Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

Our zoo has a monthly class for preschoolers, ages 3 years old and 4 years old. Each month is a different topic. March's topic was bugs. The teacher, Joy, taught us all about bugs. It was quite interesting, even from my adult point of view. Bugs have six legs. If a creature that you think is a bug does not have six legs, it is not a bug. For example, a spider, centipede, etc. Joy brought out a Madagascar hissing cockroach for us to touch. I chose not to touch it, but Rilian did! Joy also had a hedgehog in class, who eats meal worms, if you didn't know. Meal worms are a bug. Joy let everyone touch the hedgehog and then we watched it eat meal worms. 

Then we did a craft. The craft for this class was to color the flower and then put "bugs" on it. The "bugs" were Rilian's finger prints. He didn't want to draw antennae on his bugs at first so I did. Then he decided he would draw some really long antennae on a couple of bugs. You can see them on the orange flower petal.

Joy also had crickets in a container in class for the kids to look at with a magnifying glass. When class was over, she gave each student their own magnifying glass to take home so they could look for bugs. Once we were done in the classroom, we went into the zoo and got to look for bugs with our magnifying glass. 

Rilian found a small bug crawling near some bird poop on the rock. I have a feeling he might have been looking at the bug AND the bird poop with his magnifying glass.

We walked around the zoo looking at the animals. Occasionally, Rilian would stop and look with his magnifying glass and see if he could find any bugs. Then we came upon the lady bug statue and he wanted his picture taken on it. How fitting, for the class, to get his picture taken on a bug!

I have to admit, I did look to see if the statue was correct...remember? Bugs have 6 legs and yes, the lady bug statue does have 6 legs!

Spring Break

Yes, I know...Spring Break was about a month and a half ago for us, but I am just now finding the time to post about it. For those of you who care about what we did during Spring Break a month and a half ago, you will enjoy this. I must warn you, though, it is kind of lengthy...after all, it was a whole week!

As a mother of four kids in four years, I rarely go places with my four children by myself. It is getting a little easier to do so now that they are older, 7 years old, 6 years, old, 5 years old, and 3 years old. But those days where I get brave enough to do so, are pretty rare still. Spring Break came upon us and I realized if I didn't get brave enough to venture out with all four of my lively children, it would be a LOOOOOONG week! So, we went to the zoo one day...

This ladybug statue is another statue at the zoo that my kids like to climb on and have me take their picture. (I've posted before about the caterpillar statue.) I can't explain what was going on in my kid's heads during this photo shoot, but there are some pretty funny poses!

I'm gonna have to learn to stand where my kids aren't looking toward the sun when I try to take their pictures...

 My goofy girl!

And another GREAT shot! Ha! I love my kids! 

Another day during Spring Break, my kids got to play in a field of wild flowers! Um...yeah...that's our backyard... But who cares, right? The kids had a blast playing in the pretty flowers (weeds). They were so tall, the kids played hide and seek in them! 

I like surprising my kids and not telling them what we are going to do. So, one day, I built up the anticipation and did not tell them what we were going to do until we were all ready to go...

That wasn't quite the reaction I expected from them. I thought they would be really excited about it. The day before, they had been trying to guess what it was that we were going to do. I would give them broad hints, but nothing that would let them guess what it was. They asked what it started with and ended with. I told them it started with a "g" and ended with a "t". "Going on a bear hunT." No way they would guess! I wondered if they didn't know whether to believe me or perhaps they weren't quite sure what I meant by "going on a bear hunt." But they had read the book, so I thought they knew what I was talking about.


We went to a nearby state park to "go on a bear hunt." We found a trail to hike.

 On the bear hunt, we found deer tracks.

Piper, Finn, Seven, and Rilian wanted their picture taken with this "scary" tree that we found along our bear hunt. 

 We also found this "x" along our bear hunt. Being the prepared mom that I am, I unzipped my backpack and pulled the shovel out that I packed. We dug and dug, but did not find any treasure.

The trail that we were hiking had numbers every so often. Seven didn't want to stand beside the one with the number 7 on it for a picture. He insisted on standing beside the one with the number 8.  

We did not find any bears along our bear hunt. We found a good place to eat lunch, then played on the playground for awhile...

 My little monkeys sure like to climb!

There was a stone tower next to the playground. No one but Rilian would let me take their picture near it. By the look on his face, you can tell he wasn't too happy about it. Unless he was striking the "model" pose, you know the one where the model looks off into the distance and not at the camera...yeah, that's what he was doing. 

Back at the playground, Seven was being buried in the sand. 

The day after the bear hunt, I was just planning on staying home. We had such a big day on our bear hunt, but around 10:00am, Piper asked if we could go somewhere. So we drove to a park nearby. If you know Finn, this is funny...

He would fall alot when he was around 2 - 3 years old. When he fell, we would tell him he was ok. He would get back up and start walking again. He got to where he started saying, "I'm ok", when he fell. I guess old habits really do stick!

Seven LOVED this bridge! He kept going back and forth. 

