Dance Party
Our big social event this week was an end-of-summer dance and pizza party at church. Monkey and Bug were expectedly a bit overwhelmed by the situation, so we ate our dinner first and took it all in. The ice was broken when the big kids left the dance floor to eat and half a dozen fellow preschoolers took over. Shrieking, giggling, leaping, spinning, jumping and running ensued. Goose and another toddler probably spent more time on the dance floor than anybody else. Goose in particular loved when everybody returned to the floor for the Hokey Pokey. Monkey and Bug decided to sit out the organized dance, but Goose and I participated in every verse.

Library Day
Storytime is on a hiatus until the fall program starts up, so it was just us and a nice quiet library. We came home with:
Milk Makers (they wanted to learn about cows this week)
On Beyond Zebra
Don't Let the Pigeon Stay up Late!
Elephant & Piggie: I Love My New Toy!
Brave Charlotte
The Black Swan

Dentist
Our visit to the dentist this week was mostly educational for me in that it confirmed how much I really need to prepare the girls for big events like this (I forgot we had the appointment until the night before) and how much I really dislike having to join the dental hygienist in physically restraining a screaming, flailing preschooler, so the dentist can pry her mouth open to get a quick look inside (we only took this drastic measure after spending the better part of an hour trying to get her to cooperate). Meanwhile, Goose played quite happily with the office manager, and the third sister did a beautiful job and practically fell asleep in the dentist chair.

Zoo Day
This was our fourth visit to this particular zoo this summer, so this time we went with a couple of particular goals instead of trying to see everything. This meant of course that we started by practicing map reading to see what paths we could need to take to get to our destinations. First, we went to visit the new calf in the farmyard section, and all three girls pet her. Conveniently enough we had checked out that book about dairy cows, and Monkey and Bug figured out whether she was the kind of cow who gives milk and we discussed the whole cow to store process. Next we rode the train, which they loved! Each car is painted with an animal print, so we spent some of the ride figuring out what animals they were from. After this we decided to go exploring and crossed the bridge into the Botanical Garden. We found a nice paved trail through the woods along the river where we admired lots of moss and lichen covered rocks and discovered a number of different nuts and leaves on the trail. (We decided next time we come we're going to bring our field guide and actually read about this stuff). We got back to the zoo in time to attend the zoo keeper talk about gorillas and watch feeding time. Of course, we stopped briefly to watch some of the animals we passed on the way to and from these stops, and everyone had a great time. 


We're riding a TRAIN!

The entourage explores a trail in the botanical garden

Reading/Literature
Monkey and Bug continued their reading lessons, but at a much slower pace this week. We did lots of reviewing of sounds and skills, and the letter t has been introduced. Bug informed me that her favorite parts of reading lessons are sounding out words (2 and 3 letters) and practicing writing. This week they both figured out how the write the letters s and t all by themselves. They've also independently been practicing writing their names all by themselves. Bug's got it down; although it sometimes comes out backwards. Monkey still needs help spelling hers and remembering what the last couple of letters look like (this is no indication of a lack of skill--she has a significantly longer name than Bug does).

In addition to all the usual picture books, we've gotten into the Jungle Book again, and this week we had Netflix deliver the Disney version. Although they enjoyed identifying characters as they appeared on screen, they noted several glaring discrepancies between the book and the movie. The ones that particularly stood out to them are that the movie made a Kaa the python a bad guy (he rescues Mowgli from the monkeys in the book) and the movie didn't show Mowgli all grown up as the book does.

"Look, Mommy! It's Bagheera!"
(confession: Monkey asked me to draw the shape of a jaguar for her,
then she decided it would be Bagheera instead)

 Et cetera

• We pulled out our "big pool" again this week, and even Goose got in this time! Monkey and Bug continued practicing starfish floats and putting their face underwater. They each also discovered what fun it is to hold her hand over the end the hose and let the water spray through her fingers and onto her shrieking sisters.
• Thanks to my temporary incompentence in getting our ladder to extend our garage didn't have lights for awhile. The entourage took advantage of this and requested a flashlight. I overheard them checking out all the nifty shadows they created and talking about how things look different when you shine light on them. Bug panicked, however, when Monkey closed the door and clicked off the flashlight. Monkey, of course, thought this hilarious. 
• Monkey figured out how to count backwards this week, and both Monkey and Bug did lots of counting in general, though we're still straightening out that 19 does not come after 15--there are several more numbers in there!
• The entourage did a lot of coloring on big paper this week! (Goose unfortunately also colored on the walls. I'm not nearly as excited about that.) Monkey and Bug mostly still scribble, but they are starting to draw more actual objects and the scribbles are starting to have purpose (for example, Monkey drew a sunset over the ocean with scribbles of all the right colors in the right places). They also spent time drawing on their white boards, and on Saturday we pulled out the watercolors.

Goose had far more success and fun in painting herself than her paper.