Popsicles and wing walkers.

Yesterday the kids and I met friends and went to an Air Show. It was fun to see all of the stunt flying. and planes. The coolest thing was watching a lady walk on the outside of the plane as it flew. She was on the top, on the wings and even hanging from the bottom. She must be amazingly strong to be able to maneuver in all of that wind. 
Afterwards I went over to my friends house and the kids played in the backyard while I got started trying to put together a new swing set. The instructions were over 80 pages long and it was going to be a big project but I wanted to help if I could. I love to construct things and figure out complicated assemblys. What a sense of accomplishment when things are done.
 Today the kids and I took a picnic lunch to the playground. After playing for about 5 minutes we had to turn around and go home for a potty break. But only once the promise was extracted to come right back. When we came back to the playground there were several kids a few years older than my son playing basketball on the courts nearby and he stood watching them with rapt interest so I sent him over to ask if he could play. They let him join their game and after he looked completely confused at first, I started yelling some directions and he got right into the action. He could not throw the ball high enough to reach the basket but he sure tried. He did very well for a first pick up basketball game. 
After we came home the kids enjoyed Popsicles we had made.

 It took a while for Baby Goose to figure out why anyone would want to eat something that cold but once she did she was loving it.

A little time painting this evening has left me trying to figure out exactly which way the shadows should fall since my reference photos have different orientations.

Art Reception and walk in the woods.

Today was a very busy day with Church followed by the Art Reception, all during regular nap times. Because there was not much time between when church was over and the reception was supposed to start we took a picnic lunch and played at the church playground rather than heading home.  We also decided to follow a path thru the woods to figure out the shortest route to walk if we ever decide to walk to church. We ended up at a fun playground.

 

I took the opportunity to take our traditional swing picture. We have large framed pictures of the older two kids  in swings at around 7 months on our living room wall and need to get one up of the baby.

The Art reception was interesting with 3 kids along. Most people seemed to enjoy the kids and their energy but it was hard for me. I had to keep them from touching every grape on the table, taking all of the strawberries, eating yet another serving of brownies, jumping up in the middle of adult conversations with an outstretched rock "look at my rock" and on and on. I was very relieved when they decided they wanted to go pretend to be dalmatians outside on the front steps.
It was very interesting to listen to the comments from the judge and to think about how hard it must be to pick the winners. One older lady was muttering about how the judge did not choose correctly.