Friday Follies

WORK IT OUT: We didn't waste much time this morning before diving into math. First we talked about what we did yesterday. Then I showed the kids an interactive tool on textbook giant Houghton Mifflin's Web site that gives math tips. It's called "Math Test Helper," but I thought its advice was good for any ol' math assignment.

We went over the site's first two bits of advice. Tip number one was "Draw a picture." The mentor is a rhinoceros and he talked us through the good reasons for drawing a picture or symbols when trying to solve a problem, and showed some examples. After he said his piece, there was a mini test with three problems. CJ and Annabelle worked together and solved all the problems correctly, earning a "good job" type certificate, which they were pretty proud of.

The second test gem was "rule out wrong answers," which is something I've talked to them about before. The rhino gave us some example problems with multiple choice answers. For instance, if you're trying to solve something like 73 + 22 = ?, clearly the answer is not going to be anything less than 73, so those answers could be crossed off immediately.

We also checked out another Houghton Mifflin math activity, RoboPacker. According to the instructions, robots are ready to leave the factory and travel to a new home, but first they need help getting packed in suitcases properly. In order to make the odd shaped robots fit, you have to slide, flip and turn them. It starts off pretty easy, but gets progressively more difficult.

We also worked on memorizing multiplication tables in the car this afternoon. Annabelle recalled several of the answers from yesterday and shouted out answers right away. CJ, not so much. But that's OK. The lightbulb will go off, sooner rather than later, I'm sure.

LEAVES AND GREENS: We spent some time this afternoon in the futile exercise of raking up leaves in our yard (it seemed like they were falling faster than we could pick them up.)

Then, we headed out for Swanson's, our favorite local nursery. I needed to get some new plants for our new planter, which you can see in the background of the photo below (it's long and dark brown).

We found planter plants aplenty, but also took the time to peruse their grounds. We visited their impressive koi pond, the playhouse and found the hen house. The nursery's urban chickens have grown a lot since we last saw them. They came to Swanson's on Mother's Day as 2 day old chicks. Milli and Margaret look full grown to me now.
Annabelle started making some pretty convincing chicken noises - this one started talking back to her.

We also got to see Swanson's hay maze under construction.

We'll certainly have to go back between now and Halloween!

ALL ABOUT OCTOBER: We spent about an hour this morning learning about October and things related.

We started by reading "Pumpkin Circle," which was a story following a pumpkin's life cycle from seed to seedling, to tiny plant. We saw the flower buds appear and open into velvety orange blossoms which were visited by bees. We saw growers tend the fruit and finally it was harvest time. We saw the pumpkins used in different ways (jack-o-lanterns, in food), and we saw them recycled - seeds harvested and shells composted.

Then we just talked for awhile about what symbols are, and I asked kids what they thought some symbols of Halloween are. That made for a good lead-in to reading "Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts - The Story of the Halloween Symbols."

We learned the origin of witches' broomsticks and black attire, and that turnips were hollowed out and illuminated before pumpkins became popular. We learned why black and orange are Halloween's colors (black = death and orange = leaves and produce being harvested at the time).

The third book we read was "Halloween" from the Let's See series of books. Pretty much the same symbols were covered, but with lots less words and color photographs (as opposed to black and white sketches), so it was a nice balance of approaches.

When we got the mail today, there was a nice surprise awaiting CJ. It seems the folks at Pop Tarts are keeping track of him, and they mailed him a happy half birthday car, banner and two-pack of S'mores flavored Pop Tarts. He was ecstatic, as you might imagine.

In like Flynn

AMAZING GRACE: Before 8 this morning, the kids were playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl (what? that's not what YOU do before breakfast?). The game has a great soundtrack - very nuanced, with wonderful orchestral/operatic qualities. At one point Annabelle said to CJ,"This is a more graceful theme."

"What do you mean 'graceful'?" he countered.

At a loss for words, Annabelle decided to dance. "Like this!" she said, doing some ballet-esque leaps for him.

TO THE TEST: We here at MPA have loads of fun and love student led learning, but, by god, I want my kids to know how to do math. And since I don't really picture them beseeching me to learn math, this is going to be a teacher led part of their education.

