Since summer is so rudely coming to an end, I wanted to mention some things we did that didn't get posted, or that we didn't get pictures of.

-Early in the summer Ryan's mom had the boys spend the night and took them to catch some tadpoles. They brought a few home, and we actually kept them alive long enough for at least one of them to turn into a (tiny) frog.

-Alex and Ben took swimming lessons. Charlie was annoyed that he didn't get to take swimming lessons.

-Alex took a little geology class where he learned about different types of rocks, started a rock collection, and made a volcano.

-Benjamin learned to tie his shoes! With both Alex and Benjamin I have intended to teach them, but Ryan ends up sitting with them and teaching them. Benjamin is very persistent and doesn't want me helping at all with his shoes anymore. He's getting pretty good at it.

-I made several batches of strawberry freezer jam. For one batch I even tried a recipe with less sugar. It still has plenty of sugar so it's still good.

-After living near Los Angeles for eight years we finally went to the Griffith Observatory. We attempted to go a couple months ago but made the mistake of going in the evening on a weekend (that night we ended up going to Universal Citywalk instead- which was another fun night for the kids). This time we tried to get there right at opening and were barely able to get into one of the shows in the Planetarium. I don't know if the kids really learned anything but it was neat and it was relaxing enough to put Ryan to sleep.