Well, what have we been doing this week? Well, other than the everyday never ending laundry (seriously, how much laundry can 5 people possible accumulate??), dishes, cleaning up toys all over the floor, preparing and cooking of all the meals, cleaning kitchen and floors, showers and bath times, endless negotiating with strong willed toddlers, braking up fights, kissing (the wounds of the one who lost the fight..) bumped heads and scratched up knees, practicing letters, numbers, keeping the kids activated with puzzles, games, reading and telling stories at least 5 times/day, singing and having dance parties while cooking, folding laundry while checking homework and catching up with the oldest about school and friend stuff, running errands, taking care of our bunny, putting tired kids to bed, and then finally around 10pm get some ME time with the rest of the laundry to fold on the sofa to catch up on some DVR show or spend some time here on the computer. Most of these days we have also spent many hours outside in the beautiful weather.
Our time is now! We have to use these days wisely!! The winter in the desert is when we are finally living outside of our homes, where it's warm and nice, but not hot and sweaty and you actually can spend hours outside. In the desert it's a bit different to the other places where we have lived, where the summer days were the days where we would use the days to do all the stuff that we wanted, as you don't know how long the weather will stay good for or how many more weeks the sun will shine..
Here, most of our summers are spent indoors, as extended outdoor activities aren't possible when it's close to 120F/50C. And as you all know, summer is LONG here in Arizona. We are now enjoying the temperatures of about 75-80F/25-30C and it won't be long before they start to climb over to the more dreadful degrees, where we are bound most of the days to the indoors with the blasting air conditioners and ceiling fans on every day....
This week we've been to this newly found playground a couple of times, and the kids love it. The first time when we were there, I was thinking to myself that the sidewalk that goes around the whole grass area, is perfect for the kids to run their bikes on. They love their bikes and they have been practicing close to every day, and they are doing really good. Around the house, there are no good sidewalks, and riding on our street (even if calm) it's a constant running around, and checking for me, to make sure that both kids are doing alright, and that no cars are coming from any direction. So to have them riding their bikes here, where it's flat and with no interfering with others or with any traffic, is great!
I don't know how far it is, but it's quite a bit to get around the field. Especially for their little legs, it's a lot to get around once, and they normally go around 4 times each when we are there, if not more.
The other day when my friend Pamela and her son Calvin came along with us, I had my camera with me to get a few good shots of the kids, and Pamela got a few good ones of us too!! Enjoy the pictures and if you live where it's snow outside your windows...enjoy the sunshine!! I wish it would be greener and more colorful pictures, but the grass here isn't green and the rest is pretty sand and beige...The sky is always blue though!!
Isabella's trainer wheel got over the edge and she fell down, not hurting herself though but checking out the flower until I came over to her to walk with her.
"Are you coming mamma?"
The second time around they went, Ben went so fast that he was done far ahead of Bella. I told him to try to catch up with her, and he said he'll try. Biking on his own, really good, and in the last curve, he was getting closer and closer, until he was just behind her....
...and just by the "finish line" where the tables were and where I was standing at this point, he caught up with her and passed!
A lot of drinks are needed after biking and playing!
It will take some time until they are tall enough to reach up to the drinking fountain!
It was a great day, and we continued to play at the playground and on the field for quite some time before it was time to pack up and go home before Cassie would be there with the bus. I took some pictures of them playing so nice together with the Frisbee, but those I'll have to post another day!
