Call Day #83, 8/31/14

When I brought out the camera during breakfast, Oliver said "Dada." Maybe I've said I'm taking pictures for Daddy a lot? Here Oliver waves to Daddy.

We declared a Sunday Funday after nap time. Since Oliver was sleeping and we couldn't go anywhere, the girls picked watching a video (Word Girl) as the first fun activity.

What's a Sunday Funday without some kind of treat? Ice cream sandwiches and popsicles on the screened porch.

Popsicle mouth.

 After Oliver got up, we went to Nanny and Papa's house. They're officially here! And unpacking. Eleanor likes to help flatten the packing paper. It doesn't hurt that Nanny pays a penny a sheet. She's enjoying collecting her pay after a session of flattening paper.

Oliver watches Papa unpack in the office.

Popcorn and juice boxes on the screened porch.

Eleanor telling a story.

The kids wanted to go to the pool after we got home but it was too late so we settled on some sprinkler time. Oliver wasn't afraid of the sprinkler this time (as he was the last time we had it out, several months ago now).

Eleanor helps him get closer.

When he decided to pick it up and play with it, Claire climbed right under.

Very wet Oliver.

Call Day #82, 8/21/14

We had water-filled balloons left over from a science lesson yesterday. The girls decided to go outside and see if they would break when they threw them at each other.

Claire blows bubbles for Oliver. He is always eager for someone to do that for him. Don't leave bubbles lying around or he will ask persistently for them: "bub-ble, bub-ble, bub-ble."

Watching them.

Reach!

Eleanor got out a book we have about the flags of the world and some matched small flag magnets to the countries on the map in the back.

Claire and Eleanor have "Big Sis" and "Lil Sis" charms. Claire ended up wearing both today. We talked a little bit about how she is the only one who has both roles.

We've been studying ancient Greece in history. Eleanor was proud of her "Greek lunch" of pita, hummus, tabbouleh, and kalamata olives.

 Oliver was fascinated by the riding mower a lawn service was using to cut our neighbor's grass. He wanted to watch but was also scared and would come running back to us fussing. When Eleanor went to watch with him he was content.

 A few hours later the other neighbor had their yard mowed. Oliver was brave enough to watch from the safety of his high chair. I told him that they were mowing the grass like Daddy did last week. He latched on to his favorite part of that sentence and kept looking out the window as the mowing was done saying "Dada."

We went to the pool after dinner because we all needed out of the house. Oliver plays with a watering can, his absolute favorite pool toy. He squealed when he saw some friends had one and they kindly let him use it.

Playing with friend Adam. While the lifeguard took a break, the three of them threw water balloons back and forth and squirted each other.

Ginger came over and brought some things to expand upon the chemistry lessons we did a few weeks ago. Her kids are using the same curriculum, and the girls are thrilled that we'll be able to do school together some days. (Sidenote: SO cool to have my best friend, fellow chemistry major, and lab partner help teach my kids chemistry!)

Eleanor explains what she learned about states of matter this week. School in pajamas right before bed time!

Call Day #81, 8/19/14

School in the morning: Eleanor practices math facts using an online game. Oliver watches and flips through a library book.

Playing a history game that reviews some of what we've covered thus far. Oliver was so excited about rolling the dice. He became the official roller for everyone.

Enjoying his job.

In the afternoon, we did some science. We are learning about the states of matter and got to blow up a balloon with the gas generated from putting Pop Rocks in a bottle of soda. (Also, note that homeschool learning doesn't require a uniform. You can even learn in your bathing suit!)

Papa brought home ice cream sandwiches for dessert. Oliver didn't really want to pick up the cold, messy ice cream sandwich.

Much happier when given a fork.

Papa and Eleanor race cars.

Driving.

Call Day #80, 8/16/14

The girls have been getting breakfast ready for everyone many mornings, asking me to stay out of the kitchen til they're ready. They are quite proud to be helping out.

This morning I had some things I needed to work on so they played games and watched a movie.

We went to the pool after lunch. Eleanor blew bubbles in the water because she knows how much Oliver likes bubbles.

Playing on the step. Lots of pouring and splashing.

Oliver woke up from nap wanting to read Hippos Go Berserk (in his hand). I brought him downstairs and asked Eleanor to read to him. They had a good time together.

He loves the sounds in this book. Love them together here.

Claire's been working on the USA puzzle this week, learning where the states go.

We went to Aldi. On the way home Eleanor asked if we could have "what you want night" for dinner. They think it's the greatest dinner option possible to get to choose. I thought that was a great idea--they helped themselves to dinner while I put away groceries. They picked cereal for dinner and supplemented with corn on the cob, kiwi and grapes, and fried okra leftover from a meal out. 

After dinner, we took a quick trip to the playground of a nearby school.

We had taken bubbles with us, and Oliver was glad we did.

The girls found the mostly-dry creek bed and preferred playing on the steps to the playground.

Oliver found this step with a very short rise and practiced stepping up and down it. Whenever we come to a set of steps where he would have to step down, he always says his word for step ("tep") and looks for help to get down. Finally found a step just his size.

Eleanor found the little bit of water still left in the creek bed and eagerly pointed out the bugs on the surface of the water that illustrated the concept of surface tension that we read about this week. Always nice to get confirmation that they were listening!

Call Day #79, 8/13/14

Typical morning school. Eleanor working on handwriting and math, Claire doing a preschool/kindergarten workbook, and Oliver wandering around.

I had told Eleanor a few days ago that we should take pictures for the start of our school year. Today she made her own sign and asked to go take pictures. Her sign says "frsit grad. yaa!!!"

Looking tall. 

Claire wanted to make her own sign too but the PreK writing was too small. We'll do a retake another day.

Eleanor decided Oliver needed a sign too. His says "word school" since that's what he needs to learn.

Happy.

As we came back in the house, Oliver found something to bring in with him. He walked around with the water gun saying "wa wa" for a little while.

Oliver went for his 18 month well visit this morning. He's big at 28 lb, 14 oz (94%). We didn't get a good height measurement for him because he screamed his way through our attempts to measure his weight, height, and head. We walked down the hallway to the exam room with an already crying baby. Good thing he didn't get shots too.

This afternoon Claire asked to make banana bread. We made it while Oliver watched.

Eleanor had gone off on her own while we were baking and came to show us what she had been drawing: "This is a dressed up Cyclops." We've read about them a few times in our history studies in the past few weeks. Yesterday we read an excerpt from The Odyssey about Odysseus's encounter with a cyclops. She's also had me reading her lots of Greek mythology and we read about them there too.

Claire playing with a mixture of water and cornstarch that we made for our science studies. It behaves like both a solid and a liquid.

The girls had requested a trip to Pelican's Snoballs so we went. Eagerly waiting to place their order after a long wait.

Yum.

Oliver wasn't so interested in eating this time. He went off to sit on the cornhole game and try to spot a truck ("tuck") going by.