This should actually be the end of our TV Challenge, but we will just keep going until the weekend since things have been going so well. I told the kids that since we'll be going to Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend, we will just end the challenge there. They will be welcome to watch TV there. This Grandma and Grandpa do not have cable, and the reception they have is not all that great. There are a few Saturday cartoons that might get turned on, but the kids are not used to watching TV there anyway. There is too much other stuff going on, too many kittens, too many toys, etc.
Today was SO nice, we were going to visit the nature park, but Mom didn't know that it is closed on Monday AND Tuesday. That was a big disappointment! I thought it was just closed on Mondays. So we had a little picnic at the Yukon park and fed cat food to the turtles and ducks. I think it was 70 degrees during the time of day that we were there. What a nice relief. I have had a ton more energy today because of that. I think maybe the heat was just taking it out of me.
Peanut had her piano lesson, which Junior interrupted more than once, wanting to play down at the end of the piano. (Very quietly, but I could tell it was bothering her.) I had to tell him to go play elsewhere, and he was so dejected. So now he is taking piano also. I couldn't stand it, poor little guy.
(I guess I should explain that I am Peanut's teacher again this year. I wanted her taking from a nice lady at church, but when we added dance plus piano, it was just too much $$. She really wants to take another year of dance, and that is not one of the things I can teach. So I am trying again to teach her piano, which is going much better now that she is older.)
Junior was very proud of himself. He has to sit on a phone book, and put his feet on a stool plus a phone book. I guess he is still a lot shorter than Peanut was when she started. We went through about 10 pages of the book today, I hope he doesn't expect that every time.
Peanut is having two lessons a week for 30 minutes. I made her some little charts to keep up with her practice. I don't know what I am going to do with Junior, because I don't think he's old enough to practice on his own. I tried practicing every day with Peanut, and I think that's why we got burned out. We might just try the two lessons a week and see how that goes.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Friday, August 25, 2006
TV Challenge - Day 25
Everything is going well around here. I took a look today at my ironing pile growing and growing. I am bad about waiting until there is some show on TV I want to watch, then doing my ironing during that time. I'm going to have to just do it anyway. Maybe I can parcel it out into small jobs. I can set the board where I can sit down iron, I just haven't done that very often.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
TV Challenge - Days 23 and 24
Junior now gets up every morning and asks me, "Are you going to get fatter and fatter every day until the baby comes?" Some things kids say are really not that cute.
We are supposed to get an ultrasound tomorrow. That should be kind of fun. I have never had one this late.
The kids are counting down the days until the TV Challenge is over. I told Peanut that things are not going to be exactly the same, we are going to have some strict limits. She was disappointed, I think she was expecting a TV marathon or something. But she still admitted that she had gotten to do some fun things.
Today we went to the dinosaur museum. Junior did "D is for Dinosaur" week last week, so this was supposed to go along with it. The kids really had fun. The whole place was nearly empty. Of course, it is one of the first days of school, so I'm sure no one is really doing field trips this early. And they just took down their big T. Rex exibit. We got to watch them packing it into crates to be shipped somewhere else. That was kind of interesting. There were lots of volunteers around, and I was proud of Peanut. She talked to them nicely and asked lots of questions. It is good to take advantage of volunteers on days like today - to a certain extent. I am looking for our book, What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs? It is written for kids. Here is a good article by the same name. It is difficult to explain things from a creationist perspective (Biblical worldview) when you are right in the middle of a museum where they are telling you everything happened 100 - 200 million years ago.
Here is Junior looking at a display about fossils.
He thought the dinosaurs were pretty cool, but he was mostly into the hands-on exhibits, especially the mechanical ones - surprise, suprise! Before he went to bed, he explained to his dad how some of the dinosaurs could chew their food, and others could just cut through it with their teeth like scissors. They had a little hinge thing that showed that, so of course that made plenty of sense to him. They also had a display showing how some dinosaurs would eat rocks to help them digest the plants they ate. He really liked that one. You could push a button to show the rocks moving around.
Here's Peanut in a canoe.
They have a nice exhibit on early Native Americans. There is a slightly scary part about buffalo (scary to my kids, even Junior), but it was still interesting.
We are supposed to get an ultrasound tomorrow. That should be kind of fun. I have never had one this late.
The kids are counting down the days until the TV Challenge is over. I told Peanut that things are not going to be exactly the same, we are going to have some strict limits. She was disappointed, I think she was expecting a TV marathon or something. But she still admitted that she had gotten to do some fun things.
