Snow Day!

Today when we left for church, we were amazed to see that it had begun to snow!

Kaden has never really experienced snow... if he has seen it, he was too young to remember.

By the time we got home a few hours later, there was a light blanket of snow covering everything. We quickly bundled up in our jackets and headed outside.

After only a few minutes, Kaden's hands were freezing and he decided he is not a fan of the snow. The kid needs some gloves!

Aquarium of the Pacific

This week we joined our friends and neighbors the Reilly's on a trip to Long Beach to visit the Aquarium of the Pacific...They have four boys and a baby girl, so that made a total of eight kids with four adults trying to keep them all together. Can I just say I'm glad I only have three?!? All the kids were pretty well behaved and had a lot of fun looking at all the different exhibits there. They were able to watch the seal and sea lion show and also got to see the staff feeding some of the different fish. Of course, everyone's favorite part of the aquarium is the touch pools!

Kaden was reaching in to pet some sharks and rays here and "accidently" dunked his head in the tank - it was so much fun that he did it a couple more times after that.

After we had seen everything at the aquarium we ate lunch and then headed to the beach. Madison wanted to try out her boogie board on some real waves (she had only used it in the pool until then). She was pretty good at it but decided she had had enough when a big wave took her out.

Also, it was really pretty cold there...

...so we didn't last long. Hopefully we'll get another opportunity soon to spend some time at the coast!

Hallway bowling

... or what to do when your mom won't let you play Wii on Sunday:

We did take the kids to the bowling alley a few weeks ago and here was our final score:


He was using the bumpers (but then, we all were). I don't know how he did it - seriously, the ball is bigger than he is!

Mailboxes, etc.

Madison was playing around with some construction paper yesterday, and ended up making a little box. She really wanted to do something with it, but didn't know what to use it for. After brainstorming for a while, she came up with the idea of using it for a mailbox. She made two more, so Hunter and Kaden could each have one, and they have been writing notes back and forth ever since.

Their little notes to eachother are so fun for me to find and read....

...and sometimes I write some of my own.

The funny thing is, I remember doing the exact same thing with my sister when we were kids. Somehow, when kids come up with this stuff all on their own it's a fun game... if I had suggested it they would have thought it was some trick to get them to write and read or something!

Dear Santa,

Last week I suggested that all the kids write a letter to Santa, and I just had to save them here before I send them off to the big guy in the red suit!






Here is Madison's:
There are no real surprises here, she has been asking for a pogo stick for a while now. I don't have any real objection to her having one, I just don't think she will love it as much as she seems to think she will. We had one at our grandma's house when I was little, and really, using it once or twice a year was plenty - it got old fast. Other than that, she wants Webkinz, Webkinz, and clothes for the Webkinz! Whatever, I guess it's pretty affordable, anyway.

Hunter wants a sno-cone machine. I don't know if we'll be able to find one this time of year, but we'll try. He also wants candy and money - again, no surprises here.

So I asked Kaden what he would like Santa to bring him for Christmas, and this is what he told me....

If you're having trouble reading that, he wants an underwear machine.

According to him, you put it on the table, pull the thing, and it makes underwear.

If I thought that meant he would actually wear the underwear, and not pee in them, I would find some way for there to be an underwear machine under the tree Christmas morning!! He is actually making progress on the potty training thing, but still has accidents often. We're not leaving the house without a diaper on at this point.

Prison Art

First, a little history:

Last night, after the kids were in bed, we were watching Lockup: San Quentin Extended Stay. It is a documentary about the lives of prisoners who are serving long sentences in San Quentin. The prisoners necessarily have to be very creative in finding ways to spend their time, and some create amazing works of art using the meager supplies available to them. Some of them make amazing sculptures using only toilet paper and water.

Now, today is an average day for this time of year - 93 degrees - and the kids wanted to play with the hose to cool down. I went out to check on them after a little while, and this is what I found:

Here they are soaking magazine pages in water on the sidewalk and then scrunching them up into little balls. Then they laid them out in the sun to dry:
At least we know that they will not die of boredom should they ever end up in prison....

Pismo~

"Best Vacation... EVER!!" -Madison

Song: Island in the Sun by Weezer

Outdoor Hour Challenge #16

Okay, so we are kind of jumping into this in the middle, but since I finally started a blog, I couldn't wait to get started.

The Outdoor Hour Challenges are weekly assignments to go with the Handbook of Nature Study, and this week's assignment was to plant sunflowers. Since we just received our sunflower seeds from Cornell University's Celebrate Urban Birds project, the timing couldn't be better.

So here is Madison, planting sunflower seeds:

Here is Kaden watering them, after they were all planted:And where is Hunter? Well, he has been sent inside, since the question of who would get to water first started a mini war between the boys. I decided that Kaden would get to water first, since he didn't get to do as much planting, being two and all.... Hunter was not happy with that decision and started to throw a fit, so I sent him in to calm down.

However, Madison did find this adorable little millipede: He fell off her hand right after posing for this picture, and she spent the rest of the time searching for more.

Hopefully in a few weeks we will have some little sunflower sprouts.... we'll see if we can remember to water them!