Watermelon

Wonderfully juicy sweet watermelon just reminds me that summer is on its way.

 They really do love one another, Aiden even let her give him a watermelon kiss!

Fun in the sun

I  love the feeling of the sun on the beach, I think it is the breeze and smell from the ocean.

 It has become hard to capture Aiden in photos lately because he is always on the move - no time to stop and smile... so I snuck in and got one when they weren't looking.

 Vacations are such a good time to take a step back and entertain those crazy ideas. Like Camille thinking she could ride Gavin's bike. She looks pretty official on it though.

Pre Birthday Celebration

Camille got to celebrate her birthday while we were on spring break. It is hard to believe my baby girl is almost two!

hey, you have to ad lib when at the beach with candles sometimes!

Spring Break

Beach or Bust! 

I just couldn't get to the beach fast enough. The littles did really well on the road trip!

 by the way this was the first photo I took with my new iphone! I'm so excited to have spring break to learn to play with it!

Bye Bye Mr. Golden Sun.

April Fools

April fools started with Geoff and I switching sides in the bed but Aiden wasn’t fooled by that he just walked around to where Geoff was. I think Geoff was secretly hoping Aiden would wake me up first instead of him!

Breakfast…  We served cold orange juice and cold cereal – very cold, frozen even! I put cereal with milk in the freezer the night before and while Geoff distracted them I pulled out the frozen bowls and added a bit of unfrozen cereal and milk to the top. Aiden was first up he just ate what he could off the top saying “There is something in here, I can’t stick my spoon in very far.” Then he discovered our trick. Up next for fooling was Camille, poor baby is too young to know what was going on, all she knew was that OJ is a treat and it just wasn’t coming out of the glass so she just left the room. The doozie was Gavin, he dug his spoon right in ready for a big ol bite of cereal and it was like a scene out of The Road Runner when the object just crinkles up and the reverberation makes Wylie Coyote shake down the street. Gavin burst into tears and said he just wanted cereal to eat! Once he noticed the juice and Geoff pretended to spill it out the tears changed to laughter. I expect some serious payback for this in the future.   

Lunch… Actually snack. I opened the end of a Goldfish cracker snack bag, took out the crackers then replaced them with carrots. I sealed the bottoms up with double stick tape. Aiden was on a field trip so I also send him with a “Cup of Soup” box that had crackers inside. He was quite perplexed on how I sealed the goldfish bag back.

Dinner… Cupcakes with sprinkles! They should have known right then and there that I wasn’t going to serve cupcakes for dinner, actually Aiden was onto me. The cupcakes was really meatloaf with a frosting of whipped potatoes that were pink (beet juice) and blue, I did use real sprinkles. For dessert I was going to serve meatloaf looking rice krispie treats but ran out of time because I still had to pack for the beach!

 Earlier that day I got a phone call from my mom trying to fool me by saying she was in my driveway to visit...but I had my game on, I answered sounding very congested and tired. After she tried to tell me she was outside to surprise us with a visit, I told her we weren’t going to be able to make it to visit her. She fell for it hook, line and sinker!

It was a fun day of jokes and trickery

Am I a Teacher?

Well I know that I am to my kids, but to others? The responsibility is huge. Today and last Friday I had the opportunity to teach Aiden's class. It was amazing, the kids are great and loved all the hands on experiences! We are studying and exploring plants and flowers, and yes I did mean to say "we" because I was learning right along side them!

Day 1
Pollination: Geoff caught a real bee for us to bring in then we flew a bee puppet from one flower to the next to pass along this life giving substance. A beautiful thing even though it makes so many people suffer with allergies. Poor Aiden is really having a hard time with it.
Parts of a Flower: We dissected a flower and could see the beginnings of the seeds forming.

Making perfume: They choose two items to add to alcohol then have to wait until it becomes a sweet smelling substance. (Rose, lavender, cinnamon, eucalyptus and a few others)

Photosynthesis: We made terrariums out of a 2 liter bottle

Devotion: We talked about the fruits of the spirit as well as how God created vegetation (Gen 1:11) and then he gave it to us for food (Gen 1:29)
Food Chain: How it all works together. We even got to talk about poo!

Day 2
Today Geoff and I taught together. We really do make a good team, I'm so thankful God brought this wonderful man into my life!
Germination & Seed dispersal: There are many ways a seed spreads itself around, wind, water, animals, humans and explosion (when a pod bursts open). Again they were all ears when we got to talk about two of the ways an animal can disperse seeds by seeds being hitch hikers and by it's poo.

Propagation: Ways a plat can reproduce without seeds. Cuttings and runners!
Spices & Herbs: There was a lot of smelling going on with this one. We smelled and touched fresh and dried ones as well as talked about our favorite foods. We made a lavender sachet so we could keep one of our favorite smells around!
Recess: we played with a stomp rocket to see what wind could do to disperse a seed, this was a HUGE hit!
Trees: Our largest plant. We explored deciduous and evergreens as well as the rings to see how old the the tree was, and learned that in a drought the rings are thinner than when it rained a lot.
Devotion: We talked about how Jesus referred to God's word as a seed to be planted in someones heart and they types of conditions that seed could land on and where it could flourish. (Matt 13)

We ended our day by reading The Big Tree by Bruce Hiscock. I meant to take a group shot but forgot until they were out the door for carpool! Next up we teach planets!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We started our day finding toilet paper strewn out down stairs and that out our leprechaun trap failed. He did leave behind a shamrock plant for us to enjoy as well as a first place chocolate coin on a ribbon for a first place trap design!

We ate leprechaun size pancakes and drank green smoothies. The smoothies were delicious!

The best part was the littles started off the day with a full serving of spinach. All 3 drank them down!

For dinner we had corned beef, cabbage and red potatoes. Aiden had his first attempt at meat carving.

Dessert was a fun surprise cake. From the outside it looked like a fluffy cloud with marshmallows

 But once we cut into it the rainbow was revealed!

 

Camille almost beat Aiden in devouring her 7 layers!