Inventions, ice cream, and missing teeth

Lex’s class did an assignment where they had to make and write about an invention. Or, to be precise, a “contrapawackinvent.” I have NO IDEA what that means. He hasn’t told me anything about it except that he was pleased his teacher let him write straight through snack time. He apparently had a lot to say about his contrapawackinvent!

bulletin board

The long one in the middle is his.

close up

A close up. Can you read it? You may have to click on the picture to zoom in a bit.

Tonight was the annual ice cream social at his school. Sort of a final farewell, hosted by the PTO. The kids had a great time, of course. Ice cream and playground after dinner, lots of friends, what more could you (as a child!) ask for. :)

ice cream

Yum!

The excitement of the evening however came when Lex did a face-plant off the monkey bars! He stood up, spitting out wood chips and missing a tooth! Fortunately it was the one that was hanging on by a thread anyway! He was hoping to loose it this week, at school, so he could get a little treasure box from the school nurse. He lost it at school, but won’t be getting a treasure box. Oh well. Several people jumped in and tried to help him find the tooth, but he seemed relatively indifferent.

looking for a tooth

Looking for a tooth. I didn't get any pictures of the wood-chip filled face, too busy taking care of the boy to be taking pictures of him, but once I knew he was ok I whipped the camera back out!

is this it

Is this it? Nope, just a wood chip.

upside down

A face-plant didn't keep him down for long!

slide

Oh yeah, we brought this smiley girl as well. :) She was smiley until she got her little toe caught in the slide. Then it turned to tears (two ice cream cones and half hour past bedtime may have also contributed to the tears!)

sweet

Sweet.

Quick pics

eve with plant

Eve brought home her green bean plant from pre-k yesterday. She was super eager to plant it.

watering

She was even more eager to water it!

circle

I have been a slacker this year and we have absolutely nothing planted in the raised bed garden this year. The kids have been using it as a digging site instead. Eve wanted to plant her green beans there though, so we marked off the actual plant (as opposed to all the weeds!) with a nice stone circle. I hope it grows well for her!

lex

Lex has been in worksheet CREATION mode lately! He's just cranking them out. He makes them on the white board and on paper. He is starting to get fancy with flaps and other complicated parts. If he had his druthers Eve would spend her days doing worksheets that he created. She humors him sometimes, but she doesn't really share his passion for worksheets. :)

Our new bedtime chart

I bought these the other day because bedtime was, once again, making me crazy. The kids LOVE them. So far, after two nights, they are working well. I also taped up the weather forecast for a few days at a time so they can pick out clothes accordingly. :)

Running

image

After a rocking family game of Sorry (Eve won!) and a wild silly round of tickle tag, Alan and Eve set off on a morning run. She made it a full mile, with only a short period of walking after she fell and scraped up her toe and knees. She came home tired and happy. Alan went out again for a longer run. :)

Game Folder – part 2

I learned more about the game folder today! Lex made a sheet of games for his classmates. He and another girl in his class started it on Friday. They are going to hang it on the wall on Monday and fill it with activities and games for their classmates. We made copies of this game sheet for each of his classmates. I have no idea how this will play out on Monday, but I think the idea is absolutely adorable! He’s such a sweet genius.

game sheet

Four part game sheet. We made copies for each classmate, one for Eve, and one for Parrish. Plus the original that Lex wanted to hang on to, just in case.

classmate

Lex wrote out a list of his classmates, alphabetized in alternating colors (he did all of the blue names, then all of the green names, how's that for mental work!?). Then he glued the list on to the inside of the folder. I don't understand this part of the plan, but he said it was important.

Mining!

We took an awesome trip to Ruggles Mine today. We loaded up Grampy Don’s big old truck and headed out. The drive turned out to be longer and more interesting than we were expecting, but we arrived eventually, just in time to have lunch. Then down into the mine we went! There was tons of shiny minerals and rocks. Eve is a HUGE rock collector. My car is generally filled with rocks. She picks them up everywhere we go, regardless of whether they are “wild” rocks or “cultivated” rocks that someone has paid good money to properly place. Eve will heist them and bring them home. She was in heaven here! We originally said she could take what she could carry, but we had barely entered the mine when her bag was heavier than she could carry. I loved her enthusiasm so I happily volunteered to carry her bag. We all had a great time!

Sorry for the gallery view. I don’t normally like this format, but there are a lot of pictures and it’s tired and I’m late. <-- Hahaha, yep, that's it!

A funny milestone

I often find myself wondering at what age kids should start attending to personal hygiene things themselves. For awhile it was showers. When do kids start showering? How do you teach them? Funny thing, parenting is, because things just happen when they are meant to happen. Lex decided one day it was time to start showering. That was awhile ago and now he showers sometimes and bathes other times. But it just happened when it was time. I say all this because a new thing I’ve been wondering about for awhile is nail clipping. It’s one of my least favorite jobs. The kids don’t fight or protest, but they just barely cooperate, and their nails grow so fast I feel like we are clipping them every week! This evening Lex fussed about not liking to have his nails clipped so I said, “Want to do it yourself?” He jumped at the idea!! It was hard work for him because he’s still developing that fine motor control, but he did a decent job. It took him a long time, but I was patient and he was patient and he was super proud of himself when he was done! I guess right about seven is the answer to that question.

I thought hard about getting the camera but he was sitting on my lap and it was sweet and he was working hard and I didn’t want to interrupt the moment. Why don’t I have an eye-cam yet?!?!