Afternoon at the Aquarium

Checking out the fish in the Open Seas tank

We spent a couple of hours at the aquarium lately, and I still amazed that we always find new things to do! This time the girls head straight to the Open Sea exhibit, featuring a HUGE tank that's home to cool things like sea turtles, tuna, manta rays, and even a great white shark. 

Leaving that exhibit we walked through a couple of mini art galleries showing beautiful sculptures made from trash that highlighted conservation efforts and urged viewers to contribute their own efforts. 

Next we decided to watch a couple of documentaries in the auditorium. The first taught about deep sea creatures and the robots scientists use to learn about them. Between videos we went to check out the tiny new exhibit to see one of the robots in person and get to use a virtual one to "explore" a deep sea canyon. Then we headed back to the auditorium to learn about maintenance of the aquarium and its occupants. (For example, the divers who clean the open sea tank wear chain mail over their wetsuits to protect them from the shark.)

Happy Halloween!
In a neighborhood as packed full of little kids as ours is,

Halloween is kind of a big deal, and the girls had a blast! We joined forces with another family for the evening. We contributed to dinner and their treat bowl, then the dads took the kids trick-or-treating while the moms stayed home to pass out treats and take turns holding T (their infant).

The girls were so excited about their costumes. Inspired by the fact that she is missing two teeth and has three more loose, Monkey decided to go as a jack o' lantern (cheap jack o'lantern shirt + no-sew orange tutu). Bug's recent interest in silent films led her to dress as a silent film star this year (black & white ensemble + homemade dialogue card that says "Trick or Treat!" on one side and "Thank you!" on the other). Goose had some trouble deciding on a costume, but inspiration struck while wandering the costume section at Target: "I want to be a witch!" Cue inward cringe from this Mommy as I glance around at  the witch costumes that range from sexy/cutesy to seriously creepy. "You know, like Hermione Granger!" she continued. Oh! An intelligent, brave girl who's loyal to her friends and stands up for what's right? That I can go for! (white polo shirt + Daddy's tie + stick from the backyard + store-bought Hogwarts robe + 10 tiny braids that poofed on release). I may be biased, but they are so cute!

Dentists & Doctors

Bug and Goose both had to get cavities filled in the past couple of weeks. Goose did beautifully: she hopped up in the chair, put on the "space mask" (laughing gas), and picked out an episode or two of Curious George while the dentist did her thing. Easy day. Meanwhile, I was in the waiting comforting a distraught Bug. For the record, ignorance is not bliss; it's terrifying. We'd talked a lot about what was going to happen, but she was really banking on getting to watch the process herself. The dentist seemed amenable to this, but then changed her mind. This resulted in Bug being even more anxious about her own procedure (it's so terrible they won't even let her watch?!) and feeling like the dentist had lied to her just to get her out of the room nicely (can't blame her; that's what it felt like to me too). Fortunately, when Bug's turn actually came around it all went smoothly once we got her to actually swallow the nasty-tasting sedative (a necessity to soothe her extremely sensitive gag reflex and allow the dentist to actually get tools into the back of her mouth). Whew. Let's hope this is not a process that will need to be repeated!

Goose also had a well-check this week, which resulted in lots of conversations with her and her sisters about vaccines--how they work, what diseases they're protecting against, what it feels like to get a shot, etc. She was anxious about that last one, so I took her with me to the pharmacy when I got my own flu shot. The pharmacist (a fellow mom) was awesome. When I noted Goose's anxiety about the next day, she walked me through the process just like the nurses always do with kids ("It'll just be a quick pinch." "See! All done!" "Look, we even have a fun band-aid for you!") Goose was in giggles about my Olaf band-aid. She was great for her own appointment! She cooperated beautiful with the whole exam (great nurses and a doctor who explained it all to her as they went) and only a shed a few tears about the shots. 

Three R's Highlights!

Lessons continue as usual--mostly. Monkey finished Early Math at the beginning of the week! So, next week we jump into third grade math for her too! To celebrate their completion of such a milestone, Monkey and Bug requested our favorite local seafood place for dinner. Yum! Bug was pretty excited this week when Khan Academy pointed out that the skills she's completed for third grade also means she's 10% of the way through pre-algebra as well.

Goose can read the whole first set of Bob Books now! She's been thrilled that her reading lessons can now include actual books. She's not reading them fluently, of course, but this is a big step.

All three girls have been working on their handwriting. I printed up some handwriting specific worksheets for the big girls. They weren't thrilled, but I've already seen an improvement!

So, not technically one of the three R's, but we finished our study of the 50 states! The girls really enjoyed this study, and were always so excited when we covered either a state they had been or one where someone they knew lived (that covers an awful lot of territory!).