2026 Summer Adventure Gallery: June 21–27

Hicimos un trabajo de hacer gomitas en casa! Puedo compartir las imágenes

Attended a flower arranging class. Learned to cut the stems in the water to make them last longer.

Today I was pumping up my bicycle tires and my dad’s too. It was hard work but for my dad it was easy. Afterwords I went bike riding with my dad to test our tires. We also collected some cards on an app that my dad has. We collected two of them. And the max is seven. When we got home we pulled something in the car and the back seat popped up we pulled another thing and the seat rest popped down too! It made the trunk bigger to put our bicycles in there. And then my dad said it is not good to leave the bicycles like that for a long time.

Dibuje un delfín

I went to the Golden Gare bridge, pier 39, Fisherman’s wharf, and downtown San Francisco so cool

This is Colby and he's approximately three years old. The cat distribution system deposited him on my patio almost two years ago and he instantly became my best animal friend. Colby is a unique cat that came into my life at just the right moment. I was looking for a new pet, and he was looking for a home. He is sweet and likes to give everyone kisses. He is snuggly and loves to sleep right next to me at night. He is silly when he gets the zoomies and will run all over the house jumping off the furniture and walls. Colby has a lot of behaviors that we typically associate with a dog including, laying at my feet when I sit on the couch, following me around the house, and occasionally chewing on shoes. His toy box now includes dog chew toys in the hopes that he will leave my shoes alone. Some of his favorite things are relaxing on the patio, riding in cars, getting treats out of his treat puzzles, playing fetch with his favorite bouncy ball, and playing chase with his best animal friend, which happens to be a dog.

This is Harvey! He’s an Australian shepherd mix who loves tennis balls, ear scritches, and most things edible. As a senior, he enjoys naps in the sun more than hikes now, but he still likes to go on the occasional long walk and has firm opinions about where he’d like to explore each day. For someone who can’t talk, he’s very good at communicating, especially when he wants something. Harvey has been with me for almost 14 years, and during that time, I’ve learned so much about reading dog body language. We did a lot of training when he was younger, both to work on his reactivity and to tire his herding-dog brain out, and that helped us build a strong bond. He’s now my little shadow and spends most of his waking hours following me from room to room so he can keep an eye on me.

This is a swimming pool. I made it with color pencils and crayons.

I read about nature- the gharial! I liked learning about them.

I visited Point Cabrillo Light Station with my parents. We saw a small aquarium with star fish, sea urchins, and anemones.

Learned about bats from the Norcal bats Castro Valley library event.

I observed differences between big animals and bugs. Big animals eat big food and bugs eat tiny food. Big animals eat a lot of food and bugs a tiny bit of food. Bugs usually have skeletons on the outside but animals have it on the inside.

I read about dessert squirrels. They live in the dessert and my community.they are not picky.they jump a lot even over their mom!the sharp spines on cactus dont bother them (a lot of cactus grow in the dessert) and they sleep in a burrow.

Exploring a Tiny Bug

I really wanted to garden for a long time, so I started with a basic plant for a few weeks. But later I got seeds to grow new plants, and one of them was a watermelon seed. I bought new pots and a new bag of compost to grow this. I have been watering this regularly, so I was really excited when I started to see it sprout. Later on, I'm going to put it in the soil.

Snake getting ready to strike.

Today I went to summer camp. We had a field trip, we went to the USS Hornet. We keep going back and forth. The people who work there told us a lot. After the USS Hornet we went to Crab Cove. Me and my friends built something, I forgot the name of the thing that we built. The water was cold, I got wet. One of my friends found a claw of a crab!

I love watching the hummingbirds through our window

Using clay, I made a pencil holder for my dad for father's day. I made the hearts with the stencil and used that as eyes for the face. To make the shape of the cup, I glued two empty box tape rolls and added air dry clay all around it. I used stickers and gem stones to decorate it.

Levi made a castle for the dinosaurs

I drew this capybara using charcoal. It was really fun, and I enjoyed the process.

This is a special butterfly. I took a day to color it. I used markers and color pencils.

