Royalty

We have missed the past three weeks of our co-op, first for Katy with the flu, then Darsie the next week, and then Liam this past week. Katy, especially, has been sorry to miss her classes, so I talked to one of her teachers last week to see if there was anything she could do at home. This wonderful mom gave me the book they are reading and the coloring page that went with it. She also gave me the crown that they have been adding to each week so that Katy could add another jewel to it this week. Then, she gave me two other crowns and a whole container of jewels so taht our other two could get into the act, too. It was a wonderful afternoon, and the kids are still very proud of their crowns!

Music Class

Liam's birthday present was a term of Makin' Music classes, and we have been enjoying them greatly! He gets to go on a Mommy or Daddy date each Friday morning to his class (and we enjoy seeing our old friends from when we both worked there)! Some Fridays have not worked out, either from sickness or conflicting plans. However, two friends of ours, who are wonderful teachers (!), also teach a Tuesday morning class and invited us to come (with all 3 kids) when we need to. So, we have availed ourselves of that class several times, especially enjoying seeing Sandy and Denise again! The kids have had a blast as well!

Mmmmm.......Pilgrims!

Today in our month-long pilgrim study, we read about pilgrim girls' chores and then made butter and cornbread (from a box, nothing too fancy!). I forget every year how tiring making butter is, and then every year we make it and I ache for days! It was really good, though, with the warm cornbread! I think history is our favorite part of lessons every day! I am accumulating a whole list of books that we want for Christmas, too!

Can you tell they're posing?

Mmmm!

Schoolwork

Since the girls were sad to see their friends go, one of their assignments today was to write a letter to them (we try to write letters each week). Liam wanted to get in on the action and drew a picture for Annika, and I just had to post another "people" picture, since it is so fun to me to see him drawing recognizable things!

Washington, D. C. Field Trip!

In the spirit of spontaneity, and since our friends were heading that way, we dropped any plans we had for yesterday and headed south to D.C. with them. Two field trips in one week - pretty fun school, don't you think? The girls were especially thrilled to get to spend more time with their new friends. We left in a gray, rainy morning and arrived to bright, hot sunshine! It was the perfect day to sight-see!
We started at the Washington Monument, headed down the mall past the WWII Memorial and reflecting pool (they really liked the ducks there!) to the Lincoln Memorial. Then, after walking through the Vietnam Memorial, we headed past the White House and enjoyed ice cream and french fries in the Ronald Reagan Building. After our brief and wonderful rest (sitting felt great!), we swung by the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence and then the Capital Building and then played in the mall while the guys fetched the vans. All in all, a great day! The only downside was that we think Darsie has the flu now, though we didn't realize she was getting sick until we were already down there. Some Motrin and a few stroller rides later, though, and she did pretty well (the fun friends helped, too!).

WWII Memorial fountains

More WWII Memorial

Look, that's where the president and his family live!

View of the Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial

Capital Building

New Skill!

I used the girls as guinea pigs this afternoon and had them test out the houses my co-op class will be making on Thursday. They had great fun decorating their houses and watching me glue them together. While they were all decorating (Liam, too), I noticed that Liam is actually drawing people now! After weeks and weeks (forever!) of dictating who to draw for me or the girls to do, he was drawing his own people today and telling me who they are! The curious thing is that he is drawing the same way Darsie started out - upside down. He draws the circle for the head and then sends a leg up and off of it for the body. No idea why, but it is interesting that both of them have done it.

Darsie's house

Liam's house

Katy's house

Liam drawing people on his house

Close-up of his people - circle then line shooting off of it. He also put heads looking out of the windows - I think he said they were me, Matt and him. Pretty neat!

Our Very Own Junior Rangers!

We have had a fun weekend spending time getting to know some new friends who have been staying with us. Matt has a friend who is a pastor in Colorado, and his family is taking a vacation visiting much of the Eastern US and some of Canada right now. They have daughters who are 8, 6 and 2, and who have fit right in with our kids while they have been here! Most days, we have only seen them in the morning and at night, since they are touring different places, but yesterday we went with them to Independence National Park downtown for a tour of the historic area.
We prepped the kids with two good books: The Fourth of July Story by Dalgliesh and Independence Day by Ansary. I had already done a unit on basic Us/Philadelphia history in the summer, and so it was neat to hear what the girls actually remembered from that. We also printed out a Junior Ranger booklet for each girl from the National Park Service. It has activities to do and questions to answer while on your tour, and then when you have completed a certain number of activities, you take it to the ranger at the visitor center and he checks it and gives you a certificate and badge certifying that you are now a junior ranger. It was a fun way to get the kids paying attention and reward them for their efforts!
So, after much walking and looking and listening, the girls became official "Junior Rangers"! I think they were all very proud of their efforts!

Matt poses by a marker for where Abraham Lincoln stood.

Hangin' with George...

Liam wanted to get in on the action, too, so he "worked" in his journal.

Showing their work to the ranger.

Our new Junior Rangers (and Liam)!