Easter

Family Easter Party

The Family Easter party at Aunt Eileen's ranch was amazing. Kids had fun, adults had more fun. We ate too much of really good food and consumed even more candy. Great memories!

Here is the entire group

It was a challenge to walk through the tall grass. Ethan did a better job at finding the eggs that I did! Maybe because he was closer to the ground and could see them better. He was very excited!

The kids scoured the field looking for every last egg. They wanted to make sure we didn't leave any behind.

And when they discovered all the candy inside, it was like little kid heaven!

We played a few games.

destroyed a pinata and had a whole lot of fun!

Easter Egg Dying

It is amazing how messy a simple project can be. Luckily we were prepared and stripped down the kids before we even started. It was a good thing to, because there were plenty of spills.

But of course, the kids loved it.

School Time

Sorting biggest to smallest. We used these before when we learned about N for nest. (yes, Ellie is dressed like a fairy. We had the dress up clothes out for the week, so there was a lot of costumes and pretend playing going on.)

Patterns (you can tell by Ethan's face that he didn't quite get the concept yet.)

Numbers (Brielle liked this, but it would have been fun if it was more of a puzzle. All the cut outs were the same. It would be fun to re-create making it a self-correcting game that you have to match the right number to have egg fit together.)

'Eggsercise' scavenger hunt. We used these action cards. (Each egg had a paper inside with an action to do like a bunny. Hop, wiggle your nose, munch a carrot, etc. )

Egg Science-soft shelled eggs

More Egg Science (one of my favorite experiments, the egg-in-the bottle trick)

The cooked vs. not cooked spinning test

Books

Happy Easter!

Ragnar Relay

200.9 miles of running.  Yep, that is a bit crazy, but it is a fun kind of crazy that makes you feel good.  We had a great team and had a lot of fun together.

While we were running from Huntington Beach to Coronado Island, James, his sister Megan and the 4 kids were the cheering squad along the way.

The kids love the team's mascot.  We hand it off at each exchange, and they kids love being on the catching end.

They were able to visit Aunt Eileen's ranch in San Marcos.

 

In case you can't tell from the picture, Ethan LOVES In 'n Out.  He eats an entire hamburger on his own, easily.  

And, he especially enjoys the chocolate shakes!

A good portion of the running route was close to the beach, so the kids enjoyed the time to play in the waves.

And of course, there was time for picnicking at the park as well.

Now that I see how much fun the kids had while we were out running, I'm a bit jealous.

My first leg was 5.4 miles in the city of Corona. It was a nice neighborhood, but was quite hilly and it was HOT!  It was almost 90 degrees.  There were people that had to be taken to the emergency room because of dehydration.  Not exactly the best way to start the race.  I was glad to be finished with that run and get back out of the sun.

My middle of the night run was 6.5 miles in Fallbrook.  It was about 2:30am and it felt so much better to not be running in the heat!.  I had a 3 mile hill to start with, but was able to finish coming down.  During the night we run with headlights, 'tail'lights and reflective vests so we can be very visable. 

And here I am taking off for my final run.  8.3 miles through the city of San Diego.  I ran right past the airport and through Seaport Village.  I had another steep hill that was a gut buster for the first 3 miles, but after that I was able to enjoy the ocean view in San Diego.

This is our team at the finish line, excited to be finished after about 34 hours of nonstop running and very little sleep.

We finished just as the sun was going down on the beach in Coronado Island.  It was BEAUTIFUL!!  It was a team effort with all the runners and support to cheer us on. 

Fish

Last week we focused on fish. I thought about getting the kids a pet fish, but I was concerned about Ethan attacking it with too much love. (Think about that girl from tiny toons, Elmyra...that would be him for sure).  We'll wait until next year.

Goldfish Graphing

As always, we like to play and learn with our food.  

Brielle even requested to do this again another day, probably because she wanted to eat goldfish crackers, but still.

Fish Puzzles

Ethan LOVES to do puzzles.  It is one of the only things I can get him to hold still for.

Pattern Fish

Brielle has finally grasped the concept of patterns, and has been very excited about it.  I laminated this sheet and she picked different patterns to color over and over.  We still need to work on coloring inside the lines. :)

Number Fish

We went fishing.  Which the kids loved and requested to do again and again.

