Summer Fun

We are back into our summer routine (which I just love) and soaking up the final days of it as Koen starts school next Thursday.  Anyways, on Tuesday we had our usual playdate with Deborah and her kids.  Tavin learned to pump on the swings.  It was so exciting!  He was giggling with glee.

Penn was thankful that at this trip to Highland Park I thought to bring a blanket for him to play on so that he could move around and stretch his legs.  He is fascinated with this one particular matchbox car right now (it's actually one of Doug's old ones).  He was a happy little bug (although here he looks quite serious).

Koen was super busy (and sweaty) running around with Miles.  They have a perch on top of the wooden tunnel.  First Miles looked, then Koen.  Since I'm not sure I've caught them in a pic together this summer, I had to post both.

On Wednesday our regular Osceola playdate buddies weren't able to meet up, so we had a backyard pool days.  The boys loved it!  Koen and I filled the pool up during Penn's morning nap.  Then we went on a hot walk to the library and by the time we got home it was lunchtime and then the big boys hit the pool.  They played for an hour or so before naptime and then they played again after naps for about an hour again.  Here's some footage (of course).

In the afternoon on Wednesday Koen and I did our science experiment of the week.  We learned about surface tension and buoyancy.  Our first part of the experiment was dropping pins into a glass of water that was full to the brim.  We kept a tally (you can see in the picture).

We got to 30 pins and that water's surface tension was so strong that we gave up.  We then learned that you can actually float a paperclip on the top of water.  Who knew?  The surface tension was so obvious because of how full the glass was that it pushed up around the paperclip like Jell-O, pretty impressive!  

Today we had a fun playdate at Schenley Park.  It was the first meetup of a new playgroup/moms group that I'm starting at our church.  I figured I wouldn't weird anyone out by pulling out the camera at the first playdate.  The only picture from today is a self-portrait of Koen.  I wouldn't normally include it except that he told me I had to "put it on the blog" and also because I have a little story of Koen-to-date to share with it.

My poor Koen.  He's been dealing with loose, uncomfortable teeth for weeks now.  His top front left (his left) tooth is super loose and with just a little bump or unexpected jostle, it bleeds.  Koen cries once a day about it usually.  It's breaking my heart.  At this point I'm offering to yank it out, but he won't let me.  Now I'm praying it just falls out.  He's even developed a sore on his lip from playing with it so much and is now in pain because of that.  Poor Koen.  I had no idea this tooth-losing phase was so rough!  Be prepared for a celebratory post when this stubborn tooth finally falls out of this strong-willed 6-year-old's face!

That's it for now!