Butterflies

This morning Maggie was outside with me playing ball. Suddenly she turned and stated chasing something else which turned out to be a butterfly. It reminded me of Rhiannon, among others, who was forever entertained by looking for and chasing butterflies. Rhiannon is not her real name, but a name I love. (Katie and Jenny are "lucky" I got over my Stevie Nicks obsession before they were born.) Anyway, this little girl, who was two and then three at time would run all around the yard, or if we were up at the playground, all around the field chasing butterflies. So cute. Other flying objects that provide free entertainment are moths, cicadas, helicopters and airplanes and jets, including the Blue Angels which will have their own upcoming blog. Everyone needs something to look forward to!

Summertime

One of my favorite things about summertime is that there are rarely ever tons of kids at Bobbie's house. After such busy-ness during the school year, it is nice to slow down, catch-up and recharge. Most of the kids I have taken care of are teachers kids, so summers are, in a word, great.
When I do have "drop-ins" during the summer, the days are very relaxed. We have a smaller group, sometimes just one family of two or three kids. One favored activity is taking Maggie down the the creek down the street. The kids stand on the teeny sandy dirt beach and throw sticks or take turns throwing Maggie's floating toy for her to go and get. It is a lot of fun watching the dog in the water. There are also usually fun things to see like teeny fish, and occasionally, ducks or teeny crabs. After that comes the "long" walk home, giving Maggie a bath in the backyard and finally, a freezie pop!

Playing School

One thing I think is funny is how the kids LOVE to play school when they have time off from school. The best is when teachers give the kids old worksheets toward the end of the school year. Katie especially used to love to help her teachers clean out their rooms and would come home with reams worth of old papers! She is still a bit like that, check out her blog, www.theorganizedpackrat.blogspot.com. Anyway, Hannah loved to be the teacher, she is a natural born leader I would say...instigator, others might say... Even as old as fifth grade, Alice and Hannah were still playing school When Alice got tired of it, she would just start being silly and Hannah would send her to the principal (Bobbie). There was a phase when Leah was the oldest one here that she was the teacher. Everyday. I would have to "drive" Nell and Van to school, from the couch in the TV room. She would come get them from "carpool" and walk them into "school" which was the living room. They would have to stay "buckled" until she can and got them. When Mason was paying attention, he got to ride along, but being two years younger, had to stay with Bobbie and couldn't go to school. Mason would be in charge of the keys though (upcoming blog about key obsessions) and Van would make sure i knew which couch cushion to plug the keys into. Leah would play school all day if she could, Nell was the best stunt as long as Leah gave her papers to color. Van was always ready to get picked back up from carpool and go "home" to the other room and tell me all about his day at "school".

Family Ties

This one is actually a follow-up to last week. There are many families who have had more than one child here at Bobbie's house. Which is a lot of fun to see them grow and see the school age kids come back. My sibling families are:
Pookie and Johnny
Hannah, Ella and Leah
Alice and Vada
Jack, Van and Nell
Chloe and Mason
Cooper and the newest one, Avery
One of my favorite times is "Camp Bobbie" in the summer, one week where it is only big kids, no babies, no diapers and no having to run your day around naptime...though i DO love naptime...which was a whole other blog. Not sure what this blog is about other than the sibling thing.