Land Before Times Tables
Monday was a holiday! Mike had Memorial Day off work, and we had our first barbecue of the season, and the barbecue didn't even blow up or light on fire or anything! Mike made hamburger patties with blue cheese in them, which were great; we also had vegetable skewers with bell pepper, zucchini, and mushrooms in a soy sauce and pineapple juice marinade, which Alison (and everyone) loved, and watermelon, and hot dogs for the kids.
Then we went to the play "Pirates of the Caribeener" at the Off Broadway Theater. The kids were ecstatic; they love the OBT plays. They enjoyed this one; Rea might have understood some of the jokes, but probably not because she's never seen Pirates of the Caribbean or Sponge Bob, which was the other reference they pulled in. But they all enjoyed the story and the singing and dancing anyway. Gideon didn't even scream, even though he was obviously very tired but unable to sleep in the noise. Best baby ever!
On Tuesday, we went to Forest Kindergarten and found that the pool was open after school hours! The kids were very upset that we hadn't brought swim gear, so the next day we went and bought our pool pass and swam. It was great. Sara has gotten so brave in the water! She walked all the way across the pool (in the 3 ft depth area) and wall-walked all around. She talks excitedly of swimming lessons, but is very hesitant every time Alison tells her that they will start by putting her face in the water. But she will probably get over that and learn to swim this summer, because she is so excited and brave.
Alison and the kids met with their new Forest Kindergarten friends on Tuesday, and somehow almost all of the Quints dolls got taken out of Alison's bag and lost on the playground. They were very upset, especially Rea. Then, when they went back to swim Wednesday and Thursday, they found half of them! They were very happy and grateful for answers to prayer. They are still hoping to find the rest.
s
Thursday Mike went to Board Game Design Guild. He played some guy's game and the game was actually pretty good! (Some of the games that come into the BGDG are not very good.) He had fun and the guy was also open to feedback, which is very important. It was the type of experience he wants to have every week.
Friday we went looking for strawberries for date night, but it's a little too early still; we only got about 7 ripe ones. But we found tons of green ones, so we'll go back soon.
We did pretty well this week at speaking French. Rea is very good at figuring out what Alison's gestures and pointing mean when she's speaking French, and Sara still really likes French lessons.
The kids asked for drawing lessons, so Alison pulled out her volume of "Drawing with Children." This book was highly recommended and says it can start with 4 year olds, so she bought it and tried it when Rea was 4. It didn't work. But now, Rea is old enough that it's going really well. She has made some amazing realistic drawings of birds and nests this week. It is really cool to compare her symbolic drawings (normal preschool drawings) with her representational ones; she's done some of both this week, and it's fun to see the difference.
Our fish are still alive after another week. We're pretty proud of that accomplishment.
Saturday we realized that Gideon was getting sick. He has a mild fever and is very cuddly. He usually manages to be pretty happy when he wakes up, but it only lasts a few minutes before he wants to cuddle back to sleep.
Saturday Mike built an extractor fan for the 3D printer and realized that the Raspberry Pi was not working. We bought a monitor to use for it that also worked as a TV for our VCR, but the kids broke it. So Mike pulled out Alison's little college laptop and was using that, and eventually ended up using his Christmas computer to run the 3D printer.
Using the old laptop, we found all of Alison's NaNo novels. She reread two of them this weekend and was surprised to find that they're actually pretty good. While she was writing them, she was somewhat unimpressed, but with a few years' break, she sees a lot of good in them. Mike is editing his NaNo novel "In Which a Prince Burns Things," and Alison is going to start editing one of hers too.
Since we wrote about everyone else, we should note that Timmy is now using logic. He is out of the "Why did you do it?" "Because I did it!" stage, and he can participate in conversations with his own understanding. Today at dinner, times tables were mentioned, and he eagerly announced that we watched a movie about dinosaurs called, "The Land Before Time." He is making connections and learning all the time. It's great.
