this and that

Here are a few glimpses into that which  we've been keeping ourselves occupied these past couple days. Without cable, we really DO find more time in our days for productive things!

Khary used the Handwriting Without Tears letter-building blocks to write his name Sunday afternoon

He also decided to create a rocket ship out of random craft supplies. (Note the solid rocket boosters, which "fall back to earth when they're used up so they can be recycled," as Khary always points out.)

This evening, he decided to use his scale to see how heavy a Matchbox firetruck was. When he found out it didn't take much water to balance it, he switched to big wooden blocks so he could use more water. I LOVE this scale!)

 

 Khalil, just being a goof. He's got a snotty cold, so his poor little nose is all red. During his second wind tonight, he decided it was perfectly appropriate to sit inside a wine box and play his piano.

...and we started making the pinecone bird feeders we've been planning for a month now, but that's for another blog post. I'm making it into part of our whole winter celebration, so I'll prattle on about that when we're finished. ...stay tuned...

teacher brother

after a very brief excursion to a nearby park, the boys and i came slinking back home for lunch. khary taught khalil how to make a peanut butter jelly sandwich:

 

and a shot of khalil at franklin park today:

(oh wait, before you ask, he has several layers of clothes on under that jacket; it was 43*)

Tornado Shelter

khary made this tornado shelter yesterday after watching "rescue heroes" on qubo. you can't really tell it from the picture, but he saved several action figures (and their motorcycle) from the huge tornado. they're in the middle of that mass of blocks in the box. it was cute at the time, anyway.

(and apparently we're going through a no-shirt phase...)

day at the museum, or intro to taxis and trains

we went to the field museum today. OH EM GEE i want to live there. khary was so fascinated with the ancient americas exhibit, the first one we saw. we ate lunch at mcdonald's (ick. oh, pardon me exorbitantly expensive ick--$15 for a happy meal and a value meal. wtf? oh, btw, it didn't even have dr pepper. those bastards! i had a root beer.)

then we saw the ancient egypt exhibit, featuring about a dozen or so actual mummies. the kids weren't particularly impressed, but i thought it was very cool.

sue, khary, khalil

the field museum is the home of sue, the largest, most complete, best preserved t.rex anywhere. they also have a hall of dinosaurs that is part of a larger exhibit called "evolving planet," which is AH-MAZING!! you walk though half of a whole level of the museum, winding though time--from the beginnings of the planet earth through today. each time section features the plant and animal life from that era, transitioning via the mass extinctions that took place. it's the sort of experiential exhibit that really puts the tiny human blip of existence in perspective.

 khary makes the sound of a parasaurolophus 

 

posing with the triceratops

 

on a replica of a dinosaur's leg bone

they also have replicas of lucy and turkana boy, in addition to some "touch and feel" models of hands and heads of hominids from lucy through modern humans. they were very cool. khary enjoyed touching all the hands and even gave the "lucy" ones several big hugs, lol!

lucy's touch and feel models

during the bulk of this time, lenore was literally sick and tired, so after the hall of dinosaurs (during which she began to cry because they were all dead), kenna took her to a different area and she took a nap while khary, khalil, and i spent another hour in the "evolving planet" exhibit. well, khalil slept almost the whole time...

then the museum was closing and we got a snack, then headed outside to grab a taxi, which navigated downtown rush hour traffic expertly, and dropped us off at the blue line subway station. outside of downtown, it's an "L" or elevated train line (for which chicago is famous, of course). so the boys were enthralled with both their first taxi ride and train ride. i think khary understands the beauty of real public transit. ;)

 

poor lenore still doesn't feel well

the boys (illegally) snacking on the el

oh, and also...

i want to start the wheels turning on organizing a hiking group at swope park. ppl are paranoid of going to swope park, despite its absolutely gorgeous hiking trails and central location. (gasp! it's in teh city, though...)

yeah, so i think that'll be one of my homeschool co op offerings: hiking in the city.

tibetan (peace) prayer flags

(originally written monday, september 21...)

