Ruby's first 4th of July {2014}

We had such a fun 4th of July!  It was Ruby's first of course(as an American citizen) and naturally she had no idea what all the hoop-la was about but she was a good sport and seemed to have a really fun day with us.  She made it through our little party in the evening but then headed to bed so she missed the fireworks(and then, so did I!).

"Are you done with this photo shoot yet mama??" :)

 The kids walked around the block and delivered some patriotic treats to their buddies in the morning.

 Then we tested out the new patio set and ate our traditional red, white and blue pancake breakfast outside.  It was a beautiful day out!

 Poor peanut can't eat pancakes yet but hopefully by next year she'll have a big plate of her own in front of her!  She ate her usual bowl of oatmeal with mashed up bananas instead. :)

After John and the kids got home from watching the fireworks in Moorhead, the kids did some sparklers- we let them stay up late and do this every year.  It's always something they look forward to.

Happy 4th of July!!!

Mickey was in a {one act} play!

 

 

 

 

Mickey took an acting class at Fargo Moorhead Community Theater- it was a One Act Play class and they did The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.  He was Edmond.  It was really short but he was SO good and I'm not just saying that because I'm his mom either.  :)  All of his friends from the neighborhood came to watch- it was so sweet.  It meant so much to him.  I got teary-eyed...
He is the only one that dressed the part(which we were quite surprised about that!) and he remembered all of his lines... as well as all of the other 2 characters' lines!  He had to help them quite a few times.
Most importantly Mickey had fun and really enjoyed the class.  Maybe he found a new talent??
We were so proud of him!

look who won the bookmark contest!!

 

We found out on April 9th, just as we were walking into Target
so I told him he could get a celebratory icee. :)
He was soooo excited and happy that he won.  I said wow, you won a quite a few things now in your life already and he said "Yeah, but I've never won anything that was going to make me famous like this!"
The library will be turning his bookmark illustration into a real, professional bookmark and they will be distributed at all of the Fargo Public Library branches in town.  So yes, I guess he is famous!

Dissecting an Owl Pellet

This is from last spring but I forgot to press publish and it has been sitting in the draft section for a year!!  It is pretty cool so I will publish it today so everyone can see it and then move it to the correct date later....

Mickey had been BEGGING me to find him an owl pellet to dissect for a long time so after a bunch of looking around I decided to order one from Amazon.
What is an owl pellet you ask?
Well, here is a funny youtube video/song so you can learn about it:

 

 

 

 

Mick had a great time finding all the little bones but he didn't want his brother and sister to miss out on all the fun so he saved some for them to dissect when they got home from school.

 

They also loved it.

 

 

This is the kit we ordered.
You can order just a pellet alone too I believe.  The only thing you have to pay attention to is if it is a real pellet or if it is a pretend on(with plastic bones)- I don't think that would be as fun!

random {& i love Costco}

Mickey made himself a "fancy lunch" today.... linens, frill pick, gourmet peanut butter and fresh blueberry sandwich, a goblet of milk, and a garnish of spinach and mandarin oranges. 

a typical Costco run- I love it there!

10 lbs of carrots!!!  don't worry, we'll eat them all!

I decided since we never use the dining room, I would turn it into our homeschool room instead.  Not that we would sit in there to do all our work but it would be a place to store all of our stuff and if they wanted to do their work in there they could.

here's phase one...

 

oh and Boo says hi

Fingerprinting

Today's science project was fingerprinting... it was so interesting and fun! Too bad Jeffrey wasn't home to help us since he is already an expert- remember this past summer?

Notice what my crime was(he crossed it off himself though). Ha!

concert time!

Last night was Mickey's orchestra concert- but things didn't go as planned. An hour or so before it was time to leave, Jeffrey came down saying he didn't feel good and laid on the couch. Then after having some sprite... he barfed. Sooooo- I had to stay home with him while John and Mary Beth went to the concert. I don't think I could have carried his bass so it had to be John. Ha! So I sent my camera with them and wished them all luck.

Mickey was pretty upset but he did great! They recorded it all for Jeffrey and I to watch when they got home. And since we always go out for ice cream after concerts- they brought that home for us too!

Poor John- he said it was really hard to see Mick even though he got front row seats. The basses are always way in the back. Look at how cute he looks with that giant instrument! As they were packing it up to leave for the concert I said "gee, Mick- could you have picked a bigger instrument?" Thankfully, that was the only time we've had to take the one at our house anywhere- he has another one at school he uses there. But this concert was at the middle school so he had to bring his home bass.

We are so proud of you Mickey- I'm sorry I had to miss it. I can't wait until the next one!

today: teeth & journaling

So today when I picked Mickey up from school at 11:30, he came bouncing down the stairs with a big white thing in his mouth. I was confused as to what it could be. Well, he jumped in the van and announced that he had just pulled his first molar out in the bathroom! I asked when he noticed it was loose and he said this morning- wow! That was fast! Then he realized that he was now tied with Jeffrey so that made it even better.

Then later in the afternoon after we did some Math he went into the bathroom and pulled out another molar and said "There, now I'm ahead of Jeffrey." I began to get nervous that he was going to just keep pulling out all of his teeth... and I guess he did too because he got really worried and told me that was enough for now and could I please make him only soft foods for supper because he didn't know how he was going to manage to eat without any teeth left.

I made mash potatoes. :)

I also wanted to share this new book that arrived from amazon: it's called Rip the Page and it is so great! If you click on the link you can look inside it on amazon. I may get one for myself(it's not just for kids). I knew Mickey would love it because you can doodle in it and rip pages out be creative! He spent a lot of time with it today(when he was busy ripping teeth out of his mouth that is!).

Then I also gave him a new composition book and printed out a list of 75 writing prompts for his age level and glued it to the inside cover. He seems to really enjoy writing if he has some control over the topic- and when he is allowed to illustrate it! I think it's important to follow his passion and keep writing fun for him so that it doesn't turn into something he hates.

His journal writing today was Diary of a Molar. I love it! Notice the canine tooth is barking.

When Mary Beth got home and saw Mickey's writing journal she begged to have one of her own. I happen to have a pink one in my stash so all was right with the world! She worked so hard on it! She loves writing and drawing also- look at that little face! I just want to kiss those cheeks a million times a day! Oh wait, I do.

See her writing prompts? They are for first graders- she wanted it to be just like Mickey's. Naturally!