Catching up a bit

There is alot to cover in this post to update interested folks about life around the Bulluck home, including a wonderful weekend away at the beach.... so here goes.

Alder's school had a science fair recently and I was honestly a bit disenchanted with the whole idea, wondering what in the world we were going to do with a 3 year old, especailly one that is not always receptive to organized activities like this. Then, one day while standing at the park with the boys, I was thinking about what on earth we could do for this project, and as I stared at them banging on these bells. Aha!

I asked Alder why he thaught the bells sounded differently? No response...Well, do you think it is because they are different colors? Yes, he replied with interest. How about different shapes? Yes! with even more interest. Ok, well we can test your ideas (color and size) at home using bowls from our kitchen, ok? OK! ....a few days later, we took 3 diff sized glass bowls and 3 diff sized metal bowls and let Alder bang on them to his hearts delite and talk about the diff sounds he heard.

Conclusion: Glass and metal bowls make diff sounds b/c they are diff materials and big bowls make deep sounds while small bowls make high sounds, regardless of material! And we then talked about musical instruments of diff sizes, people of different sizes, etc. I must say, I was not super excited about the idea of conducting a science fair project with Alder, but in retrospect feel that it was a really great experience for everyone.

We have been enjoying our weekends together at home a bit more recently. One Saturday evening, after dinner, we went for a walk down to the park in our neighborhood . We laughed and played until after dark. Alder still loves his bike and wants to ride it almost daily.

Heath is filling the role of "monkey see monkey do" in all regards. Whatever Alder does, he tries it. In fact, Alder has been doing this thing where he stands on the coffee table and just before leaping onto the couch, he yells, "Zata Zata doo tadoo!" I was cooking dinner yesterday when I heard Alder laughing and then he yelled "Mommy, Heath just did Zata doo tadoo!" I gasped and looked over to find them both laughing and rolling around on the couch. After establishing a rule of only one at a time, I just crossed my fingers and let them continue. ..

This fearlessness and copying of Alder makes the playground quite a test in our vigilance as he attempts to climb up and slides down any and everything.

In an attempt to redeem Heath's cute face after that nasty compost-snot picture that Jason posted, here are some cuter shots.

and just because it is fun to compare...this is Alder at approximately the same age....
brothers? I think so...

...and finally, we had an incredible and memorable vacation to the beach last weekend. This is the fourth annual trip to NC to meet our good friends Jen, Daniel, Ellen and Arianna. It is always a gamble to go to the beach in October, but our academic fall breaks make this the perfect time to do it and only one of the four years has it been too cold to spend our days out on the beach. This year we decided to each invite another family (the more the merrier and we can now afford a house ON THE BEACH). This turned out to be such a great idea and so much fun. Janet, Dan, Sylvia, and Joren joined us from VA and Anna, Scott, Julian, Madelyn, Caylen, and Brayden joined us from Raleigh. I'll do the math for you - that is 8 adults and 10 kids total! It was such a joy to be around older kids and see the dynamics in other loving families more intimately than you normally get from evenings or afternoons together. It is these types of experiences that forge true friendships and make lasting memories. We feel grateful to have shared this time with so many wonderful people and we look forward to doing it again next year, and the next, and the next....

We did not take too many pics, so to see a more from this trip I suggest visiting the blogs of our friends that we went with (see links near top of page). Here is Heath tuckered out on the air matress.

...and Alder enjoying the ebb and flow of the tide.

...and the entire group...

All for now... but we are hoping to soon get a post up that captures the visceral importance of oatmeal in our daily life.