dragonfly days

Day 5

Oops. I forgot one little detail yesterday and edited the last post. I forgot to add that we were able to touch and hold an already hatched shark egg. It was very cool.

Day 5 or Wednesday, we decided to head to the zoo.  

Jack was a bit burned out by this day. He was starting to miss the rest of the family and his routines.

I love gorillas. Once upon a time I wanted to visit the Congo and observe them.

The bus tour was a big hit, especially since we sat on the top of the double decker bus. Luckily it didn't start raining until we were done.

Going on the tour gave us a better idea of where we wanted to spend more time.  Watching the baby giraffes for instance.

And the rhinos.

The last time we visited this zoo they were just finishing up the panda exhibit.

The aviary's were a big hit with Jack.

Who am I kidding? I enjoyed them too. 

Things I don't like- sky rides. Things I like even less- sky rides when it is windy. By the time we reached the other side I was about to loose my lunch.

And right after this is when it started to pour. We stopped for a quick souvenir and then headed back to the hotel to warm up and dry out.

That evening, we headed to the Hard Rock cafe for dinner.

He really enjoyed looking at all the memorabilia.  Afterwards, we headed to the mall next door for dessert.

 

Happily we found it. :)

 

 

Day 4

On Tuesday,  we checked out of our hotel, grabbed one last Starbucks and headed south. 

First stop Sea World. Luckily it was a beautiful day.

We decided to sign up for the Up-Close Tour.  It was one of our favorite parts. First we went behind the scenes and talked about the dolphins and got a glimpse of the mama and baby dolphin in the back, along with some other species. 

Then we saw a sea turtle that was being treated. Next up we were able to see the labs where they test the water and  the operating room.

After that we headed over to the shark lab.

Where we saw the egg incubator.

I don't know if you can make out the shark in the egg, but it was very cool to see in swimming around in the egg. We also were able to hold an already hatched egg, very cool.

Then we were able to touch the sharks in this tank.

Someone was really thrilled about the whole thing.

I think I want a display of shark jaws in my house. Seriously. I should live in a museum.

I would highly recommend the tours. We both learned a lot and enjoyed seeing some of the inner workings. The tour guides are more than willing to answer questions. 

After the tour we had some lunch and walked around some more. It was getting hot out and we were feeling the it, so we bought some hats. Jack picked a fedora, of course. I took whatever hat would fit my big head. They only had one.

We took in the dolphin show. It wasn't like the one I remembered from years past. A lot less dolphin and a lot more human acting. It was neat, but I really enjoyed the dolphin shows. Right after the dolphin show we headed over to the Shamu show.  We really enjoyed that.

Jack was praying to get wet. I was glad we didn't. :)

We stopped by the tide pool after the show to see some starfish. Those have always been a favorite. Then we walked through all of the aquariums.  It was getting late, but we had time to make it to the sea lion show. That was definitely Jack's favorite.  He loved that you could dance and work with sea animals. :)

Then it was time to go. We checked in to our new hotel, down in the bay.  After that we headed out to find some dinner. That turned out to be a lot harder than planned. It was Valentine's day so everything was packed. The only resturants near by were expensive bars, no thanks.  After trying to find another place, we finally settled on Subway. Gotta love it. 

 

 

Vacation day 3

After getting a glimpse of the ocean the night before, Jack was determined that we spend the next day at the ocean. It worked for me. The weather was iffy at best and I didn't really want to pay a fortune to get rained out of an attraction. We headed to Torry Pines beach, which was very close to our hotel.  He was mesmerized.

It was a perfect day for picking up some shells and playing in the sand.

But someone couldn't stay out of the water.

And it was windy and overcast.

And once he got his shorts wet in the freezing cold water, he was pretty much over the ocean. :(  We decided to leave and get something for lunch. I was hoping to persuade him to go back to the beach, but it wasn't happening.   We also walked aorund a few shops in Del Mar. After that we decided to head for the Children's Pool in La Jolla.

It's a wonderful place to observe harbor seals up close.

It's also a pupping ground.

Although one of us enjoyed the spray from the ocean. :) I asked if he wanted to go back to the beach and play and he said no. I told him he didn't have to get wet, we would just play on the beach. He said, "I'll get wet, no matter what. I just can't help myself."

After that it was back to the hotel for a warm shower and some faetime with the siblings.  Then we ate at a pizza joint down the street. He watched a movie while I packed up our things, it was our last night in this hotel.

I'll continue the rest tomorrow, this post got a little long. :)  Tomorrow will  be all about Sea World.

 

vacation days 1-2

I'm trying to split the trip up into managable pieces. :)

Here we are getting ready to leave.  It's a rule to have a pic at the start of a road trip.  Eight hours in the car. That was a long drive. By the time we got there, I questioned my sanity in ever planning the trip.

