The boys are taking an art class this week at the Denver Art Museum. Ryan's class is in the morning and it focuses on animals. Luke's class is after lunch and it is called Everyday Art - where they make things out of random stuff. The boys are loving it. They spend some of the time in the museum looking at various things dealing with that day's theme and then they make a couple of art projects each day.
One of the other fun things about their art class is that because they are taking separate classes, I am getting the chance to spend a couple of hours with each boy individually. I spent most of the time yesterday with each boy at the Denver Public Library's children's section. Luke and I played some games on the computer and Ryan and I spent about 2 hours reading several books.
Today, I took each boy to the State Capital building. I climbed the stairs to the top of the dome twice and was reminded each time that I really do have a fear of heights that I always seem to forget about until I'm in middle of it. We walked around the capital building and then climbed to the top. Fortunately (for me), we couldn't walk outside in the dome's balcony due to construction - but we were able to look out the windows and both boys looked down the dome to the rotunda below. After our trips to the capital, we headed back to the library. Luke and I read books. His favorites are Skippyjon Jones and anything by Ronald Dahl (James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, etc). Ryan and I were able to go to story time with a balloon artist. Tomorrow, I plan to take them to the art museum and check out the exhibits that they are not seeing during their art class.
The boys have enjoyed being Downtown - we have been able to eat lunch together at a couple of different places and tomorrow is Food Truck day at the park across the street. They both have enjoyed the structure outside of the art museum and the water features around the complex.
I'm glad I was able to capture getting Ryan smacked in the face when the fountain suddenly shot straight up his face.
Other recent activities: We tried out rock climbing with the boys on Saturday. We took a short little course so Greg and I could get our Belay certification and to learn the basic safety for the boys. Ryan really took right to it and he has asked every day to go again. Luke did ok - he gets easily frustrated and then tends to give up - which is what happened with rock climbing He enjoyed it when he was given a little help to get started, but he needs more practice to boost his confidence.
Luke took this picture of me rock climbing - I couldn't get a picture of Luke because I was his Belay person (not sure the technical term).
This summer has shown me that 5 year old boys still do need to nap sometimes. After a few trying days with them, I started requiring a 3o minute rest time (which they got at school). The first day - they were both asleep withing minutes. Since then, Ryan has fallen asleep every time and Luke spends about half an hour in his room by himself and his books and comes out a new and pleasant person.
I am enjoying my summer with them and I'm starting to realize how fast it is going to fly by. We have something planned almost every week until they start Kindergarten in August. Most of it is fun stuff - like going to Lubbock, a visit from Aunt Conny, Jacob and Olivia, and a short vacation to Yellowstone - but I wish it could last longer - we'll enjoy it while we can.
No comments:
Post a Comment