Bits From Our Weekend

Tornado and I read Kites Sail High by Ruth Heller (She has a whole set of books like this to supplement parts of speech studies.) and If You Were a Verb by Michael Dahl (He also has many other fun learning books.) to go along with workbook pages we completed on verbs. We read Even More Parts by Tedd Arnold to discuss idioms.
The kids spent a lot of time coloring on the big pieces of cardboard left over from our new television box.

I walked outside and saw Sissy, completely still and on her back, with her arms flat at her side. It freaked me out for just a second until I saw her move and realized Tornado was just tracing her.

Daddy sat outside with the kids and helped them put together some of the paper airplanes I bought at Land of Nod. They enjoyed playing with them for awhile.

Then Daddy helped them make their own airplane, complete with propeller, out of the cardboard.

Dash went on errands with Daddy while Tornado and Sissy made beach pictures by gluing little shells on paper.

For a special occasion, we let the kids eat supper (sandwiches and apples for the little ones, mashed potatoes, lima beans, and leftover broccoli/ravioli for Tornado) on our bed. I'm happy to report there were no stains left on our white bedding. They were watching "Ratatouille" on the new t.v. Ryan got for our bedroom Friday night. Two words: forty-seven inches. Ryan says it was in response to the combination of his stressful job topped off by missing his family while he was on a three day business trip that turned into four days because he was stuck in Atlanta due to bad weather. That's quite a run-on sentence, but that was how the week was for him. He rarely spends money or time on himself so he deserves it. To further prove how much he deserves it, he stayed up until 1 a.m. setting up the stand and hooking the tv to the stand...only to find out the tv was dead. That's the kind of luck he has, poor guy. The next morning, the company's customer service said, yeah, we're going to have to take it back. That was no easy feat, carrying it down the stairs and back to the store, because this thing is huge. And all he wanted to do was relax with a movie in bed after his hard week. :(

Sissy has really been into making little creations, like the one above. She worked really hard on this. Every little pen stroke was deliberate and carefully executed. She arranged the icecream pages on the white page and decorated it all with little post-its.

Daddy took the kids to the zoo on Sunday while I cleaned and prepared.

They caught the Winged Wonders bird show. The boys gave this bird a dollar donation, and it deposited it in the box.

After going to the zoo, they cooled off by watching Up at the movie theater. He'll probably get mad at me for announcing this to the world, but Ryan said he got teary-eyed during it. When he was giving me a summary later, I totally started crying. It includes a love story with a big theme of regret. He said it made him think of us because the couple had been together for a really long time and really loved each other a lot. And she was plucky and adventurous, and he was a little grouchy and simple - and she had dreams they kept putting off until it was too late...I won't say any more in case you want to watch it. You can read a summary here, though. I wondered how this could be a kid movie, but he said those themes were so subtle, the kids just caught the great fun and humor. I think it sounds so good! It's PG, not G, and if you want to read more about whether it's appropriate for your child, go to www.kids-in-mind.com, which always goes into details about movies. This movie got several marks off for violence, etc. (keeping in mind, so did movies like Finding Nemo and Curious George).

Speaking of big purchases, I am excited I finally got a new camera. I did have a little digital camera before, but I really only used it for blogging/emailing purposes because the quality wasn't as good as the ones taken with my regular Canon. However, that digital one broke, and I had been borrowing my mom's. I was finally ready to embrace technology and change - no more developing film and having to store tons of pictures - and it's going to be a great thing around here. I'm even going to read my owner's manual and take my free class, which hurts my brain a little just thinking about it. As much as I love reading and learning things, I don't think I love learning HOW to do new things. I don't even know how to sync up my ipod with new songs; I always just ask Ryan to do it. Shameful, yes.