random Ryan adventures this week

Ryan started off by smashing this hot wheel car with a rock. My first reaction was to tell him to stop but after he told me that "this is how the little monkeys open up the coconuts" - well it all made sense then - lol. After he smashed it open, he wanted to make his own car with the body, which led to he and his daddy reconstruction the whole thing!




mud and lots of mud!! need I say more.

Dino Park

Well yesterday we headed out for our first all day outing with Adeline to Dino Park ! Ryan was very excited about this trip and spent the week learning as much as he could about dinosaurs. He and his dad spent lots of time out back picking dino's learning about them and then pretending they were that dinosaur and how they would fight each other - or protect their young (Adeline). It was such a fun way to learn - one of the things that I love about homeschooling.

Then we met up with 3 other homeschool families at Dino Park. A park with indoor and outdoor activities that also includes a splash park for those hot days.

We started of indoors where the kids could choose to be prospectors,miners or paleontologists. Ryan and his friend choose to be Paleontologists at the bone zone.
The first part of the class they learned about fossils and what a paleontologists does. I love this pic of Ryan and Gwen - check their feet out : )

Then on into the dig site where the kids worked together to uncover the bones of a stegosaurus.!cool.
At the end of the class each kid received 6 fossils of their own to keep. Ryan loved that - and he wants to trade one fossils for one of his friend Kaya's minerals (he was a miner).
Then we headed out for lunch. Kaya was a help and held Adeline for me while I put my sling on.
After a quick trip on the playground and down the slide we headed off to Dino land.


THis was Adeline's view of everything as she sat in the sling and nursed while we walked around.

The Dinosaurs:



The boys loved this part - the girls stayed on the playground.
being baby dinosaurs.

It was a wonderful day to spend with friends. Adeline overall did great in the car by the way!!

sewing

So I dusted off the old sewing machine and set to work to make Adeline some summer dresses. It is not easy with a 3 month old who prefers mama's arms to anywhere else, but we managed. I threw her in the sling and did my best and occasionally she played on the floor next to me.


Ryan got in on the action to, making his daddy a bag to take with him on his interviews (My hubby flew to Michigan,Indiana and Wisconsin over the last 2 weeks - more to come on that later)





First up is a smocked sundress totally inspired my this very talented lady .
I love the fabric ! also inspired by her site. The designer of the fabric is Heather Ross and she has some amazing fabrics. The smocking is easy using elastic thread. However since I do not have Heather's book Weekend Sewing with the instructions in it, I had to figure it out myself. Once I did , it was a peice of cake. I even made myself a skirt with the smocking that can also be worn as a shirt. hurray! a new love of sewing and now I have the best reason in the world to make these dresses - I think she likes them too : )




The second dress is based on the idea of a Pillow Case dress. Since I did not have any pillow cases I decided to use this beautiful unicorn fabric by Heather Ross and finger knitted a tie to go around the neck. The fun part about this dress is that I had a sewing gathering at my house to work on these dresses. Sewing is fun with friends around. The kids played and the mama's worked. I have to admit that I was only able to cut mine out that day and ended up sewing it the next morning. It is so easy it took 5 minutes to cut out and about 15 min to sew! The best part is that next year she will be able to wear is as a shirt.

The men in Adeline's life

Boy do they love her....

Watercolor Painting

This past Friday we headed out to our friend Karen's house for a watercolor painting session. It has been several months since I have led a group of kids in watercolor painting and it was a lot of fun. I told a simple story about the sun shinning in the sky and a little blue fairy coming to dance in the warmth of the sun. The kids seemed to enjoy it as well as the mom's who have been asking me what we do in our water color painting sessions at home.







the kids also had a great time hanging out with each other. they really are a great group of kids!

Monday

concert in the Park

I have been having a hard time keeping up with the blog lately. Even now I am typing with one hand. We have pretty much been keeping low since Adeline hates the car. This past Sunday evening we plugged our ears and headed down to New Haven t see They Might be Giants on the green. It was a nice night and we met up with some friends there.




Adeline is enjoying her first concert!

Sage is very serious about it!




havin fun in the grass

snuggle time with mama.