Today we went to the dinosaur museum. Junior did "D is for Dinosaur" week last week, so this was supposed to go along with it. The kids really had fun. The whole place was nearly empty. Of course, it is one of the first days of school, so I'm sure no one is really doing field trips this early. And they just took down their big T. Rex exibit. We got to watch them packing it into crates to be shipped somewhere else. That was kind of interesting. There were lots of volunteers around, and I was proud of Peanut. She talked to them nicely and asked lots of questions. It is good to take advantage of volunteers on days like today - to a certain extent. I am looking for our book, What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs? It is written for kids. Here is a good article by the same name. It is difficult to explain things from a creationist perspective (Biblical worldview) when you are right in the middle of a museum where they are telling you everything happened 100 - 200 million years ago.
Here is Junior looking at a display about fossils.
He thought the dinosaurs were pretty cool, but he was mostly into the hands-on exhibits, especially the mechanical ones - surprise, suprise! Before he went to bed, he explained to his dad how some of the dinosaurs could chew their food, and others could just cut through it with their teeth like scissors. They had a little hinge thing that showed that, so of course that made plenty of sense to him. They also had a display showing how some dinosaurs would eat rocks to help them digest the plants they ate. He really liked that one. You could push a button to show the rocks moving around.
Here's Peanut in a canoe.
They have a nice exhibit on early Native Americans. There is a slightly scary part about buffalo (scary to my kids, even Junior), but it was still interesting.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Peanut and the little boy next door made a teepee yesterday. I will try to get a picture on here tomorrow. It rained last night and tore down the teepee, but she reports they got it back together. He had a book that showed how to make one, so they came in all excited and asked me for several things to make it. They harvested their own "bamboo poles" from down by the pond. They are pretty resourceful. I am glad that this little guy gets into stuff like that, because Peanut sure does. It was too small for them once they got it built, but he has a three-year-old brother that fits it nicely.
Sadly, tonight Junior went for a bike ride and had a bad crash. He was skinned up and his feelings were hurt even more. This time he skinned his lip and nose...very lightly, but they were swelled up when he went to bed tonight. He looked a little roughed up, but I think he will be better by tomorrow. His sissy was SO sweet to him. She got out a little frog washcloth puppet and let it talk to him. Then she got him a chair and a little question/answer book that he likes. She let the puppet "read" to him, and he liked that. I made her a coupon that said she could have french toast tomorrow...so she is very excited about that! What a sweetie!
Sadly, tonight Junior went for a bike ride and had a bad crash. He was skinned up and his feelings were hurt even more. This time he skinned his lip and nose...very lightly, but they were swelled up when he went to bed tonight. He looked a little roughed up, but I think he will be better by tomorrow. His sissy was SO sweet to him. She got out a little frog washcloth puppet and let it talk to him. Then she got him a chair and a little question/answer book that he likes. She let the puppet "read" to him, and he liked that. I made her a coupon that said she could have french toast tomorrow...so she is very excited about that! What a sweetie!
Saturday, August 19, 2006
TV Challenge - Days 19 and 20
We had a small miracle this morning. Todd and I were really wanting to sleep in, but a little before 8AM I heard little footsteps coming into our room. I knew that it was Junior, and I was expecting him to come in and ask for breakfast or something. Instead, he turned around and walked out. I didn't hear from him for a while, then I started hearing him very quietly playing in the living room. It was amazing! I rested some more, and got up at 8:30 to take a shower. When I was all done, I found him sitting on our bed talking very quietly to Todd. He was all dressed. I think he was wanting breakfast. He and I went into the kitchen and he helped me make donuts out of canned biscuits. I'm not sure he had ever had those before. They were quite a hit.
Saturday cartoons have always been our sneaky little way of catching a little extra sleep on Saturday morning. I assumed that without those, I would be on entertainment duty, but at least today I didn't have to do that. Maybe that is a "TV Challenge" benefit, or maybe just a gift from God. Anyway, it was very nice!!
The kids and I went garage saling this morning and that way Todd got to sleep in a bit. We didn't find one thing...even the kids. So it was a disappointing morning for that. Maybe we will get to go next week and things will be better. School started here on Friday, so maybe people were too busy this week to get a sale ready. There were very few sales, and most of them were junky.
