Summer Ann Richards
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Lisa and I finally got together for some time without the kids, but we were happily interrupted at 4:09 when Summer decided to visit.
The facts...
-She checked in at 9 lbs. 5 ounces. The largest of our four.
-She is 21 inches long which is the same length as Brendan, but his feet were much bigger.
-She sleeps a lot. Natalie, Brendan, and AJ were a bit noisy (or rather, they kept us up all night).
-Lisa is doing very well and will come home Monday morning. She was a true champ.
-Ezra barely made it.
Check back later for a few pictures.
What's Happening this Summer?
Monday, July 21, 2008
Here is a quick summary of our summer thanks to Wordle.net
(Click the image to enlarge)
More from the Backyard
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Ezra has come up with some great ideas to keep the kids busy this summer. We call Tuesdays our "Creative Projects" day. On these days, Ezra sets up supplies and instructions with a few starter ideas. Then we turn them loose in the backyard.
Our first project back in June was pinatas. They had balloons, newspaper strips, and paper-mache paste. They needed some help to get doing, but seemed to enjoy the gooey mess. They finished the paper-mache part over three or four days, but they don't seem motivated to decorate the pinatas or break them (even though we already bought some candy to fill them). I think they just don't want to destroy their hard work.
The next project was "Fort Richards". They got old sheets, clothespins, blank t-shirts, markers, and anything they could scrounge out of our recycling bins. We thought that once they had their fort set up, they would happily play in it. It turns out that for them, all of the fun was in the building and they weren't quite sure what to do with it once it was built.
Presenting . . . "Fort Richards":
Soldiers guarding their fort:
Check out their t-shirts. You can tell from Brendan's upside-down name that they were colored while the soldiers were wearing them.
What's happening in our backyard . . .
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Our backyard is having a busy summer. It will take a few posts to get it all in. Let's start with our great up-close "nature experience".
In May, a robin started building a nest in the rafters on our covered deck. It was abandoned shortly after and the beginnings of the nest fell down. Then a couple of weeks later, the robin (or possibly another robin--they all look alike, you know!) returned, and she was serious this time. The nest was built in just a couple of days. Then two robins started hanging around. When they were gone, we checked the nest a few times to see if there were any eggs. We never saw any eggs in the nest. Now we know that we weren't looking deep enough into the nest. Then about two weeks later, the robin started flying back and forth with worms. We watched carefully and realized there were little tiny beaks pointing skyward to receive the worms. The eggs had been laid, kept warm, and hatched ten feet from our kitchen table and we were clueless!
After only a couple of days, the baby birds had grown enough to reach their necks up and be seen. We counted four. The kids really got into watching the nest. Even Amanda, sitting in her high chair would give a little yell when she saw the mother bird arriving at the nest.
It was amazing to watch the mother robin go back and forth and back and forth with worms ALL DAY LONG. I tried to think of a fitting analogy between bird mothers and human mothers. Here's what I came up with: robin mothers and human mothers stay really busy trying to feed their families. Observant, deep, and profound, I know. I should become a writer, don't you think? Ha!
Once we saw the mother come back with a frog (maybe an inch and a half long). The baby birds fought over it. We're still not sure how the winner choked it down.
Here they are, approximately two weeks after hatching. They left the nest within the next 48 hours.
We read on Wikipedia that only 25% of baby robins survive the first year. The day our robins left the nest, we found one of them dead near our fence. We hope that the three remaining robins fare a little better and maybe next spring one will come back to build their own nest in the same spot.
Shoezy Suzy (aka Amanda)
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Watch out Imelda Marcos--Amanda has a shoe infatuation! When she isn't wearing her own little pair of summer sandals, she's trying someone else's shoes on for size.
Daddy's shoes are a little hard to balance in:
Mommy's flip flops are way too big:
Natalie's sandals are smaller than Mom's, but are still tricky to stand up and walk in:
Brendan's fit a little better, she can actually walk around the house:
Amanda keeps us smiling! 
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