wander and sparkle

ah, the tradition continues!  just like on memorial weekend, my parents have everyone over for the 4th of july as well.  what has been fun the past few potlucks has been the fact that everyone's kids are getting bigger!  ledger fits in to the line-up, there are a few kids older, and a bunch of kids younger too.  he does ok playing with the other kids, but he seems to mostly keep to himself.  when the other kids were running around and playing, he would wander off, walking around the bushes and playing his own little games.  we would keep wrangling him back to the other kids, but he would loose interest pretty quickly.  although, he did think it was pretty cool when they took out the sparklers!  as a little preview of the fun fireworks they would see that night, the kids had a chance to play with some sparklers!  ledger didnt hesitate, he was all about them.  he did pretty well with them, but he kept wanting to touch the sparkling part- at one point he grabbed it, then shrieked when he realized how hot it was!  careful boy!
(more pics from the weekend)

swimming with daddy

diana, mom, and ledger headed out to the beach for the afternoon.  i stayed back to take care of a few things, but told them i would stop by and pick up ledge for his nap.  that way they could stay a bit longer and enjoy the sun in peace.  i decided to surprise everyone by putting on my swim suit and playing it the water with my boy!  ever since his swimming lessons, he is a lot more comfortable and sure of himself in the water.  we headed out there and had a blast just floating around and playing.  he always had to keep an eye on the seaweed, but other than that he doing great out there.  after playing for a bit, we went back to shore and i took him back to the trailer.  he must have exhausted himself pretty well, because it didnt take long for him to fall fast asleep!

rescue grabber

one of ledger's favorite things about going to visit mema and papa at sandy pines is all the fun toys they have!  there are tons of toys there, but not all of them are actual toys... ledge gets a bit creative with his play things- he was rooting around in the shed and came across this fun little thing.  its a little grabber to extend your reach, but to him it was the greatest toy discovery of the weekend!  after allowing me to show him how it works, he was all set.  at first he struggled a bit with getting the thing to grab, but after a few minutes, he had it all figured out and was actually able to pick up other toys with it!  he asked what is was called and we told him it was a 'grabber'.  i guess that name wasn't good enough for him, so he added a little to it, he called it his 'rescue grabber'!  all weekend he was playing with his rescue grabber, even after it had been put away multiple times!

in case of fire

we had been bragging about our new fire pit for a week or two, so miranda and levi decided to take us up on the offer.  they stopped by, along with barbara, to have our inaugural fire.  so far i had gotten it build and then we mostly just looked at it saying 'we should really have a fire, huh?'  in preparation of the first fire, i picked through our branches and lawn waste pile to get some good ones.  we pulled out some paper and cardboard from the recycle bin, and set out the grill lighter.  i tried to start it and failed miserably (big surprise there...).  giving up, i walked around the house to the garage to get the lawn mower gas tank- that aught to get it going, huh?- levi steps in and gets that thing going just right.  all that eagle scout training really helped out!  we were able to sit out there for the rest of the night enjoying the beautiful weather and the great big fire.  i'm pretty sure we will be doing this often this summer!