Yeay!

We finally got to try out our bargain-buy telescope and birthday binoculars yesterday evening!  It has been cloudy almost every evening since we got them, but finally we got a clear sky window.  It didn't last very long - not long enough to do any actual star gazing - but we did get to study the moon and look at Venus and Jupiter. Unfortunately, clouds came with the dark before we could spot Saturn and any constellations.  Still, not a bad beginning!

May Mini

May (Mis)adventures

Long-awaited afternoon at the river

Only Aiden fell asleep on the way 

Wrapped against mosquitoes 

and threatening rain

That day we also discovered

two things 

that don't make 

good bow strings

An afternoon picking dandelions

 in the front yard

While mommy digs them up

Dumping dirt and spreading seed

While mommy tries to be patient

Silence and hard work

Aiden's gone inside

More done than expected

He's locked mommy outside!

Hands on school

Experiment day

Flour, marbles, and rocks

laborious measurements and notations

How high can we go?

How deep a crater can we make?

How far a floury splash?

Loads of messy fun

2 days from 2 weeks

Last week it went back to Spring weather with some rainy days and cooler temperatures.  I kinda actually liked having fewer things to do (with outside off the list) and less pressure to head back to the river every day!

The house got happily messy, and when tired of the usual, we explored a long-closed scrap box...









 

And the afternoon ended with
the beginnings of a new quilt project

 and an all-by-myself character by Grace and Jasmin.











This week is the Tulip Festival.  I was determined to go earlier than the last weekend since last time we went, the tulips were almost all gone but we had a great time with the last set of activities.  So we went on Tuesday afternoon, when there was some extra kid activities listed to be on.  We did get to see some fantastic gardens of tulips!  So many different kinds, all yelling their joy with their bright colors!

Rather ironically, we didn't get to enjoy as many activities as last year. Almost as if we went too early before things really got going!

 The best was a Wildlife Federation booth with some "teaching animals" there: a baby groundhog, a baby porcupine, and a snapping turtle. We missed an owl and snake apparently.

Afterwards, Jasmin confided that that was the kind of job she wanted, rescuing and protecting animals and their habitats. 

Grace gamely tried the proper procedure to pick up the snapper - but found him a bit too heavy to do on her own!

The other popular site was a make-your-own "obstacle course" for little kids - Grace and Jasmin turned it into a make-you-own plastic igloo... it was rather popular with the kids that came after as well :)