what's in your pocket???

I do love our days. Spending our days outdoors.  The boys are big into bike riding and yesterday there was a mini scooter on the side of the road for free (best price!).  So mini scooter for J, CO borrowed a set of roller skates and they spend many hours riding around the deck (unfortunately we have a gravel driveway). J then moved to riding his scooter down the small hill from the raised weeping bed beside the driveway, CO used the wagon (good practice for when he is older and a boyscout for boxcar racing).


At one point the boys and I were looking for bugs to feed the chickens and I found a snail. The boys and I spent about an hour waiting for the snail to come out of the shell and then crawl around our hands. Very fun. J LOVED the snail and tried carrying it around in his pocket for awhile. I finally convinced him that the bug catcher was a better idea and he stuffed if full of grass for a bed for it. And then carried it around the rest of the morning.
This evening after supper we hung out in the backyard around the campfire pit. The boys rode their bikes around the trails that we cut with the lawnmower this afternoon. J is amazing at riding his scooter downhill and CO's athletic abilities to off road with his bicycle amazes me.  After a bit they took a break and did some log hopping. I have a bunch of big logs all in a row out there and it is for kids to play on. I was very surprised how well J did.
At the end of the day, CO pulled some worms out of his pocket to give to his chickens (boy am I glad that he remembered rather than them going through the laundry).
The boys were both beat this evening. I dragged them in just before 8, gave them a quick bath, read some stories and they both were asleep within minutes of their heads hitting the pillows.
Not to say our whole day went well. CO is still struggling these days with obeying and being kind and gentle. J's lunch fell on the ground twice...sigh. Neither boy went down for their nap without tears due to objecting over rules being enforced.
I did get our next few weeks of school planned while they napped. CO is doing well with it. We are done most mornings by 930 as he is eager to get out the door to play. We do science outdoors by exploring nature and art outside by painting at the outdoor easel with watercolour or drawing with pastels. The boys get A LOT of physical education (hence the two hours of nap time every afternoon).
We have some tadpoles in the critter bowl in the bathroom. There is also a snail there. There is a magnifying glass on the counter beside it so the boys can explore the changing tadpoles and look at them up close. (Here is to hoping that the tadpoles are the faster transforming ones rather than the slower ones).  CO has asked to keep them once they are frogs but I told him that they need to be returned to their homes by then.