To that end, this morning I went online and started poking around looking for standardized math tests for second graders. Not surprisingly, the magical Internets had a boatload of info for me. One of the things I discovered was a Michigan-based Math Test Generator. It's cool you can choose your grade level and choose the type and quantity of questions you like and it generates a very official like PDF test for you. Nice! We did a few problems from that, but we spent most of our morning math hour working on addition and subtraction of triple digit numbers. I asked the kids to keep these things in mind - do it right, do it fast (which really means don't dilly dally) and do it quietly. They managed to follow those guidelines for the most part.

Also, instead of just giving them problems to solve, I had them copy problems down from the white board. I wanted to do this to underscore how important it is to copy numbers correctly and how important it is to keep those numbers in the proper columns because if you don't, you're screwed.

After the + and - I introduced <>. They've solved word problems involving greater than/less than before, but I don't think they've seen the symbols before. I told them the way I have always thought of the symbol is as an open mouth, and the mouth always wants to talk to the bigger number. They picked up on that right away.

SEATTLE INK: I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that most K-2 grade Seattle students did not go on a field trip to a tattoo parlor this afternoon. Well, MPA kids are not most students ...

Several weeks ago, we met a mother and daughter during a jaunt to Discovery Park. We've had one play day together and have communicated a few times since. The mother asked if perhaps I'd be interested in an "educational outing" - supervising my kids and her daughter while she got a tattoo. My answer - of course!

So we met today at a supercool tattoo studio on Capitol Hill. It was in a basement space, but it didn't need windows - there was enough awesome artwork adorning the walls to feast our eyes upon. They also had a mini store in there with vintage comics, old albums and toys. The kids were in heaven. :)

Truth be told, we spent little time in the parlor. Mostly, we roamed Capitol Hill. Fortunately, gorgeous Cal Anderson Park (named as one of the nation's best parks by Forbes) was just a few blocks away, and it was a lovely, sunny afternoon. The park was busy, as always.

The park sits atop one of the city's water reservoirs. As you might imagine, there are some cool water features in the park, including a water volcano and a big reflecting pond. After the water, we hung out in the playground for awhile - until it was besieged by about 100 kids from a nearby school. There was no way I wanted to try to keep track of 3 kids amidst that crazy scene, so I shepherded us to the west edge of the park, with the homeless people. It was much easier to keep tabs on the 7 & under set there. ;)


Mercifully, I had a bag o' tricks with me and over on the west side, we blew thousands and thousands of bubbles, and then the kids went (harmless) graffiti artist, decorating a rock with some original artwork.

It had been about 2 hours since we checked in on the tattoo parlor, so we went back. We found it to be a work still in progress, and we had another half hour to kill. So, we wandered (doing the can can part of the way) down to a mini market, bought some cool drinks and snacks, and found a shady spot on a sidewalk to partake.

It's amazing what can occupy kids. I showed them how to make 'leopard spots' in their skin by pressing their hands on the exposed aggregate concrete. I also explained what exposed aggregate concrete is and how it's made. :) We also found some cool spiky green pod/burr on the sidewalk and made some sculptures from the burrs. We're pretty sure they're from Mars. ;)

Eventually we made our way back to the tattoo parlor. We still had a little time to kill, so I brought out the markers, chalk and construction paper and the kids and I did some crafting.

MORE MATH: Tonight, we went to one of our favorite places for dinner, Hattie's Hat. It was the whole fam damily - we four and Rick and Ken. So that was nice.

I brought a couple of math worksheets with us. Annabelle chose to draw instead, but CJ was up for a multiples of 5 challenge. He read the directions completely by himself and completed the worksheet. Biggest bro Rick checked his work and Voila! - A+ for CJ!

FAMILY BAND: After dinner, we all convened in Magnolia for a (Wii) Rock Band session. It was fun, as family members took turns singing, drumming and strumming. Kennedy is the drum major, for sure. Annabelle was very thrilled with her "flawless" scores on the super easy setting of vocals.

The only song CJ was interested in singing was "The Final Countdown" as the dramatic score is a backtrack of many of the video game videos he watches on YouTube. He nailed it. :)

SIGNED, SEALED: Yesterday afternoon we dropped off paperwork in Shoreline School District for their Alternative Learning Environment, Home Education Exchange, after openings for our kids seemingly miraculously materialized.

I have been waiting for the call or email that says, "Oh, sorry, there's been a mistake." Instead, today, I got an email from our new Student Learning Plan Consultant, followed by an email from someone else with our family's login to the system. So there you have it. We're IN! I see this as a medium-sized miracle.

