Then there was time for 'previewing' future sandbox adventures with Blake...
...exploring the art of cairn building on the patio table with Pop's guidance...
......introducing a little color into his cairn........
being mesmerized by the moveable 'wind art' .......
checking out the wind chimes and making them 'sing'.......
and, of course, 'motoring' about in Pop's desk chair! Such a sweet afternoon with precious Blake while daddy and mommy went out on a date. A good day for everyone, don't you think?
The next morning Silas and Cora showed up bright and early to hang out with us while daddy and mommy participated in the Warrior Dash in Inola. We had just taken delivery on a composting bin and.....well, a cardboard box this size just offers so many possibilities;)
Silas drew the hinged door and windows of various shapes and sizes on each side (love the round porthole!) and then he and Cora watched intently while I began the transformation with a box knife.
Soon he was 'getting after it' with a variety of paints and lovin' it!
Cora was cautiously fascinated by what was going on, too.
At one point, though, it seemed to be contest to
see who could get more of the bubble solution on whom!
While Cora napped, Silas and I worked on our checkers strategies.
Soon Cora was up and ready to join up back outside, waving at the passing cars......
....flashing that 'ready smile.'
We were so thankful for such a pretty day on which we could enjoy so many outdoor activities.....just had to hang out in the sandbox for awhile.....and even got to observe a spider's egg sac attached to one of the sandbox toys. Good day and tired, happy smiles all around. The painting of the box house will continue this coming week because Kady will be over for a couple of days and Silas will join us for one of those. Then next weekend Silas and Cora will come for whole weekend, so there's more fun just around the corner!
Oh, and the composting bin that once lived in Silas's box house? Well, that was THIS weekend's project. After learning much about this process and acquiring a small intermediate container for kitchen scraps, we're set up and ready to go.......'Compzilla' got its first few mouthfuls yesterday and we can look forward to creating our own 'planting medium' (soil) called 'black gold' by farmers and gardeners. Seems like it will also be a 'fertile' environment for sharing some of these important concepts with our sweet 'little ones'.
So blessed are we just to have these moments of connection with family that cause us to slow down and marvel at the visit of a hummingbird, the egg sac of a spider, the song of a wind chime, the flow of sand through a funnel, the bubble-within-a-bubble as it floats upward and catches a current, the cool surprise of morning's dew on Cora's sweet bare feet.
~gratitude~
