Sunday bike ride

It was such a gorgeous gorgeous day that we had to get out of the house.

Everyone wanted to go on a bike ride so after lunch we loaded up the bikes in the truck and headed out.  Everyone had a different idea of where we should go but we finally decided to head to a trail close to home so we could get on our bikes.

We started at Fly'n B Ranch park,

Yes, Skylar wears a dress even when bike-riding.

road around Johnny's Pond and then down the trail to Redstone Park.

 There were so many kids at the park today.  Everyone had the same idea - get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather because it won't last long this time of year.

At first, we were just going to ride one way and then Dad or I would go back and get the truck and pick up everyone else.

But the kids were real troopers and rode back to the truck too.

Total 5 miles.

Cold so off to the museum

Today, was cold.  The day started with Cairn and Bumble on the couch reading.  I had been sitting there from 6 AM until 8 AM but got kicked off when Cairn woke up.

 After breakfast of waffles and mangoes, we took the dogs for a short walk (very windy and chilly) we went to the Cape Fear Museum.  It is the oldest history museum in North Carolina.  We got in free because we have a membership to the Denver Museum of History and Science and this museum is on the share list.

It is very small but full of tons of history about the area.

We started off in the Michael Jordan Discovery room.  I didn't know either.

 This is the beaver den.

 There was a huge area about Fort Fisher and the Civil War.  I took lots of pictures of exhibits to remind me to do more reading about particular item.

 This one was to remind me that Wilmington was the largest port for a long time.

 These were to remind me to learn more about blockades during the war.  I had never heard of blockades before today.

 The girls were creating their own money which is what the states did before the federal money started making US currency.  States didn't always accept different money from other states.

 This was to remind me to read about Wilmington during the Civil  War.

 There was a huge battle at Fort Fisher - I want to remember to read more about it.

 This was the information that was given to voters about which each party stood for - very interesting.

 This is a report card from the early century.  Look at all those classes they took.  A man was reading over the report card and called his friend over to look at it.  He said, "All of these classes...the kids did complain about the few things they are asked to do in school."

I said, "don't get me started about public school kids and the education they are receiving."

The man says, "we are educators in the public school system."

I swallowed, giggled and said, "we are homeschoolers so we touch on a lot of those subjects over a years time."

Then we walked off.  We didn't run into him again.

This entire exhibit was the most fascinating exhibit we have seen in a long time.  We will be studying more about nano when we get home.

The kids are working on their nano city and trying to make sure it balances.

 

 This is ferrofluid that Skylar is playing with while Andrew is playing with large and small magnets in fluid.

After the nano exhibit we saw an exhibit about the mail and the military.  First, the kids had to dress up like soldiers.

 I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the Mail exhibit.

The last thing we learned about was the Giant Ground Sloth that was discovered in Wilmington in 1991 during a construction project.

 Andrew was fascinated and asked the museum lady many questions about the sloth.

Was it a dinosaur?  what did it eat?  humans?  Where did they find it?

After the museum we went out to lunch at an Indian restuarant - we want to take Uncle Mait there - it was super good and the people were really nice.

When we came home the kids wanted to ride their bikes with the boy next door.  So without helmets and with the seats at the wrong heights they went riding off.

It was chilly but they had a great time.

After playing outside for a bit, we came back inside to practice the piano and make playdoh.

Tonight we watched a movie while Andrew fell asleep on the couch with the dogs.  Tomorrow will be a little warmer so we will get our schoolwork finished early and head to the beach as soon as it is warm outside.

Oh my baby boy!!

Tonight after dinner the kids were driving me crazy with their constant asking for more food.  They all had seconds and had finished everything I had made.  They even had dessert and some had had apples.  So I figured they were just bored so we jumped on our bikes to go for a bike ride.

When we left it was raining.

We rode a mile before I decided the rain was getting to heavy so we turned around.  We were almost home when I heard a crash behind me.  I turned and saw Andrew laying on the pavement.  He looked up at me terrified.  I could already see his nose starting to bleed.

I walked over to him calmly and then he burst into tears.  I tried to calm him down and get him back on his bike but he couldn't do it.  I could see our street from where we were but knew I couldn't carry him and push two bikes so I called Dad.

He didn't answer because he was outside so I had to call a neighbor to go over and ask him to call me.  Dad picked up Andrew a couple minutes later and drove him home.  He hadn't stopped crying yet.

When the girls and I got home, I took Andrew inside to get him cleaned up.

Dad took a picture before I started.

