Samuel

Samuel is Zachary's very special friend. He has replaced Buzz as the top lovey in the house. Last week Samuel went missing. He had been in the car with a distraught Zachary (we had to leave Target without purchasing anything which resulted in dueling meltdowns) but when Zachary came in the house Samuel did not. I thought Samuel was still in the car. He was not. We searched the car, searched the house and Samuel was nowhere to be found. The next morning Samuel was discovered in the garage, next to the cat door. Turns out that Samuel had a night out with the cats! Our Sunny cat likes to steal small squishy things (socks are a big favorite) and take them for a spin, give them the full experience of a cat's life. Samuel had apparently fallen out of the car and Sunny had found him. He came home no worse for the wear and regained his rightful place in Zachary's heart.

Shutterbugs

Zachary loves the camera he got for his birthday. The Fisher Price kid tough camera doesn't take terrific pictures but doesn't break under the pressure of my two intense boys. Today we downloaded some of the pictures the boys have captured recently. It is fun to see what was important enough to them to capture with the camera. Although the number of pictures of momma's squashy belly or big hiney are rather disturbing (and quickly deleted!).

Public Works Day

Another fun day at the city's annual public works day. Representatives of all of the city departments were there to share their jobs and expertise with us. We got to see a 30,000 pound trolley/bus on giant jacks, the engine of a police car, an up close fire engine and fire and rescue truck. William even sat in the fire engine but the garbage truck was too high and he wanted out quick! We talked to the garbage man about the capacity of his truck and talked to an expert on the storm drain system. Again this year the boys loved the opportunity to make it rain on the pretend town after the expert had doused it with oil, pesticides, soaps and fertilizer. Then we watched the contaminated water go down the storm drains, to the creeks and eventually to the pseudo lake, turning our drinking water mucky and gross. It was very windy out today so the booths were closing down early and we didn't come home with quite the loot we usually do - although we did score some pencils, tattoos, yo-yos, light up bouncy balls, stencil rules and little army men.

The remotely controlled garbage can that talks, shakes hands and even dances!


Checking out the inside of the fire engine


Street signs and reflectors




One of our favorite stops each year - what was found in the sewer last week!


Creating a storm

Zachary reads Hog and Dog

Zachary reads his new book, Hog and Dog. Sorry about the awful sound quality - I think I was too far away with the camera.


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

At the boys' request - some of their Cars and trains

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

An interview with Zachary

Please excuse the bouncing camera - William was "helping" me. And in case you were wondering, yes, William does announce that he has to go poo-poo during the video. Goodness!


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

An interview with William

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Cute

We read a lot of books. The boys and I read stacks of books throughout the day. Before bed the kids each pick at least one story for Daddy to read. Every night William brings his book from story time and sticks it under the pillow before laying down to sleep. He cannot be persuaded to put the book back on the shelf - it MUST be under his pillow. I really hope we are cultivating a true love of reading!

Word-Picture Bingo

I have been reading a great book

One of the game ideas was word bingo. I decided to make two different bingo boards - one with words for Zachary and one with pictures for William. We had a great time playing bingo and I will be making up more game boards for future games.

The Tooth Fairy's Visit

Before bed last night Zachary and I ran out and got the supplies to make his dream tooth fairy pillow. He drew his version of a race car on paper and we cut it out to use as a pattern on felt. At his instruction I sewed on a blue pocket and big black button tires.


The tooth fairy brought Zachary 5 dollar coins and a teeny tiny little book telling him how great his tooth looked, clean and lovely! She also left behind a sprinkling of fairy dust.

Tooth Fairy! You have a customer!

On April 21st Zachary woke up with a very loose tooth and today it is official! The Tooth Fairy will be making her first visit to our home tonight! I think the tooth lost its battle when Zachary took a bite out of an apple today - forgetting he had a loose tooth. An hour or so later he told me it felt REAAAALLLLY loose and after closer examination I realized it was just hanging on there. I told him to just pull and out it came! He was a little freaked out by the blood but super excited that they tooth fairy will be visiting him! We talked about making a pillow but obviously we have run out of time. I am sure the TF will understand if we make do with what we have at home tonight. WOW! The Tooth Fairy is coming!

Park Days

Park days are a very important part of our homeschooling experience. It is a time for us to connect with other homeschoolers. Our local group has a designated park day each week and we tend to stay for 4-6 hours. The kids get filthy, worn out and have such a great time. It is an important time for me too - I have a chance to talk with my fellow homeschoolers, get ideas, unwind and share victories and frustrations.

My boys play with boys and girls, young and old. This week the ages ranged from 2-9. They spent some time making homes for ants, discussing black widows, finding click beetles and then testing out different foliage (and a cheeto) to see what the beetle liked. They ran races on the path that circles the playground. They climbed high and slid fast. They played in water and watched a peahen and the chickens.

William and Charlotte were chattering away together as they dug in the dirt.




The kids made a store - selling mud donut holes for 1 leaf each.

Hamburger Farm

This week we had a big field trip to the Hamburger Farm.

The kids had a great time. We had time to play on the property, ride a train, tour the hamburger farm and have a hamburger lunch.

The tour started out with a stop at the bee colony. A really interesting way to see bees at work.


We saw wheat growing and the kids even got to grind their own flour.




Tomato plants, cucumbers, dill, lettuce and onions were next.






There were two cows there. A large beef cow and a huge pregnant dairy cow.


The kids all had a chance to "milk" a wooden cow - that was a huge hit.



We also visited the potato patch and the compost heap.

After the tour the kids played in the sandbox.


Amazingly Zachary ran right up and went down this huge slide. That is usually not his thing - just recently has he started braving taller heights.













We finished up our time panning for marbles.






We had a great time at the hamburger farm!