Spring Break was going pretty good. Then come about Thursday...the kids were playing outside and Rilian came inside crying that Piper threw a brick at his head. It took me a little while to understand what he was saying. He was really crying! Then I told him to show me where his head hurt. This is what he showed me!

 I tried calming him while I asked Piper what happened. She was in the tree house and had pieces of a cinder block and was dropping them down. She SAID she didn't know he was down below her. I then had to make a rule of no more bricks or stones in the tree house. I tried the best I could to doctor up Rilian's wound. Luckily Jeremy came home for lunch and was able to help me doctor it up. Jeremy ended up shaving a small patch of his hair so we could get a butterfly bandage to stick.


The next day, Rilian got a haircut. Jeremy tried saving a little bit of hair on his head, but wasn't able to. Finn said he looked like an alien. Rilian didn't like Finn calling him an alien.

 So he put on a hat and said he wasn't an alien anymore.

And that, my friends, was our Spring Break!

Glow Day

One day, Seven's preschool class had a pajama day. I'm sure you know that this means the kids got to wear their pajamas to school that day. Seven was so excited about this day! During this particular week at school, his class was learning about day and night. The day that they wore their pajamas to school, their teacher had a room set up as a "glow room." The day before, they got to go in the "glow room" and see what glowed. There was a black light in the room and when I picked up Seven from school that day, he was excited to tell me what all of his clothes glowed from the black light.

When I met Seven at his class after school on pajama day, he had florescent yellow circle stickers on his ears, like earrings. I asked him about it and he said his teacher put them there. I didn't think too much about it because it was a special day at school that day. He also mentioned something about his teacher coloring on him and he was able to see it in the glow room. I also didn't think too much about that. Seven is quite the chatterbox after school, as he is any other time. 

Later on that evening, Seven said something about he could see his bones in the glow room. He also tends to say seemingly random things. We just happened to have a black light and we turned it on...and saw this!

Oh. My. Goodness! Jeremy and I laughed SO hard! We had no clue that he looked like this! You could only see it in the black light. Now it made sense what Seven told me after school about his teacher coloring on him!

This was the bone he had told me about after school. His teacher had colored his arm and hand to look like you could see his bones! 

On Seven's other hand, he was wearing a ring and a bracelet.  

I felt so glad that we had a black light and were able to experience this and get a good laugh! I also felt bad for the parents who didn't have a black light and weren't able to see how silly their children looked.

It's the Plumber...

Jeremy's mom got the kids a new movie. It is The Electric Company. On this particular movie, there are several different short movies. My kids really like the one called, "It's the Plumber". Watch it here, it's only about a minute long. They have watched it over and over. They think it is really funny and have become quite good imitators of it. 

Rilian is so adorable when he says it...

Here is Finn's imitation...

Seven just cracks me up when he says it! That kid is destined to be an actor.

And Piper...

What makes it funny to me when they say it is that they don't realize the guy is saying "plumber". They hear "plumba", so that's what they say!


I love my kids! I can almost bet that you enjoyed watching them say it as much as I did!

My Tiger Scout

Finn is now a Tiger Scout. He has completed the things he needed to complete in order to become a Tiger Scout. We attended his Blue and Gold Ceremony and watched him get his awards and badges. This was Finn's first ceremony since joining Cub Scouts. 

Jeremy got to paint his face. The blue paw print on his forehead is the spirit of the bobcat to remind him to do his best, which is the Cub Scout motto. He has yellow under his eyes. Yellow is the color of the sun. It is to remind Finn to see the light on the Cub Scout trail and symbolizes the bright spirit of Cub Scouts. White is the color of purity. The white mark on his nose is to help him know right from wrong as he goes along the Cub Scout trail. Red is the color of courage. The red mark on his chin is to help Finn to always remember to speak the truth. Green stands for the spirit of nature. The green mark on each cheek is to help Finn to remember to live in harmony with the great outdoors.

Once Jeremy was done marking on Finn's face, the troop leader handed Finn the white color and let him make a white mark on Jeremy's nose. White also stands for love and guidance. The white mark on Jeremy's nose is because he will be with Finn every step of the way. It is to help Jeremy remember to help Finn to do the right thing. 

Finn's pack and the Tiger Scouts in his pack... 

And a picture of the Tiger Scouts with their dads...

My Little Gardeners

Jeremy has taken up the hobby of growing plants from seeds. He also has decided to try his hand at taking a clipping of a plant and letting it grow new roots. The kids have watched him do this and even helped him plant some of the seeds. They enjoy looking at his plants and seeing how much they have grown since they last looked at them.

Piper, Finn, Seven, and Rilian were playing outside one afternoon and decided to do a little "planting" of their own. 

It is kind of hard to see their "plants", but they walked around the backyard collecting sticks. Then they dug holes and "planted" them.

I don't know if Piper knew I was taking this picture or not, so I don't know if the facial expression was planned. Knowing Piper, she probably knew :) 

One of the kids even found a really big "plant" and planted it, too.