Just Random Pictures

I got a bunch of random pix that I took throughout the last couple of weeks, starting with this one above - the first tomato from our garden. So here they are:

This is M and one of his friends at our regular Friday morning park playdate. They usually just run around and have pretend sword fights with sticks, but this time they found a little frog.
And here they are sliding down the slides. They are almost the same age, the other boy being 4.5 already (turning 5 in a couple of months). And while their temperaments are very different, both of them are extremely talkative and really enjoy playing together.
This is an engineering test we conducted. How many bricks can M stack up? How many can he stack up so that they hold a ramp? How many can he stack up so that they hold a ramp loaded with toys (or with him)? Also, we explored how changing the angle of a ramp affects how objects roll or slide off of it. And what angle would be easier to climb. And then M discovered a see-saw (out of a plank and a little chair).

This is M playing a doctor after I (nearly) broke my toe. I was icing my toe, but it still hurt a lot. So he made me wear all sorts of plastic junk and a pair of binoculars to make me look like a robot. Because, as he pointed out, robots don't hurt. So as long as I'm a robot, I won't hurt either. He was very pleased with both the solution and the idea of making a giant robot.

This is Chris and M making a solar oven out of a pizza box. This is our new idea (ok, my new idea) - that they have to do some kind of a father-son DIY project each weekend. Their first project was a solar oven 'cause we already had a pizza box. In case you're wondering - the egg didn't fry, but the white congealed... after about 4 hours.
I picked up several math workbooks from a dollar bin at a Target store. I wanted to keep them 'til our school year officially starts, but M got interested in the PreK workbook and here we are giving it a try.
This is M at a local playground. For almost 3 hours he played with a group of kids from a local camp. They seemed to really like him and accepted him into the group easily. At one point they even made him "the center of everything" in one of their games. He enjoyed it as well especially since the kids were mostly older than him and helped him up and down the stairs.

Later that same day, after the camp group left the park, M got busy digging the river.
Finally, this is the latest Star Wars toy that we found at the flea market. In case you don't know, it's a TIE Figher. Most TIE Fighter are flown by the bad guys, but this one is different, as M assured me. M repaired it (see the robot changing the solar panels?) and taught it to not be part of the Dark Side.