Owl Puke if you do . . .

Aurelia gets to participate in some classes through her charter school, one of which I have the joy to teach myself! I teach two hands-on science classes. One for k-2nd graders and another for 3rd-5th graders. We have a lot of fun doing science experiments each week. I thought it would be fun to show Aurelia with two friend really digging into their science lesson.


In the end they found three skulls and many various rodent bones in their owl pellet. Pretty fun!

One (or) More Adventure(s) in March

One warm day in March found us marching our way upstream . . .
doing some heavy lifting . . .
throwing stones. . .
and splashing about . . .


Finally we are happy to announce that sometime in November a baby will come to our home and disrupt our lives and expand our hearts . . . another of the greatest adventures of all time . . . here's the proof.

The Exploratorium

So - I'm not really a city driver and I really dislike being the "leader of the driving pack." That's much more up Jason's alley, but anywho, the Exploratorium opens it's doors free to the public on, I think, the first Wednesday of each month and we were invited to join some friends to go out that way, so I packed a lunch and Jason's G.P.S. (thinking that would somehow help my lack of directional ability) and headed out to the city . . . HA! So here we are crossing the Golden Gate bridge (at least my kids can say they've done that now) . . .
After the bridge, the U-turn, and the toll for two cars to cross the bridge (since it WAS my fault), we finally parked and entered the PACKED building, we found: mold (something we are pretty familiar with, actually, and I was glad this kind was under glass) . . .

skeletons in the closet on display for all to see (thankfully, however, not MY skeletons . . . ) . . .

water plants, I guess . . .
The cutest baby on the face of the earth! . . .
a mini-class on plants (that was so boring my kids left after the petals were removed) . . .
germs . . . on a ball thing . . .
a really super-duper, this would make a cool Christmas present, computer microscope thing . . . we spent a lot of time at this station . . .
water and soap (to wash the germs off - the bubbles were just a distraction) . . .

colorful glass, the purpose of this display was not very clear, but very colorful . . .
an earthquake spine that actually just gave my kids a reason to scream and cry at each other, it was nice . . .
shaking sand that was very soothing after the fake-quake . . .
ice crystals that fascinated Aurelia - you had to look though the "polarizer" to see the crystals forming as the water froze on the glass below, but it was so beautiful and colorful . . . the only problem was that Ezra kept spraying more water and melting the ice . . .
This hypno-thing that reminded everyone to go into the store and spend money . . . we did . . . it was a very powerful message. Actually - we got a blacklight pen and pen-light for Aurelia so she could send me secret messages (like "I love you, mom") and a rain-sound maker for Oli and some airplanes for Ezra - I'm positive we spent less in the store than we did to cross the bridge, so I was happy . . .

When we came out of the museum it was POURING rain - as only SFO can do, so we had to RUN to the car in the rain and we got pretty soaked! IT was awesome and I had extra clothes in the car, so it ended up being a really fun day.

Crafts and Creativity

February was a good month for arts and crafts. I'll start off with my favorite kind of course - the kinds that says, "I love you, mom!" Those kind really are the best.

Here's Aurelia doing her home-school work: "Draw, Write Now." She gets to learn how to draw something and then write about it (it's mostly for handwriting improvement - and it has worked." She gets very creative with it sometimes. These "ducks" ended up with some strange attachments.
Ezra very excited about his "spider's web."

Play dough is a time-consuming staple in our home, as anyone who follows our blog knows.

Pile it on and see what happens.

Felt boards are a "blast from the past" that are pretty exciting too.

Part of Aurelia's lesson plans for February included learning Tangrams (and the shape-changing dragons) and about China. Here's the fox, the dragon/serpent and the old man.)

I think this is Oli showing off his new "'do" which matches daddy's (almost).


Here's sleeping Oli with all his babies and his long hair and Aurelia's old ga-ga.

And HERE are my three most beautiful children.

I'm a happy girl.

Some More Janu-adventures

Mothers all over the world love the few minutes of peace that some dough and some toys can create for them. Here's Ezra's funny play dough pal.
Aurelia lovingly constructed a friend out of the temporary stuff.
On another day Aurelia helped the boys dress up like sisters. Wasn't she thrilled?! I had a lovely bunch of girls for a few hours, tatoos and all.
Daddy helped Ezra construct his name in blocks - wasn't I impressed?
Ezra has his own block-building skills of course.
In an attempt to make hotdogs and noodles more "FUN" we followed a recipe from a FAMILY FUN magazine to make these Octo-Dogs. They WERE fun to make, but lacked a little something when it came time to eat them (note Aurelia's face in the photo. . . .) Needless to say, the recipe has not been repeated.
Oli ate the noodles, sort of.
Ezra, my passionate boy, was by far the most impressed and excited about the Octo-dogs, but even he didn't finish eating them . . . I think we ended up having PB and J for a snack later because we were all still hungry.
Last - I thought it would be fun to include a picture of yours truly and her BIG son, Chris (from college group.)

Tool Time

I love it when people clean out their garages and toy boxes and share with others. I love to do it and I love to be on the receiving end of other people's generosity. A good friend of mine from MOPS (Kellie!) shared with us her son's old tool chest packed full to the brim with great tools and building supplies. The best part was that there were enough screw drivers, hammers and drills to satisfy each child's cravings for "more power!! Ar-ar-ar!"

Here they are checking out the drills!
Oli taking a much-needed sippy break!

Ezra so proud, posing with his VERY full tool belt.

Nothing like tools to make a boy feel like a MAN! (Veerrry impressive!)

2010 is a New Year

As we watched the Christmas candles burning brightly we were reminded to put Christ first in our home this year, just as we were allowing any sorrows from the last year to burn away.