In the Meantime....

Pirates!

I wonder if they realize how many children around the world dress up like them and pretend to be them on a regular basis? What is the draw for children, anyway? We just finished reading through Peter Pan together and the kids couldn't get enough of Hook and his minions. Henry noted the other day that Somalia is a good place for pirates to live because it has so much coastline. Perhaps Neverland is closer than I realized.

I acknowledge that I get too serious sometimes during election years. To be fair, the House and Senate election years are more exciting than the off years. But that every-fourth-year rush of the Presidential race - it intrigues me. I don't like the negative ads, but I am fascinated by the strategy, work and resources that go into this cycle.

So fascinated, in fact, that I sometimes forget to update you, the reader, about what real-life things are going on in the lives of the people I am supposed to be writing about. Lest you fear I've completely abandoned the children to memorize the electoral college map, let me share with you some of my favorite moments with the fam and friends here lately.

Good news! Homeschool continues to be a great fit for both students and teacher. We recently studied insects, including a giant bumblebee we found dead (perfect for showing body and leg segments!) and I gave the kids an assignment to go outside one morning and photograph insects they found. Henry found this cool mass of ants eating a dead worm-ish creature. It took several dozen ants about 20 minutes to make it completely disappear.

The kids have plenty of playdates, usually involving dress-up, theatre, action-adventure, or all of the above.

Please pardon my mixed use of photo treatments in this post. The kids earned enough money to get camera+ on their ipods and we're all having too much fun with the fx settings.

Ruby continues to thrive in all things academic and artistic. Henry is in the early stages of reading short books and has recently begun to care about handwriting, much to my relief. Like their father and me, both enjoy math very much.

There must be a million-dollar market in monkey shirts for little boys. These two were both Ironman with their gold masks on. Well, more like geriatric Ironmen, since the masks are opaque and they couldn't see a thing.

It turns out Henry is quite a tree climber, and Ruby has ventured up in a few, although she prefers to stay on the ground and tell Henry to be careful. We have a lot of 'who's the Mommy?' talks, Ruby and me.

That's Ruby and Len walking along the shore as we waited for our food at a local restaurant. The ocean makes everything better. Perspective + Beauty as far as you can imagine.

An Irish friend has been hanging out with us lately, and she is a natural director, dramaturg and actress, organizing everyone into a full production whenever there's a chance. This is The Birthday Fish; Henry is Marigold/dream pony and Ruby is the little girl; Nicola is narrating and directing with the lake at her feet.

Ruby and Henry enjoy swimming; we try to get them in the water at least once a week. They're each swimming without assistance and today they practiced snorkeling in the pool.

There you have it, proof that GDP does proportionately impact voter turnout...proof that there really is fun to be had in the midst of this busy season, and more importantly, that we're having it. Fact check that.