As soon as we got to the hotel, Jack facetimed home.   That night all we did was get dinner and shower.  I unfortunately ate something that didn't sit well with me and I was up all night long. I repeat ALL NIGHT LONG.  By the time Jack woke up I was a wreck. Luckily there was Starbucks at the hotel. I pulled it together, well with the help of a phone call from hubby and we set out to have a good day anyways.  We decided to do Legoland that day since the weather was in our favor.  Originally we were planning on going on Monday and getting the homeschool discount, but it was supposed to rain on Monday.

He was so excited.  Everything was so thrilling to him. I think I have a rollercoaster junkie on my hands.

This was our first ride.

Of course we had to get a shot with Lego Harry Potter. I didn't even think to get a pic of myself.

This was his first real experience at an amusement park.

He loved the brick wall at the cafe.

Learning how to make apple fries is my new personal quest in life. Those were yummy. And look who actually tried them.

I burned out real quick and by 4 o'clock was trying not to fall asleep on the benches. So we reluctantly called it a day.

We went back to the hotel for a bit so I could rest while he played with his souvenir lego set.  

On the way to dinner, we stopped by one of the beaches right by our hotel for his first glimpse at the ocean.

He decided it was pretty cool.

And by the time we ordered dinner he was looking pretty tired too.

 

I'm happy to say that thankfully we both slept well the second night.

 

 

scenes from the weekend 2/19

Jack and I are back from our vacation. I will be posting about that over the next few days.  We got back in late Friday night.  Saturday we spent the day running from a rugby tounrament to lacrosse and back again.  Today, we've just been trying to recover from it all.  Jack even took a nap.  It's been a long, fun week. So glad to be home, but still trying to get the ground under our feet.

 

Her first rugby game. They made her team captain. One of the other teams named her Woman of the Match. She did awesome! And we actually understood someof the game! :)

It was fun to be back at the lacrosse sidelines. Talisa was on a scoring streak.

Then she took a turn playing goalie. Looks like there may be a new position in her future.

On the list this week:

• the dentist...again. Hopefully this will be the last for a while.
• dance classes...someone really missed these last week.
• a day off for the big kiddos... of course they still have practices.
• library...yikes we have some books that REALLY need to get back
• homeschool...hoping to get into a light schedule post vacation. Maybe delve deeper into some of the things we learned on vacation.
• project life-- need to catch up on this and really want to get last week done while it is fresh in my memory.
• catch up on the laundry- leaving three sporty teens at home in charge of their laundry for the week is not a good idea. It's a  stinky one. :P 
• Park day. Looking forward to chillin with the homies. :)

 

What's on your list?

 

 

scenes from the weekend 2/5

 

On the list for this week:

• dentist- me
• doctor- Steve for the foot
• dance- tap and hip-hop
• rugby
• lacrosse
• lacrosse games
• roller skating Valentine party- looking forward to that.
• Doing Valentine's for the party

What is on your list?

 

silly

Today we had an poetry/art festival with one of our homeschool groups. Jack made this silly alien painting. The alien was trying to decide which planet to go to, he was headed for planet x.  Love that he was so excited for it.

We're thankful for the many different opportunities that this other group provides.

 

Monday

We are enjoying our little babies so much.  They hop around the cage all day following mama. My favorite is the little white runt. She's a sweetie.

That's all for today. I felt like posting here so you get a gratuitous piggy pic. :)

 

scenes from the weekend 1/29

Three little babies made an appearance Friday evening. 

I'm in a little bit of a mood.  We have a child experiencing some hiccups on the road of first love and I'm just a bit baffled by the whole situation. I really will never understand the way some people go about things. I wish I did. Truly, I wish I could understand why some people do the things they do and where they are coming from. Unfortunately, I've been on both sides of this problem and I really don't understand.  The only thing I do understand is that they are doing the best they know how to at this time, which is not a lot of consolation when it involves your kid.  It makes me feel sad for everyone involved.

On the list for this week:

• tap
• p.e.
• hip-hop
• library run
• art and poetry festival- need to work on the project for this.
• rugby
• lacrosse
• planning- I planned a little trip for me and the boy and I need to get cracking! I need to start gathering stuff and get some lists going.
• I was thinking swimming this week, but Jack has a bit of a cold so I think we will go to the museum or a movie instead.
• Valentines. I need to get cracking on this also. Can't leave it until the last minute like I usually do.
• park day- as long as Jack is better.

