Memorial Weekend Update

Hello, friends. It has been a while since I shared, hasn't it? Summer is already here and we are busy busy busy. I've been outside so much with Tyler that I have the full summer tan going and it is not yet June.

I'm going to cram a lot in here because we've done a lot and taken a fair amount of pictures too.

We've had unseasonably dry weather. Really hot and very dry. So weird! It is like being in So Cal in August!

Tyler is still very much into pirate play. He's so excited that there will be a Pirate Festival the second weekend of June! He is hooked on having the drawn on mustache and goatee. He'll draw it on himself if he can't get help!

Now that we are reading the Magic Treehouse series of books, he is starting to pretend to be a Ninja. He puts his foam sword down the back of his shirt and runs around the house pointing his golf clubs like guns.

We went back to De Luna Plaza yesterday and the fountains are working. What a great way for kids to get wet and it is free. The breeze coming off the water is a plus for the parents standing around. And now that Tyler's ears are healed up from the tube removal surgery we are all about swimming.

I got him his first boogie board. Who knew that when he got dunked by a wave, he'd pop up shouting "THAT WAS AWESOME!" And we saw a sea turtle close up, and a pod of dolphins going by. The weather and wave conditions have been so absolutely perfect for beach going.

We planted a little garden. A pallet garden. I got the idea from the Homesteading / Survivalism  facebook page. He is so proud. So am I. We can manage this size garden and learn a lot of science stuff while we provide some good vegetables for the table!

Other things we've done this month:

• rescued a baby bird that fell out of tree. He ran off though, so we are wishing him the best of luck. 
• Tyler picked out hockey gear fabric on our last trip to the fabric store, so after I cut the pattern out, he helped sew them together! First time at the sewing machine. 
• shopped at a local thrift store and scored a kiddie army helmet for $.99
• made up a lot of stories in the dark, which Tyler calls "the stories in your forehead"
• gone swimming in great-gramma's community pool almost every day
• played in our blow up pool a few times, mostly with squirt guns
• sprouted a little herb garden in the kitchen window
• cut up magazines for letter learning and scissors and glue practice.
• sung "Tonight We Are Young" about a hundred times together. He loves the chorus 
• discovered that the fuzzy baseball Easter basket is a pretty good marching band drummer's hat
• we took Tyler to the local dinner-and-a-movie venue called the Silver Screen to see "the Avengers" -and now he is hooked on them too!  And he can't wait to go to that theater again. Candy, popcorn, hot dogs and you can sit around a table? Awesome! A lot cheaper than the big theaters? Double awesome for us!

Here's a little photo montage to sum up our month. 

Tomorrow we are going to a local U-Pick Blueberry farm to see how much we can haul home and freeze. We have a single tree, but Tyler eats them as fast as I take them off the tree. It will be a group outing and hopefully not too hot if we go early. Anyone have freezing or canning tips on blueberries?

Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone! If you see someone in military uniform, or a veteran of a past war, please thank them for their service to our country. And their sacrifice. We are free because they protect and defend.

Is it May already?

First of all, BLOG MAKEOVER!!! What do you think? Aqua, such a great almost-Summer color.

No, I did not make a Schnibble in April. I did not even get Bibelot finished. I think the Another Year of Schnibbles is not going to happen again (for me) this year.I have quilty stuff in the works but sewing time is harder and harder to find.

In other news, we've been having a blast, Tyler and me. Science and books and music and art on rainy days, followed by puddle splashing when the rain lets up. And because we love adventure and water, we are already enjoying the long season of fun in the sun and all kinds of water!

Last weekend we headed downtown to De Luna Plaza on Palafox Pier to see what the sidewalk fountains would be like. Tyler was due to get the tube out of his right ear on Monday, so last chance to risk water near that ear for a while. Unfortunately the fountains never came on. About a dozen other moms and their kids were hanging around waiting, but there was standing water to be kicked up and other kids to play with, so Tyler ended up soaked and happy after all. And it was such a gorgeous, cloudless, warm day, who could complain?



Here is the explorer, De Luna, who was looking for Mobile Bay, but somehow is attributed to Pensacola. Like most Spanish explorers, he seemed to have a lot of trouble with the weather and finding food and getting lost. Florida ain't for sissies. If you lived here before air conditioning was invented, I think you must have gone crazy. De Luna was "delirious with fever" at one point, but I think it was just our fine summer weather.

Not to deter any tourists, let me just say it is HOT here and humid. From May til October. If you visit, be prepared.

Back to my story. There is a traditional fountain full of water also on the pier. Tyler asked where all the money went that was in it last time we looked. Maybe they're going to use it to fix the sidewalk fountains?

You want to just jump right in these fountains come July!

I don't know if you can see it too well, but just behind the yacht on the left side of this picture is a peek at our brand new baseball stadium! The Blue Wahoos are our minor league team and this is their first season here. You can catch a game while looking out at Pensacola Bay.

The next day we went to the beach, which is really never disappointing here. White sands, emerald waters. Water temps already in the 70s. This is the beach on NAS Pensacola. It is so nice.

Are you jealous yet? There is nothing like it without a passport. Or so I hear.

Here's another beach pic, just to make you really want to come on down South. Opal Beach. Just east of Pensacola's main beach. Very private. Very quiet. And look how far out the shallows go! I love wading far out and not being too deep.

If you are wondering: the ear surgery went pretty well. Hopefully the hole in the drum heals quickly and well so we can commence swimming lessons and really have some fun!

This Saturday is time again for Home Depot Kids Clinic. I'm sure it will be a Mother's Day project. Are you going? It is free, it is crafty and it is the priceless time together that makes it a great morning out. Maybe followed by pancakes somewhere? And then more beach time, of course! With ear plugs.