My Menagerie

Don went out of town for a few days, leaving me with all the critters and the girls. With faces like these on Kente and PJ, how can I make them move?

But with two dogs, a kitten and two children wanting to sleep with me, where am I supposed to sleep?

Sigh...

Back soon...

Jeanie

A Double Birthday Party

May 24-25
Since we assume that Lydia and I will be in Ghana by the time of her birthday on June 17th, we decided to go ahead and have her party early. We also made it double as my VERY belated 40th birthday party – almost two months late. One funny gift was a faux-hair clip-on ponytail. It was a bit too light in color for her, so we gave it to Elena and got Lydia another shade darker (they aren’t returnable.)

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She also got Speed Stackers, and has been practicing them for hours on end. For those of you not familiar with Speed Stacking, it is now considered (by some) to be an actual sport, with tournaments and everything. It involves stacking and collapsing structures of plastic cups, in a very specific pattern, and as quickly as possible. It is supposed to be excellent for fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination. It sounds boring, doesn’t it? Well, you just have to see it in action to appreciate it. Click HERE to see an amazing video clip!

Lydia also got a new (used, actually, but new to her), iPod. She already had one, so why did she need a new one??? Well, her goofball mother took it away one day in January or February due to failure to turn it off when instructed to do so, put it in a “safe place,” and then forgot where the safe place was. I have pretty much turned the whole house upside down looking for it, to no avail. I really felt it would help her so much to pass the time on our transatlantic flight, and it didn’t seem fair that didn’t have it anymore, since her mommy was the one who lost it. Fortunately, you can get the previous models on eBay for VERY little. I wrapped it in a HUGE box, and pretended it was SOOOOO heavy, I could barely lift it. She was really surprised! ☺

Don and Elena made a cake for Lydia, and she made one for me. We had a lot of fun!

See you again next time...

Jeanie

Real-Life Question Turns Into Homeschool Science Lesson

Today, I did a fun little science project with the girls. Here’s how it started…

Shadow seems to have gained at least 40% again of her body weight in the last few weeks – she looks absolutely huge! All of us, including Don, agreed that she had gained a lot. I was worried it might be a thyroid issue. So, we took her to the vet this morning to be weighed. Turned out, amazingly, that she had no significant weight gain – only 2 ounces!

The girls couldn’t understand why we all thought she had gained so much when she really hadn’t. Of course, it must be because of having tiny Kente around – by comparison, Shadow IS huge.

So, to demonstrate how such misperceptions can occur, I did a little experiment with them that I remembered from college biology classes. (Can’t recall the name of it, though, which is driving me crazy.) I filled 3 containers with water. The first one was very hot. The other two were exactly the same – just lukewarm. I did the trick separately on each of them so as not to spoil the surprise – I had each girl put the right hand in the hot water for a while, then quickly plunge each hand into one of the remaining containers. I asked them what temperature the water was in each container. Both said that the left one was warm, and the right one was cold. Then for the fun part – I had them take their left hand and put it in the same container with the other hand – then they realized to their amazement that their right hands still felt like the water was cold, but their left hands felt warm. Both had the same reaction – a shocked, “How did you DO that???”

Isn’t science fun? I just love homeschooling – it’s a wonderful feeling when you can turn a real-life event into an entire science lesson!

Bye for now…

Jeanie

Dance Recital Dress Rehearsal Day

(This is not a live post - previously recorded episode - LOL)

May 17

Today was the dress rehearsal for Elena's dance recital. Since Elena's hair is so short, I made a fake bun for her to wear in her recital. I bought a faux-hair scrunchie, pinned it into a nice little bun shape, and wrapped it in a hair net. Worked great, and was pretty fun, too!

After Elena's recital dress rehearsal, I came home to find Lydia mowing the lawn for the first time! She loved it and wants that to be her special job...Don, especially, thinks that's a GREAT idea! (I do, too - helps him get his work done and lets them spend quality time working in the yard together.)

Until next time...

Jeanie