I have been a little scarce this month, but here are some pictures I have not posted yet.

First, from a get together at Carmen’s house to fly paper airplanes and, of course, play around.

And then a trip to Avila Valley Barn to pick out some pumpkins!

Well, the plan was to build a tree house, but there was a lot more hanging around (in hammocks, on ropes and swings, and in trees) than there was building!  I don’t think anyone minded though.

The kids found this vertebrae piece somewhere.

These pictures didn’t come out great, but this was quite impressive; Scarlett climbed the rope and got into the tree from there!

Kimberly took some gorgeous shots yesterday!  Here are my favorites:

It was time to hit the waves again before the beautiful late summer weather leaves us!  Today we were at Avila Beach.

The inflatable boat was a hit!  The highlight seemed to be getting flipped completely over by the waves, although being swept around like a roller coaster ride seemed like a close second!

At first I was kinda bummed that this picture came out dark.  Then I decided it was one of my favorites because it just seems to show pure, joyful boy energy.

Lots of boogie boarding going on as well!

The seals were plentiful and near by.

Of course Buddy was there to look out for us!!

Add your pictures if you have any!  It’s really easy, just let me know if you’re interested in posting some!

The brand new Life’sCool co-op is up and running! Last week we met for a Not Back to School ice cream party. The previous week the kids jumped on the trampoline and played games while the moms chatted about starting up the co-op.

This week we went to the beach. There was boogie-boarding by the waterbugs (Kevan, Kira and Parker were out there for about three hours; Coleman and Ben for about 2 hours), singing and dancing by the amazing Nathaniel, clam digging by the talented clammer Scarlett, hole digging by the civil engineer Michael among others, kite flying, quite a few whole sand dollars found, and castle building (or at least mound building).

(See those dots? Those are the boogie boarders, hehe).

Rather than the park, we hit the coffee shop with some board games.  The longest game of Sorry! ever ensued.

I should never have waited so long before posting about this trip to the Sisquoc River back in April when it was full.

It was a beautiful day. We met Carmen along the way and headed out. We walked a ways down the shoreline until we found a good spot to settle in.

The kids discovered a bunch of tadpoles…

… and some raccoon tracks.

We had planned to make some miniature boats out of some river willow growing nearby, so we started gathering some good branches.

Then the girls discovered some real branches - driftwood logs, actually - and said, why don’t we make a real raft?

So Carmen, well-prepared, creative and versatile, set to work armed with a pocket knife, some twine and some logs.

The kids set to work wrapping and tying…

and testing out the seat.

Then they took turns trying it out.

Michael even gave Xena a ride.

What a great day! I’m so glad we made it out there before the river dried up.

We attended the Familyhomeschooladventures park day on Tuesday. A bunch of kids self organized a baseball game while parents chatted at a picnic table and a few teens played the guitar. Mike made a valiant effort to introduce my kids to other kids, and ended up playing football with them himself. What a guy!

We attended this month’s Star Party as a family after being informed about it by Aurora from superchargedscience.com.   The Central Coast Astronomical Society hosts these monthly events, free and open to the public, at which their members bring their expensive telescopes and set them up to show us the skies.

The Star Parties are held as close to the new moon as possible for the darkest skies, and are hosted on ‘Star Hill’, at the KOA campground in Santa Margarita.  It’s a bit of a drive, but it was well worth it!  The members were very inviting and friendly as they found various objects for us to view and explained their telescopes to us.  We got a spectacular view of Saturn, almost as if we were looking at a picture of it!  In addition we saw galaxies, nebulae, double stars and other deep sky objects!

Next month’s party will be held on May 3rd.  For more information, visit the site here.

It was a beautiful day to be at the park! The kids ate lunch, played on the play structure and tire swing, and then we headed over to the duckpond to feed the ducks some old bread we brought along.

Then there was some rock leaping and fountain watching…

then an exciting discovery by Michael - a goose egg!

To join our activities, please visit us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/santa_maria_inclusive_learners