The kids were pretending to be ghosts. Ez thinks it’s really funny to be scary. I wonder how long that will last.
These blankets were made by Aunt Teri. Gotta do something at those meetings… ha! We love them and you, my cool sis in Bong Leech… soon to be back in HB… home again!
India was invited to a birthday party for a boy. What to make him came up in conversation. I wasn’t quite sure, but I thought a terrarium might work. Just so long as we didn’t mention putting an animal inside this tank, for the parents’ sake.
I must say this gift was the largest and heaviest at the party. Have you ever given the largest present. It is sort of a strange feeling. Almost like we were trumping the grandparents… which I hope we didn’t. I think their gifts came on his actual birthday.
Once he pulled off the wrapping all the kids crowded around it. They ooooo-d and ahhhh-d (i’m making up how that is spelled. It’s allowed, I read it in a bookmaking book… for kids. hmmmm) for quite awhile.
Then India dropped the bomb. She let him know that he could put a fish in there. I had to remind her that we weren’t going to bring up that idea.
Whenever we give a homemade gift I always wonder if it is played with. I wonder if he will dig through this dirt like he does in his backyard. Maybe in the winter months. Who knows.
India’s filling it up with little dinosaurs and we hung a fly, butterfly and dragonfly from the ceiling of the tank. Yes, that is a real tree… hopefully it lives long enough. We also put in a little Hot Wheels car. If only to give him an idea of what to do with this mammoth of a gift.
I felt like this gift needed to come with instructions. I hope it is faring well and that it will have a long a prosperous life.
No performance to see that week, but she came home looking so lovely. Again a week of fun at Camp ArtReach. This last week of camp was clowning. She learned gags, how to make balloon animals, paint her face (although she got really frustrated and the teacher ended up having to appease the beast and do it for her).
I have seen other kids, on their mom’s blog living in some other state who-knows-where, learning to be circus performers as part of their home school learning. I think they were even in a real circus performance playing with rings or dogs or something. Very cool.
After India’s enthusiasm about this week of camp, two years in a row now, makes me want her to get more exposure into the mysterious world of the circus. Whatever, I have lots of hopes and dreams for my kids; what and how they should be learning.
Speaking of, after her first week back in school I have learned that India has only 20 minutes of recess a day. But I thought, “she’s got PE, that’s fun… right?” Well, PE is only twice a week. Can you believe that? It is a travesty. She really misses the fun of kindergarten. She complained there wasn’t any tub time or discovery learning in 1st grade.
How did I have no idea there was so little playtime in school? I cannot believe that kids need that much desk time to learn. I must have been in denial. Ahhh, I hope it isn’t as bad as I am imagining. If only we could have our network of Boston home-schoolers living here in Denver.
Enough of my rant and no offense to our teachers who may be reading this. I really have only a small idea of what happens in the classroom. On paper, it looks way too academic for my blood.
I’s gettin harder to pose… Not that I want to pose her. Rather, I should say she is getting more self conscious and a little gangly with her limbs lengthening.
She is always trying to get hugs and kisses from Ezra. He is typically telling her (and anyone else, except me) “Don’t touch me.” See his elbow? That’s him getting her to stay away. Classic.
Finally, the 1st day of school photo you’ve all been waiting for. It only took me a week to get this up.
We had a blast hangin in the street with kids, parents and firefighters. The Denver Firefighters Museum had its’ free day and had so many things for the kids to do. My kids ran an obstacle course to save a bear from a ‘burning’ building, put band-aids on injured bears they could take home, escaped a smoke filled room (ok, imaginary smoke with a smoke alarm letting them know they needed to leave). It was such an unbearably hot day. Thankfully one of the fire trucks had a hose shooting water high into the sky, hitting the street (and any hot persons) below. The kids could also douse a burning house (the fire would tip back on their hinges back once the hose hit them) with a real fire hose. So cool.
Here are a few images from the day:
Lots of cool dress-up. We need something like this for Ez at home since he loves India’s pink dress-up dress way too much.
Ready to save the day… and the bear
Ezra was so cute as he tried to grab that bear and drag him out of the tunnel. Is it terrible that India’s run wasn’t pictured? I feel bad, but Ez is just too cute to resist… she’s done all this before, is that it? Ok, guilty conscious talk will now end.
All smiles through the struggle. It seemed to take about 3 minutes for him to get out of this thing:
Looking a little smug here. He did it and everyone was cheering him on:
Ah, I almost forgot to mention the crane ride. Yes, you heard me. We got to take a ride in a fire engine’s crane. I think we were up 80 feet here:
At the top of the world:
