Busy Girls!

Life is so busy I'm behind in my blogging! This post covers all the tidbits of fun things we've been up to. I'm in the midst of writing up posts about big things (VBS & swimming lessons) and visits with family. They'll be up eventually. Bear with me.

We are harvesting! The girls have been watching things ripen with great anticipation, and we’ve picked (and eaten) peppers, tomatoes, and lots of cucumbers. Of course, we’ve also been checking the rain gauge and watering as needed (not much actually).

We happened to stop by the library at the right time last week and caught Game Day. The girls got to join a bunch of other kids to play with sidewalk chalk, jump ropes, bubbles, and balls on the library patio. (The girls have outgrown story time, but we’re still at the library at least once a week.)

Recently the girls have been interested in special effects for live action movies. This actually started because Bug had a bad dream related to some intense scenes in a superhero movie we watched with them. We decided the best cure was deconstruction. A few of our DVDs offered behind-the-scenes special features (how Hogwarts magical creatures are made), and YouTube had plenty of footage to offer for some of the Avengers movies (they learned about motion capture, CGI, stunt doubles, wire work, etc.). Fascinating stuff!

The whole family recently learned how to make paper cranes. Our church will be hosting a 9/11 memorial service this year, and part of the event will be an art installation involving about 3,000 paper cranes that the congregation has been called on to help create. The girls enthusiastically attended the workshop after church one week, and we took a stack of origami paper home with us. We’ve returned one grocery bag full of tiny cranes so far.

We’ve had a couple of fun insect sightings lately! On one of our outside lesson days, the local ant population discovered the remnants of our mid-morning snack, and we got to witness four ants working together to move a rather large crumb of cheese across the gazebo. Later one of the girls spotting an impressive cicada exoskeleton on our front sidewalk. Of course, since they couldn’t identify it immediately we pulled out the field guide and learned all about cicadas. We’ve added the exoskeleton to our nature collection for further examination.

We’ve discovered the local Y steps up their Child Watch program during the summer and provides additional fun activities for school-age kids in a program called Fit Kids. So far they’ve joined other kids in painting (and glittering), beading bracelets, swimming, and running races on the indoor track. They’re also still attending and loving the once-a-week kids’ yoga class. 

The girls are thrilled that the music room is complete! We even have seating for visitors to listen. They've been loving the new rug. With its coziness just steps away from the study, it's become a popular location for lessons, since they can grab their binders and sprawl out in comfort.