Peanut scared me the other day. We had the radio on, and she asked me, "Why do they keep talking about the Ramsey murder case?" I think I broke out in a cold sweat. I was thinking, "What does she know? Oh, Lord, help me to say the right thing." If you know Peanut, that is a subject you would never want to discuss with her. So I very casually said, "Well, they mean that a person was killed, and their last name was Ramsey." She looked even more worried. Something clicked together in my head, and I said quickly, "It wasn't Dave Ramsey." He is one of the guys we listen to on the radio. She was visably relieved. "So he's okay?" "Yeah, hon, he'll be on the radio today and you'll hear." Big sigh of relief!!
Here is another website I found that gives a pretty balanced view of TV, and goes into video games and kids using the Internet. It's called National Institute on Media and the Family.
Saturday cartoons have always been our sneaky little way of catching a little extra sleep on Saturday morning. I assumed that without those, I would be on entertainment duty, but at least today I didn't have to do that. Maybe that is a "TV Challenge" benefit, or maybe just a gift from God. Anyway, it was very nice!!
The kids and I went garage saling this morning and that way Todd got to sleep in a bit. We didn't find one thing...even the kids. So it was a disappointing morning for that. Maybe we will get to go next week and things will be better. School started here on Friday, so maybe people were too busy this week to get a sale ready. There were very few sales, and most of them were junky.
Peanut scared me the other day. We had the radio on, and she asked me, "Why do they keep talking about the Ramsey murder case?" I think I broke out in a cold sweat. I was thinking, "What does she know? Oh, Lord, help me to say the right thing." If you know Peanut, that is a subject you would never want to discuss with her. So I very casually said, "Well, they mean that a person was killed, and their last name was Ramsey." She looked even more worried. Something clicked together in my head, and I said quickly, "It wasn't Dave Ramsey." He is one of the guys we listen to on the radio. She was visably relieved. "So he's okay?" "Yeah, hon, he'll be on the radio today and you'll hear." Big sigh of relief!!
Here is another website I found that gives a pretty balanced view of TV, and goes into video games and kids using the Internet. It's called National Institute on Media and the Family.
Friday, August 18, 2006
TV Challenge - Day 18
There was a bit of a cheat tonight. I had to go to the local homeschool meeting, and Todd said the kids could just go with him to his cousin's house because he was helping him fix his back porch. Well, there was nothing for them to do (I had forgotten that they have dogs in the backyard, and so the kids can't play back there.) So his cousin's wife had to keep them in the house, and pulled out Toy Story for them to watch. Oh well, if she was going to have to watch them, she might as well let them watch a tape. It couldn't be helped and it was only for a short time. If I had thought the whole thing through, they could have just come with me. There were several kids there anyway.
I have found a few websites about the effects of TV on kids that are interesting. I am finding that there is also some weird stuff out there if you are into the "no TV" thing. Much of it is "rich corporations are all out to get us" hype. Here is one that had some interesting info: LimiTV, Inc. And this one is also interesting to me because it is from the "Benji" website. Yes, the dog in the movies.
Here are two of our projects from school. Junior's assignment was to make a dinosaur out of clay. Peanut jumped right on it, and came up with this critter. Very cute:
However, Junior would not make a dinosaur. I tried to show him the easy steps to make a dinosaur, but instead he made a playdough dinosaur dig site and proceeded to dig for a dinosaur. See, this is what I mean if you hear me say that I don't think I would put Jr. in Kindergarten this year if he were in public school. He would be in such trouble all the time. He is too far "out of the box." So I didn't get a picture of the dinosaur digging mess. Instead, here is a picture he did of an apple tree when we were on "A is for Apple."
I have found a few websites about the effects of TV on kids that are interesting. I am finding that there is also some weird stuff out there if you are into the "no TV" thing. Much of it is "rich corporations are all out to get us" hype. Here is one that had some interesting info: LimiTV, Inc. And this one is also interesting to me because it is from the "Benji" website. Yes, the dog in the movies.
Here are two of our projects from school. Junior's assignment was to make a dinosaur out of clay. Peanut jumped right on it, and came up with this critter. Very cute:
However, Junior would not make a dinosaur. I tried to show him the easy steps to make a dinosaur, but instead he made a playdough dinosaur dig site and proceeded to dig for a dinosaur. See, this is what I mean if you hear me say that I don't think I would put Jr. in Kindergarten this year if he were in public school. He would be in such trouble all the time. He is too far "out of the box." So I didn't get a picture of the dinosaur digging mess. Instead, here is a picture he did of an apple tree when we were on "A is for Apple."
Thursday, August 17, 2006
TV Challenge - Day 17
Things are going smoothly. The kids are a little doubtful about that, but they hardly say anything anymore. I don't know if that is because they don't really miss it anymore, or if they have just given up. I would like to believe the former. That may be true for Peanut, though, because I'm not sure she would give up the whining if she really cared.
