so, the other thing carter has been doing is drawing. i know ava did not scribble at this age, but i think he has been watching her, and knows the drill. it is pretty fun. though he still cannot figure out which he likes better, eating the crayon or drawing with it.

we are still coming down from the excitement of the birthday party--ava wants to do it again and again, and i am still glowing with pride over the compliment my friend jen gave me--she looked at me and said "geez erin, it is like you have a little school here!" nothing could have made me happier.

ava is totally cutting it up on the ski skimmer--she knows how to carve turns now. next year she is going to be jumping the wake--toe side. today was pretty fun. we woke up and immediately headed down to the dock, where ava and i put our feet in and chatted while i drank my coffee. then we decided to swim, and ava found it pretty funny that i went in the water with my jammies on. we came back up to the house, packed up to go skimming/boarding/skiing, left the house in a state of total disarray, and never walked back inside until 1 pm. we went out on the boat, went to town, got lunch, went to donnelley's, and then played outside until a random thunderstorm drove us inside. i put carter down for his nap, confronted the disaster that was our house, made dinner ahead of time, then the sun came out so back outside we went. we got new sand for the sandbox, so the kids are really adoring that. (leave it to me to go buy 300 lbs of sand on the hottest day of the summer for 2 years in a row now...they truly hate me at aubuchon's hardware). back inside for dinner, tubs, playing, etc., and back outside for our evening 'raspberry walk' -- which turned into a monarch butterfly caterpillar walk. i never thought i would find something that interested ava more than raspberries on a walk, but lo and behold, there is a milkweed patch on the side of the road, and it was covered in monarch butterfly caterpillars. this is really cool for several reasons: 1. they are neat caterpillars, very caterpillar-y looking, with yellow and black stripes, and big antennae on both ends. 2. you can literally see them munch munch munching the leaves. 3. there were an absolute TON and they are quite big. 4. they are monarchs, practically the coolest insect as far as i am concerned, and gave us plenty to discuss (cocoons, migration patterns, milkweed, mexico, predator evasion, etc). 5. i was instantly transported back to my ranger rick days and experienced a rush of childhood excitement since as a 10 year old i was obsessed with monarchs and never, ever, in all of my milkweed hunting days, did i ever actually see the caterpillars. until today. ava was quick to note my excitement, and decided that she needed to adopt one, so we have a covered bucket with some milkweed and various sticks and "ava the caterpillar" out on the porch. i do hope we get a cocoon, it will be very very cool to watch.

what a great little experience. there is so much for them to learn. i LOVE teaching them too. i guess there was a reason i tried on nearly every major there was to be had in college. if only i could have my own little school!