This week

Eli had a dental procedure done.  The dentist told me to help him be as comfortable as possible, so I let him go in his pj's and hold his blankie the entire time...I figure in a year this won't do the trick, but for now, it helped tremendously.  I told him that we could get milkshakes afterwards and he said, "How about a toy?"  He sure knows how to work the system.

Our neighbors went on vacation and told us we were welcome to use their pool.  So every morning after breakfast, we would go swim for about an hour.  It was amazing how much getting outside for a little bit helped us all.  

We got there are little earlier each day, enjoying a little bit of shade and temps only in the 90's.

By Wednesday, Colin had his suit on at 7:15 and was trying to head out the door.  I stalled long enough to grab a cup of coffee, thinking I could relax by the pool with a book, but coffee+outside+Arizona summer do not mix.

 

I finally got our microscope up and running.

 

I got it while Ben was deployed, took it out of the box and it has been just sitting in the school room for months.  I learned my lesson and should have had it all ready to go before Alison's science lessons needed it.  It took me way too long to figure this thing out!  Thank you YouTube.

The kids were super excited about it though and we had fun exploring different things together one evening.

Ben found a sand dollar on the beach at Coronado and it was the coolest thing to look at.

 

The grossest thing so far has been a bug Alison found.  I definitely did not need to see that up close.

 

Alison and I went to see 'Into the Woods' at the same theater she performed 'Annie'.  She really wanted to be in this play, but it was for older kids.  Strangely enough, pretty much all of the cast were the same people from 'Annie', but I think it was good for her to experience the spectator side.  She thought it was fun to see her friends again and made her even more excited for the next play.