Kids Art Week Day 3

Hopefully you will all get a laugh at my vulnerability on this one. We were supposed to use a masking technique on watercolor paper. My tape tore up all of my paper. I also had big plans for the disembodied cat legs but thought it was kind of funny, so I left it here. Tim jumped in on this one too. Mine is the cat (with "bear ears" Tim said). Tim did the seahorse and David did the fish.

 

      I don't know if we'll get to do the next 2 lessons because we'll be away, but the boys were pretty excited about tomorrow so we may do them when we get back. I love seeing what they come up with.

Happy birthday Tim!

      Twelve years ago today, I became a mom to this crazy guy! My son Tim is kind of my "mini me."  He and I share a lot of good and bad habits. He is empathetic, intelligent, funny and kind. He's a bit of a nerd. If I let him read all day, he would (and if I was beside him, we'd sit there all day and not even realize the time was passing.) He is a great musician too. He loves to sing and play trumpet. He's also not a bad dancer. He is curious and always has the ability to make me laugh.  He also gives a great foot rub!
      I am so blessed to be his mom and excited to see where God leads him. It has been so awesome to watch him develop into such a great young man.

A few highlights of our trip to RI

     Both boys played summer baseball this year and it was a short summer. School begins Monday for me, which left us just a few days to go on vacation. We took a trip to Rhode Island, the smallest US state, from Sunday- Wednesday. We only live 1.5 hours away from where we stayed, but I've never really spent any time in Rhode Island before.  Here are some highlights:

     On our first night there, we went exploring and stumbled by a really nice park called Goddard Memorial State Park. It is right on the ocean and has lots of places you can picnic. There are also trails through the woods, a boat ramp, a stable, and other things I'm sure we didn't even see. We explored the bay area, took a quick walk in the woods and just enjoyed being outside. The boys found lots of mud crabs.

     The next day we spent (getting roasted by the sun at the zoo) at the Roger Williams Park & Zoo. Here are a few of my favorite moments:

The wildest animals at the zoo.. lol

David fed a giraffe. Look at that smile. He loves giraffes so this was a high point of the whole vacation. See his uneven spots? He's a Masai giraffe. His name is Jaffa and, if I remember correctly, he's 6 years old.

We pet an armadillo- which surprised us all by taking a bath in that water. Did you know that (this type) armadillos can jump 4 feet straight up into the air and run at 25 miles per hour when they are frightened?

This red panda is smiling at me. He wants me to bring him home, right?

This is a kookaburra. One of the park security guys was chatting with us and mentioned that he often plays an app that makes bird sounds and these birds start reacting by answering the calls. Before long, all 4 kookaburra birds were loudly "chirping" their "koo-koo-koo-ka-ka-ka." Tim said he loved it and they made him feel happy. I ruled out the chance of ever living where these birds are. So loud!
     One of the workers at the zoo said that the solar eclipse we had on that day was also making the animals act a little differently than normal.
      If you have never been to this zoo and you have the opportunity to, go. There was also a beautiful park with many nice areas that we didn't even explore. There's a carousel, swan boats, etc. They're also making some sort of a zip line type ride that will open later this year.

     The next day we explored the Beavertail Lighthouse in Jamestown, RI and then traveled to Newport to explore The Breakers, a giant mansion built by the Vanderbilt family.

 Beavertail Lighthouse

 Boys exploring the rocky New England coastline. They followed that path down to the rocks.

 The flat surface here is the foundation of a lighthouse that was built in 1749. In 1753 it was destroyed by a fire. It was rebuilt. In 1856, the new lighthouse was built to replace the deteriorating one and in 1938 a hurricane exposed this foundation? I think I got it all. Lol. We accidentally discovered this regatta of some sort. We never found out what it was but there were people at that spot to watch it.

 An artist was painting this next to us. So cool.

 These 4 pictures above were taken by Tim. I love seeing through his eyes and knowing what he thinks is beautiful or deserves attention. He's pretty good! The building above is named The Breakers.

 Dining room. Quite lavish, but I'll take it.

 My favorite part of the building was this half of the music room. If I had a room like this, I would never leave it.

 And part of the library! I totally wanted to bust in there and read what books were on the shelves. #nerdproblems

 Matt took this picture. He works as a candymaker and I think those copper pots and pans were super appealing to him!

 The back of The Breakers. Can you find David and I?

2 more Tim pics.

     All in all, it was a nice trip. I would've liked it to be a bit longer but maybe we'll come back another time. I can't wait for our next adventure away. Oh! I never told some of you, we're getting our passports so we're going to aim for at least 1 international trip within the next year. (If we take 2, 1 will be to Canada, which is pretty close compared to everywhere else.) We'll be talking soon about where to go. Feel free to leave suggestions!

     In other news, school starts Monday. I'm not ready. My "to reply" pile of mail is currently EMPTY! Feel free to send me surprise mail! (or even "not surprise" mail.) I've gotten some nice postcards this week. I'd like to show those off in a post and write about the last book I read too.

Space Case

 

       After I shared one of David's reading books with you, I decided to take a look at the books Tim is reading. Tim has loved most of the MCBA books he's read and has a goal to read them all this summer. This is his first MCBA book. I decided to check it out too (Thinking that it was one of his assigned summer reading books.. oops)  This book is geared to 6th graders. (

      Space Case is about a 12 year old boy named Dashiell (nicknamed Dash) who is growing up on Moon Base Alpha with his parents and younger sister, Violet. Life on the moon was not always what NASA had advertised. Adjusting to low gravity life, space food, toilets! and being around the same people all the time can be hard. There are not many kids on base, and the ones that are there are not exactly the type of kids that Dash wants to be around all the time. His choices of what to do are somewhat limited since kids are not allowed on the moon's surface and he has to be restricted to base.

       Life gets a lot more complicated when it's discovered that Dr. Holtz, the base's top scientist, has died after making a mistake with his space suit before going out to the moon's surface. There are a few problems with this- 1) Dr. Holtz is super concerned with safety and is particularly cautious about the space suits and 2) Dash had overheard Dr. Holtz speaking with someone about an incredible discovery that would change the course of mankind. Holtz was planning a meeting on base to reveal his discovery just hours after he was found dead. (This conversation that Dash overhears takes place during a very humorous toilet episode.Both Tim and I had a good chuckle with Gibbs' wording.)   While Dash suspects that something might be wrong, most of the other people on the base are hesitant to even address the possibility that foul play might be involved. 

       Lucky for Dash, a rocket is scheduled to arrive from Earth. It is carrying some new residents of the base, some temps who have jobs on the base and extra food/supplies. One of the new residents of MBA is a girl named Kira, who immediately becomes friends with Dash. With her help, Dash is able to examine what really happened to Holtz.

        I liked this book. There were some exciting parts. It was humorous. It did include a few "it sucked" type lines, but realistically, I know that's not the worst my son is going to be hearing from kids his age. It is part of a series and I'm sure that Tim would not hesitate to read the other books in the series. This might be a great book for kids who aren't usually readers.

      Here's what Tim had to say about this book:

      "It was very interesting and it had a lot of diversity between the types of people at the space station. I loved it. I'd honestly recommend it to everyone. It's thrilling."

   His next read was The Nest by Kenneth Oppel. I haven't read this one but he described it to me. It sounded pretty scary for a younger kid. Tim, who is usually creeped out pretty easily, read it while camping. He thought it was exciting and said he wants to try more books like this.

Tim: "The Nest was very creepy and fast paced for sure."