Hearts and Parts

IN THE CARDS: CeeJ and Bee started the morning off my making a couple of get well soon cards for their aunt Renee. I printed out mug shots of each of the kids, and had them cut out hearts to frame their faces. I then showed them how to do an accordion fold with two strips to give the heart face frames a pop out effect when the card was open.

I swear, getting CJ to cut out a heart shape was like asking him to dig a deep bore tunnel under Seattle. I cannot recall exactly how many times he screwed it up - it was somewhere between 5 and 7, I think, each mistake somewhat different than the last. At least we were able to use some of his miscues as decorations for the front of the card.

It took him about an hour, but he did finally finish. Here's the inside of each of their cards.

At noon, we had a brief (5 minutes, tops) visit with Grandma & Grandpa, where we handed over the cards and a bunch of other stuff for them to take up to Renee. CJ and Annabelle walked away with quite a haul themselves - a stack of DVDs, some state stickers and more!

ANATOMY 101: Today, Annabelle's Yoshi got her/his/its rib cage, scapula, and clavicle.

The skeleton project has meant lots of poring over pictures of skeletons lately. Fortunately, we have a cool see-through the human 3-D book that the kids have been studying. They often even take it in the car.Today, CJ told me an elaborate story involving the book and he flipped through page by page, covering the body's various systems.

We also learned about the types of bone breaks - compound (through the skin); simple (a closed fracture); greenstick (common in children, bone breaks on one side only); and comminuted (where the bone breaks in several fragments). Whatever you call it, it hurts!

ACROSS THE POND: CJ spent some time on the BBC's Numeracy (math) Web site today. He was playing a math game (Park the Pods) and initially he was getting all the answers wrong. I walked closer to the computer to listen in, and quickly realized it wasn't a math problem, it was an English problem. For example, the narrator would say, " Count on 2 from 50." That's just not how we word addition problems here Stateside.

SCHEMING: CJ came up with another idea for a video game this afternoon. "I'm going to make a game called 'Skull Killer.' This is the storyline," he started. "There is this evil dark red skull. He's destroying everyone in the city. Only Skull Killer can stop him. He defeated the Dark Skull, but just before the Dark Skull was defeated, he cursed Skull Killer. So Skull Killer has to collect the pieces of the Dark Red Skull before it's too late. If you don't get all the pieces within the time limit, your character will automatically die. Your time limit refills when you complete a level."

At the end of the game, "Now, you get a chat with the Dark Red Skull and Skull Killer once you've collected all the pieces," explained CJ. However, the hero is in for a surprise." CJ says Dark Skull tells Skull Killer, "You fool! You didn't get cursed! I tricked you just so you could bring me back to life (by collecting up all his pieces)! Now I shall kill everyone in the city!

"And the Dark Red Skull is the hardest boss in the game. And the Dark Red Skull is the final boss in the game. His color is dark red," CJ said in conclusion.

LITTLE THINGS: CJ put the finishing touches on his Yoshi tonight. He glued Yoshi's props in place.

AND ALSO: We went to yoga today. It was nice that it wasn't dark at 4:45, when the class started.