Around Here

June is always a crazy month, but we have so many fun things to do this month that who cares if it's crazy!  Here's a look at what we had going on recently:

Reagan and I recently read Charlotte's Web.  I have read it with all three of my big kids, and it never gets easier, always brings tears to my eyes.  Reagan and I went to see a stage production of Charlotte's Web at the Zeiterion.  The show was cute, but definitely a little too goofy and not heartwarming enough.  I assume they did that to ease the pain of Charlotte's death for this young audience.

After the show, we went to Not Your Average Joe's and Reagan ordered this gigantic pulled pork sandwich.

Reagan and Collin had field day last week.  The weather was beautiful for a day of outdoor fun.

 Play dough has been the before school activity for these four lately.

Who can resist these play dough treats?

I chaperoned Collin's field trip to the Whaling Museum.  Here he is standing in front of a sperm whale skeleton.  The trip was very educational.  I grew up in New Bedford and always had lessons about the whaling industry and whales, and yet I still learned a lot on this trip.  The thing that I don't remember ever learning before is that the whaling industry is the reason why there are so many Portuguese and Cape Verdean people in the area; often, Quaker men would quit when the ships arrived in the Azores or in Cape Verde, and the captains of the ships would hire young men (kids really) from the Azores or Cape Verde to replace the men that quit.  I'm actually a little embarrassed that I didn't know that; how could I have not learned that?

We went to Lou's 40th birthday party on Saturday.  Tom enjoyed being with a bunch of his college friends.  I enjoyed seeing everyone; they are really a great group of people.  Reagan and Collin had a great time with some of the kids their age, and they really enjoyed the pool and hot tub.  Kate liked the pool too.  The member of our family that had the most fun is definitely Boo.  There were three other dogs there and the yard was surrounded by woods.  Boo LOVED every minute.  He played hard, ate lots of dropped food and one stolen hot dog, and just had a blast.

On Sunday, Reagan competed in a gymnastics meet.  She recently moved up from Rookie to Bronze, and this was her first meet as a member of the Bronze team.

Today, Collin had a 4th grade strings field trip.  They went to two elementary schools to play for the students, and they also went to McDonald's for lunch.

So much more to do and enjoy this month!  Two more weeks of school, a few parties, Father's Day, another field trip, a gymnastics show, and I'm sure there is more!

S is for Spiders and Snakes

Kate is a totally different child when it comes to sensory play lately.  She actually let me paint her hands to make a handprint spider.

She used an S stamp to add the letter to her spider paper.

 I made Kate a peaches and cream spider and web with raisin eyes and flies.  She thought it was pretty great!

 I also made a tape spider web in the doorway and Kate threw crumpled up balls of tissue paper (bugs).  We started out with little pom pom bugs, but they were too heavy; the tissue paper is ideal for this activity.  Her "spider" will eat well.  We talked about why spiders make webs and why the webs are sticky.  We also read The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle and sang The Itsy Bitsy Spider.

 I hid a few toy snakes in sand for Kate to find after we read Hide and Snake by Keith Baker.

Reagan showed Kate how to make snake prints in the sand.  The two of them made prints for a while. They were using kinetic sand; it is so much fun to play with, and perfect for making prints.

Reading Roundup

The second grade Reading Roundup performance was a great success today.  Reagan was so excited that she had trouble falling asleep last night, and she was up and full of excitement very early this morning.  It was fun to watch her perform with her friends, and it is always exciting to see some of the class work both by Reagan and the other children in her class.

 Each second grader chose an animal to learn and write about; Reagan chose the elephant.

 She is such a goofball!

Collin saw Reagan's performance, but he had to go back to his class, so I didn't get any pictures of him with Reagan.

 Above is Reagan with Mrs. Bacon; she is a long term sub that took over the class in February when Mrs. DiMarzio went out on maternity leave.  I was a little nervous about having a long term sub, but she has been GREAT!!!

Mrs. DiMarzio came in for the performance today, and she brought both of her girls with her.  She is pictured below with her baby, surrounded by a bunch of second graders (Reagan is there with the purple bandanna); the baby was very overwhelmed by all of the attention!

Here are a few of Reagan's classmates:

A few video clips:

Nice job at the Reading Roundup, Reagan!  We are so very proud of all of your hard work this year!

R is for Rainbows

 A rainbow snack.  Is there a better way to eat the rainbow?

 I made Kate a rainbow scope by coloring rainbow stripes on a sandwich bag and attaching it to the end of a cup.

Seeing the world in rainbows is pretty cool!

Kate loves the rainbows that dance around the kitchen each morning thanks to this gadget and the sun.

The grand finale was rainbow foam in the water table.  Kate was a whole different child with the rainbow foam this time.  She thoroughly enjoyed the sensory aspect.  It was fun watching her experience it this way.