Parentheticals

Has it been two or three weeks since we wrote? Oops. Well, here's what we remember. Last week we celebrated Easter. For Palm Sunday, we did the donkey race, where the donkey tries to crawl across the house and the kids have to put blankets in front of the donkey fast enough that they never crawl onto bare ground. It's always very hectic and fun. On Monday we played Clean Up Your Own Backyard. We divided into two teams and used stuffed animals. Mom, Sara, Gideon, and Boo were one team, and Dad, Rea, and Timmy were another team. We made a new rule this year that you can't hold more than one thing at a time, which made it more fair. On Tuesday we watched Prince of Egypt, which was fun as always. Mike did homework during it, so he missed most of it. On Wednesday we commemorated the Passover. Alison cut it down severely this year, and it was really nice and didn't take a day and a half, so we will probably do it this way in the future. We had a meal that reminds us of what w...

 Let's see, what happened this week?  Tuesday we did science for school and we learned about weathering and erosion. We made mountains out of play dough and weathered them with water and ice and wind. Rea also did an extra presentation on how ice splits stone apart, putting two grey cushions next to each other and putting a balloon in the crack and blowing it up to simulate water expanding as it freezes. It was great. All of the kids did wonderful science presentations. Wednesday the girls planned an Old Fashioned Party for them and the Plastows. They dressed up in old fashioned clothes, featuring fake mustaches. They played Pin the Tail on the Donkey and lasso the cow swing. At the end, they had root beer floats. They are getting to be very good party planners. Thursday we went to the farm at Thanksgiving Point. Grandma Julie invited us there, and the kids had a lot of fun. The pony ride is the best part of the farm, but it was so crowded that we had to wait for an hour to ge...

On Monday and Tuesday, Boo and Gideon were sick. We had to spray Boo down to clean up the vomit a couple of times, as well as washing the couch cover and blankets and cleaning the carpet. Luckily, Gideon is old enough to use a bucket. Luckily, it was over by Tuesday, and no one else got it, so we thought we got off lightly. On Thursday Mike had an insanity of meetings for his teaching job. They are having him prepare materials for new teachers and wanted to discuss that, and they also wanted to discuss the new version of the course they are trying out this semester, and possible changes for next semester. It went on for a long time, but good stuff was accomplished. Alison took the kids to nature group on Friday and mostly had fun - it was great weather! This week was the annual egg drop, and all three egg containers made by our family kept their eggs safe. Alison and Gideon and Boo used the simple handful-of-leaves method, while Sara and Timmy packed theirs in probably 8 pounds of sand...