(Another) Zoo trip with Lucy

Corn on the cob

The newcomer:

The old pro:

Boys at the playground

 Emerson beat his previous personal best of 9 seconds hanging on the bar.

 Feels like not that long ago that Emerson was wearing this outfit...

"Penguin face"

Baseball

Eric took Emerson to see the University of Tampa play baseball at a tournament that they were hosting on campus. Here's the view from their seats. What you can't see in the photo are all of the pro scouts sitting near them checking out a pitcher who has been throwing some pretty fast fastballs. When this UT junior came out to the mound to start pitching, suddenly everyone sitting in the stands had a radar gun. Emerson really enjoyed the game. His favorite part: "watching the umpire call the strikes and balls."

Merrily We Met

A few last photos as we say farewell for now to our Friday morning friends.

Washing dishes

We had our last day of Merrily We Meet at the Waldorf school where we love spending time. Here's Emerson and Ethan helping clean up after snack by washing up the dishes. We will miss our mom & kids class there each week while we are off for the summer. In the fall, Emerson will start preschool there and Ethan and I will go to Merrily We Meet just we two.

Morning at Phillippe Park

Emerson Builds a Bear

One of Emerson's presents for his third birthday was a gift card to the Build a Bear Workshop. This weekend we took him over there so he could make his very own bear. I had never been through the process before and it was fun to go through it with Emerson and see the choices he made.

First, you choose which kind of bear you want to make. Emerson was clear pretty quickly that he wanted the under the sea bear, which is blue, has a starfish for a nose and it is holding a little Nemo fish.

Then you take it over to stuff it, with some help. Emerson stood on the pedal while the helper made stuffing fly into the bear. Emerson got to hug-test him to see if he needed more or less, and determined that he was just right.

Then it was time to put in his heart. Emerson chose a red-and-white-striped heart over a plain red heart and wasn't too interested in following the helper's instructions about rubbing it on his heart and nose (so your bear "nose" you). 

He very intentionally stuffed the heart into the bear before she closed him up.

Then we went and picked out clothes for the bear. Emerson chose an American flag that goes on his hand, along with a red rain jacket and khaki shorts. I talked him out of some black army boots. Just seemed like they would make the bear a lot less snuggly.

Then it was time to name him. Emerson was a little stumped at first. "What does he look like?" I asked Emerson. "Superman" was his reply. And thus, Superman the patriotic underwater bear was born. (Ethan walked off with the flag at some point...)

Even more photos from family reunion

Haven't had enough of the photos from the family reunion? I thought so. Here are the last of them. Now I feel the weekend has been adequately documented.

Park time

Is it just me or are these boys getting really grown up??!