Dr. Dolittle
Over the past few weeks we have been reading The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle for the bedtime reading story. What an amazing hit! A naturalist–learning to talk to animals–exploring the world–exploring the ocean floor. I mean, my goodness! why don’t I just make a wish list for Evan and Grayson and request a book be written! We have summarized, made predictions, and been sorry when it was time for lights out every evening. What fun! Evan said tonight that this book would be ours forever.
We are already looking forward to another Doctor Dolittle story. I’m so glad there are several!!
These pictures show Doctor Dolittle with his parrot, Polynesia, and his dog, Jip.
Green Frog
I have not worked on pastels all summer! Since the fall season is coming (yeah!) I need to get cracking and get the emporiums stocked up. Inspired by my nature-loving children, I started out this time with salamanders. After doing three types, I wanted to try a frog. I am so excited that it looks like a frog! I’ve been playing around with some new techniques–using acrylics in the beginning stages and using water to change the pastel chalks. I’ve also worked with a pen to sharpen some of the outer lines. These are things I have wanted to try for a while. It’s been fun to get started again.
Turtles are welcome here!
The boys were outside playing this morning, before it got really hot. Andrea looked out the window and saw them near this box turtle. They hadn’t seen it yet. 
Then Evan drew this very cool picture of himself and several turtles in our yard:
Nine Planets
Evan was inspired by a poster of the plants, to draw this picture. He worked and worked on this weekend.
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