Lots o' Stuff

Omigosh, so the kids say so many hilarious things. My mom said something the other day about Indians and K says, "It's Native Americans, Vavo." M is on a big political kick, reminding us often when we discuss McCain, Hillary, and Obama that Ron Paul is still around. That's just a sampling. And that doesn't do it justice--they keep us laughing. A LOT. So, we've been doing ALL sorts of things with Vavo here. Here's a mini update:

We got here Sunday.

Monday - We did some cool school stuff, made yummy soup (love when Mom visits!), spent the afternoon at the Ratcliffe's for tea and playing, enjoyed violin lesson, went out for sushi, and got back and got the kids to bed and enjoyed some tea and TV.

Mom trying to figure out those dang chopsticks!!

The birthday girl and her best friend

The awesome waitress who always sings and gets us mochi ice cream on the house!

Tuesday - We did some school and then had lunch and spent the afternoon in Lancaster attending a REALLY cute (and free!) museum exhibit all about Maurice Sendak! SUCH a cute exhibit! We then enjoyed a light afternoon tea at that cute tea shoppe I've mentioned and that was yummy and fun. We picked up our CD changer that's been getting fixed for the past couple of months. We're SO happy to have that back. It's time intensive--there are 200 CDs that we've pulled out to now put back IN the player. You know, after we finish painting the room. :P Then we enjoyed a bit at our local library. And then group violin lessons with a stop in Obama's local office (that was interesting!).

Awesome lesson about the Middle East and its tumultuous history

And can I just say that WE LOVE HOMESCHOOLING!! We love, love, love the flexibility to simply drop what we're doing any time we want and incorporate ANYTHING into our learning, like this awesome exhibit for instance. We have so much fun!

To Where the Wild Things Are

Cool Sendak videos (basically his books, illustrations) set to music by Carole King

Mom reading about the author--they have so much cool stuff about him, from him, journals, handwritten drafts of his books, bios, etc.

Okay, this thing is AWESOME! It's from his Chicken Soup with Rice book. It's a slide that you ride (pretty fast, too!) right into a gigantic bowl of chicken soup with rice and carrots!

There's some chicken!

Look at the cute copy of Pierre (my favorite book by him)!

In the Night Kitchen

Rosie!

So, after the exhibit, for an early Mother's Day gift, we enjoyed tea at the local tea shop with our friends, the owners of the tea shop! Omigosh, the scones and devonshire cream!!

The kids got a kick out of ringing the bell for service. And they love the tea and drinks and snacks! They even have cute shapes of finger sandwiches as part of the kids' tea!

The Fairies Table

The Mad Hatter's Tea Party Table--notice all the mismatches (on purpose)

The I Love Lucy Table!

The kids got the Beatrix Potter Table

We got the Gone with the Wind Table

Wednesday - Gorgeous weather, so we played outside all day. The kids had a date with Vavo in the backyard, eating Happy Meals and enjoying the sunshine. The Rats came over, Christy and Logan came over, it was loads of fun. And then the Rats came again and this time with Brook and some Amish Friendship bread starter! How cool is that?! We're enjoying making it and are so excited to try it!



Thursday - Another gorgeous day of outside play. I worked in the clinic a bit and then we changed and worked in the yard using my Dad's "sacho" and then our next-door neighbor (the local pastor--very nice man) came over and offered his rototiller (OMIGOSH, awesome!!) and we got the garden prepped lickety split! By the way, our grapes are already budding!! We're so excited!! Kim came over with Sariah a couple of times and that was really fun. We decided to BBQ and eat outside--delicious!!

And then my Mom and I went out to Parents' Night Out for our homeschool group at the local coffeehouse. We had SO MUCH FUN! We enjoyed everyone's company. Some left early, but Christy, my Mom, and I stayed REALLY late (another one of those nights where we talk in the theater because the coffeehouse gets loud with college students performing something or other. So, as usual, we don't notice that, you know, the place has shut down. So we start to leave when this crazy guy shows up (and by crazy I mean, hilarious, funny, and a bit manic) and for some reason flashes us his Obama pin. We excitedly show him ours. We all high five. And he asks us to wait for him to go get some Obama supporters to meet us right back there (mind you, the place had closed but we kept hanging out--have I mentioned we love it here?!), so they got back over an hour later. And we all stayed up until 2:30 AM!! I kept asking my 67-year-old mother if she wanted to go home (I mean, isn't she at napping age?? ;) I love you, Mom), but she said no, because she was having so much fun! Very, very fun night!

To be continued . . .