Magical Coral Reef

The weekend of the Fourth was fabulous. We upgraded to a 12 foot diameter inflatable pool for the kids. The old inflatable wading pool from last year had a couple of air leaks. This year they have much more room for them to splash about. Now every time we turn around we hear the chorus of "Can we go in the pool?" Both kids are enrolled in swimming lessons for 8 weeks this summer. I'm so proud of the both of them for being brave enough to put their faces under.
Danielle found a caterpillar and brought it to show me in her bug box. We gathered many different kinds of leaves from trees and bushes in the yard to see which ones he liked to eat. Crunchy Munchy (as Danielle named him) didn't seem to want any we had to offer, not even from the rose bush on which he was found. After doing some internet research to find out what kind of butterfly Crunchy Munchy would become, we found Crunchy Munchy would actually transform into a moth. I made Danielle put him back where she found him after lunch, but for about an hour and a half my kids we transfixed on Crunchy Munchy. Once again I'm humbled by the eager minds of a child, soaking up everything the see. I'm glad I was able to share with my children another example of the beauties and wonders of nature.

Our neighbors brought their child over to play in our pool after each of us had our repective cookouts. I made a firecraker craft out of toilet paper tubes with the kids. I found the idea from a magazine (Family Fun I think).

My kids are a little older now, so I bought $1 worth of Sparklers for them. I was a little disappointed. I remember as a kid, Sparklers really sparked. These just kind of fizzled and smoked a lot. It's probably because of so many lawsuits.

Sunday afternoon we celebrated my brother's 50th. Happy Birthday David!

So far, Aden has had two ear infections this summer (or maybe a continuation of the same one - not sure). I hope the new antibiotic knocks it out this time.

This past week the kids had a great time at Vacation Bible School. Our theme was a coral reef where we were asked to "dive deep into God's word". One of our church members is an contractor and his son is studying to be an architect. They build an elaborate wood and chicken wire structure that filled our sanctuary. We transformed it into an spectacular sea kingdom using blue vinyl plastic, crumpled brown paper bags, and colored tissue paper.

Aden's favorite part was the science lessons. The kids made a miniature coral reef of their own to take home out of a kitchen sponge, liquid bluing, salt, water and I think ammonia. We were all really impressed when the "Science Guy" made a 20 foot geyser out of a 2 liter of diet soda and 13 Mentos candies.

I was the co-teacher for the kindergarten and first grade class. Most of my kids learned all of their Bible verses for each night. Aden and his best friend from church recited the seasons of the church year, the Lord's Prayer and the 10 Commandments for prizes. Aden tried his best to learn the Apostle's Creed for another novelty prize, but finally decided it was a little too hard. I'll work with him for next year. Learning all the books of the bible also gets a prize, but it seems the only six kids who were able to do that were 5th graders (and girls). I've volunteered to teach the same grades next year so I can have Danielle in my class, then I'll alternate back to teaching Aden's class. Though it's been an exhausting week, it's been a lot of fun.

We took the kids to the Columbia Marionette Theater for another production. This one was "Jack and the Giants". We also took a family trip to the library, which we haven't done in a while. We used to go every two weeks. This year, it seems something always occupies us every Saturday.

The kids have been asking to go to the beach. I'm not sure which one we will hit. I really enjoyed Huntington Island and lighthouse we went to two years ago. The public restroom facilities were very convenient and it was not very crowded. When you have two kids that "gotta go", easy access to a public restroom is a must. Possibly Isle of Palms? I haven't decided yet, but we'd better go before the end of the summer or else I'll have two very disappointed kids on my hands.