August 15, 2011 - Posted by CayleenRae - 0 Comments
After having so much fun at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s, we tried to get back into a routine:
Gospel Study!
Playdoh…
…with a purpose. I had them take a break from playing to spell out some “at” words:
Our friend came to play before swimming and offered some great ideas:
A neighbour dropped off a zucchini, and Giant practiced his peeling skills:
The boys also practiced their wheat grinding skills (it took about 3 days of intermittent hand grinding to make my 18c batch of buns):
They drew pictures:
And we studied geography with Google Maps:
(swimming and not napping caught up with Ettin, and he crashed for a short nap)
August 13, 2011 - Posted by CayleenRae - 0 Comments
Through the border and up in the sky to Grandma’s house we go!
At the airport there were some ultra-cool jet planes showing off their stuff:
(which was all rather noisy and scary for a little Ettin—he hid in the back of the car)
Here we go!
Our planes were small. We usually had 2 boys on one side,
…and one boy on the other, in any order.
We got to Grandma and Grandpa’s house late, and the boys snuggled in amongst a plethora of books:
Then for the next two weeks we swam our hearts out!
Galoot was pretty sure he could swim, and loved getting dunked under the water. He even walked along the side of the pool and “jumped” in a few times (meaning, walked straight off the edge when no one was expecting it).
Ettin lived with his face in the water, when we could convince him to get in the pool—he almost always “didn’t want to go swimming.”
Giant started with floaties and a kickboard, and was not going to put his face in the water no way no how. He progressed to swimming with his head cranked back to keep his face out of the water. Mommy resorted to hugging him and dunking him under much the same way I did with my boys when they were babies—he was furious the first day I did this, but begged me to do it the next day. The third time there wasn’t anything this kid couldn’t do! (he was even diving under my legs—with a little help 😉 ).
Crazy how much fun we have when we are forced to do hard things! Good for you Giant!!!
(yes, even Grandma’s puppy hopped in accidentally one time—he was tuckered out for a week after)
We played lots of games, including this fun one called “Guess my picture”:
One night we roasted marshmallows (in spite of the 100+ degree heat wave Dallas had been having):
…and had a midnight swim:
Two weeks was much too short!
We miss you Texas!
July 29, 2011 - Posted by CayleenRae - 0 Comments
After watching a TED talk on Squishy-Circuits, I knew I had to try making them with my kids. Well, we got our chance!
I’d made the kids some regular salt dough to play with, and then thought that it would be a great chance to try out the squishy-circuits—we had friends over to play, the baby was napping, and my Hubby had recently shown me where he kept the electronicy thingys.
Yes, “Electronicy Thingys.”
Like these:
…and these…
…I got a glimpse into how my hubby probably feels looking into my gardening shed. Lots of…things. Some sort of recognizable (ooh look, batteries! I know what batteries are!). And some not (hmmm, lots of little black things that look like centipedes with metal legs. And other pokey metal stuff. With cryptic notes accompanying their compartment.)
I put batteries in a thing that looked like it was meant to hold batteries and plugged it into our play-doh, a mix of disbelief and hope coursing through me as I tried to make this work:
It worked! Twitchy, but the light definitely blinked dimly a few times.
I was dubious of the battery set up I’d created. Besides, I’d spied another battery connector I was more familiar with from my days of grade 9 science class, so I switched the batteries around:
Much better. Couldn’t tell you why exactly though. Maybe a stronger battery? Better connections? Better ease of use? Whatever, it worked!
We squished in some resistor dough:
…still working!
We made cutesy animals for a bit. I tried to make the pig circuit from the squishy circuit page, but I couldn’t quite wrap my brain around it.
And I was starting to lose their interest — they weren’t too impressed with being repeatedly told, “Don’t touch it yet, I think I’ve almost got it.” (yes, this activity would have gone more smoothly with more pre-planning and learning on my part, but sometimes you just have to roll with it).
So, I asked them what they wanted to make.
Why, teenage mutant ninja turtles of course! (No, my sons have no idea who the teenage mutant ninja turtles are. This is a failing on my part. Thankfully, the little girl who’d come over to play was able to educate them in this very important topic—teenage mutant ninja turtles are her favourite!)
She told me what the turtle should look like:
And we tried lighting him up in different ways, including a light up belt. We finally settled on some glowing green goo for him to hold:
Giant tried his hand at building a turtle too:
With light up…swords?
Mommy made an octopus with light up eyes (the pig still eluded me):
And Ettin made a very interesting creation. He was so proud. I was dubious. The disconcerting thing was that the one led that did light up pulsed. Repeatedly. Rather like a heart beat.
…It’s alive!!!
July 28, 2011 - Posted by CayleenRae - 0 Comments
When I was little, some of my fondest memories are of my parents waking us up in the middle of the night to show us cool stuff—-a neat looking moon, shooting stars, and nocturnal animals that came to visit in our backyard. I promised myself I’d do that with my own children someday.
So, the other night while I was mowing the lawn (hey, sometimes you don’t get to projects until very late when you’re a parent!), I saw something glisten in the moonlight as it hopped out in front of the mower. I found it, and brought it inside…
The boys visited with him for a bit, and Giant started telling me all he knew about tree frogs. Where does he learn this stuff?!
Thanks for the visit little buddy!
July 27, 2011 - Posted by CayleenRae - 0 Comments
My Garden, just before we left for our 2 week trip to Texas.
Peas, just about ready:
A few raspberries, just about ready:
Grapes. One in particular doing well (I planted 4 this year, along with 8 blueberries that were $4 each on an end of summer sale):
My Three Sisters planting. Corn, Scarlett runner beans, and pumpkins inter-planted to benefit each other. I have little experience growing corn. It was transplanted after growing in teeny starter cells for 6 weeks. The tap roots were almost non-existent, which I know is sad for corn. They are barely a foot high and are trying to grow cobs. Is that normal? Will they get any bigger? Worry worry, fret, fret. The beans are ready to climb the corn I thought would be growing strong, and the pumpkins are just starting to pop up. Will they get any pumpkiny produce before frost in 2 months?
A new sowing of carrots and beets I planted while my parents were visiting:
Zucchini, just starting to put on buds and leaf out:
Carrots and radishes I planted as soon as my boxes were finally read for them (onions at the front):
Brasiccas:
Tomatos, Cucs, and Peppers (Next year, these guys would LOVE a hot hoop. I’m not sure I’ll get anything off of them this year):
A new smattering of snap peas—so I don’t have to shell before I put them in the freezer:
Baby brassicas and boc choi, along with more peas:
Boc Choi going to seed and more peas and my compost trench:
Strawberries! Finally pettering off in production (1 honey bucket full instead of 3 every 2 days)
Asparagus, little and fluffy and slightly neglected:
Apples on the tree, and the Temple!
West Side:
East Side:
See you in 2 weeks my friend.
