Wordless Wednesday

Glow in the Dark

Free Admission Day 2011

Every year the city offers free admission to it's attractions.  This year we decided to go to the Muttart Conservatory, a grouping of 4 indoor botanical gardens in pyramids, and to Fort Edm Park.  What a great day, and while a few of the people we encountered were down right rude the vast majority of people were very friendly and gracious despite the overcrowding of the events. 

The Muttart was beautiful and of course no visit is complete without rolling down the big hill and pretending to be trolls under the bridge.

Fort Edmonton Park was amazing.  We even got to watch an awesome movie in the 1920s replica theatre about the history of the city.  The special effects were stellar, and we all learned a lot.  C got chosen to learn a traditional native dance and dance it with a few other ladies/girls.  She was so embarrassed to be up there, but what an experience to have.  They had a 1920s midway for pretty cheap so I took C on the carousal and the older kids all played a midway game.  The kids also got to make produce sculptures out of squash and other veggies.  Over all a wonderful time was had by all

Weekly Report Sept 19-23, 2011

This was a bizarre week for us and resulted in our school schedule being tossed out the window.  Monday we had to head to the city to meet with the lawyer regarding H's law suit against the driver of the semi (well his insurance at least).  It was also I's 4th birthday on Monday, so after we met with the lawyer and signed a ton of paperwork we went to gramma's house to celebrate her birthday with the extended family.

We decided to stay over night at gramma's and run a ton of errands in the city on Tuesday so we did not get home until quite late.  The one good thing about all that driving is that we listen to audio books.  The selections for this week were an unabridged version of Peter Pan and a BBC radio production of Peter Pan in Scarlet.  I was quite surprised to hear what the real Peter Pan story was like, Disney has certainly changed a lot in it.  Are you aware in the real tale the pirates, red skins and lost boys actually kill each other and Tinker Bell calls Peter a silly ass on a regular basis. 

On Wednesday we watched a dvd of Peter Pan and then had a discussion comparing and contrasting the various versions of the tale that we knew.  The kids really got into dissecting the differences and we talked about the fact that although the main story line is the same the general tone of the story changes within the various versions.

The kids also completed 2 lessons in horizons, and H did lesson 54 in his OPGTR.  He is once again struggling so we will be working on this lesson a few times before moving on like we did with 53.

Thursday we had a fantastic day.  I suddenly announced just before lunch that everyone had to get their shoes one and brush their hair that I had a surprise for them.  We drove to a town an hour away and grabbed a bite to eat and then drove for another 10 minutes and went to a petting zoo.  This zoo is rather cool, initially it was a couple's hobby farm.  They loved exotic animals and soon had several that had been abandoned, or that other's had gotten illegally and they were then asked to care for the animals by the gov't.  Around the perimeter of the zoo is the dangerous animals, the lions, wolves, bear, macaw, peacocks, skunk, reindeer, camel, raccoons and a reptile house.  In the center of the zoo is pens of farm animals that the kids can go into the pens and pet and feed the animals.  We love it here but had not gone yet this year due to H's leg.  We had a great day, though I think we arrived at nap time for the animals.  Most of them were asleep when we got there.  That made for some funny pictures though.

A petting a tortoise

Crocodile

Alligator.  I feel bad for this guy, his habitat is way too small, but they told me they are building a new one for next year.  They just finished building a new big one for the bear.

Iguana

Lioness happy as can be taking a nap

Timber Wolf

C's favorite animal of the day

Peacocks

C trying to feed the ducks

Duck egg in their little hut

Camel

Skunk

Lion 'smiling'  If you smiled at him he gave you this face

Raccoon's

Arctic wolf

Timber Wolf

Kids watching wolf

Wolf watching kids

I feeding goats



A petting goat

 After we finished up with our awesome afternoon at the zoo we zipped back home to have dinner and get ready for kids church/youth group/bible study.  We all went to our respective classes and had fun.  I am loving having small group bible study again.  So nice to be able to study the word with a couple other ladies and not just my kids.  When we got home it was still fairly warm out and the sky was extremely clear so we did an hour of stargazing with our telescope.  It was funny trying to take pictures because it was too dark to see anything on the screen so I was just pointing where I hoped I would get a good picture.  A couple times the kids were being silly with funny poses, including them all pretending to dance to Thriller.

A using the telescope

C using the telescope

H using the telescope



C and me

H & I watching the stars

Saw a satellite fly by

I using telescope the rest doing Thriller

Being silly

A & I stargazing

The whole crew

After all the excitement of Thursday, Friday seems so plain.  We all slept late and didn't even start school until after lunch.  The kids did a couple more pages in math,  I read several more fall/apple books to H and I.  A & C watched the movie World Trade center and did a couple more pieces to their 9/11 lapbook.  My plan to finish the whole lapbook this week didn't happen, but they made progress on it.  Another day or so and it will be finished.  So all in all, it was not a school heavy week but was still a fun and educational one.