weekend

Greta is super proud to use sharp knives now and help make stir fry

Tangrams


Drawing and writing

Mickey climbed a little tree out front

Why is the 2 kid cart at Sams club so cute to me?

Cozy

cutey park

We go to a park nearby that we have named Cutey park. Because it is so cute. Duh! I don't think we use the proper names of any of the dozens of parks we frequent. Not our style to remember names like Warner or Wagner or Tomkins. More like Wood Park, Rock Climbing Park, Birdies Park, Water Park, Big Hills Park, Spaceship Park, or Cutey Park.

It was Saturday evening, practically bedtime, and it was warm and sunny. We had a really nice time and met a super nice grandma and her 2 granddaughters. Hope to see them again sometime!

doctor kit

Greta got some medical supplies from one of her more recent girl scout meetings and decided to bust them out tonight. I love how even kitty got to play.

U of M class, busy day

We have been trying to get Greta and Mickey onto the list and then into this one class for almost 2 years now! It is a very limited and unique offering from the U of M Dearborn. Offered through the Henry Ford Estate, at the Environmental Interpretive Center on the Dearborn campus, this is a nature study class for 40 children , 1st-4th grade. They get together monthly for 2 1/2 hours for intensive themed studies outdoors followed by lab time. Did I mention it is free???

Well, we got in through a series of lucky events and we begged the use of the in-laws' minivan yet again to take them to the class yesterday. The theme was maple sap tapping/syrup making. I dressed them for the freezing cold, snowpants, coats, hats, mittens, boots...and left them there! Bye! Be good!

So all I had left was Charlie and Casey and although drivng around relaxing and wasting gas and sitting on my duff sounded nice to me, and I just might have done so if they seemed sleepy at all, but the did not, and so I instead took them to the mall that is across from campus. It was kind of sketchy and different, full of stores that I wasn't familiar with, and I would say about 1/4 closed down, but we had a decent time. We finally found the miniture playscape and they had a good old romp while I sat for a few minutes. This vaguely crusty mall had the most tempting and fantastic food court! I was glad and sad that I had no cash on hand, and so we ate our sunchips and grapes from home.

When it was time to leave the mall and go back to the nature class, Casey decided he was too tired to walk and so I put him in the single stroller with Charlie! They didnt even seem smashed and it looked very cute. I wonder how necessary fancy double strollers that weigh 200 pounds and cost as many bucks are when they are this age...they seemed cozy and giggly in the one stroller together! If I wasnt convinced I was in this massive hurry I would have snapped a picture of the two of them in there...

SO we got back to the Environmental Interpretive Center and went in to get the kids, but all there was was a room full of non-welcoming vibed moms and their bored teens. Where were the kids? I had to wait another 45 minutes with these people! I tried to talk to them, I tried to discuss the class, but it was a true alien fest. Then one of the teen girls really liked me and Casey but this irritated her mom and so I left the room with my boys. Why did I hurry out of that mall like a crazy woman for nothing? argg

But close to 3 oclock (I was told 2oclock) we were allowed to go get our kids. I found them in a big lab room with lots of microscopes, all flush-cheeked looking into them and chatting and laughing and it was so cool. Their friend from Campfire scouts was there, and that was a neat surprise, too (and a possible future carpool option?!)

They told me they walked 2 miles, outside, tasted sap directly, tasted syrup, and looked at tree cookies (cross cut disks from young trees) under microscope. They saw all sorts of wlidlife on the trails and even coyote tracks! Yikes! I wish I could have went with them, but it is no siblings allowed and thats cool they did something on their own. They even got split up from each other, and, according to their conclusions, Greta's group got to do "way more cool stuff" than did Mickey's. But they both loved it and are looking forward to next month.

June is my turn to be an occompanying parent, which means I will have to find babysitter(s) for Charlie and Casey from about 11 to 3:30...

Once we left out of there, even though we were all dead tired, the novelty of the transportation made us feel obligated to have yet another adventure and so we went to one of the bigger local libraries. This one has a massive childrens' area where they can speak above a whisper, play and run and touch and do stuff. So we did. I can honestly say this is one of the best places where all four of the kids are having a super time, each doing what they really want to be doing, each excited, all four sad to leave to go pick up Daddy at 530.

Im still having a little difficulty adding pictures to this blog and trying to fit captions in, so here is just a whole bunch of pictures from yesterday! Enjoy! I need to go drag Greta out of her English Class (reading Harry Potter in bed by the light of the aquarium) and see if she would perhaps like some breakfast before I make lunch!

Greta's Monday thoughts...typed and published solo

Hello! I'm Greta! (again)
Today I'm going to write a Blog about my three brothers.
The brothers I have are named and are these ages:
Mickey 6,
Casey 3,
and Charlie 1. (I have NO sisters.)
First I'll tell you about Mickey. He's is funny but can be a little sensetive. If you show him a program that is even a tiny bit dramatic,
he'll start crying real loud, REAL loud. He can also be a bit picky sometimes. Mickey is very knowlagable when it comes to cars. If you see a car and point
at it, Mickey will tell you it's name. Like, "BMW GHS sports edition, 23R Ford GM7."
He is also a good game player. Casey is next. He is extremely wild and monsterously loud. But he is very cute and funny and will do lots of fun stuff.
He also is very brave and climbs and dives underwater a lot. And Charlie is very smart for his age. He learned how to walk so quickly you hardly recognise
him. We were all born three years apart except Charlie was born two years apart from Casey. I love them all dearly and their behaviors all fit together like a puzzle. Even our CAT is a male! Oh, I should tell you about our pets. We have one cat named Sonic, a fire-bellied newt named Sponge, two fire-bellied toads named Skittle and Pudge, and six goldfish named Gold, Silver, Lightning, Spiral, Jumbo-Lightbulb, and Mystery.

list

I thoroughly enjoyed this list:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/1H9JHN9YZ3VH4/ref=cm_syt_dtpa_f_2_rdsssl0/102-7886450-5591335

9 year old park thoughts

At our trip to the park Wednesday, Greta was looking quiet and thoughtful, which is what "9" is about apparantly. 8 was about boogers and passing gas and pretty much 24/7 jokes so this is new and interesting.