This evening we got our kids and their student learning plans updated in HEE's very user friendly interface. Our accounts already show up in their database a surplus as far as $$$ for educational endeavors (yes!!!!). And within a couple of days we should be able to sign up for a class or two at their center (tho we're late to the game for this quarter).

It will be interesting to see where this open door leads us!

Runaround

GET MOVIN': We were out the door early (for us) today - a little before 9 p.m. We had a science class in Seatac to get to, and needed to stop at Staples along the way.

Annabelle found Staples to be a little slice of heaven. I guess she has that same special feeling about office supplies as I do. :) I needed Post-It notes (for marking passages we need to refer back to) and a clear envelope (to hold this awesome DVD and accompanying curriculum we got from NASA). Annabelle - well she NEEDED pink duct tape. And not just any pink, we're talking some seriously neon Flamingo Pink tape.

We made good use of our 30 minute drive down south. Part of the way we listened to (and the kids read along with) a book "Anna Banana and Me" by Lenore Blegvad. (It was an unusual book, about a shy boy who has a brave - and perhaps imaginary - friend.)

We also spent about 20 minutes practicing multiplication tables. We stuck to 0s, 1, 2s, 3s, and 5s. It went well.

We got to the school campus about 10 minutes early, so we used that time to review the homework the kids had done. They re-read the short persuasive passage about helping the environment and reviewed the kids' answers to questions posed after the selection. I'm glad they did the review, because the class started with a review of the homework and them sharing their answers.

The topic of the hands-on science portion of the day was about weights and balancing. The kids got to experiment with scales, which they enjoyed immensely. They spent a lot of time putting various objects one each end of the balancing board. It was a great exercise and I liked hearing them start to predict/speculate what would happen before trying something. The teacher has a very nice way of leading the class. She's a conversationalist/story teller, so it doesn't sound like a lecture.

EVERYWHERE, NOWHERE: I (very stupidly) decided to take an 'alternative' route to Interstate 5. Wow, did that turn out badly. Somehow (honestly, I'm still not sure how) we wound up driving round the farmlands of Kent/Auburn. It was ridiculous. I kept thinking, well surely I'll see I-5 soon, or at least a sign to I-5 but we just kept getting more hopelessly lost. I finally pulled over, unearthed an atlas and managed to navigate us back to civilization (civilization being an interstate highway).

NORTH CAMPUS: Once on I-5, we had to drive through Seattle and scoot on up to Shoreline to drop off our papers for the Home Education Exchange (HEE). Last night Christian spent considerable time filling them out.

The woman in the office was super nice when we dropped them off, and said she'd email me when she had officially input all of the data into two different systems. I swear, I'm not going to relax until I have actual student IDs for each of the kids. I still almost can't believe the turn of events and the sudden opportunity. Stay tuned for further developments.

While we were at the campus today, CJ and Annabelle got their first gander of and sample from the legendary popcorn machine in the school cafe. They are already of the opinion that HEE is The Best School ever.

BODY WORKS: This afternoon, the kids enjoyed a Magic Schoolbus DVD. Its title was "Super Sports Fun." I thought it was going to be about different sport/games and their rules. Silly me. Instead, it was about friction (baseball was used to help demonstrate) and the human body and how it's used to play sports.

CJ said by watching the video he learned that "some things that come out of muscles when they don't have enough oxygen," and that makes them stiff and sore. I told him that's lactic acid. I was impressed the video covered it.

Annabelle said she learned "the heart, lungs and blood work together, like a team."

SCARY STORY: We're ramping our writing up, and to that end today I started a book writing project with the kids. I wrote "In the Haunted Mansion" on the white board, and told the kids that was going to be the opening line to a book they write.

We talked about the book writing process. I let them know most authors don't write a book in one day. Sometimes it takes weeks, or months or even years. I told them we'd be spending a couple of weeks writing our books and when they're done, we'll put covers on them and actually bind them. They're pretty excited.

GOOD GRACES: This afternoon we ripped over to Magnolia to return about 20 items and (blush) pay some overdue fines. We need to be less greedy when we're at the library and not bring home so much. Oh, and while we were there, we checked out 8 or so things ...