Finally, Scott called Mike today and said that Max was very unhappy at the friends' house he'd been staying at while Scott and Sheila are on vacation in Ireland, so could he come to us? We said of course, so this evening we picked him up and he'll be here through Saturday. The kids are ecstatic and having lots of fun together. So maybe Alison will just have to sit around and hold a sick baby this week, without also amusing older kids. That would be nice.
Then we went to the play "Pirates of the Caribeener" at the Off Broadway Theater. The kids were ecstatic; they love the OBT plays. They enjoyed this one; Rea might have understood some of the jokes, but probably not because she's never seen Pirates of the Caribbean or Sponge Bob, which was the other reference they pulled in. But they all enjoyed the story and the singing and dancing anyway. Gideon didn't even scream, even though he was obviously very tired but unable to sleep in the noise. Best baby ever!
On Tuesday, we went to Forest Kindergarten and found that the pool was open after school hours! The kids were very upset that we hadn't brought swim gear, so the next day we went and bought our pool pass and swam. It was great. Sara has gotten so brave in the water! She walked all the way across the pool (in the 3 ft depth area) and wall-walked all around. She talks excitedly of swimming lessons, but is very hesitant every time Alison tells her that they will start by putting her face in the water. But she will probably get over that and learn to swim this summer, because she is so excited and brave.
Alison and the kids met with their new Forest Kindergarten friends on Tuesday, and somehow almost all of the Quints dolls got taken out of Alison's bag and lost on the playground. They were very upset, especially Rea. Then, when they went back to swim Wednesday and Thursday, they found half of them! They were very happy and grateful for answers to prayer. They are still hoping to find the rest.
s
Thursday Mike went to Board Game Design Guild. He played some guy's game and the game was actually pretty good! (Some of the games that come into the BGDG are not very good.) He had fun and the guy was also open to feedback, which is very important. It was the type of experience he wants to have every week.
Friday we went looking for strawberries for date night, but it's a little too early still; we only got about 7 ripe ones. But we found tons of green ones, so we'll go back soon.
We did pretty well this week at speaking French. Rea is very good at figuring out what Alison's gestures and pointing mean when she's speaking French, and Sara still really likes French lessons.
The kids asked for drawing lessons, so Alison pulled out her volume of "Drawing with Children." This book was highly recommended and says it can start with 4 year olds, so she bought it and tried it when Rea was 4. It didn't work. But now, Rea is old enough that it's going really well. She has made some amazing realistic drawings of birds and nests this week. It is really cool to compare her symbolic drawings (normal preschool drawings) with her representational ones; she's done some of both this week, and it's fun to see the difference.
Our fish are still alive after another week. We're pretty proud of that accomplishment.
Saturday we realized that Gideon was getting sick. He has a mild fever and is very cuddly. He usually manages to be pretty happy when he wakes up, but it only lasts a few minutes before he wants to cuddle back to sleep.
Saturday Mike built an extractor fan for the 3D printer and realized that the Raspberry Pi was not working. We bought a monitor to use for it that also worked as a TV for our VCR, but the kids broke it. So Mike pulled out Alison's little college laptop and was using that, and eventually ended up using his Christmas computer to run the 3D printer.
Using the old laptop, we found all of Alison's NaNo novels. She reread two of them this weekend and was surprised to find that they're actually pretty good. While she was writing them, she was somewhat unimpressed, but with a few years' break, she sees a lot of good in them. Mike is editing his NaNo novel "In Which a Prince Burns Things," and Alison is going to start editing one of hers too.
Since we wrote about everyone else, we should note that Timmy is now using logic. He is out of the "Why did you do it?" "Because I did it!" stage, and he can participate in conversations with his own understanding. Today at dinner, times tables were mentioned, and he eagerly announced that we watched a movie about dinosaurs called, "The Land Before Time." He is making connections and learning all the time. It's great.
Finally, Scott called Mike today and said that Max was very unhappy at the friends' house he'd been staying at while Scott and Sheila are on vacation in Ireland, so could he come to us? We said of course, so this evening we picked him up and he'll be here through Saturday. The kids are ecstatic and having lots of fun together. So maybe Alison will just have to sit around and hold a sick baby this week, without also amusing older kids. That would be nice.
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