Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Wordless Wednesday - Spring is coming!

Science Projects

As promised here are the finished science projects. I am very proud of both kids and the effort they put into them.




Corey also wrote this paragraph about his penguin habitat.

"The animal I chose is the penguin. It lives in the wet and cold Antarctica. A penguin's prey is a fish. A penguin drinks salt water. Penguins can be at least 4 feet tall and weigh 90 pounds, but some are much smaller. The smallest penguins are 16 inches tall and weigh about 2 pounds. Penguins are my favorite animal."

I was impressed that he is learning to use details and voice in his writing, and that he can write a good paragraph from start to finish. I learned today in his teacher conference that he is on grade level, and in fact a little ahead of it for this point in second grade. Since he was in 3 year old preschool, he has been capable of things that I didn't even know he could do because he is my somewhat reserved child.

This one, however, is the "showoff" and I have always known what she was capable of because she ALWAYS tells us. I wouldn't have it any other way. Her project was really fun. She pretty much did it all by herself, especially the display part.

Concrete part 2

The concreke (as Allie says) is done. We will have to wait on the highway dept. to come and fix their part at the end, and we cannot drive on it til the weekend, but we are so excited about this. My kids couldn't wait to try it out Tuesday afternoon.

After...


Hannah & Allie give test it out on their bikes.




Corey tries it out on the scooter thingys we scored at a yard sale last spring.


Not to be outdone, Jon Tyler tries one out, too.


Our neighbors have always been gracious about letting our kids use their bikes and scooters on their concrete slab and they have used it as their turn around spot for their bikes. I hope he realizes that now it will be impossible to keep them off. I don't think he cares. I think a poet once wrote, "Good fences make good neighbors." I guess in our case, good concreke makes good neighbors.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

March, Projects, and Cement!

I'm procrastinating so I thought it would be a good time to update my blog. Graciously, March has arrived. Of course it snowed on the second day of March, which satisfied my snow fetish. Now the weather seems to be on an upswing and believe me, we are ever so grateful for that. Only 7 days til Spring Break!!

Both kids have projects due tomorrow and both are pretty much finished. Hannah had her first ever science fair project and has worked really hard on it. She tested the effectiveness of the Wii Fit hula hoop vs. the old fashioned hula hoop to see which raised heart rates more. (Hint: video games do have some benefits.) Corey had to create an animal habitat, and he, of course, chose a penguin. I'm going to snap some pictures to post hopefully tomorrow, along with the paragraph Corey wrote about penguins. Good stuff for a second grader.

Yesterday was an exciting day around here. We have wanted to pave our shared driveway for about 3 years or more. With all the rain this year, it is nearly washing away. Our neighbor who shares it (and owns a new truck - lol) finally decided he'd like to paved too. Yesterday it happened. Or started happening actually. They are working as I type to finish and will probably be working all day. I'm adding concrete finisher to the list of jobs I hope I never have to work, along with bra fit specialist and gastroenterologist nurse (stories for another time). They worked for over twelve hours yesterday, including in the dark and were still working when I went to bed. It was pretty fun for the kids to watch. Here's a few shots from the day.

One last shot of the "old" driveway. As my neighbor said, Thank the Lord.


Prepping the driveway was fun to watch.


The Onlookers


Pouring the first concrete


Almost done with the first part


This made realize that I need to do some more blogging about our house. It is quite a story in itself and I will get to that soon. If you don't the story of our house, stay tuned.

In other news, I nearly ran over myself yesterday. Literally. I can laugh about this now, but at the time, it was pretty scary. I was in a rush (of course) and started backing out only to realize I needed to move the wagon out of the way. So I put the car into what I thought was park and got out. I stepped a few feet and saw the van rolling forward. My first reaction was to try and stop it but I could get back in so it ended up dragging me along with it. After knocking the grill, a kerosene heater, the pushmower and my double stroller off the carport and into the yard, it stopped. Other than a few bruises and some pavement burn, all is well. I think literally an angel must have stopped my van, because I can't figure any other way it could have stopped. The two biggest casualties are the stroller which lost a wheel and my favorite thrift store (lol) pants, so I am thankful to God for protection(even if I am mad about my pants).

Well, the laundry isn't doing itself so I guess I better pull this to a close. Thanks for reading.