P.E. PEDDLE: When Christian got home from work, we went for a ride/run to our most frequent destination, Lawton Elementary (that means we were at three schools today, pretty ironic for a "homeschoolin'" family). We wanted to check on the progress of the park playground adjacent to Lawton. Sadly, it was not open and, in fact, it looked like they were doing a couple things over. Bummer. So close, yet so far ...WE'RE MAINSTREAM: There's a big, multi-faceted feature on homeschooling on the MSNBC Web site right now. I haven't had a chance to read it all, but there's some interesting stuff there, including lots of stats for you stats fans (of which I am one).

What a Difference a Day Makes

This morning we got an early start on our school work. Before 9 a.m. we were at the table, diving into Musikgarten homework. First, the kids had to transcribe some notes, work on memorizing a song's lyrics and play a tune a couple of different ways on their glockenspiel.

We were on our third or fourth go through on the glock song when I hear the sound letting me know I had new email. I hopped over to the computer to find this:

Thank you for being one of the first families to attend the (Shoreline Home Education Exchange) Q & A yesterday. Because you have completed that prerequisite, I am happy to let you know we have unexpected openings for your students beginning next week. If you are still interested in the program, please let me know as soon as possible as I need to fill the spots before Friday.

Huh wha??? Srsly?!?!?!

I could hardly believe my eyes. When I first contacted and expressed interest in the program, I was told the wait list was around 100. Yesterday, the program director said there was a lengthy list but was more encouraging, saying that the list does have movement. But egad, we never expected this!!!

I immediately shot back a "What do we need to do to make this happen?" email, followed by a call about 5 minutes later since I hadn't heard back on the email.

So our morning's schedule changed - we wound up ripping up to Shoreline (it's a half hour away) and picking up enrollment forms. When the woman at the front desk handed me the Kisky family folder, I felt like we'd been awarded Golden Tickets from the middle of a Wonka bar!

As we left, a man in the lobby saw me clutching enrollment forms and asked, "Are you checking into the program?" I told him we were. "This is a great place!" he said with enthusiasm. Not that we needed any more sell on HEE, but it didn't hurt to hear that.

So we have a small stack of paperwork to return tomorrow, including a release from Seattle Public Schools, since that's where we live. This afternoon, Christian went in to the Seattle Public Schools main office in Sodo to get them to sign off. I figured that would go one of two ways - it would be quick and simple, no problem-o, or it would get complicated and ugly real quick. (Districts don't have to let you go, and if they were smart, they'd try to keep students within their boundaries, because where there are students, a money trail follows.)

Yeah, well, there was no "please stay" plea, or even a "why are you leaving?" In fact, Christian didn't even fill out the blank on the form where you're supposed to list your reason for asking for a get me out of here exception and didn't bother to ask. They just signed off on it, so long. Really, that just sums up one of the many, many things that's wrong with SPS. At least when it comes to the admin side of things, they just don't seem to give a rat's arse about keeping students and parents engaged.

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be dropping the papers off at their office and hopefully we'll be signed, sealed and delivered shortly thereafter. ...

So what does all this mean? Too early to tell. At the very least it should mean we will be able to be reimbursed for some of our education related expenses. It will also give us access to the great library there, and the free curriculum resources, and another community to connect with. Beyond that, time will tell. ...

When I was describing the facility to a friend today, I told her taking the tour of the place was like being on a game show. It felt like, "Behind this door is ...!" and there kept being more doors with even more fabulous "prizes."

CREEPY CITRUS: Part of our music homework this a.m. was listening to the British nursery rhyme "Oranges and Lemons" on our Musikgarten British Isles CD. Teacher Nancy says the song is as widely known as "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" across the pond.

We listened to the CD version several times and the kids first sang along and then played along on their glockenspiels. The lyrics (in the CD version) are:

Oranges and Lemons say the bells of St. Clement's
Brick bats and tiles say the bells of St. Gile's
Pancakes and fritters say the bells of St. Peter's
Kettles and pans say the bells of St. Anne's
Bull's eyes and targets say the bells of St. Margaret's
You owe me 5 farthings say the bells of St. Martin's
When will yu pay me? say the bells of old Bailey
When I grow rich say the bells of Shoreditch
Pray when will that be? say the bells of Stepney
I'm sure I don't know, say the great bell of Bow

We did a little research and found out that all of the lines end with the name of a famous church in London. I explained what brick bats, fritters and farthings are to the kids. I then went online and played a couple of other versions for the kids, including the one with the sinister ending not found on the Musikgarten CD. In this alternative version the song ends:

Here comes a candle to light you to bed
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head!

Well, um, YIKES! CJ, got a kick out of the murderous version. I think Annabelle was a little freaked out.

