Back to Blogging…

After many months of not finding time to blog, I’ve managed to carve out some time this weekend.  My goal is to try to complete from where I last blogged in October to present day.  So…many entries will be sent out over the next few days

Happy Birthday, Big Bro!

Big Bro turned 12 on April 2 so we had a fun day at Crystal Springs Preserve.  He brought a few friends with him to enjoy the day! 

                                    

                        Nana, Papa and Big Bro      Ms. Sonya going over orienteering and using the GPS

                    

Papa and Lil Bro getting a little help…the boys working together to put in their coordinates

                        

Lil Bro was Ms. Sonya’s partner and led her to each cache perfectly!  Proud of Nana because even she got into the action…hoping she never needs to use a GPS for real let’s just say!

  

And they’re off!  Teams of two spread out over the preserve to hunt as fast as they could for hidden caches.   Prizes and goodies were left for each boy in each red can at specific GPS coordinates.  What a fun activity!!

 

Here’s the gang enjoying some of their found caches…sad to say that Nana and I were the last team to arrive.  But Nana was lucky enough to get a hug as a consolation prize.  Lucky dog!

                               

                         Sweet, sweet!                                                          Check out the turtle eggs we found.

                       

Activity #2…shelter building and survival                               The boys versus the adults

                       

They are working hard  but so are the adults (including me but I’m snapping pics, too)

                     

               Their shelter is coming along                               Here’s the adults shelter completed

                     

                            The back of the adults                                             The boys’ shelter

                     

                   They did a great job!                                                     Love this group shot!

                    

          A beautiful place and a great day!                                Busy day for Nana and Ala

                    

                    A well deserved cooling off                           Big Bro’s Hunger Games birthday cake

                   

               Cake time!                               He was thrilled with the cake design and very surprised!

                        

His friend wrapped Big Bro’s “ gift” inside several boxes…it was fun to watch him keep going through all the boxes until he reached the last one filled with nothing but rocks.  Then his friend handed Big Bro a card with the gift card in it. 

                         

                       Everyone got a good laugh!    Then to top off the day, to a Japanese steak house!

                                

Mar. 28-Apr. 1, 2011

                                    Continuing our work on the farm mural with Papa looking on

                                                

          Rediscovered our subscription to BrainPop so these two were exploring it and found a video on the systems of the body.  Very educational.

                                                            

Big Bro is learning about cells in science so I found a recipe to make our own cells using the goodies below.  Remember organelles, ribosomes and mitochondria??

 

Making a rooster mosaic out of beans.  He was very intent on filling in every white space and was very focused to finish the project.

                         Helping with dinner and Lil Bro’s first time with a real knife dicing tomatoes  

                          

                                  For dessert we had the cell creation we made earlier in the day.