Spidergirl

David went to the gym after work today so the kids and I headed out a little early to meet him there.  We've been here once before and saw this gigantic wall, but didn't learn until recently that they let the kids climb on it too.  Grace has a natural ability to climb, but she's only done kid size rock walls (and gigantic rocks in AZ) in the past.

But, she was not deterred by this monstrosity.

She headed right over and gave it a once over to see where best to start.

 

It took spidergirl just a few tries to get the hang of it and she was scaling it.

 

Mind you, I got up this high and was frightened when I looked down.

I had to climb half-way back down before I could fall back onto the mats.

I would say it's a good 8+ feet high, because at this height I can't reach her.

 

Tristan, who has no survival instinct in the water, decided it was best for him to stick to the ground and play a little basketball (until his sister came and stole the ball).

 

David came and joined us and finished up his workout - with a little help from his son.

 

Then he thought he'd to try to show his daughter up but then decided that probably wasn't a good idea "because of his back."  (I think it's cuz he was afraid Grace would show him how it's done)

So he decided to practice calf roping on his precious little boy...

We really thought about leaving him like this for a while... It would keep him out of all sorts of mischief!

 

Tristan finally decided to give the wall a go, but quickly gave into it's intimidating size...

We had fun and the kids have asked to go back, but next time I think I'll inquire whether or not they have harnesses... then Grace could climb as high as she wished and I wouldn't have a problem with it.

First Flight

David bought this airplane "for the kids".  He had seen it at the PX and thought about getting one, but then he saw our neighbor kid had one and that meant we had to have one.

 

David taking her out for a spin.

(That's our neighbor, David, and his cousin - they wrecked his plane earlier in the day)

 

Loop de loop time

 

Tristan got a couple of good flights in before we decided there was too much interest in the plane by too many little people who didn't know how to fly it correctly (i.e. nose dives by a styrofoam plane into poorly poured concrete and asphalt).

 

David labeled it well since it was a twin to a plane upstairs...

I think our next flights will be on post at a ball field that has a more forgiving landing zone.

A High Sea Adventure

The kids and I have spent the last week at Vacation Bible School.  The program was "High Seas Expedition - Exploring the Mighty Love of God".

 

We started each day with singing, and learning our Bible point for the day.

1.  God's word is true.

2.  God's word is comforting.

3.  God's word is surprising.

4.  God's word is life-changing.

5. God's word is for everyone.

 

 

We then separated into Preschool and Elementary groups and went and listened to our Bible story for the day.

I was a Preschool "Crew" leader

 

My fearless crew

Then, at some point each day we had a time of:

Games...

(They're simulating the stormy seas when God comforts Paul)

 

Pulling an anchor

 

...Chatter's Theatre...

(where they reinforced each day's Bible point)

 

...and the all important craft time.

 

My precious turtles

 

Tristan wasn't in my crew, but he did travel to the different activities with us as we were in the same larger group.  He did really well, and stayed with his own crew most of the time - except during the story time when he wanted to hang out close to me.

 

He was so into singing on this particular day that he was right up in front of the television singing and signing along with the video.

 

Tristan's crew, the Nemos

 

Grace had a great time too, but I didn't see much of her as she was with the elementary kids and we only crossed paths at the beginning and the end of the day.

Now, it's off to Egypt with our church, learning about Joseph's journey from prison to palace.

I don't know that I'll get many pictures of that as David and I are in a class and church service during their VBS time, but I'll see what I can do.

Mother-Daughter Tea

Today was a special day for Grace and I.  We had our first mother-daughter event!  It didn't start out as we had planned it, but we made it work.  I had intended on both of us going and getting manicures and pedicures, but it turns out that you need to make appointments to do such things...

 

So, we improvised, and I did Grace's nails.

 

On our way out the door for our special date:

 

Grace chose to wear her (mine 30 years ago) hanbok and begged me to wear a dress.

Since I don't have a decent dress, I dug out and dusted off a skirt to wear.

 

We had several varieties of sandwiches, cupcakes, fruit, and tea (the iced variety since it is 90 degrees with 90+ % humidity).

They even had hats for all of us to wear.

 

Grace chose a tiara (anyone surprised?)

 

Enjoying her cupcake (while eyeing "The Princess and the Frog")

 

They had several games for the girls to play.

This first one was a freeze dance.

 

She loves to dance (though she was hardly moving at the party) and made it to the final round.

 

And she took home the prize!  Though, as I said, it's hard to tell if she really stopped dancing when the music stopped because she was hardly moving at all in the first place.  But, the judge said that she was the winner.

 

She chose a Princess Tiana puzzle.

 

We both really enjoyed ourselves and I look forward to doing more of these things in the future.  I have noticed that Grace is requesting to do more and more things just the two of us, so I'm hoping to make a date with her once a month.  The boys can have their day and us girls can have our day and go do girlie stuff (though I was never much of a "girl" like my precious princess is, so I'm gonna have to figure it out as I go - any suggestions are more than welcome!).