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studio sproutin’
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

We have a little bit of time before Dylan starts up summer camp and I have to head into the office (right now, I’m doing some work from home on a very limited basis), so I signed the kids up for an art “class” for the next few weeks.

Both kids love art and it’s definitely nice to let them have at it without havign to deal with the mess at home!

the other artist
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

ice paints
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

They did a few different painting projects, including watercolor with “popsicle paints” which were subsequently renamed “ice paints” because one of the kids kept on trying to eat the thing! I was pleased that Cameron didn’t succumb to this temptation!

rock salt project
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Then they did a project with blocks of ice which the kids sprinkled with rock salt and then painted. The colors were supposed to drip down into the tunnels formed by the rock salt, but it took a little too long for the rock salt to do its work for us to see the results.

more experimentation
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

mr. sociable
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

You can see Dylan can be so sociable! In larger groups, he’s much more timid!

the flowee lover
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

While Dylan continued to work with the rock salt and ice block, Cameron got to make a flower arrangement.

back on the carousel
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

After class was over, we headed over to SJ again to celebrate Father’s Day with my family. Christina was leaving for a business trip on Saturday AM and we were going to head for the redwoods, so we had to celebrate a little early. But, before heading to Lola’s, we had to ride the train and carousel again!

the sweetie pie
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

smilin’ for mom
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

<3
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

getting ideas for his own track?
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

After we’d squeezed in a couple of rides each on train and carousel, we had lunch with Tom, then headed to Lola’s to await everyone’s arrival for dinner!

auntie cindy and chloe
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

hi again, lola!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

father’s day picture
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

christina and mike
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Another father-daughter shot…!

run run run
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

After dinner, it finallycooled down! We all went outside and watched the kids run and do “tricks.”

smiiiile
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

cooling off
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

the diva duo
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Cameron had loads of fun getting Auntie Christina to chase her around!

cartwheel time
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Dylan came out to try to do cartwheels….

advice from Ty
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

demo
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Auntie Christina shows us how it’s done!

one more try!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Dylan gave it several game tries…

cameron collects more flowers
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

And, of course, Cameron had to pick flowers…

time out!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

…and put poor Grandpa on time out. It’s too bad this is her favorite game to play with him! She is constantly sending him outside!!

Summer break is off to a good start.

BJWRR
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Dylan’s last day of school was a half-day at the park with the rest of the Kindergarten classes. Tom was able to join us for a little while before he headed off to work, but rather than just wing it around town (it was kind of chilly that day), we decided to drive Tom to work and head to good ol’ Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad.

Cameron likes the carousel and Dylan likes the train and Chloe likes walking around outside, so I’d say it was a triple-win situation! Here are a few more pictures.

one happy boy
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

both kids in fave shirts
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

cameron on her fave horse
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

hmmm…back on the train again??
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

with the engine in back
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

sno-kone time
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

It was so hot in Los Gatos, I let the kids have a sno-kone.

slurrrp
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

chloe with lola
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Good thing I took pictures! I nearly forgot we visited Lola before picking up Tom again! And thus ended the first half-day of summer break!

a whopper of a vegan cupcake
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

This past weekend, Tom had another morning SJSU event, so the kids and I hauled it solo over to Natural Bridges for one of the sweetest bday parties ever.

my big sweeties
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

The party was for one of Cameron’s buddies (Shane) who we met at Music Together. Dylan didn’t know him, so he spent more time playing with Cameron than he usually does!

turn towards me, please
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

They were very nice to each other that day! When we were leaving the party, they helped each other hike up the big sand dune leading up to the car while I hauled their sand toys, extra snacks, diaper bag, and a load of trash we volunteered to help dispose of …

yummmy!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Shane’s mom was super thoughtful and included some vegan cupcakes for Cameron and Dylan. Dylan picked vanilla and Cameron, well, you can see she chose chocolate!

It was such a sweet celebration. Shane loved being near the water, so that’s where he blew out his candles…and it was just a perfect day at the beach. It was warm and sunny and not too windy!

So, where was Chloe?? She stayed asleep the entire time!!!

Here are a few more pics….

Shane and Claire
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

running through the sand
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

frozen in time!!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

no time to cheese
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

one of the natural bridges
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

super kitty dylan
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Last weekend after swimming, we had a play date with old friends, Cora and Anela. We first met them during story time when Dylan was only 3 years old (or maybe 4??). Even though we haven’t seen them in a long while, the girls and Dylan picked up right where they left off….They played together superbly! And, in this particular bout of make believe, they were super kitties guarding playground areas from the super pups!

super kitty transpo
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

The preferred method of transport were scooters…it just so happened, by the way, that we bumped into an old baby buddy, Hailey, while we were there, too. She’s in the back on her bike.

cameron kitty
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Cameron was just a baby when she first met the girls, but these girls are soo sweet, she was comfortable with them immediately. She’s guarding one of the areas with Cora (who is Dylan’s age).

chloe in stripes
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Meanwhile, Chloe just hung out on mine or Tom’s shoulder. It was a hot day and she was wearing the wrong thing (long sleeves), but she still enjoyed being outside in the sunshine with the rest of the kids!

kids’ storefront
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Calling our house a “disaster” is really kind of an understatement…The other evening, the kids thought it would be fun to set up a store. Dylan is selling train souvenirs, Taliana is running the cafe, and K.’s got the instruments.

running the coop
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

This set-up involved relocating part of the play kitchen to an entirely different area…like in the middle of the path from front door to great room! Then, they added the fold-out tables and all the required and saleable goodies. Needless to say, it was quite a mess! On the other hand, they were so pleased how could we resist??

They wanted to leave it set up (of course!). When I actually had the gall to move the stuff back into their usual places, I caught a lot of grief. Sooooo…there it remains…right in the way. Now that Dylan is focusing on painting his tea party set, though, I think I might just be able to get away with putting everything back in its place! We’ll see.

ipad
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Last Saturday, Tom had an SJSU event in the morning, so it was just me and the kiddies for the morn. We managed to get all dressed and ready for action fairly quickly, but then they whipped out the iPads and everything came to a grinding halt.

So, I’m of two minds when it comes to these devices; on the one hand, Cameron is already beginning to trace out letters, numbers, words, and shapes; she does the “read to me” stories and she plays with the math game, so there’s content there that isn’t totally empty. On the other hand, they can spend oodles of time on these things and it’s difficult to pull them away from it!

mr. engineer
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Luckily, at least with respect to Dylan, there’s always a train station or track that needs building!

train town
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Using blocks, dollhouse accessories and MagnaTiles, Dylan built a station which even included semaphores (red and green half-circles set atop blue and red blocks), a fancy ticket station (dollhouse table–there’s a little dollhouse figure sitting in the giant chair), and a playground near the station for kids waiting for the train to arrive.

diesel’s on time!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Here’s the diesel leaving the station…

DSC_6179
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

And, here’s Dylan looking pretty pleased with how the set-up is turning out.

out in back
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

We did make it out into the backyard for a bit, too. We planted 4 basil plants, watered Dylan’s lettuce and our snow peas, and we discovered some pretty tasty cherries on our cherry tree!

out on the path
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

After Tom got home, we managed to persuade the kids that a walk on the path behind our house would be fun. Dylan and Tom went all the way to the other end of our street and down to the school and back. But, Cameron tuckered out not too far into the walk, so she and I headed back, looking for sticky monkey flowers and french broom along the way.