After catching a fish I had them identify the number and then 'feed the fish'. They had to clip on the number of clothes pins to match the number on the fish.

Books

Favorites:
The Deep Blue Sea by Audrey Wood
Ten Little Fish by Audrey Wood
We've gotten these books a few times and my kids love them every time.  They like a lot of Audrey Wood's books.  Brielle requests them quite often.  She has them memorized so she now 'reads' them to Ethan (which makes my job easier!)

We had Dr. Seuss's Red Fish Blue Fish on CD to listen to in the car.  Brielle loves to listen to books and read along.

We also played a lot of Go Fish, and went to the Japanese Garden at City of Hope to feed the fish.

Resources:
Fish Worksheets
Ice-Fishing
Goldfish Graphs

Gardens

I am not a gardener.  It is not that I don't enjoy them, it is just that I am very good at killing them.  I'm hoping the kids can see at least one of their seeds sprout from this week!  We'll see.

 Measuring

We worked on measuring and number writing practice.  I drew my own flowers to go along with the worksheet that Musings of Me created.

The little kids enjoyed this one as well.  They also liked using the rulers to try to draw straight lines.

 Planting

Gavin and Lissy's Mom got everyone their own gloves and trowels.  They were VERY excited!

The kids loved planting the seeds 

digging and planting

and Ethan especially enjoyed the permission to play in the dirt.  He stayed interested much longer than the other kids who went of to play pirate.

It started raining for a minute and then the sun came out.  Gavin and Brielle immediately ran to check the seeds to see if the rain and sun had made the seeds start growing.

File Folder Games

I had some various garden themed games for the kids to play. 

This came from homeschool creations.  The kids chose a number and then turned it over to see if the trowel was hiding under it.  It was good number recognition practice.

  

Books

Ellie's favorite: Cecil's Garden by Holly Keller It is a good book about solving problems.

Ethan's favorite: Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert (Although, he usually just chooses whatever book is on top because he is racing to get a book to me before Ellie does, so if I am bored of reading a particular book I can just move it to the bottom of the stack :) 

My Favorite: Mortimer's First Garden by karma Wilson

Ethan was supposed to be napping.  I found him in his room laying all the books out.  He was anticipating the need for picture time.

Resources:

Gardening Worksheets

http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/2011/03/preschool-corner-gardening-unit.html

hand print flowers

http://www.icanteachmychild.com/2011/03/spring-brings-collection-of-simple.html

Spring Worksheets

http://thoughtsofesme.blogspot.com/2011/03/spring-has-sprung-new-unit.html

Garden Sensory Tub

http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2011/03/spring-garden-sensory-tub.html

Venus Fly Trap-Game

http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2010/07/venus-fly-trap-craft.html

Seed Graphing

http://countingcoconuts.blogspot.com/2011/04/seed-graphing.html

Coffee Filter Flowers

http://www.frugalfamilyfunblog.com/2011/04/how-to-make-your-own-sunshine.html

Collection of Ideas

http://www.abcand123learning.com/2011/04/spring-gardening-planting-activities.html

Fun Field Trips

Our outings this week had nothing to do with space, so they deserve a post of their own.

Reagan Library-Simi Valley

I love that we live close enough to some of our extended family.  The kids are able to have some very great memory-building experiences with cousins, grandparents, great grandparents, etc.  4 generations exploring the world together is pretty amazing.

The highlight was being able to go on the Air Force One airplane, although the kids were hoping the airplane would actually go up in the sky.

Ethan loved also seeing the Fighter Jet.  The museum is set up on the hill with a breathtaking view.

Crystal Cove Beach

My little sister Nikki was in California with a family that she babysits.  We were able to meet up with her for a gorgeous day playing at the beach.

Ethan loved playing with the sand toys and watching the waves. 

 

And drinking the ocean water and sand.  I keep wondering if he is ever going to grow out of thinking that everything should be ingested.

Brielle went right for the waves.  We were able to see some dolphins and she LOVED it!

The kids were so excited for some fun Aunt Nikki play time

Once Ethan got down to the water, I couldn't keep him out.