Sunday Outside

Sunday morning we decided that the weather was perfect for enjoying a day outside.

There are lots of great bike trails and parks near our church, so Wander loaded up the bikes in his truck before church. After church, he unloaded the bikes and we wandered the trails, eventually ending up at McDonald's for lunch. After lunch, we rode a bit more and ended up at a park for a birthday party that the girls had been invited to. Wander brought along his fishing gear and got a little fishing in as well.

It had been a while since we've all been on the bikes. As usually, Sparkle and I rode one bike, and Glitter and Wander rode the other. The bike trails wound through the neighborhoods, and were lined with trees. We watched squirrels scamper around and listened to birds chirping. It was so much nicer than aimlessly cruising the streets of our neighborhood. The curves and dips in the trail made Sparkle nervous, but Glitter squealed with delight at each bump and turn.

Glitter's numbers

Glitter is going to be my numbers girl.

In Glitter's reading lesson, she had to read a few columns of words. I used the notched card to guide her on which card to read. As I moved the notched card to the top of the third column, she said, "to." I almost corrected her, because that most definitely wasn't the first word in the column, but held my tongue and she read the actual word. Then we got to the top of the next column, and she said, "three." Turns out that "to" was really "two." She was counting the number of columns that she had read. (This wasn't the first time either; it just caught me off-guard this time.)

After Glitter's reading lesson, she gets to pick any book for me to read to her. She tends to go through phases where she picks the same book day after day after day. One of her favorite books that she keeps returning to "Arthur Counts," a simple lift-the-flap counting book with numbers from 1 to 10.

Glitter likes to quiz Sparkle on adding identical numbers. A recurring car conversation goes something like this:
Glitter: What's 1 plus 1?
Sparkle: 2
Glitter: What's 2 plus 2?
Sparkle: 4
Glitter: What's 4 plus 4?
Sparkle: 8
Glitter: What's 8 plus 8?
Sparkle: 16
Glitter: What's 16 plus 16?
Sparkle (after some thought): 32
Glitter: What's 32 plus 32?
Sparkle: 64
Glitter: What's 64 plus 64?
Sparkle (after a long pause and some furious thinking): 128, right Mom?
Glitter: What's 128 plus 128?
Sparkle: that's enough already

I'm not ready to teach this girl math yet. I'm a little scared at the prospect.

Bedtime pals

Here's the girls with a small fraction of their bedtime pals. I have no idea how they sleep crowded by so many stuffed animals.

Let's Get a Stamp

Now that the weather has cooled off, we have resumed our weekly nature walks, including asking for hand stamps at the garden's office. Sparkle asked for a rose, and Glitter wanted a butterfly stamp.

goodbye chair

I'm slowly trying to free myself from some of the junk piling up in the house. The process involves many trips to Goodwill.

Last week, I loaded up the car with usable stuff that is cluttering our lives, including an old mis-matched chair. When Sparkle saw me load it up in the car, she cried out in dismay -- "Oh no! Glitter, Mommy's getting rid of your old chair!" I had no idea she was so attached to the thing. Even though Glitter hasn't used the chair in over a year, Sparkle remembered that it used to be "her" chair. Sparkle and Glitter whipped themselves into a frenzy to defend the chair's place in our home.

Since it's taken me many months to bring myself to part with the chair, I was not going to let a couple of kids deter me from my purpose at the last minute. I told them (and myself) that, yes, it had been Glitter's chair. She got it when Sparkle no longer used it. Before Sparkle, I had used the chair myself. I got the chair from their uncle, when he no longer needed it. And now, it was time for the chair to service another family.

Once we got to Goodwill, I was feeling nostolgic, so I took a picture of the chair before saying goodbye.

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