Poor guy!  He had scuffed his knee and his elbow, hit his nose and got a fat lip.  He also hit his front tooth.  I got him into the bathtub and he told me he could wiggle his tooth.  I checked and, yup, it was loose.  While Dad sat with him in the tub I called the after hours dentist.

There is nothing really to do but the dentist wants to see Andrew first thing in the morning.  

Update tomorrow!

2 Wheels!!

Today started off in the classroom with poor attitudes but we did get some work finished.

Cairn read Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and then I found a youtube video of the short film I remember from being a kid.  So she watched that after reading the story.  She is also learning about vertebrates - yesterday was fish and today was frogs/toads.  She was excited to tell me about the difference between the two especially since I never really knew the difference.

Skylar is learning how to add.  They put a lot of emphasis on the order of the numbers and it doesn't change the sum if you change the order of the numbers.  I wish I had done more of this with Cairn because she can recite it but when she sees problems she always solves them even if you point out the one that is related.  Hopefully, Skylar will drill it in.  She has also starting spelling words.  Skylar is like Cairn as in she doesn't want to spell anything unless she knows it is correct so I hadn't stressed the phonetic spelling phase too much until I knew she knew her sounds and could write the letter that matched the sound.  She seems to be catching on quickly.  I am seeing some of those reversals again and I am not just talking about the the letters. She will write the entire word backwards.  I should have taken a picture to demonstrate because it boggles my mind.  Then when she read her book, she read the title backwards.  I don't know what to think of it.

Skylar and Andrew did a pattern art piece.  Whenever the paint comes out they like to just cover the whole sheet with color and not really do what is asked.  So I let them do a whatever page first and then we went back and slowly did the assignment.  Skylar commented afterwards, that she liked her 2nd piece better because it looked like something.  I let the comment hang - I didn't want to do an "I told you so."

Andrew also had piano today.  I wasn't worried but thought we might start struggling with playing some upcoming piano pieces but not after today.  His last song he played on a set of 3 black keys.  He really struggled with getting his fingers in the right spot and playing the keys individually.  I know he is young for this  class so I wasn't worried but like I said knew upcoming songs might be super hard.  Today, we learned our first song on the white keys.  He did fantastic.  He was able to move his finger individually and he knew his finger numbers.

After piano we came home to wait for Girl Scout leaders to stop by to turn in their paperwork for our Fall Sale that ended on Sunday.  Andrew said he wanted to practice riding his bike like he did at the muster so I took the training wheels and pedals off his bike and then off Skylar's too.  The bikes ended up being too tall for both of them because they have to be able to put both feet on the ground for step, step, glide.  They were very frustrated so I said, "do you want to try riding with the pedals on?"  Andrew immediately said yes, Skylar was hesitant.  So I put Andrew's pedals back on and viola...here is the video.

After Skylar say Andrew do it, she did it too.  Now I have all 3 kids without training wheels!!  Super proud. I remember at the beginning of the summer, Skylar was worried that she would never learn how to ride a 2 wheeler especially after her friend, L, learned.  I told her then that by the end of the summer she would be able to ride a 2 wheeler.  She did it!

Muster

On Wednesday, a friend of mine told me about the West Metro Family Fire Muster for Saturday.  We had never gone to a muster and the information on the website looked pretty interesting so we went.

We took N and C with us and Dad went with us too.  First, we got a goody bag (I had to carry all 5 of them because the kids were busy doing stuff.)

Then we headed to the obstacle course.

Then we checked out the all the fire equipment.  I was really proud of Andrew because he asked a lot of questions to the different fire men.  N also asked questions, he didn't use to do that when we first started taking him places but now he feels much more comfortable and so he asks questions.

We collected a lot of goodies along the way: stuffed animals, stickers, coloring books about fire safety, key chains, posters, a gun lock - it was amazing the things we were picking up and the shear volume.

One of the last places we stopped was a bicycle safety station.  They had those bikes where the kids learn how to ride without training wheels or pedals.  They do a step, step, glide kind of thing.  Andrew jumped right on and pretty much had a handle on it within a few minutes.  He was pretty close at home too with having his balance so I wasn't surprised.  After about 5 minutes, Skylar decided she wanted to try also so she jumped on and tried the step, step glide.

After that station, we saw a house fire demonstration and then we went home.  We had arrived at 10 AM and it was now 1 PM, everyone was hot, tired and hungry and we needed to get out of the sun before we cooked.

At home, the kids continued to play outside until dark.  None of us are ready for summer to be over.  Stay away snow!!