Sunday, June 7, 2015

Ivory Household

My sister sent me a link about putting ivory soap in the microwave. She sent it at a propitious time, when I had already planned a trip to Walmart and had already started thinking in summer kid entertainment mode. So we did it today, with our friend and neighbor, James.  We took it one further and made "ghost mud" of the microwaved soap, toilet paper, and water.

 It was a hit because they actually played with it for 30-45 minutes, and James was happy to take his "eye of Cthlulu"* home with him.

 After they molded brains, balls, and a space ship, I let them add food coloring. I didn't get any pictures of that.
 Thanks for the great idea, Aunt Jenny!

*No, they aren't reading HP Lovecraft, Eye of Cthulu is a character in Terraria, which is the new Minecraft.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

It's the little things

From Christopher's best, most favorite and awesome 4K teacher:

"I will miss him singing in the bathroom."

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Happy Mother's Day

Tony is out of town until Thursday, so the boys took me to IHOP, then we went to the Bike Skills Flow Park at Gateway Park in Travelers Rest.


It was awesome!

Christopher rode his balance bike on the pump track and practice loop. He practiced pedaling with his Thomas bike in the parking lot and in a divet (which allowed for stationary biking). He's too big for both...


John had a great time. He was pretty good at it right off the bat.


We all agreed we want to go back. But earlier in the morning. It got really hot!

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Camping

Tony was in tech last weekend, so I took the boys to Twin Lakes for a night of car camping. It is a Corps of Army Engineers park that is about 10 minutes from the house!
It was really quite perfect. The temperature was low humidity, around 75 during the day and down to 55 at night. Very Goldilocks, not too hot, not too cold.

Our spot was so awesome, even though it was the second to the last one left in the whole park. We were right across the street from the playground, which was right next door to the bathroom. I think we were one of three tents in the 30-site loop we were on. The rest were RV's. We saw one other family of kids, but most were retirees in their fabulous RVs. Nice and quiet. Our next door neighbor brought me his hammer because I forgot my mallet. Actually the tent pad was nice and sandy, so I was able to just push the little aluminum pegs in with my foot.

I was not very good at making a fire, which mostly smoked. Fortunately, the wind pushed the smoke across the lake, so hopefully I didn't bother anyone too much. It burned enough to make s'mores and lukewarm hot dogs, so expectations were met.

The boys and I set up camp, they were a great help, and John and I actually had no trouble getting the rain fly over the top. The wind helped with that. Then we went back to the Turners' house for a pot luck, then came back with Fly and settled in for the night. The boys were great, Fly was not. He really is better when he sleeps in his crate... but he finally settled down mostly, sharing the end of Christopher's sleeping bag.

Next morning, we took Fly back home (we can't fit the gear and the dog in the car at the same time) and brought Henry back with us. Then the boys hung out and played "sink the leaf battle" and "bury John in the sand" for about 2-3 hours. Good times!






Friday, April 10, 2015

Pizza Movie Night: Spy Kids 3

On our new (to us) computer from Indiana University Southeast!

I pushed hard for "Fantastic Voyage," "Voyage Under the Sea," or "Extraordinary Adventures of Blanc-Sec." Next time I'm picking. Got to get these kids to branch out... So far they've liked everything I've picked in the past, they just resist at first...


Thursday, March 12, 2015

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Common Core


I can't make any other answer beside the one John picked (Question 1, B) be correct. Can you?
It's little things like these that make me worry about the kids' education...