Happy Easter 2017

Easter Sunday. 80 degrees. Sunshine. Family time. A fantastic April day! 

Specials (Ben's blankie) got to go for an Easter ride in his new bike basket

Julia filled her basket with stuffed cats and NoNo, of course

ready to serve

practicing for the court

a dapper dude

lovely in yellow

cool kids

blue eye baby

Ben's Gallery: Math Art

We've had less iPad time these days and have rediscovered some favorite toys and pastimes. Ben really loves making art, all kinds of art. He spent several days last week creating designs with his magnetic blocks and then re-creating them on graph paper. Math & Art! Perfect!

Heard Around Our House

While watching the old Disney version of Beauty and Beast (first time for the kids).... We're at the scene where Beast has just lost his temper with Belle and she tries to run away.

Ben: pause it, pause it!
Me: ok. why?
Ben: ok, so he has to fall in love with her and she has to fall in love with him before those rose petals fall right?
Me: yes
Ben: Then shouldn't he GET GOING?!?!

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Julia-ism: Pacifically. For the life of her she cannot say specifically. I love it.

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After our new lawn guys came the other day Ben and I went outside to survey the damage to the new grass we've trying to grow.

Ben (looking at the dead grass): What the hell? That's not what we wanted.

Me: Ben! 

Ben: But that's not what we wanted!

Me: Yes, but we just talked about saying that word yesterday.

Ben: But I was saying it to the grass.

Me: It doesn't matter, you're not supposed to say it.

Ben: Fine.

Julia (coming outside to join us): What did you say Ben?

Ben: I'm not supposed to say it, ask your mother.

Ben's Gallery: Dog

Ben had a big moment while creating this picture. The drawing started with him following an online video to draw one of his favorite Minecraft characters, Stampycat. However, he quickly grew very frustrated that his did not look like the one in the video. We had a couple of tense moments but then he took a deep breath, looked at it, and said "actually I think I can make it into a dog." And he did and was thrilled with the result! 

Poetry by Ben: Marshmallow

On a recent library trip we discovered the book Lemonade and other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word by Bob Raczka. As indicated by the title all the poems are formed from a single word, or more specifically, from any word that can be found in a single word.

Here's an example of the title poem from the book:

Lemonade by Bob Raczka

After reading through the poems, we had to create our own. At least, Ben and I did. It wasn't really Julia's thing. Ben wanted to use the word marshmallow so we brainstormed all the words we could see in marshmallow and then he put together his poem. It's awesome!

Marshmallow

small

marshmallow

smash show

hollow

marshmallow

Art Show 2017

proud artists

Butterflies by Julia

Peacock by Benjamin

Minecraft Club

Probably the most exciting day of the month around here, at least according to Julia and Benjamin, is Minecraft Club day. And last month it was even more exciting because we had Minecraft Club on location!

Unfortunately their friend Sarah was sick but Ben, Julia, and Elizabeth went to a local (vegan) cafe, Wildflour to observe the place, get a feel for the atmosphere, and have some treats, of course. Then we went to the library where they created their own version of the cafe in their Minecraft world. They played for hours and it was the perfect way to spend a cold, rainy afternoon!

cake and Minecraft, a perfect combo!

Deal Me In

Playing games is one of Ben's absolute favorite things to do. He loves all kids of games - card games, board games, computer games - I don't think we've found one yet that he has turned down. One of his resolutions for New Years was to play more games and I think we're accomplishing that!

We usually play a game either at the beginning of our school time or as part of our school work, and then more games in afternoon and sometimes after dinner. Favorites these days are Hit the Habitat Trail, Yahtzee, Rummikub, Speed, the Minecraft Card game, and Pokemon (and Life but he has to play that with Dad, it's not my cup of tea!). 

pokemon challenge

 I also recently taught Ben how to play Solitaire and in the process got re-addicted to it myself! I was happy when I offhandedly mentioned that there are Solitaire apps on most computers and tablets and he replied that he didn't want to play them, he wanted "to learn with real cards first!"

1st hand of Solitaire

 

Leprechauns!

We had a few leprechauns around our house this year. Our annual St. Patrick's Day dinner was fantastic; we had a few extra guests around the table - Uncle Jon, Joan, and Lyndsay's boyfriend RJ - which just added to the fun!

 The kids did a good job of roping them all into getting dressed up and taking silly pictures.