Junior's kindergarten this week is "D is for Dinosaur" so he is learning about dinosaurs. He looked at some pictures of different dinosaurs today. His favorite was the Apatosaurus. I think because it was the biggest of all the pictures. Then he drew his own. I don't think they are a certain kind of dinosaur, they may be a mixture of all the dinosaurs we looked at.
Junior's kindergarten this week is "D is for Dinosaur" so he is learning about dinosaurs. He looked at some pictures of different dinosaurs today. His favorite was the Apatosaurus. I think because it was the biggest of all the pictures. Then he drew his own. I don't think they are a certain kind of dinosaur, they may be a mixture of all the dinosaurs we looked at.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
TV Challenge - Days 15 and 16
I mentioned this last week, but if you are a person who believes in prayer, then please pray for little Anna Jane. I will let you read the latest update. My heart just goes out to her mama and daddy. I don't know how a parent would go through something like this, but I know the Lord is just carrying them through.
I got a new (to me) book at the library called The Plug-in Drug by Marie Winn. I will tell more about it later after I've read it through. I had heard of it years ago, but never got interested in the subject of TV enough to look at it.
It gave me a "duh" moment today. The first chapter of the book had a comment from one mother she had interviewed. The comment had something to do with thumb-sucking. Apparently, when the TV went on in the morning, the blanket and the thumb came out for this particular little boy. Oh dear! I'm thinking, there are only two times a day when Junior sucks his thumb: when he goes to sleep, and when he first wakes up. The thing is, TV was the first thing he asked for when he woke up, then he would sit there holding his blanket with his thumb in his mouth. Usually just about 15 minutes, but that was the routine. Guess what? Now with no TV, the first thing that comes out are the Hot Wheels cars. You can't suck your thumb when you are busy racing cars! I had never noticed that until I read about that today. I have also noticed that at night when it is time for the "softie," I can always find it on the top bed. He has to toss it up there when he makes his bed, and there it stays. No more dragging it around the house!
I may be onto something, huh? No TV = less thumb-sucking? I don't know why that never came to me before.
The past two days have gone pretty well. We had a park day yesterday, and library day was today since we did not get to go Friday.
I had another cool thing happen, kind of accidently. Peanut really does love school. She is just at that age, I guess. She always asks me when we are going to do school, and she's excited if we're starting a new book, etc. The only thing she doesn't like is spelling. We have been using something called AVKO Sequential Spelling. It is a great program, in my opinion, but she really does not like it, even though she is learning a lot. I have tried making it a little easier on her. My last effort has been making her write the words only once a week. The rest of the time, she can spell them outloud to me and I will write them on the dry-erase board so she can see them. That made it better (I think she is still concentrating on how to make the letters, so writing and spelling at the same time are hard for her.) Yesterday, she got out her Skip-it (a thing that goes around her ankle and she can jump over it with the other leg.) She did that the entire time she was doing her spelling lesson. For the first time, we were done in less than 20 minutes. Sometimes it can take 45 mintues. She loved it! Although she was sweating and short of breath a lot of the time, she didn't care.
My feet are not swelling anymore. They are back to their boney, ugly selves!
I got a new (to me) book at the library called The Plug-in Drug by Marie Winn. I will tell more about it later after I've read it through. I had heard of it years ago, but never got interested in the subject of TV enough to look at it.
It gave me a "duh" moment today. The first chapter of the book had a comment from one mother she had interviewed. The comment had something to do with thumb-sucking. Apparently, when the TV went on in the morning, the blanket and the thumb came out for this particular little boy. Oh dear! I'm thinking, there are only two times a day when Junior sucks his thumb: when he goes to sleep, and when he first wakes up. The thing is, TV was the first thing he asked for when he woke up, then he would sit there holding his blanket with his thumb in his mouth. Usually just about 15 minutes, but that was the routine. Guess what? Now with no TV, the first thing that comes out are the Hot Wheels cars. You can't suck your thumb when you are busy racing cars! I had never noticed that until I read about that today. I have also noticed that at night when it is time for the "softie," I can always find it on the top bed. He has to toss it up there when he makes his bed, and there it stays. No more dragging it around the house!
I may be onto something, huh? No TV = less thumb-sucking? I don't know why that never came to me before.
The past two days have gone pretty well. We had a park day yesterday, and library day was today since we did not get to go Friday.