So, as I try not to do so much, I asked her "is everything ok?" and she simply said "Mama--whats it called, those ladies that couldnt vote and stuff?"

I was like "Suffrage? Womens rights? "

And she said "no....like whats the word for people who want to help girls and ladies to get to do whatever they want and not have to just like dumb stuff?"

"I guess feminism? Yeah, honey, feminism. It is a word that has alot of meanings but it is pretty much the idea that women are not lesser than men."

"Cool. Can I write a blog? About how Pokemon helps my feminism?"

"Of course!" (me getting all excited about her having a new blog of her own, the colors, the fonts...)

"I want to write on your blog though. I am not ready for my own blog. I made an email and I don't use it, and I already feel bad about that-- so I don't want my own blog just yet."

Ok!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
So if your child outgrows spazzing and farting and torturing you with jumping and hopping and breaking and spinning and spilling, they just might be entering into the new arena of thoughts! I think it's keen.

(written completely solo by Greta)

Hello! I'm Greta!
I think you may have heard a thing a two about me from my mother's Blogs.
I think it would be intresting if I wrote a Blog. My Blog will be about feminism.
I would like to help girls be able to choose what ever they want as their thing they like.
For example, let's say you are a girl, whoose life is limited because of her gender.
So as I was saying, perhaps when I get older and I am an adult, I would like to show ladies that they do not have to like
Barbie or My Little Pony. One of the things that will probably support me with feminism is POKEMON.
I have been watching pokemon since I was 2 1/2.
While I have been studyng Pokemon, I have also been hearing a thing or two about feminism in which ladies are able to vote.
Any-who let's get back to Pokemon. I know many things about pokemon because I've been studying them for 8 years. The reason Pokemon is helping feminism, is because it is show that is good for girls and boys. The Pokemon are all have no gender, that way boys and girls won't get into fights. I first heard about Pokemon when my mother was baby-sitting a 5 year old boy who enjoyed Pokemon.
Around this time my dad was starting to get into japanese things and started to get into it himself. So when the boy was getting excited and begged my mother a lot, my mother gave it a try. She realized it wasn't half bad. So that's how I got into Pokemon.
I bet I could show you a good example of how difficult Pokemon is to master.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wurmple evolves into either Silcoon or Cascoon. If you got a Silcoon, at level 10 you will get a Beutifly. If you get a Cascoon,
at the same level you will get a Dustox.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_______________________________________________________________
While this has all been going on I have beaten all of these listed pokemon games:
Pokemon XD Gale Of Darkness
Pokemon Blue
Pokemon Colleseum
Pokemon Sapphire
Pokemon FireRed (still currently working on)
_______________________________________________________________
It's all fitting in somewhere isn't it?
If you ever want to learn more about Pokemon, go to www.pokemon.com or if you want watch Pokemon go on and watch Pokemon
on Cartoon Network. You can find the games at any gamestore near you.
My Family has also seemed to greatly enjoy Pokemon as well. Mickey (my almost 7 year old brother) has gotten close to beating Pokemon yellow. I am almost 10. I have been reading Harry Potter lately, and am on book 4. I have also found and drew some intresting
pictures for you to look at. I have always been quite a great artist in my life. Thats why am showing these pictures. I also have some great stories about Casey, Charlie, Mickey and my pets, but they'll be in my next Blog.

That's my first Blog folks! I hope you will look foward to my next stories as a Blogger! So long!!
~I BET MY BLOGS WILL BE COOL!~
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Other Awesome Pictures

Fresh fresh air

A roll of packing tape--$1
An hour of peace and fun--$1

Near the end of the park trip, due to three miracles (me marrying an angel, cell phones, and the aforementioned angel working 3 minutes from home) Dada came and saw us and brought me coffee and the kids donut balls. You'll be surprised to learn that these are not called Apples by baby Charlie, but rather, "Ball-ball". Go figure.

Mickey let me use his telescope to see the Red-Winged Blackbird...

Buzzing and warped without my coffee...this one was early early this morning

Well you aren't gonna find any posts on here today about spelling words or historical dates, dividends or pronouns, and if I have to tell you why then you are a demented fiend. It is warm out, really really warm out and so we did what was right and good and sane and sound.

Heres some pics of our day today. perhaps I will have some amazing deep insights into the history of education in a few weeks, or more lists of what we learned, etc. But this is the reality of our Wednesday and I hope it makes you feel like you were there with us. Love and hugs to everyone who reads this blog with a supportive and encouraging heart-- and keep on reading because I'm going to be writing more than ever in a few more days...promise! Ive had a very hard couple of days and I am just trying to hang out, breathe fresh air, literally and figuratively, and cheer up for everyone's sake!