I am going to try my best to take advantage of my downtime this week. Right now I am in a mood to circle my wagons. Anyone else get that way?  I  feel bad that they have been hurt and want to protect and coddle them for a bit.  Being teens I'm sure they won't go for it. But I think an evening of games, or watching a movie together can go a long way.  Especially if throw in some ice cream. 

On another note, I've started watching Downton Abbey. How did I miss this? I think it is brillant. 

 

 

this week in school

This Monday, Jack owke up and wanted to play Legos, for hours. As he was playing I realized that our week was looking to be a rather hectic one and I should take advantage of one of the best things about homeschooling, flexibility!  So we had no formal school this week. We just went with the flow which included: new class schedules, dentist appointments, doctor appointments and dad being off work.

Here is a list of learning that happened anyways:

• read Hedgehog Haven
• read: Bull Shark, Mako Shark, Whale Shark, Great White Shark, and Tiger Shark
• read: Biology and Physics, in the Basher series.
• watched lots of Mythbusters.
• rode bikes and went for a hike
• played lots of fruit ninja on the kinect- great for a very active boy
• watched a documentary on Austrailia
• tap class
• hip-hop class
• bread sculpting class
• library visit
• Spanish- okay I did make him do Spanish one day. :)
• Brain pop
• ipad games- math ninja, Discovery sharks, Jumpstart Jetpack, Learn Sharks, Toca Doctor, Frog Disection, Build a Bird, and World Atlas. 
• art, lots of art. Painting, drawing, and general making.
• Legos
• Guinea pig care- we've been learning all about guinea pigs as we prepare for the little ones.
• Fred Astaire- we watched videos and read up on him online.
• learned more than we wanted to know about teeth and feet. :)
• tappped, tapped, and tapped some more.
• have been learning about different species of butterflies.
• spelling and typing on the old typewriter
• money- counting and adding money, over and over again. :)

Tomorrow Zac is taking him hiking, which means more science and outdoor skills. :)

 

 

 

random musings

It's becoming a Wednesday thing. :)

• I finished another layout in Project life. I am really enjoying getting our pictures printed out and part of our story down.  It feels good. :)
• Our guinea pig is about to give birth any minute.  
• Tomorrow we get to visit with the doctor about turf toe.
• Today we didn't have any appointments or classes that I had to go out for. It was wonderful. I baked muffins, made a great dinner, worked out about five hours earlier than I usually get to, we pulled out the art supplies and played. It was very nice. I need to be sure to schedule these type of days.
• My husband is starting a new hobby, more on that in a few. 
• The series of shark books we found at the library this week are very popular around here. Perfect for a shark-obsessed beginning reader.

 

love

Jack had his first tap class yesterday. He loved it and wants to keep going. We bought a pair of shoes after class and he has only taken them off to sleep or leave the house.  Yes, shoes that make noise. He is in awe of them. I am left wondering why there aren't more boys in tap. Did you hear me? They have SHOES THAT MAKE NOISE. What boy wouldn't love that? He has been tapping so much we had to move the plastic office floor protector out into the living room for him.  Today, one of the only times he sat down was to  watch  you tube videos of Gregory Hines and Fred Astaire.  Have you seen the one of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing in roller skates? 

 He told me that I had to take the picture above to show people how the shoes worked. :) 

While we were at the store picking up medicine for Steve(for the tooth, again), we picked up the perfect bag for transporting his shoes. A duffle bag with a skull and crossbones.  It was exactly what I pictured when I found out he would need a bag.  Perfect for the guitar-playing-dance-loving-rocker boy that he is.

The good news? Someone went right to sleep tonight.

Frosty the doughman

Today we had the opportunity to go to a bread sculpting class put together by one of the moms in our support group. You can't see it in the picture, butat the time Jack was making a snowflake out of bread dough. Those were baked, brushed with melted butter and then dusted with powder sugar.

You can see the snowflake in this pic as he is dusting it with sugar.

After that they made a snowman out of dough. I have no pics of that. We brought it home and baked it and needless to say it didn't last long. 

Today we were also blessed with about 20 minutes of snow. Jack was thrilled. This boy has been wishing for snow all winter.  That is all he really wanted for Christmas. When I looked out and saw the flakes, he came running. And then he applauded.  He gave the snow a round of applause. Love that.

 

scenes from the weekend 1/22

Glad to have hubby back home.

A separate cage for the piggy.

A shopping trip turned lunch out for Zac and I with a couple of kiddos.

Can you guess what he wants to start doing this year?

What most of Jack's money is spent on.

Last week was a long, hard week. Seriously. Everyone gets thrown off when hubby is out of town. So glad to be on the flip side of that. 