I had another cool thing happen, kind of accidently. Peanut really does love school. She is just at that age, I guess. She always asks me when we are going to do school, and she's excited if we're starting a new book, etc. The only thing she doesn't like is spelling. We have been using something called AVKO Sequential Spelling. It is a great program, in my opinion, but she really does not like it, even though she is learning a lot. I have tried making it a little easier on her. My last effort has been making her write the words only once a week. The rest of the time, she can spell them outloud to me and I will write them on the dry-erase board so she can see them. That made it better (I think she is still concentrating on how to make the letters, so writing and spelling at the same time are hard for her.) Yesterday, she got out her Skip-it (a thing that goes around her ankle and she can jump over it with the other leg.) She did that the entire time she was doing her spelling lesson. For the first time, we were done in less than 20 minutes. Sometimes it can take 45 mintues. She loved it! Although she was sweating and short of breath a lot of the time, she didn't care.
My feet are not swelling anymore. They are back to their boney, ugly selves!
Monday, August 14, 2006
TV Challenge - Day 14
This challenge is actually going by quickly. Two weeks already!
I'm not missing it much at all. The times I miss it most are when I have handwork to do, or ironing. That is when I like to keep it on for company...and that is even when the kids are around being loud. I have started listening to the radio a little more. I found a website called Shoutcast which lets you find Internet radio stations playing different kinds of music. There is one station I have found which is just great. It is called KCEA and they play all sorts of big band music. It is a fun station to listen to if you like stuff like Sinatra and Benny Goodman.
Here are several other shows I listen to, usually during the daytime:
Dave Ramsey You can only listen to him so long before you know exactly what he is going to say.
Chuck Swindoll
Charles Stanley
Focus on the Family
Nancy Leigh Demoss She is the one who talked about the TV Challenge on her show.
Dr. David Jeremiah
Dr. Michael Youssef
Hank Hanegraaff Very interesting guy. People call in with Bible questions, and he is able to answer very clearly and Biblically.
Sean Hannity
Dr. Laura She is like Dave Ramsey. After a few days, you can predict her answers to everyone.
K-LOVE Contemporary Christian Music.
That is a lot of stuff. I don't listen to all that every day, of course. Just here and there. I think all of these let you listen to their shows for free online. Well, I don't think you can listen to Dr. Laura online for free. I very rarely listen to any of them online. Nancy Leigh Demoss's radio shows are transcribed on her website, which is very nice. I wish that Focus on the Family would do that...I am always catching the last 10 minutes of that show, then wish I could have heard the whole thing.
On the baby front, we had a good appointment last week. In about 10 days we will have another ultrasound, so that will be interesting. They want to see the placenta again, but I don't think there is anything to worry about. My feet are swelling, I guess it was about time for that. I'm just going to take it easy for a few days. It started last week while traveling all that way. I'm sure I didn't drink enough water - not that we didn't still have to stop every couple of hours for that anyway. They are not bad. If you ignore my ankles, my feet actually look pretty for once. My feet are the one part of my body that could stand to gain a little weight. My mom will know what I mean!
I'm not missing it much at all. The times I miss it most are when I have handwork to do, or ironing. That is when I like to keep it on for company...and that is even when the kids are around being loud. I have started listening to the radio a little more. I found a website called Shoutcast which lets you find Internet radio stations playing different kinds of music. There is one station I have found which is just great. It is called KCEA and they play all sorts of big band music. It is a fun station to listen to if you like stuff like Sinatra and Benny Goodman.
Here are several other shows I listen to, usually during the daytime:
Dave Ramsey You can only listen to him so long before you know exactly what he is going to say.
Chuck Swindoll
Charles Stanley
Focus on the Family
Nancy Leigh Demoss She is the one who talked about the TV Challenge on her show.
Dr. David Jeremiah
Dr. Michael Youssef
Hank Hanegraaff Very interesting guy. People call in with Bible questions, and he is able to answer very clearly and Biblically.
Sean Hannity
Dr. Laura She is like Dave Ramsey. After a few days, you can predict her answers to everyone.
K-LOVE Contemporary Christian Music.
That is a lot of stuff. I don't listen to all that every day, of course. Just here and there. I think all of these let you listen to their shows for free online. Well, I don't think you can listen to Dr. Laura online for free. I very rarely listen to any of them online. Nancy Leigh Demoss's radio shows are transcribed on her website, which is very nice. I wish that Focus on the Family would do that...I am always catching the last 10 minutes of that show, then wish I could have heard the whole thing.