today is the international day of peace. we had plans to combine some guerrilla goodness and pinwheels for peace by making pinwheels and handing them out to neighbors. didn't happen--neither khary nor i were feeling it. i had gotten an update from a friend's recent endeavor about kids making tibetan prayer flags. to my knowledge, khary didn't see the pictures of the beautiful flags. but this morning, he tied together every scarf he could find in his room and hung them on the bannister. they really reminded me of the picture of the prayer flags! seeing as how it was a dark, dreary, rainy day where we had no plans at all, and how we had failed at preparing a celebration for the day of peace, i saw the universe's writing on the wall: make tibetan prayer flags with peaceful intentions.

now, prayer flags are supposed to be printed with ancient prayers that are carved into rolls of wood, then rolled in ink to be transferred to colorful rectangles of fabric and hung outside for the wind to carry the prayers to the world. the project calls for making patterned stamps out of pieces of leftover styrofoam glued to a cardboard background and painted with acrylic/fabric paint. we skipped that part. it also showed how to "paint" with shredded crayon like tibetan monks paint with colored sand--only to make the prayer flags this way, you fuse the crayon to the fabric squares with an iron (and waxed paper or newspaper).

so that's the plan--to make some crayon-painted prayer flags while we talk about peace and love and all that good stuff. while finding the appropriate craft supplies, khary also found his glitter glue--so we had to make about 20 squares with that, too. they obviously will not be waterproof, but will join the others.

pics to come...6 weeks later, i finally have them added!

the boys and i grating (non-washable) crayons:


the crayon palette:


while i ironed the flags, khary built this "international peace house" for all the world to share. it even has a fence so the little kids can place "safe-wy" outside.


all of the flags after being ironed to melt the wax into the fabric. (you can see the glitter glue ones farthest from the camera, too.)


tibetan peace prayer flags, as displayed on our porch railing:

mutton busting

we were supposed to drive to my hometown last night for a family reunion that is taking place today, as it does every year at my favorite time of year. unfortunately, i couldn't stomach the thought of driving 5 hours each way for a visit less than 36 hours and no place to take the dog, to boot. anyway, since i had the day off already, we took advantage of the oak grove youth rodeo mutton busting clinic.

go look up mutton busting. i'll wait.

...

...

okay, now that you know what it is, picture khary atop one of those big ole sheep. cute picture, huh? now blink. that's about how long he stayed on the first time. he landed on his side, scraping his ribs up a little. and he cried. and i missed the whole thing because our other friend's son was riding at the time & had a great ride. they're not supposed to let 2 sheep go at once, so i didn't expect my bubba to come out of the chute so soon. :( he said he didn't want to do it anymore, but we'd paid for 3 attempts, so we hung out and discussed how he could wear a glove, borrow a rodeo vest and some knee & elbow pads. (he was already wearing his bike helmet, per recommendation.) he said he'd go if daddy could go next to him and make sure he didn't fall so hard. yay. so he went. and i got a video. it's very short, too. and daddy was slow, and it looks in the video like he pulled khary off the sheep, but khary was already falling. really. but he fell on his back and got scraped up some more.

he says he never wants to ride sheep again. good deal--agreed. we'll see if he says the same thing next weekend when he has the opportunity to ride again at the mahaffie farmstead festival.

a great day to remember

yeah, yeah. it's been a while. whatev. today was a really fantabulous day, so i'm recording it here, lest i forget. :P (we did a lot)

earth scouts, where we went on a very short hike, gathering leaves for leaf rubbings. then we ate lunch @ the nature center, and khary played hide and seek with the other awesome homeschooled kids. (nevermind the crabby lady who told us not to let our kids run off like that. ugh. myob!)

came home, and khary still didn't want to nap, so we watched "word world" and just chilled for an hour.

went to the waldo bus terminal to meet some friends for a very short bus ride to brookside. walked to reading reptile, then to foo's fabulous frozen custard. bridget was nice enough to get us some custard. ;) i even found a couple of books at reading reptile that i may use for my black history unit in the homeschool co op. then caught the bus home.

played "the 1-2-3 game" with khary. he really does know his numbers (at least 1-5 anyway) and had fun. so much fun, we played "itsy bitsy spider" and then "sesame street bingo." all with NO tv! miraculous, i tell you! it was so fun.

we also say a blessing at every meal we eat together, especially supper:
blessings on this meal,
peace on the earth
and in our home
(and in our cars).

we're happy to be.
we're happy to be here.
we're happy to be here together.

very sweet.

just an absolutely gorgeous fall day and a really great day with my boys. (despite khalil and myself having an icky cold.)