The Oklahoma Aquarium

Yesterday we wrapped up our ocean study with a trip to the aquarium. Jack had only been once before and he had just turned three, so he really had no memory of it. When he walked into the main hall, he turned around and gave me this look.

Jack really enjoyed the different touch tanks. Here he is touching a horseshoe crab.

He also tried feeding the shrimp.

We spotted some real live moonjellies!

Jack was excited to find some alligator snapping turtles. He loves the one at the Oklahoma City Zoo.

Alice finally woke up around the time we were ready to go into the ocean room.

The shark and stingray touch tank was fun, too. One of the stingrays loved to have people pet him and would flop up out of the water.

Alice wouldn't put her hand in the water, but she liked looking at the babies in the nursery. She even used one finger like you were supposed to do in the touch tank.

Feeding some shrimp to the stingrays. I thought it was a little weird that you could feed food to the shrimp, but further down the hall, the shrimp became the food!

I think this was a shark egg. Alice would not touch it, but she liked looking at it.

Shark teeth!

We had a great time!

Carrot Cake

I made the best cake ever today. It was Jay's birthday. (I was going to title this post Happy Birthday, Jay!, but apparently that's been done before.) I grated carrots for an hour this morning to make this and I thought of Ramona and Beezus and the time they forgot to turn on the crock pot the whole time.

Jack has been dying to give Jay the present he picked out--Super Mario Galaxy 2. He even made custom wrapping paper and was up early to make sure Jay got to open it before leaving for work.

After Jay left for work, we went and picked up a gift certificate for a massage. We had to wait a few minutes while the receptionist was on the phone and Jack tip-toed all around the waiting area and tried to peek in the back and finally came up to me and whispered, "What kind of place is this?" Apparently he didn't feel it was his kind of place.

We finished up the cake this afternoon and lit the candles when Jay got home from work.

Happy birthday to the best husband around!

A Night at Mar-Gra's

During our first week of school, we rowed Night of the Moonjellies by Mark Shasha. Saturday night we had our own Mar-Gra's restaurant here for my mom and dad and grandma and great-aunt.

We painted a big sign, Jack made the menu, and he also painted an ocean scene for decoration.

He loved serving through the window and could hardly wait for the burgers to be done.

He's already thinking about having another restaurant when we row Little Nino's Pizzeria.

We had a great time! If you haven't read this book before, you should definitely check it out. The illustrations are beautiful!

(On a side note, I hope to be blogging more soon. We are so busy lately with getting into a school routine as well as a few other things going on, but I am hoping to get some posts up soon!)

The First Day of First Grade

Today was our first day of school. It was also the first day of gymnastics for both kids, which meant leaving the house twice, so we kept things light.

I tried to distract Alice with some new bristle blocks before we got started. It worked well--until we got started. She wants to be a part of everything.

Jack got a heiroglyphic decoder for his Egypt box and he had to use it to crack the code. He was thrilled with this and told everyone he saw today about his code de-cracker. (His handwriting can be really good or really meh. Later in the day he showed me a cover he had designed for a Mario Brothers game and if there had been anyone else in the house, I would have guessed they had done the writing. Welcome to the world of six year old boys.)

After Alice's gymnastics class, we picked up Taco Bueno for our lunch. Alice got a bath.

Tonight for dessert we had cupcakes!

Our first day went very well. My favorite part (so of course I didn't have the camera nearby) was when Jack was reading and Alice crawled up by him and put her head on his shoulder and patted on his chest while she listened to him read. It lasted about five seconds, but it was so sweet it could rot your teeth. Hopefully the second day will go as well!

The Last Day of Summer Vacation

Jack's cousins start school tomorrow, so we went to the splash pad together today. We start tomorrow, too, but that won't interfere with our ability to cool off when we want. In fact, it will be a little nicer since all the daycares and bigger kids won't be there.

They had the best time standing under the bucket, waiting to be drenched.

It was over 100 degrees again today, so that bucket felt good.

We stopped by a new yogurt place on the way home and still made it home in time for Jack's favorite show. He proclaimed the day a success and it wasn't even half over.

Obligatory Alice pic, because I think she's adorable in her swimsuit and all-purpose shoes. She fell asleep in the swing at the park, but my camera was back at the table.

I hope your summer was terrific!

Digestion

When we moved home last fall, my online-friend-turned-real-life-friend Rachel hooked me up with a Charlotte Mason homeschooling group in the area. We do nature studies, handicrafts, and in the summer, we veg at the splash pad. Everyone needs a break. Anyway, in March, the group had a seminar that I was able to attend, and since then I've been digesting. Yes, that's a lot of digestion, but it takes me a while sometimes.

I liked the seminar. I really did. But I have nagging doubts sometimes. After all, Pocketful of Pinecones (yes, it's in the shelf above) put me to sleep. Several times. And when I'm trying to get things done around a cranky baby and cooking dinner and answering emails, I am reminded that Charlotte Mason was an old maid and it's pretty easy to have ideas about kids when you aren't actually raising them twenty-four/seven.

Then I find myself going back to old favorites that are really Charlotte Mason in modern day clothing and liking what I find. Maybe I am too concerned with the package. (Ha! When I went to find the link for Real Learning, I saw the quote, "Elizabeth Foss carries Miss Mason's philosophy from the ideal to the real." Maybe that's what I like about it.)

So, back to digesting. I think we're going to keep this year simple. We will have our unit study (from FIAR or HomeschoolShare), math (We have a new curriculum this year that I am really excited about!), reading (We're still going through Reading Made Easy.), some handwriting, and something fun. If we can get that done each day, I'll be one happy mama. I have some ideas about containing Alice that I am desperately hoping will pan out. And I'm thinking about starting a blog (or a section of this blog if I can figure out how to do that) to record what we do. I don't want Alice to hit first grade and wonder what I did with Jack at that time.

School starts next Thursday. I'm sure I'll be mulling things over even after we start our year, but for now, we are excited to be starting!

The Prince of Egypt

Friday night we took Jack to see The Prince of Egypt at the museum. We got there early and got a prime spot.

It was a hot night, but it was cool enough for the museum cats to come out. Jack had fun following Acer around the gardens.