The rest of the week.

Remember that last post...the one where I rubbed laying around in my PJs all day for 3 days straight in your nose? Yeeeeahhhhh.... The funny thing about PJs is that they aren't quite so comfy after about the fourth day...and lucky us, the kids caught colds so we ended up staying home for the entire week. Ugh. I was able to get out once for a couple of hours to my crochet group, and we did venture out at one point for some groceries, but this momma is ready for some social interaction!!!

Anyways, we had a LOT of this...snuggling, watching home videos. It was pretty fun. I cannot believe how fast time flies. Oh, and no that is not a large, cancerous growth in Sam's shorts--it's a pink bear. Self-explanatory, right? Apparently he thought so.

There have also been a LOT of games. Bananagrams, which when played with those who aren't so keen on actually spelling is more like, "I have more E's than you do." Fun fun.

There were tempers flaring. It's not like I enjoy picking up my messes either...in all honesty though, he's gotten so much better about cleaning them up. The only rule about messes in this house is, "Messes are awesome...as long as they are picked up when they're complete." And I'm proud to say that I've been stunned into silence more than once this week when the kids, WITHOUT BEING ASKED, went and picked up a broom or a washrag to clean a mess they made from eating something. Alas, I'll also admit that there have been at least double the full out tantrums about said messes at other times, but things are improving!

More games--Jenga, Cuisinaire rods, wooden shape puzzles....and Sam trying to steal all of Brooklyn's thunder (note the blanket. I swear, this child did refused to wear clothes the ENTIRE WEEK. When I'd ask her to put a shirt on for 2 minutes while I get a photo, she'd just grab her blanket. Alas.).

She actually got 2 more stories on that thing before it crashed!

We were making music with wine glasses and loved the varying waves that the vibrating glass created.

More games. This girl is a Rock, Paper, Scissors whiz! Seriously, she's good.

Reader Rabbit goodness.

I'm learning (very slowly) to just back off on educating my kids. It's extremely obvious when they are eager to learn something and just as obvious when they have absolutely zero interest in another thing. We'll go for weeks without reading the masses of books in our house, and then all of a sudden the kids will binge on them, asking for book after book for days at a time. Or Brooklyn will hide herself away with an enormous pile and will be gone for hours.

Uno!!

At Costco, Brooklyn found this box laying in the parking lot. "GARBAGE!!" exclaimed Sam, "TREASURE!!" exclaimed Brooklyn. I mentioned something about already having a box just like that in the car. Right now at this very exact moment. And it's all yours...are you sure you need another?? Silly me, of course she did. And indeed...she did. They came in handy when both kids wanted to haul it around...although it was pretty devastating when Russ crunched one with his truck. Brooklyn wrote him a lovely little note and taped it to the front door. I should have got a photo, but it said something to the effect:

DaDDy you ar not aloud in this hows intil you muv that truk!!

And yes, he moved his truck.

She book-binged for 2 days and we haven't touched another book since.

This guy on the other hand... He may be busy, but at least he listens. Actually, is scary how attentive he can be when he's busy. For example, we all sing our own songs at bedtime. A few times Russ and I have sung The Star Spangled Banner. We were sitting at dinner tonight and Sam totally started belting it out! I was pretty impressed.

Sam and I made some gluten-free "goldfish" (I don't actually have a cookie cutter, so we just did squares, plus I can't eat cheddar cheese so we substituted with provolone). This is what I found after telling them, "Don't touch the crackers--they're cooling." No joke, they were gone in less than 10 minutes. Yum!

Go Fish!

This is not the best photo in the world, but I FINALLY got to leave the house. To run to the grocery store, with sickies in tow...but did you hear me?! I got to leave the house!! Anyways, this is titled Minivan Momma--Don't Mess With Me.

I've been obsessed with crocheting lately.

This kid not only amazes me at how attentive he can be, but he also observes and make connections that I don't expect him to. I was downloading photos and he walks in and says, "Hmm, I wonder what its like with no knees. And elbows." So we had a little conversation about it and he decided that he'd be pretty bummed and showed me what life would be like...not fun, I'm told.

"And this is how I feew with ew-bows and knees!!"

Brooklyn decided it was experiment time again. I wonder if maybe I should get her an actual experimentation kit?? Or just let her go at it and keep her favorite ingredients in stock (thankfully they mainly consist of water, ice, milk, food coloring, and salt!)?? This concoction had quite a few impressive ingredients including maple syrup, raspberry flavoring, dish soap, spearmint essential oils, lemons, and glitter. It actually turned out pretty neat and when you shake it, reminds me of some sort of lava-lamp thing.

Brooklyn whooped us all at Sorry!...again.

This photo KILLS me. He was outside helping Russ do some yard work. Sam went over to the tool storage, grabbed these and got to work. I looove how he stuck his little butt out--he was concentrating so hard!

Tough work, but we now have a garden!! Woo hoo!

I showed Brooklyn a "magic" way of adding big numbers. ...We're still working on it.

I killed it at Yahtzee Jr.

I've been on the lookout for a decent, used microscope for awhile and another homeschooler was getting rid of their Magiscope. It's pretty nifty. Not high tech at all--it's super sturdy, the kids are able to swap out the lenses on their own, focus on their own, it requires no electricity, and the scope comes out so you can walk around with it! And the best part? The warranty actually covers accidents! Russ and I are having as much fun with this as the kids are!

WARNING: the last photo is of one of Russ's magnified facial hairs...lol. Scroll down, if you dare!






















































Pretty crazy! We didn't try it with the closer lens.