Come lesson time, the kids played a game to the tune of "Oranges and Lemons" ("It wasn't the creepy part, CJ assures me). They also got some new sheet music and a "cool paper pretend magnifying glass." Teacher Nancy asked the kids to use the glass to hone in on certain note patterns found in the song.

The kids played and sang "Mouse, Mousie" as a group with Nancy conducting. They sounded pretty good!

SPINNING WHEELS: From music it was off to the races to yoga.
What a bad trip that was. With ZERO notice, I was horrified to find our exit off the Viaduct to Sodo closed. That meant I had to drive southbound all the way to damn near Georgetown (an extra 5+ minutes at freeway speed) to try to head east. I finally made my way partially eastward and I hoped to hop up to the south end of Beacon Hill but guess what? Yup, THAT connection was closed too. So I had to take surface streets all the way back up to Sodo and head up Beacon Hill and then head a few miles southward again. Good times. Amazingly, we were only like 3 minutes late (probably because I always leave 15 minutes early).

We went tearing into yoga to find it was a substitute teacher (frankly, had I known that we probably would have stayed home!) and they were just spreading the mats out. So we didn't miss a thing.

On the way home, guess what? There was another road closure with no notice and our only options were to get on I5 northbound or southbound. During rush hour. So not awesome. It was a parking lot. I exited as soon as possible and we wound up taking the scenic route home. We drove under the Convention Center, which the kids thought was cool.

The Monday After

WHAT A WEEKEND: I'll readily admit that today was definitely not the most academic day in the history of MPA. However, I will say that I think we more than made of for it this weekend. Saturday and Sunday were chock full o' field trips and enriching activities.

We started Saturday morning off at the Fishermen's Terminal Fall Festival. There, the kids got some exercise jumping around a bouncy house. They worked on their hammering skills while building wooden boats. They got some art in thanks to the nifty spin art machines where the applied paint to spinning Frisbees. Annabelle also got her face painted and she decorated an oyster shell. As we walked around, we could hear the music of Inochi Taiko, Japanese drummers.

They learned a bit about boat safety from Coastie, the remote control mini tug boat. They got to see a number of exotic looking starfish and learn the difference between radial symmetry from experts with an oceanography group. And last but not least, they got to catch some real live fish!

From there, we raced south a few miles to the huge party that was the South Lake Union Park debut. Sunny skies brought thousands of people to the event. The park is AMAZING. I can't wait to go back and explore it when I don't have to share it with several thousand other people.

We were thrilled that Bubbleman was in the entertainment lineup. He put on a nearly hour long show that the crowd of all ages absolutely loved. I loved how he makes it a point to underscore how his props are all "cheap toys" and most are made from cleverly recycled materials.
We were able to tour the magnificent schooner Adventuress. Built in Maine in 1913, it is a floating work of art. (There's a neat history of the vessel on the Sound Experience Web site.) The kids really liked being in the belly of the ship, where they could check out the bunks and the galley.SUNDAY FUNDAY: Sunday afternoon we headed to Seattle Center to check out the science club session at the Children's Museum. The theme of the afternoon was "Robots in Space." Christian sat in with the kids. He tells me the session started with the leaders discussing what functions robots might have in space. After not too much talk, kids were turned loose to use recycled materials to create their own space robot.

CJ made his in short order. He took a couple of old plastic tubs, stacked them one on top of the other, put a piece of pink netted fabric in a void between the tubs for the robot's brain, turned them upside down and then taped them to an oversized square of foil and called it good. He was done long before the other kids.

Annabelle, on the other hand, was making an elaborate contraption and was not done when the leaders said it was time to finish up and show and share. She went into a full on crazy meltdown the likes of which I've never seen her do in public, ever. It was awful. I had to pick her up and carry her out of the room. After a very short, stern talk and telling her she had she one second go get her act together, we went back in the room and she was able to fully participate in the show and share part of the program.

CJ did a really great job of explaining and demonstrating how his robot worked. The kids in the class really liked it and gave him lots of kudos.


After the class was over, we checked out some of the kids' favorite spots in the Children's Museum. Afterward, we walked over to EMP, where the kids spent several minuted dancing in front of the video screen, bathed in stage lights. There are more photos of our weekend here.

For their writing assignment today, I had the kids recap their weekend, listing at least three things we did.

