Not To Be Outdone

The horn of Africa is a peninsula that juts out south of the Red Sea. It has Somalia and Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibuti. The biggest city is Addis Ababa in the country of Ethiopia. Most of the people live in seaports on the Indian Ocean.



And the continents and oceans:

Lots of "Tree" Houses

Darsie especially had trouble with the hammocks and had to be extricated from one of them. She tried out another one and found it to be much better. :)


Here, the girls peer from a little "Cape May Birdhouse" treehouse.

We found the "treegloo" to be interesting.

Liam enjoyed much of the hike perched on Matt's back. He especially liked it when Matt would bounce up and down.

My and Matt's favorite tree house - very comfy! If only we had trees in our yard! The girls have never been in a hammock before, so it was a bit comical as they had to figure out how to get in and out of one.

Bells

This exhibit was pretty cool, with cowbells rigged hanging from the tree and ropes you could pull to ring them. All three kids really enjoyed it and would have stayed far longer than we did if we weren't hot and tired by then.

Levers and Such

The girls tried to lift this larger log, but they decided it was too heavy. Ever resourceful (and having learned it from watching Curious George), they turned two other smaller and lighter sticks into levers to push the log across the ground. Who says television isn't good for kids??!! :)

Liam, meanwhile, was glad to get a chance to sit on the ground. He happily crawled off after a crayon that had rolled down the path a bit and then, to my surprise, proceeded to try to color on the path with it. Amazing the things you learn from your older siblings! He was proud of his catch and wanted everyone else to admire it as well.

Parade!!

We went to a parade this morning with friends of ours from church and their son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. They had us over to a cookout Friday evening, and Katy and Darsie hit it off with their oldest granddaughter, Kendall. All weekend, the girls talked about Kendall. So, when they got to see her again today, along with her very adorable brothers, they were excited! All had a great time (I think just as much fun talking to each other as looking at the parade).
It was fun for the girls to have a new friend, especially one whose daddy is a pastor, just like theirs!

Storytime

Liam was having a fussy moment, so Katy covered him with her special blanket and read Madeline to him. You can see that he is watching her intently and talking to her the whole time. He seems to really enjoy being read to (though he also seems to enjoy being the center of attention, so that may also play into it). Katy has this book completely memorized, word for word! She is so ready to read! (I hope this video works - I've never uploaded a video to the blog before!).