It’s a BEAUTIFUL day in the neighborhood!
Summah!
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Monthly Archives: April 2013
Boston
We were planning a trip to Boston two weeks ago, at the beginning of April vacation. Unfortunately very bad things happened in Boston the day before, so we opted not to go. We mentally rescheduled for the end of the week instead, but the city was in lock-down then, so we again post-poned. Yesterday, we made it! We drove down Saturday morning, spent the day at the Museum of Science, and headed home that evening. Easy, peasy.
We parked on the roof of the garage, our preferred parking, so we could see the whole city. We also tried to get into this observatory (some of us tried harder than others!) but the doors were locked.
This museum has everything. From optical illusions (hence why we are all standing with one eye closed)…
to large engines. (Lex, counting cylinders)
From dinosaur bones…
to exposed escalator parts. It’s a pretty cool place to be.
These science guys enjoyed our visit.
We saw an IMAX movie on the giant dome screen (Alan and I BOTH dozed off briefly! Awesome parenting, eh?)
and sampled ice cream Dots. Lame.
Last stop, of course, the gift shop! Both kids brought their own money and made great choices for souvenirs. Neither chose the glasses! Lex bought a K’Nex roller coaster and Eve bought a butterfly snow globe and wire jewelled tree on a rock, exactly like Winona used to make so long ago! :)
Since it was Saturday and the traffic wasn’t bad, we headed north when the museum closed. We stopped at Panera along the way for dinner. We washed the kids up and put them in PJs and everyone was cuddled up and quiet for an audio book the whole way home. Happy day!
Sunshine and soccer
Spring is finally here and with it.. SUNSHINE! My favorite. We had a picnic snack on the porch after school one day last week and the kids have been “practicing soccer” each afternoon. Eve even dug out her summer clothes.
We have daffodils blooming and the weather forecast for this week is full of sunshine as well. Whoo hoo!
Gardening
I stopped at the garden supply store today and blew some bucks! I got cheap edging to go around our existing gardens, rakes for the kids, comfy gloves for me (I have blisters from all the raking I’ve been doing lately!!), potting soil, compost, tomatoes, basil, lavender, and I think that’s it. That was enough… for this trip!
The weather has been so nice lately we’ve been enjoying the great outdoors every afternoon. We had a picnic on the porch yesterday and did some gardening today. Good times in the sunshine!
Eve was a big help and Lex helped on and off. I lost both helpers though when the neighbor came over with a new toy. Oh well.
One step closer…
I took my Praxis I exam today. It wasn’t terribly hard, but I’m glad to have it behind me now. It’s basically a test to determine if I am smart enough to learn how to be an elementary school teacher! I passed. Yay! :-)
Soccer!
I signed the kids up for spring soccer, which started today. They were both pretty excited for it. I was excited when we got there and they participated and had fun! Flashbacks to t-ball years ago kept swirling in my head and I was hoping it would be better this time around. It was! It was windy and only 40° outside, so those of us on the sidelines were chilly, but the kids had a blast!
Caption courtesy of Eve.
They came home with an assignment to practice dribbling. Let’s hope the enthusiasm holds through the spring. :)
Spring clean-up
Aren’t they helpful?
Seriously though, Lex was very helpful with the raking and he dumped the wheel barrow out into the ravine all on his own, twice. It’s nice when he’s helpful. Eve just chattered for a bit then went to play in the dirt. Maybe she’ll be more helpful next time. :-)
Punctuation
Eve is reading the Sunday comics to me. Suddenly she gets up, gets a marker from then drawer, and starts making dots. I asked what she was doing and she rightly pointed out that they forgot the periods to end the sentences.
I’ve been reading the comics for years and never noticed that many of them don’t use periods. They use other punctuation, but then leave simple sentences un- punctuated. Weird, huh?
Oops!
I completely forgot to hang up Eve’s birthday collages this year! Oops! I was just cleaning off the mountain of junk piled on my desk and came across them. Sigh. I guess I’ll add “make 6yr collage” to my to-do list and try to remember to hang them next year!
Spring! (and riding with the big kids)
Today was a beautiful day all around. (the kids aren’t in bed yet so there’s still the chance of disaster, but I’m hedging my bets and calling it a great day!) I subbed at school today, in Lex’s class. He was thrilled. They are a busy bunch normally, but I think Monday must be their mellow day. Mellow for them, anyway. Still very busy!
When we got home from school it was sunny and in the 60’s so we had snack then headed outside to blow bubbles and ride bikes. I also swept a dirt road’s worth of dust and dirt out of my garage!
Fun with the new bubble blower!
While we were blowing bubbles a group of fifth graders came zipping by on their bikes. It was a group I haven’t seen hanging out in our neighborhood in the past. They ended up hanging out on our street for quite some time. One of the kids is in Lex’s class (his brother was part of the older group) and my two kids were fascinated. I told Lex he could ride with them if he wanted to and he was thrilled! He zoomed right up to them and joined the group. I have no idea what they were talking about or playing (if 5th graders even “play” anymore, I guess mostly they just “hang out”) but he rolled with them for awhile. Most of the time they were at one end of the street or the other so I wasn’t even really able to keep an eye on things. It was a big step for me! Before he joined the group they had been going from our street to another and back again, so I was curious to see what Lex would do if they left. I didn’t think he’d go, but I wasn’t entirely positive. At one point I noticed the group start to disband and a few kids split off one way while the rest went the other. I looked and looked and didn’t see Lex. Feeling a mix of surprise and worry and awe and… suddenly I saw him riding down the driveway at the end of the street, heading home! He didn’t leave our street after all! Whew! I’m not ready for that yet! :)
Smile!
Another benefit of fresh air is that Eve requested apples and peanut butter for dinner, helping herself to a cheese stick while waiting, and Lex happily accepted carrots on his plate. He turned the plate into a smiley face then ate the whole thing.
Welcome fresh air and sunshine! Welcome Spring!