I played with my two olive egger hens, Buttercup and Clover, and my ameraucana chick, Daffodil. Buttercup and Clover used to attack Daffodil a lot, but I think they’re friends now. Olive eggers are a hybrid chicken breed that is bred by mating a brown egg layer and a blue egg layer. They can look different because many chicken breeds that don’t look the same can lay blue or brown eggs. Can you guess what color eggs olive eggers lay? If you guessed olive green, you’re correct! Ameraucanas lay blue eggs. Daffodil is still a pullet, which is a young hen meaning she can’t lay eggs yet; I only know what egg color Ameraucanas lay from online. They’re famous for their “beards” which are located under their beaks and “muffs” (in case you’re wondering, the muffs are kind of under the eyes, right next to the beard). You can see Daffodil’s beard and muffs very clearly in the picture. Ameraucanas are often confused with araucanas, which don’t have a beard, just fluffy ear tufts. Araucanas also lack a tail, so that’s an easy way to tell the two breeds apart.

I just finished a trip to Paris! I loved seeing the huge cathedrals.

I decorated this cake. It was really fun learning the different piping for the cake. I really enjoyed designing the cake. This cake design was putting roses and leaves in the middle, with borders on the bottom and sides. So I think I did pretty well decorating the cake.

This summer, I found a nest of birds. Unfortunately, 2 of the baby birds had fallen out of the bush and a group of cats usually liked to come into our backyard around this time (afternoon), so we found a cardboard box and carried them safely home. Panicked, the parent birds and children started crying out for each other, chirping very loudly while the parents searched for ways to get in to reach their babies. We knew that the cats would probably smell our scent if we put them back right away, so I suggested trying to find out what the baby birds liked to eat and how often. Eventually, after they had calmed down and enough time had passed to be sure that the cats wouldn't come back for the day, I carefully placed the two of them back into the nest. Holding the innocent lives and looking into their eyes, I knew immediately that this was going to be one of my most memorable days this summer.

I want to draw a bear because it is beautiful. I like drawing because it's my favorite thing to do.

I went to Elizabeth Lake to take this photo. This photo is a beautiful duck standing on a rock with a calm water background. This photo means a lot to me because I won in a photography contest because of this photo.

I'm having a blast so far this summer. While my teens are on summer break from school and my wife has been spending time with them, I've mostly been working my day job during the week. On the weekends, we've been spending time together riding our bikes, watching TV, and playing board games. Recently, we started playing a board game called Unlock! Hero Adventures. I was a bit worried at first about whether my teens would be interested, but the tutorial case quickly got their attention. We ended up finishing two of the three mysteries over the last few days, and we're planning to head to the library today to complete the final case. It's difficult these days to keep everyone off their screens, so I'm just happy that we found something we can all enjoy together.

This summer I joined the hayward recreation swim team that takes place in castro valley high-school for exercise. It is very fun and you get good morning exercise because you start swimming at 7am 4 days a week.

I picked up Soman Chainani's book on a whim. This one is called, "Coven." I love a good book about witches. This one reads more like a show. Lots of action. There are multiple layered themes that sometimes gets lost in all of the fanfare and shock factor but overall a decent book around belonging, friendship, what we owe each other when differences are involved, and what do we owe the earth and the animals in it when we have our own cultural definitions of "progress" and "contentment."

Summer starts! We try to keep up our health by doing some morning hiking. We did some hiking and some sport activities at Greenridge Park . We enjoyed the view and also family time.

I am reading a fiction/literature new release, and it has mentioned nighthawks a few times. I don't know how integral they are to the story, so I did a little research on them. Nighthawks are in the family of birds called...Goatsuckers. So now I have to read more about that! Off to the library search engine to find some interesting bird books!

I was taking a walk in Elizabeth lake that's when I found these geese. These geese were very cute, and they were in a herd. It wasn't scared, so I could come look at it closely. It was really fun to take a photo of it.

Older brother teaching younger brother to read

This summer, I spent time reading a variety of books and exploring genres that I do not usually read. I enjoyed discovering new authors, learning about different characters and cultures, and experiencing stories from different perspectives. Reading became one of my favorite ways to relax and spend my free time. Through the Summer Adventure program, I challenged myself to read more consistently and try books that were both entertaining and thought-provoking. The experience made my summer more enjoyable, helped me build a stronger reading habit, and inspired me to keep reading throughout the year.

Spending time in backyard with the insects

I went to a brand new amusement park and was amazed to find out they had animals there!! I loved seeing the bear stand on its hind legs ! What a great surprise. I read that they stand up to look around and also to seem bigger when they are frightened. I think this bear was just looking around at us 🙂

I harvested my first Juliet tomato of the summer from growing this plant from a seedling my friend gave me.