LUSCIOUS LUNCH: This afternoon, Christian cleaned the trout the kids caught on Saturday. Then, he fried them up for lunch. Annabelle was eager to sample her bounty, although she was a bit wary when she saw that they had been cooked eyes and all. ... But she took some bites anyway.
CJ wanted absolutely no part of the fish, no how, no way.

JAW DROPPER: As I've previously noted on these pages, I've been searching far and wide for places we might be able to augment our experience. Last week, I was reading up on Shoreline School District's Home Education Exchange. I got an email inviting us to a Q&A session with the program's director, so Christian and I went this morning. Boy am I glad we did.

The gentleman leading the Q&A was HEE program director Ron Jones. He has been with the Shoreline School District since 1974. It's clear his passion for his job hasn't waned over those years. He's a big advocate for home schooling; his own children were all homeschooled.

Mr. Jones spent about 20 minutes going over the history of the HEE program and its ins and outs. There are a couple of clear pros regarding the Shoreline system. One is that they don't have a required amount of seat time for students. You can be in their program and take no workshops there, if that's your choice. (You do just have to make weekly contact with a HEE advisor.) Mr. Jones said the HEE's role is to provide resources home school parents would have a hard time providing/procuring on their own. After he took us on a tour of the facility, I'd have to say they've succeeded in a huge way.

We saw their gorgeous gymnasium with a big stage and a cool climbing wall. There's a commercial kitchen where cooking classes are taught. There's a cafe, where kids, parents and staff eat - complete with tablecloths and a big fair-style popcorn cart that people are welcome to help themselves to. There's a home ec class with multiple sewing machines and huge tables for laying out projects. There's an art room complete with a kiln. There's a well equipped science lab. There's a room just for the robotic LEGO program. There's a video viewing area. There's a library that's more than twice the size of the Magnolia library. There's a curriculum resource room where workbooks and textbooks are for the taking. There's a RECORDING studio. Oh, and there's a great music room. It just went on and on and on.

Given all this, it probably won't surprise you to know that there's a looooooong waiting list to get into the program. They can only accommodate around 120 students; they're at that number with another 100 wanting to get in. However, Mr. Jones encouraged us not to be too discouraged. There's a possibility they might add another staffer, and families do come and go.

This is something we'll definitely be keep our eyes on in the months to come.

SOFTWARE CONSULTANT: This morning, Rick stayed with the kids while Christian and I were being wowed in Shoreline.

Annabelle reported to me that during their time together, she gave Rick a hand with a Photoshop project. I wasn't sure what to make of that, but when Rick stopped by tonight, he volunteered that, sure enough, Annabelle did show him some ins and outs of Photoshop, and helped him design a flyer. He said he was "weirded out" by how well she was navigating through the program and using its tools. "She knows more about Photoshop than most people I know," he assessed.

WHEN MATH ATTACKS: This afternoon we test drove a multiplication tables teaching tool for which I'd read multiple rave reviews. Called Timez Attack, it's by Big Brainz. In a nutshell, the player navigates his way through a kind of medieval looking world and along the way he or she has to solve multiplication problems to gain access to new areas. Multiplication is also used to defeat the bosses who would stand in your way.
CJ didn't really enjoy the game today because he is still new to multiplication and he wasn't able to answer the questions as easily or quickly as he would have liked to.

The action in the game was a bit too intense for Annabelle's taste, so I found her a multiplication lesson on Scholastic's Web site.

She played "Max's Math Adventure." It was about an amazing multiplying machine. The story started off ...

"Put 3 apples in the hole
Then press "2" on the control.
Out come 2 groups of 3 —
6 apples in all, don't you see?"

After reading about the machine, Annabelle had to solve some word problems related to the story.

MAGNOLIA MATTERS: This afternoon Bee had ballet and while she was there, CJ and I did some shopping and he had some time to play in the park.

I am happy to note that today CJ was able to make it 3 rings across the dangling ring apparatus - which is 2 further than he usually gets! I would love to see him make it all the way across within a month or so. I know he can do it!

Bee's on those rings in this photo, which was taken right before she let go and hit her butt on the wood ledge behind her. :/

From the community center it was on to the library. The kids needed to turn in their completed Summer Reading Program certificates in order to claim their prizes!

They were rewarded with new books (CJ chose a Thomas and Friends title while Bee went for a Captain Underpants book). And their certificates were signed by the librarian, and now they're good for free admission to the Burke Museum. Cool!