Woodland Park Zoo (Homeschool Day)

Yesterday, we met up with one of our favorite families for a day of fun in Seattle.  Woodland Park Zoo held their annual Homeschool Day with a special animal show and learning tables that align with state standards.  We've tried Homeschool Day twice before, once in 2009 and once in 2010.  Both times, my kids who were the appropriate ages were too advanced in science to learn anything.  This year, Fiona was just the right age!  The weather was perfect! It was sunny and pretty warm for October. 

This group of kids have known each other since there were only four of them, aged 3, 2, and 5 and 6 months old.  Now they are 13, 12, 11, 11, 9, 8, 6, 4, 2, 11 months, and 10 months.  One of the best things about having older kids (just one, because there are many) is being able to send the age 4 and up crowd into an auditorium to see an animal presentation and know that the older kids will take care of the younger kids.  Crystal Poppins and I stayed in the toddler room with the three babies (until Ian brought Daniel to us-then we had four babies)!

After the animal presentation, we took our zoo tour.  All the kids wanted to do was climb on the rocks and sit on the statues.  I'm pretty sure if there was a park with just rocks to climb on, they would have been perfectly happy.  Even Heidi wanted out of her stroller to climb on rocks.

The kids spent some time reacquainting themselves with each other and then they were as thick as thieves. 

Lula jumped in every puddle she saw.  She did pretty good keeping up on foot despite her two year old age. 

We told them to stay out of this cave because of the puddle.  They didn't care.  They had more fun with caves than they did with animals! Until lunch...

Then it was time to play and trade Pokemon cards.  These guys have been into Pokemon for years now.  They take breaks and get interested in other things, but Shane recently learned how to play the real game, so now he and Ian can be found battling past their bedtimes.  While the older six played, we took the younger group across to the baby/small child play area.  Fiona enjoyed climbing around and meeting other little girls to play with.  My other three were content in the outdoor area:

Playing in a sandbox with no pants on.  You mean, I traveled two hours (with traffic) and paid admission prices (discounted for Homeschool day) to watch my kids do what we do in our own backyard for free? 

 The penguins were really cute.  This green guy would follow fingers around and around!

The unsocialized homeschooling Boy Scouts loved climbing all the rocks.  I heard frequently, "That [animal] is blocking that rock display!"

More cave squishing (nevermind the wolves were being fed right across the path-the cave was much more fun!)

 They can barely squish seven in still...but there was a kid or two that wasn't part of our group.

 Cute Baby #1!

Cute Baby #2!  (Cute Baby #3 doesn't get to have her picture posted because she is a foster baby.)

Really? They needed a sign?  It should have said, "If you love your physical well being, please do not inhale the porcupine's natural perfume. They really really stink!  Like armpits! Really stinky armpits!"  Ian said, "I don't smell anything. It just smells like my room." He was joking. Like always. I hope.

We got to the bear display just as they were being fed!  The bears were pacing back and forth because they knew the food was coming soon.  I was expecting salmon carcasses to be thrown down for them and was disappointed to see a head of cabbage and some Bear Chow nibbles.

By this time, the kids were done with animals and at every stop they pulled out their cards.  So we trekked to the exit and promised extra card time in the parking lot.

 Lula was ready for a nap in traffic and was ready to shed her soaking wet pants and shoes.

After more trading and one more trip into the closed zoo for a bathroom break, the moms and babies were in a hurry to hit the road and go sit in traffic.  For us southbounders, the traffic wasn't too bad and we made it home in two hours.  We are excited to get together again in another Seattle location.  I wonder if there is somewhere indoors that doesn't cost any money that just has tables, chairs, a bathroom, and some space to run?

Pumpkin Patch

Much time has passed since we have had an adventure around here.  Thank goodness today happened and we got a taste of what gives us that je ne sais quois!  We missed out on the local pumpkin patch last year and ended up going to the grocery store, which was pretty lame.  And just when I was ready to go this year, I saw on facebook that our local patch was already closed.  Bummer.  Time to discover a new pumpkin patch!

Happy to be out of the van.  No, really.  They are happy!

 Unfortunately, when you google the neighboring town and "pumpkin patch" the map doesn't actually take you to the pumpkin patch.  It takes you to the middle of a smaller town, right to Main Street.  Right in the middle of road construction.  I parked my giant van in the tiny library parking lot and asked the stop sign holder if anywhere around had a map because I was looking for the pumpkin patch.  "A map?"  Sigh.  "Yeah, one of those paper things that show you where you got lost?"  Haha, very funny.  I was the third person to ask him where the pumpkin patch was today, so it definitely wasn't just me making a mistake!

With the help of a phone charger that could get Mark's "smart" phone charged just enough, we found the right road and the pumpkin patch... and when I drove up and around, following their parking signs, my giant van got stuck in the mud.