On the baby front, we had a good appointment last week. In about 10 days we will have another ultrasound, so that will be interesting. They want to see the placenta again, but I don't think there is anything to worry about. My feet are swelling, I guess it was about time for that. I'm just going to take it easy for a few days. It started last week while traveling all that way. I'm sure I didn't drink enough water - not that we didn't still have to stop every couple of hours for that anyway. They are not bad. If you ignore my ankles, my feet actually look pretty for once. My feet are the one part of my body that could stand to gain a little weight. My mom will know what I mean!
Sunday, August 13, 2006
TV Challenge - Days 11-13
We had a great trip to Austin. It was a bit tiring. We enjoyed sleeping in today, somehow it worked out for everyone to sleep until at least 10:30. That is a very rare treat for me.
Sus and Dan were great hosts. They took us to eat at Threadgill's and showed us a little bit of Austin. The highlight of the trip for the kids was a trip to Cabela's outdoor store. It is a bit like Bass Pro Shops. We all thought it was a pretty neat store to visit. They had several "museum-type" displays through the store, plus a shooting gallery, and a little aquarium. We got to swim in the pool at the apartments, which is is what the kids were looking forward to doing. It was nice. Junior got to try jumping off the side of the pool and he really liked it. Our city pool is usually too crowded, and I guess the thought of so many kids being around makes him too nervous to even try. He kept telling me to move farther back, and if you know how wary he is around the water, that's quite an accomplishment for him.
It was a quick trip, but we had a great time. We didn't get to visit the Dallas Museum of Art on the way home, mostly because Mom and Dad slept in on Friday, and by the time we left town, there was not enough time to go and really enjoy the museum, so we had to postpone that one. Maybe in another month or so we can plan a trip there.
Great news on our challenge, though! There was no DVD watching on the entire trip. I brought the DVD player along, even though that would have been a little cheat. But why have the crazy thing if you can't even use it on a 6-7 hour trip? It wasn't needed at all on the way down because the kids were sleeping. On the way back they slept quite a bit also, then they played silly in the back of the van. (We made them go to the back because they were so noisy!) The last two hours were the worst of the trip, but by that time we had almost made it, plus we would have had to stop again to set the whole thing up. Instead, we played the Guessing Game, the Alphabet Game, and the Quiet Game.
Today the neighbor kids came over. Laura and the older boy each have a toy microscope, so they were scientists. I think they mostly did experiments with mud and unfortunate bugs. Peanut also bought her daddy a rather nice racing jacket for his birthday. It was $5 at a garage sale. She found it and thought of that herself! It is nice, but it says Dry Clean Only, so I will have to take it somewhere on Monday...it will need a cleaning, but she had a very sweet thought.
Sus and Dan were great hosts. They took us to eat at Threadgill's and showed us a little bit of Austin. The highlight of the trip for the kids was a trip to Cabela's outdoor store. It is a bit like Bass Pro Shops. We all thought it was a pretty neat store to visit. They had several "museum-type" displays through the store, plus a shooting gallery, and a little aquarium. We got to swim in the pool at the apartments, which is is what the kids were looking forward to doing. It was nice. Junior got to try jumping off the side of the pool and he really liked it. Our city pool is usually too crowded, and I guess the thought of so many kids being around makes him too nervous to even try. He kept telling me to move farther back, and if you know how wary he is around the water, that's quite an accomplishment for him.
It was a quick trip, but we had a great time. We didn't get to visit the Dallas Museum of Art on the way home, mostly because Mom and Dad slept in on Friday, and by the time we left town, there was not enough time to go and really enjoy the museum, so we had to postpone that one. Maybe in another month or so we can plan a trip there.
Great news on our challenge, though! There was no DVD watching on the entire trip. I brought the DVD player along, even though that would have been a little cheat. But why have the crazy thing if you can't even use it on a 6-7 hour trip? It wasn't needed at all on the way down because the kids were sleeping. On the way back they slept quite a bit also, then they played silly in the back of the van. (We made them go to the back because they were so noisy!) The last two hours were the worst of the trip, but by that time we had almost made it, plus we would have had to stop again to set the whole thing up. Instead, we played the Guessing Game, the Alphabet Game, and the Quiet Game.
Today the neighbor kids came over. Laura and the older boy each have a toy microscope, so they were scientists. I think they mostly did experiments with mud and unfortunate bugs. Peanut also bought her daddy a rather nice racing jacket for his birthday. It was $5 at a garage sale. She found it and thought of that herself! It is nice, but it says Dry Clean Only, so I will have to take it somewhere on Monday...it will need a cleaning, but she had a very sweet thought.
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