Great afternoon

Aidan and Lukie are at our house today for a much anticipated sleep-over. This afternoon (while Gemma was sleeping) was a picture of cousin love (the sweet kind, not the Kentucky kind).

Playing Lego Star Wars Wii:


Bunny spent about 45 minutes reading to Lukie:


We had a good dinner of chicken thighs, mixed vegs, and creamy noodles. Then they were sent outside to play and eat ice cream pops. Also I noticed that I have considerably less strawberries in my garden. But that's ok!

What a great day!

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So T

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AT - AT Walker

Notice Luke hanging from a cable below the belly of the walker. This was when put a bomb in it (Empire Strikes Back). Yes, there is a "bomb" in James' version, would you expect anything less than a full replica?


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Salad

Me: "Come on, kids eat your salad. Is it really that bad?"

James: "I'd like it if it didn't have ranch dressing. And if it tasted like candy."


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Back home

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The long road home

Saturday was our travel day back home. Bye bye, grandma and grandpa!


Waiting in the Detroit airport. This is when it was announced that the "lav" in our small plane to Dallas was out of order, so we all should use the restrooms in the airport before we take off. Are you kidding me? Four young kids, and no "lav" for 3 hours??? After we all went potty, they announced that we would be making a pit stop in Little Rock. What is worse: no bathroom for 3 consecutive hours, or no bathroom for two periods of 1.5 hours AND missing our PDX flight?


We decided that neither was acceptable. Luckily Marcus has status on United/Continental so he has some say in the matter. We stayed in a nice airport hotel, the kids got to play in the pool, and we ate a surprisingly nice hotel-restaurant dinner, all compliments of the airline.





Finally on Sunday morning we were on our way. First class to boot!


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Ottawa Lake

On Friday, we had a good visit to Ottawa Lake.


Do you think Evan and James look alike?


Sitting around talking. The last time we did this (September) the power went out and we all had to use flashlights! Good memories.


Bunny took this picture of a hummingbird.


Aunt Jenny and Gemma.


Backyard.


Gem with great-grandpa.








Dinner at Blackberry Corners in Graytown. I think Marcus is making a sour face because of all the Ohio State stuff.


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Softball party

I still have a few pictures left to post from our travels, but I'm going to jump ahead for a moment. Here are some pics from Bunny's softball party:





She had a great time this year, made new friends, and learned a lot about the sport. Way to go, Bunny!

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We're goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo

On Friday we all went to the Toledo Zoo. Filled with great old WPA buildings, it has one of the most complete animal collections in the nation.





The big zoo news was the arrival of a baby elephant. Now just a few weeks old, they just started showing him to the public a few days earlier. For all her talk about elephants, little Gemma was actually a little scared.





James at the Harry Potter section.





The kids loved the quail exhibit.





I think this la-la wanted to eat Gemma.





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Bunny, the published writer

Bunny regularly writes for the Kid Scoop section of our local paper, as part of school (letter writing exercise). We do this about once a month, and she almost always gets published, likely in the name of diversity since she's the only homeschooler that writes in.


This time the question was "What will you remember most about this school year?". This is what she wrote:


Which is funny to me, since her school ~should~ only take 2 hours or less. But she remembers this one day after weeks of struggling/dragging feet that we worked hard and quickly and she finished her lessons before lunch. Looking back I think this was a turning point because she remembers how good it felt to get her work done without all the normal complaining.

I don't know how I feel about this being published, though. Either people will think, wow, homeschooling sounds great, it takes so much less time! or they will think, that poor child, she obviously can't learn everything in just 2 hours a day. Hopefully I won't get turned in to the truancy officer.


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A plethora of posts

I've been without wifi for a little bit now, so I have a lot of posts to catch up on!

After these vacation posts, and a few more that I still have to do, my blog will definitely quiet down. At home there's so much to do, and our life is not nearly as interesting as it is when we're on vacation.

Read as much or as little you want...if this is too many posts at once, then skip it. I'll post later this week about something or another I'm sure. :o)


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Pancake breakfast

Thanks for the breakfast, grandpa!





Can't stop this boy from creating with legos...


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Thursday evening in Ohio

Lots of trains where my parents live.


Our favorite park in Graytown.














A special treat afterwards.





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Toledo Art Museum

A fun field trip, definitely counts towards school. Art history and appreciation, check.














The museum has this awesome family center with a large play area and art room.





A visit to the Glass Pavilion (Dale Chihuly artwork behind us).


Demonstration (yup, you guessed it...school lesson).


The end.


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