounce house so the side pool is mainly for them… which upset Jac to no end when we told her Leo got to say when the littles could be in “her” pool. Knew I should have fed Jac before all the excitement… 🙄

** Neither Jac nor Donovan are fans of big pools - they both hate having water on their faces or heads - so this seemed a better option than last year’s swimming pool. Pop is going to miss the big pool though.