Recycling Field Trip

I helped chaperone Evelyn's class field trip to the Montgomery County Recycling Center this morning. This recycling center is where the recyclables are sorted before being shipped off to manufacturing facilities. After listening to some information about recycling in our county, it was time to pop in the ear plugs and go see the sorting in action.

There's a cat walk along one wall of the recycling center, where we got a bird's eye view of all the machines. It was really cool, watching all the machines and people sort everything. There were also windows overlooking the outdoor areas where we saw front-end loaders pushing mounds of recyclables onto the main conveyor belt. Even though it was a quick trip - we were there less than an hour - it was very informative and fascinating.

Evelyn's Little Gym Class

Today was show day for Evelyn at the Little Gym. She got to strut her stuff with the three major components of gymnastics: floor, bar and balance beam routines. She did awesome with all three exercises. The most important thing is that Evelyn really enjoys going to gymnastics and learning to do new tricks. After taking a break this summer, Evelyn will be back for more gymnastics in the fall.

Julia at the Little Gym

Julia has been taking gymnastics classes at the Little Gym this semester. We are nearing the end of the "Super Beasts" class, and I had a chance to take some pictures of our little monkey in action.

Julia's favorite exercise is, by far, the bars. She would be perfectly content to swing on them for all 45 minutes of class.
More bars, bear-crawl style:
And more bars! Julia likes to swing her legs side-to-side on this bar.
Julia doesn't mind the balance beam, but she isn't too keen on doing any tricks on it. She likes to keep it simple - walk forward.
At the end of class today the kids got to run around in bubbles. Julia was giggling uncontrollably while chasing after them. Julia loved going to gymnastics every week, so I'm sure she'll be back in class this September.

Back to the Pool

It's another pool season, so you know where to find us when the weather is sunny and warm: the community pool. Evelyn is still quite the little fish in the water. She does so well for a seven-year-old - swimming front and back crawl, treading water, and so on - that there really is no reason for her to take lessons this summer. She can just swim and swim to her little heart's content.What does Julia say when the lifeguards blow the whistle for break/adult swim? "Snack time!" Playing in the water makes her so hungry, she literally devours her Goldfish. See what I mean?

And, after break time, we're back in the water. Julia is much more adventurous this year than last year. She doesn't mind getting her hair wet, she ventures out to the 2 1/2-feet deep area without hesitation, and she loves playing with various pool toys. Unlike Julia's first two summers, when she would fuss about going to the pool, now she can't wait to go. It's still early in the swimming season, but I think I know how Julia's afternoon routine will go this summer: lunch, nap, pool (with a smile on her face).

Let's Pick Berries!

The weather was perfect this morning to pick strawberries at Butler's Orchard. The girls grabbed their pint-sized baskets, I grabbed my camera, and off we went.

Julia wasn't very helpful last year. She would take the berries from my box and put them into her basket. This year, however, was a completely different story. She was all about plucking ripe, red strawberries from the plants.
And she couldn't wait to find another plant with lots of red strawberries. Check out Julia's red thumb in the picture below - cute!
Evelyn was also very serious about her work. She filled her little basket time and time again, dumping her harvest into the big box.
After we had picked practically all of the ripe berries in our row, I told the girls it was time to stop. They still found strawberries here and there as we made our way to the pay station, continuing to fill our box.
By the time all was said and done, the girls had picked 7 1/2 pounds of strawberries in 40 minutes. They were enjoying themselves so much, and were doing such a good job, that I only picked a handful. Now, how can I convince Evelyn and Julia to eat the tasty treats I will make with all of this fruit?

National Donut Day

After finding out today was National Donut Day, we couldn't resist getting a colossal donut at the grocery store. Seriously, that's the name of the store's donuts - colossal. It's almost as big as Julia's head! Don't worry, she didn't eat the whole thing. We saved half of it for Evelyn to snack on after school.

Turtle Boat Ride

Julia has become an old pro when it comes to the story time boat ride at Black Hill Regional Park. After we got on the boat, she promptly found a life jacket and a pair of binoculars. I'm not sure how much she could actually see with the binoculars, but she used them a lot this morning.Our boat captain took us to a new (for us) part of the lake today, in search of turtles. Here's little Julia, standing at the front of the boat, as we sped over the water.
We saw quite a few turtles sunning themselves on logs in the lake. We also saw barn swallows and blue herons flying around the lake. Another fun Thursday morning outing for Julia!