Sunflowers

We've been very amused by growing sunflowers this spring. I got a pack of seeds for Christmas and didn't notice until after we planted them that they may grow up to 12 feet tall.

Two weeks ago - the tallest one we nicknamed "Big Boy" because it is the biggest one.

One week ago.

Earlier this week.

Today

The ruler shows how much Big Boy grew since last Saturday - 13 inches.  It seems like the bigger it gets, the faster it grows.

Late St. Patrick's Day Happenings

Caleb bent over some clover while I watered the garden today and looked for a 4 leaf clover.  I told him not to expect to find one, but low and behold, 90 seconds later he comes shouting "I FOUND A FOUR LEAF CLOVER!" 

I don't know, that fourth leave sure looks like an afterthought!  But it does have four leaves.  So we carefully folded it in a piece of wax paper and put in a book to press it.  Later on he found another just like it.

These little paper people were part of our weekend activities.  I made the girl for Annalise and Caleb made the leprachan.  It turned out that making a paper doll with no neck actually adds greater stability to its head!  There is a story behind this couple.  It just naturally flowed out as they put them together.

A:  They're like Abraham and his wife - really old and God promised them a baby!
C:  And then they both became leprechans!
A:  Yeah!

And then they ripped off ther girl's clothes and made her green clothes and a hat.

I would have saved them but they didn't survive the honeymoon.



Annalise asked me to take this picture of them with her making a heart with her hands.



Turtle Art

Can you tell we've started back to school? I modified the workbox method to fit our lack of space - calling it the work folder method - and it has really helped us keep on track. A friend from our enrichment group recommended I find a way to let Caleb see the progress he's making in daily assignments so he doesn't just wonder - is this ever going to end? Each folder has a laminated number circle paper clipped to it with velcro on the back. There is a grid he moves the number circle to when he finisheds each folder. So far it has helped a lot.

One folder they always look forward to is the art folder - which we usually have once a week. We are still working in our Shinglee Kindergarden art book. Love it! We did this last week - turtle art:

We have a shortage of black markers in our house - hence the dry erase marker.



This is "so" Annalise.  Note the crown :)



I really liked this craft, I think it will stay on the wall for a while!

Milestones

Caleb can make it all the way across the monkey bars now.  He also figured out how to whistle.

And he had a half birthday - he wanted a Polar Express cake - so I baked a cake in a bowl and made a mountain.  The back is flat.  I couldn't make an edible train, so I printed one off the computer and stuck it in.  At first Caleb was not liking it, but he came around.

Yes, she can get all the way to the top.  She also can count to two and likes to say "fifteen".  We also caught her holding Caleb's phonics book upside down and saying "A-a apple".  Natalie talks all the time, when she started talking she started in complete sentences. 

Annalise can fold more than half of any load of laundry - and she likes it.  She also learned how to thread a needle.

Things Change

Just as a side note - the top picture (which I took) is a crocodile and the bottom picture is an alligator. There were two baby alligators in the little pool with the baby croc and he was totally the alpha dog in there.  They jumped out of the water as soon as he slid in and back in when he climbed out. 

The Twins

This was a project from our Shinglee Kindergarten Art book. I thought it looked fun a long time ago and tried to get the kids to do it then, but it did not go quite right. We had better results this time.

Find a close up face picture in a magazine, cut it in half and glue the pieces ear to ear in the middle of a paper (or alternately just spread them wide apart and glue them on the outerside of the paper.)  You need a big sheet of paper, I had to glue two regular sheets together.



Draw on the other side - we used oil pastels.



Caleb's twins - the original picture had a pineapple growing out of the boy's head, so Caleb wanted to draw it back in.

Annalise worked so hard on the first side, she didn't get around to doing the 2nd side.  But she did it all on her own.

Overheard

C:  Let's make invitations for the stuffed animal party!  We can just use scribbles for the words.

A:  Yes!  Just like the Declaration of Independence!

A Triumph

A quote:

Take a picture of me with it and put it online so everyone can see!

Giant River Otters at Zoo Miami

The first time I went to Zoo Miami (then called Miami Metro Zoo), I was unimpressed. But to their credit, the zoo was damaged pretty badly by Hurricane Andrew and took several years to recover - as did everything else down here. These days, it is a much improved place where you can get extremely close to the giraffes, stroll inside a large aviary, and see a spider that eats birds. The most recent addition is dedicated to critters from the Amazon and I think almost everyone's favorite is the Giant River Otters. Not only are they cute, but they seem to enjoy showing off and race back and forth to make eye contact with the people. They seemed as gregarious as a dog - with the energy level specifically of a Jack Russell Terrier.  We went to the zoo with some friends on Monday  - here are some of my pictures:

These are the babies.

Another Garage Sale Conquest

When we put away our Christmas decorations, I finally threw away all the nativity pieces that were missing body parts - the headless wise men, the 3 legged sheep, the half-Mary...  I made a mental note to be on the lookout for a new (and hopefully indestructible) nativity set.  Today our church had a rummage sale and I wasn't really shopping it so much as trying to keep the kids occupied while we waited for another event to start.  They found a box on the ground shoved in among the boardgames.  It was a complete Playmobil Nativity Set.  When I asked the price, the girl shrugged and said, "A dollar."  I checked online and even the used ones start at $50, new ones are $80 (Not including shipping).  Maybe I should sell it!  But then I might really disappoint a certain little girl :)

I also bought a set of cute Thank You notes with matching envelopes.  I didn't realize until we got home that all the envelopes were sealed.  But, it turns out that if you put sealed envelopes in the freezer for a few hours, you can pop them back open!  Yay!