Modern Scrapbook: 2013

Goodbye Summer

I have very few photos to show for it, but I did find some from our summer.

Ice cream, of course.

Luke and Maddie went over to Nana and Papa's for the weekend, so I wanted to do something special for Max, who felt a little left out. Dh, Max, Milo, and I went bowling and had tacos on the patio of a restaurant where I learned that Milo doesn't know how to sit on picnic table without falling backwards onto his head.

Milo made a Mama out of pattern blocks, and she even had nursies.

This what happens when trying to do a hands-on math game with the kids during school- Milo inserts himself in the middle and makes it a challenge. Our patience muscles have gotten a good workout.

We went to the science museum a lot, since it has air conditioning.

The kids are so patient with Milo, and humored him by playing an Eric Carle board game with him for a long time.

They read to him, too.

And he read a lot to himself.

School went a lot smoother when Milo felt included and had some little activities of his own.

A favorite toy of Milo's has been this Plan Toys beehive. He likes to stack them, pretend with the bees, use the tongs, and match the colors.

A favorite school snack was roasted seaweed.

He grew a lot.

We had a Japanese tea ceremony after we finished our unit on Japan.

We started going to the park again once it got cooler.

Milo refused to take naps anymore, but then kept falling asleep late in the day. It was a rough transition.

Perot museum of nature and science

This science museum just opened last year and it has been packed since. We went one Saturday and it wasn't much fun, because there were crowds and long lines in front of every exhibit and activity, so it made seeing and doing hard. We went back on a week day, hoping it would be better, and it was, but it was still crowded. These photos are entirely mommy goggles, for my own records, because we had a fun day. My parents went with us, and it was my oldest son's birthday. But there were huge windows right next to huge fluorescent lights, or hardly any light at all in some areas. And so many lines from the railings and walls in the kids' area that I couldn't seem to get straight, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time correcting photos that are for the family album. Milo loves the children's area so much, he and I stayed in that area for hours while the older kids were in the other areas of the museum. He just didn't want to leave, especially once he spotted the construction area- he spent hours wearing a construction hat and vest and passing foam blocks down the conveyor belt. He had a blast playing with the other kids.

old man

He is 15 years old and while he's very healthy for a dog his age, we can see the signs of aging. His grey, grizzled fur, and the fact that he can't hear us very well most of all. He's been a part of our family for so long that it will seem like the end of an era when he dies.

cooking with Milo

Somedays help in the kitchen is the last thing I want, when I have a helper it takes twice as long and results in twice as much mess, and sometimes I just want to get dinner made as quickly as possible. But on this day, Milo was feeling restless so I asked him if he wanted to help me make dinner and he eagerly accepted. We ended up having such a good time together, and he was amazingly helpful, much more so than I would have thought possible with a two year old. He helped me make quiche and salad and followed directions quite well. He poured the cream oh so carefully, efficiently turned the crank on the cheese grater, and knew just the right amount of sea salt to grind into the bowl. He also tasted everything, (we discovered that he loves gruyere and he was happy to drink the last cream drips), but that didn't translate to him wanting to eat the quiche and salad when it was ready. Hopefully, it will eventually.