What have you guys been doing?!

We've been doing lots of fun stuff lately. I guess that's one reason I have so neglected this blog. Of course we've been in lots of water. In August we met Faith, Easy, Malila, and Zola at Riis Park in Brooklyn.

Sitting in chairs: Esther & Malila

Sitting on a Towel: Ryan & Easy

Ethan had a really great time talking with Malila.At the end of August, we went to the Northeast Unschooling Conference in Massachusetts. We hung out with friends.

Drue and Ethan

We got tattoos.

We laughed...a lot!

Drue (Standing) Declan (Pointing) Ethan (Sitting) Ryan (Standing on a chair)

We even played some of our favorite board games.

We had sleepovers and even slept at some of them!

Ryan (Left bed) Amory (Sleeping bag next the right bed)
Doran (Right bed) Ethan (Sleeping bag in the foreground)

We tried out new pools like the one at the newly opened Shoreline Y.

Mimi, Ethan, and Doran

We had a visit from Aunt Kathie.

We tried out chocolate fondue. Doran wasn't as fond of it as everyone else. He enjoyed eating the fruit without dipping it.

Ryan, Ethan, Amory, & Doran

We went to Madison Square Park in NYC and then went to see the King Tut exhibit.

Ryan asked to have his picture taken on top of the tire swing structure.

Ethan on the tire swing.

For my birthday, Ethan made me chocolate brownies! He and Ryan lit the candles. Afterward Ryan had a blast re-lighting a candle and blowing it out until it became nothing more than a stub.

We've been having amazing sunsets here lately. This is one we saw from the top of East Rock.

East Rock has been Ryan's favorite place lately. He loves building cities in the sand pit and being buried up to his neck.

So, that's a little of what has occupied out time lately. Now it's time for me to go play with Ryan.

End of the Summer Fun

Our days have been very full lately. I thought August and September would be relatively open months, but they filled up with lots of fun. We cleared out some boxes we had on the third floor and found that we had lots of old financial records we no longer need. We put them in boxes and asked Ethan if he wanted to learn to shred paper. At first he wasn't interested because he was busy on Webkinz. Once he found out it involved a loud machine that wreaked mayhem on hapless sheets of paper he was all over it.
I love the outfit he put together that day. The shirt ("I do all my own stunts") is from his Nan-nan (godmother) and the hat was on its way to Goodwill when he intercepted it. He made the earrings and the necklace himself.

Water still looms large in our activities. Ethan adores going to Hammonasset Beach. I really like this photo of him hanging out there. It was taken on 21 September 2008. We went to the Guilford Fair and Ethan wanted to go to the beach afterward. The water as warm, but the air was too cold for Ba or Mimi to want to get wet. That didn't stop Ethan. Nothing stops Ethan from going into the water. I have no doubt he'd say yes to skinny-dipping in Fargo in February.

Ryan declined to go to the beach. He likes the water well enough, but his passions are his DS and his Webkinz. He's not with his Webkinz here. This time he's sharing his DS secrets with Chiquite. Chiquite is a travelling stuffed monkey. He goes from homeschool house to homeschool house hanging out and having fun.
Ryan is also a big fan of lollipops. We went to the New York Renaissance Faire which is not lacking in the lollipop department.

Chiquite came to the Ren Fest as well. That monkey just cracks Ryan up.