Jeans and T Shirt Required: Catching Up

I've been very neglectful of this blog in recent months. It's hard to say why exactly. We've been busy. I'm in a place of general discontent and therefore, feeling uninspired. Xury doesn't nurse as often, giving me less internet time. We've still been doing what we do, mostly, and I've still been taking pictures, just not recording any of it. I've started several posts and never finished. So, in an effort to get back to business, I'm going to take a moment to catch up. Most of these should be posts in and of themselves so we'll just have to be satisfied with the abbreviated version and lots of pictures.

Lately we've been taking inspiration from the internet. I never would have guessed that a few dollar store sponges would provide so much entertainment. These sponges have provided endless entertainment and exploration, in the bathtub, in the pool and in various buckets and bins. They've be used a lot.

Www.playathomemomllc.com/2013/07/sponges-and-water-1-00-sensory-bin/

We found this awesome playdough recipe

http://theimaginationtree.com/2012/04/best-ever-no-cook-play-dough-recipe.html

That and a bunch of garage sale playdough sets have meant that playdough has been set up for play on the patio table for weeks now.

We played with rainbow foam.

http://www.funathomewithkids.com/2013/08/rainbow-soap-foam-bubbles-sensory-play.html?m=1

They had tons of fun, but honestly, it was a lot of work. I think they would have been just as happy with a bubble bath full of bubbles.

We've made several trips to the beach.

And brought home lots of shells.

Aravis was very distraught to discover that the cool shell with lots of shells stuck to it that she found was, in fact, a shell with marine life stuck to it that had been alive. She thought the shells looked familiar but couldn't remember where she'd seen them. Then realized she'd seen them at the pet store stuck to the side of aquariums. That was a little traumatizing for my animal lover but now she knows for next time.

Xury has gone through buckets of sidewalk chalk. She spends hours on the patio wearing the chalk down to little nubs.

And she got some new toys that everyone loves to play with.

They're really cool on the light table.

We went to Pioneer Day at a local nature preserve and got to try lots of hands on pioneer experiences like making ice-cream and grinding corn and coffee.