our week at a glance

still loving dads camera and experimenting a little bit more.

one of dads photos

monday feels like years ago, we went to santa barbara to play with butterflies and get dirty.

Tuesday we went to the park with a friend in dakota's class.

it was very cute i told dakota 'hey we are going to meet so&so at the park'

and dakota gets this dramatic look on her face 'why didn't you tell me,

mom he is so smart, he can do math so fast'

it was very sweet.

once we were home dakota played with her friend who lives on our street.

we have such a great street.  

three boys who are dakotas age and one other little girl

then a little boy leelas age and a little girl leelas age.

it has been a great experience in letting dakota go and not hovering

allowing the older kids to ride their bikes out front and just play.

one sunday afternoon our next door neighbor had a pool in the front lawn and we hung out all day.

i love this street.

wednesday sara and abby came over.  the girls played wash the bricks with toothbrushes

sara and i thought it was pretty funny, they didn't get it.

abby and leela working hard to get the bricks clean

then we went to moms for family dinner night.

i made a peach cobbler and i didn't like it so that was a bummer.

dont get me wrong i still ate it but it was not a cobbler

much more cake like, didn't keep the recipe.

random photo. me playing with color saturation and exposure

thursday we met up with a friend from dakota's softball team at a pool.

she and her friend hadn't seen each other sense softball ended so it was fun to watch them just fall back into friendship, i love that.

thursday night randy's cousin was in town so we went up to his grandma's for dinner 

and the cousins played.

and friday mellow morning followed by thrifting with friends.

i love thrifting but i just can't go with the girls anymore 

i was so frazzled when we left.

dakota had a sleep over with gaggi last night, leela was going to but called to let us know she had changed her mind.

this morning when she woke up the first thing she says to me is she wants chickens,

chickens that lay eggs

chickens that go baak baak.

pretty darn cute.  

 

the backyard

 

Another fun day, we went up to the santa barbara museum of natural history

what a great little treasure

we could really spend all day there

we only did two things the butterflies and the backyard and we were there for three and a half hours.

Dakota so desperately wanted a butterfly to land on her 

we have been there several times and I am not sure if one ever has 

but today she was a popular girl

as was leela

they were both thrilled.

it is always so nice to me to go there and to watch how mesmerized dakota is, how she can sit and enjoy and 

observe.

then it was off to the museum's backyard

it has a small stream

with little wooden boats that can travel down the stream

it has a mud pie making station with pie tins and a  faucet

kids are encouraged to take their shoes off and get dirty.

also back there is a little room with a volunteer or employee i am not sure which

and there are bugs, pollywags, a ringnecked snake, frogs, slugs, rolly pollies

and she was there showing the girls all of it.

and then i never knew this, but there is a bird aviary back there too

a paragon falcon that was shot in the wing. they also had two american kestrels, a great horned owl and another type of owl.

with rescued birds and we happened to be there when they were bringing them out.

a western screech owl that was blind you can see the mud pie station and the little house in the background

it was a very cool day.