This weeks plans:

• bread making class for Jack
• P.E. if the weather is good, otherwise we'll just hit the library
• tap class
• endodotist for Steve-  finish one and discuss the other
• hip-hop class
• guitar- hopefully. We have to switch things around for dance.
• girls pref dance for Steve
• call sports med doc and try to get Steve in.
• Rugby
• Lacrosse, at least for Talisa.
• A day trip...maybe. I need to see if some of the angst and whinyness that has plagued our house goes away by then.

Things I hope to get done:

• another project life spread
• a system to organize project life weeks in waiting
• Apple Pie muffins via Finding Joy in my Kitchen
• movement everyday.
• some Valentine planning
• start reading, Mindset for Moms
• Finish reading,  A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.

What is on your list?

 

You know it's been one of those weeks...

when one minute you are hiding under a beach towel protesting staying at the pool...

and five minutes later...

And then you stay for another two hours and protest leaving the pool.

I'm ready for the weekend! :)

random musings

 As if most of my posts weren't random. :)

• Today we got the results for Jack's reading test. I was a little anxious about them, especially when the teacher started the conversation with, "What exactly do you use for language arts?" Turns out it was because he scored well.  Phew!
• We went to Subway for lunch. We do Subway about once a week because I feel like it is a good way to see some change in his diet. He loves it. He gets so excited that even the people working there comment on it.
• I started my first week of Project life. I will finish the rest tomorrow.
• I was giving one of my girls a talk, not lecture, talk. Half way through I wondered if I was telling this stuff to her or if I was the one that really needed to hear it.  I think it did us both good.  It was the "don't-assume-anything-don't-expect-anything-because-really-you-only-have-control-over-yourself-and-your-reactions-and-don't-let-other-peoples-opinions-stop-you" speech.  Do it anyway. Sigh. Yes, I needed that. Thank you. 
• Jack has decided he will try tap along with hip-hop. I also had my first conversation including the stereotype against boys in dance. Sigh.
• Took Steve to the doc tonight, again. The running joke all night was that I would be rich if I got the $5 co-pay every time he was there. :)  Looks like turf toe. Referred to Sports Medicine. Seriously. I guess we may not be going to the tournament this weekend. Can't decide whether or not I'm okay with that. 

making

I saw this and knew we had to make it!

Giant Geoboard.

Here is our version:

It ended up being about 2 ft square. 

I am going to buy some of the thin elastic headbands to use for bigger shapes.  I'm also trying to figure something out for really big shapes, maybe sewing elastic? 

What are you making?

scenes from the weekend 1/15

I don't know why this pic won't post right, but it's kind of funny sideways too. :)

This weekend: Battle of the bands in support of our favorite guitarist-- they did awesome! Recovering from a looooong week with very little sleep. Baseball and lacrosse at the park.  Staying up too late again, running errands, driving class with the teens, birthday parties, and cleaning.

 

On the list this week:

• rugby
• lacrosse
• dance
• park
• Zac is off.
• no dentist- always a good start
• project life-- every time I try to start I find I am missing one thing. I vow to get it started this week.
• homeschool- make paper and penguins are on the list this week
• movement- I lagged at the end of last week between being busy and no sleep. Won't let that happen again.
• Lacrosse tournament- tis the season
• rugby meeting
• Guitar lesson
• I'm thinking some kind of surprise field trip is in order one afternoon this week.

What is on your list?

bricks

I'm getting real creative with the titles of these posts. :)

The Colosseum is completed.  Jack has been enjoying geography a lot lately, especially when we have time to do projects.   This one was a leftover from before Christmas, something we just didn't get around too during the hustle and bustle of the season. It's good to have it done. He loves building and had been looking forward to it.  I need to make sure to incorporate projects for him. 

This week we are studying Germany,  we didn't get around to this before Christmas either.  Today we looked at pictures of castles and the Berlin Wall.  I think we will try and make pretzels for park day this week.  I am channeling my fifth grade teacher who drilled us with German songs and words. I never thought I would thank him, but I am now!  Although I'm not sure Jack feels the same way.

 

back

Today was our first day back to school. It went well.   At one point Jack had taken the crime scene tape from his forensic science kit and put it across the dining room table. Zac saw the tape and asked about it and I told him you could tell how some people felt about being back to school today.  ;)

We spent a good part of the day building the Colosseum out of foam blocks and hot glue. Pictures to come. 

We did the reading test. Zac and I have both loved to watch Jack's reading take off these past few months. We especially love the fact that he loves reading.  

Then we had our weekly p.e. class, not so much a class but a get together and play games time.  We've missed it. Jack missed the games. I missed having a weekly date with the library.

He's getting to have quite a mop on his head and I don't know what to do. I don't want to cut it, but it needs to be tamed. Any ideas??