Busy Bees - Ouch!

So our first official day of no school started shortly after I last posted.

I had been sitting here typing while the kids were running through the house chasing each other and screaming at the top of their lungs. Then they'd suddenly join me here in the library, plop down on the floor, grab a book, and stay perfectly quiet for a few minutes. Then Calli would toss her book and announce, "I'm ready!" to which Rickson would throw HIS book and yell, "I ready, too!" And they would proceed to run and scream all over again. This happened several times until I decided I was ready for bed. I turned the computer off and went to retrieve them (because they were now juming on Calli's bed) only to discover they were both SUPER sweaty, sticky, and clamy. Yuck. Can't go to bed like that!

So as a cool-down, we all got some cold water and some M&Ms and sat on the couch to watch a DVR'd episode of something for a few minutes. (Keep in mind that this was about 1:30am and I intended to be up at 10am.) We got comfy and I pulled up the DVR menu to choose something and discovered that an episode of "Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed" had recorded! (That's our new favorite show.) I'd only PLANNED on watching a quick Dragon Tales, Bob the Builder, or Bearenstein Bears that would only take 15 minutes. We just COULDN'T go to bed without watching the magic show, though! Being the responsible mom that I am... We stayed up until 2:09 in the morning to watch it. Hehe. It WAS a good one, though!

Off to bed, Daddy got home at 6:30am and apparently stayed up to play a game of Madden 2010, then came to bed whenever and shared some stories of his night with me before we dozed off. My phone alarm went off at 10:09am and I was miraculously able to unwedge myself from Rickson without waking him up. I got myself ready in peace (which almost never happens because I'm not ambitious enough to get up before the kids), then got Calli and Rickson up, slowly, quietly, and calmly.

First we headed over to where I thought the office was where I had to file the intent form. Turns out that WASN'T the right place, but we played on the little playground for a few minutes anyway before heading over to the correct office... Only to find the lady was out to lunch. *Sigh* So we played at THAT playground for a few minutes, too.

Then we headed out to the farm to get us some raspberries, fresh off the bush. Started out well, but then Rickson was stung by a bee on the ring finger of his left hand. Poor little guy; I had to scrape the stinger out. He was only upset for a few minutes, though, then he got to see some farm tractors up close and was all better and wanted to get more raspberries. After a little while, though, his finger started to swell and get hard so I figured we'd better get some Benedryl in him so we bought our berries and headed back home.



After some cold water, a snack, and some medicine, we went BACK over to the office to file the form. Luckily the lady was there and that's all done! Then we parked near the police department, threw some coins in the fountain, and walked across the alley to Maine St. to get some icecream at a cute little shop called Candylicious. Calli chose a waffle cone dipped in chocolate and M&Ms with Cookies & Cream icecream. I had a waffle cone dipped in chocolate and sprinkles with Rocky Road. Rickson had a small cup of Rainbow Sherbet. We sat out under the umbrella eating our icecream and people watching until Rickson started to look like he was going to doze off into his bowl.



Now we're home, Rickson is napping, Calli is busy writing invitations for the magic show she and her friends are putting on soon (today?) and riding her bike. Daddy is still sleeping, but should be up soon. I'm sunburned, but very happy. Couldn't have asked for a better day overall. (Minus the bee sting, but even that wasn't a huge deal.)

As far as learning went... We discussed school administration and why there were so many different offices, why they are so spread out across the town, and why they moved around so much. The form I'd filled out and what it meant. School funding as it relates to head counts of pupils. At one of the offices, we were near the train tracks so we discussed trains, graffiti, the jobs of the engineers, and speculated on fuel costs to run such a huge machine. Why are there wood chips under the play equipent? Why are certain parts in the skateboard park steeper than others? Why the different shapes in the middle? We discussed bees, pollination, stingers, defense mechanisms, honey making, ripe vs unripe berries, birds that were nearby, farm equipment, other veggies/fruits that were growing nearby, flowers, and farm workers. Then over icecream, Calli told me about her adventures yesterday with the neighborhood kids. Who dared who to do what, how well she'd take care of a new bike if she ever got a new one, how she'd like to give her old bikes to the girls on the street, and about the magic show we watched last night.

That's not nearly everything as it would fry my brain to try to recall it all, but that's a pretty good rough outline of the time we spent together today. Rickson got to practice jumping off big rocks so he was happy. LOL!!

We don't have such big plans for tomorrow, but Calli has mentioned some things she'd like to do, one of which is to check out the pawn shop because she's curious about the musical instruments she could see through the window as we drove by. We'll be doing that soon; why not? And who knows where it could lead...

Hope everyone's day was as nice!