Those are my tire marks.  Good thing I had Mark with me to get us unstuck.

Mark, being a professional fish biologist who often needs to drive a giant truck through muddy situations, is a pro at getting out of slippery situations.  He had us out in a jiffy (and I will never drive with him in the car ever ever again).

It was Lula's Day!  This was her first trip to a pumpkin patch!  And she was so cute.

Mark was pretty tired and didn't really want to come with us in the first place.  The getting lost and getting stuck pretty much used up all his spirit of adventure.  He managed to get that cute group picture of the kids, but when he wanted a picture of the two of us and Ian was taking too long...

...I think he captured our true personalities, don't you?

I was happy to be out with the kids and happy that Lula saw some sheep and happy that the older kids weren't complaining (too much).

I wasn't upset when the boys photo-bombed my picture of Heidi in the backpack we've had for twelve years.

The Photobomber

 I wasn't upset when Lula started acting like a two year old.

And I was happy to buy each kid who could carry a pumpkin their very own pumpkin.  

So full of confidence!

What I liked about this pumpkin patch was that it is run by a homeschooling family that has seven kids.  Just like us!  In fact, one of the kids saw us through their window and exclaimed to their mom, "Look Mom! A family just like ours!"  Their kids range in age from 17 to 6 and they do a lot of work to keep their business running.  The oldest son weighed the pumpkins, the oldest daughter ran the snack shack, the mom worked the register, and the little kids harvested pumpkins and entertained visitors with puppies and bubbles.

A nice harvest

So despite getting lost and getting stuck in the mud and having Mark be all grumpy (did I mention he started a Whole30? The grumpiness really isn't his fault) I had a wonderful time and will go back next year.

Eclipse!

One of the great things about homeschooling is taking advantage of unique learning opportunities.  I saw that we were going to have a tiny solar eclipse...but was really sad that it was raining.  But guess what? The clouds parted just long enough for us poke holes in card stock with a pin and run outside.

The clouds just barely covered the sun and made picture taking possible for only a few seconds!

And then it started to rain again....

Baby Announcement

Late Sunday night, Ami called me to be ready.  She was having constant contractions that didn't go away with rest and it was her due date!  I sent her to bed and went to bed myself, telling her to call me when she couldn't sleep through the contractions any more.  At 3-something, she called again.  You know how a phone ring lasts about a second? Well, Mark heard the very first nano-second and jumped awake, which caused me to jump awake and hear the phone before the first ring was even complete!

By 3:30 AM, I was on the road!  I met Kris and Ami at the hospital where they admitted her after a short monitoring period.  The little baby was experiencing heart decelerations after each contraction and that had the staff a little worried.  After they checked her in, threatened an emergency C-section, and did a quick ultrasound, they saw that baby had cord looped up by his shoulder and it was being compressed.  As long as Ami stayed on her left side, he was fine.  So there she stayed (for the most part).

At about 2:00 PM, Ami got a dose of fentanyl to help with pain and to help her relax.  She tried nap and I headed to the lobby to visit with the famous Crystal Poppins and children.  When I returned an hour later, Ami was ready another dose, but she wanted to wait just a little longer so she could have the pain killer when she really needed it.  She was also hoping to get an epidural, but wanted to wait until the perfect time-she didn't want to have it long enough to cause further interventions, but she also didn't want it to be "too late."

Ami was probably the best patient the hospital had ever seen.  She was polite and clean and quiet and kept her sense of humor the whole time.  She was good at giving instruction to Kris and I when we were doing something she didn't like and she was willing to try my "doula tricks."  And she was amazing.  Just before little Erik was born, she said, "Where's my epidural?"  I looked her right in the eye and said, "Your pain relief will be here in about ten minutes."  She could see right through my cover.  She knew the baby would get here before the anesthesiologist!  

And he was!  He was born very quickly...like so fast that the doctor wasn't there and the trays of this-n-that weren't set up.  The nurses were scrambling and trying to push me out of the way (nice try, ladies), but babies are born on their own schedules and there was no hospital policy or procedure that could stop this little guy.  He was born at 4:14 on October 20th and he was 7 lbs 14 oz and 21 inches long!

He is perfect.  Absolutely perfect.  The family is settling in together without a lot of outside interference, which is how it should be.  Little Erik is pretty mellow at this point and his big brother shows an appropriate amount of interest and disinterest.  At some point we will go back up and bring food and fun for big brother, but at this point, they are doing great!

Waste

I consider myself to be pretty crunchy, earth-friendly, resourceful, and thrifty.  I pinch pennies, don't give in to my children's whims at the store, and accept hand-me-downs.  I keep things because they are good toys and can be used by all ages and genders.  I hang on to Hot Wheels tracks just in case Daniel develops an interest in cars.  I appreciate the things we are blessed with because I know our lifestyle is different from other people and I don't want my kids to look at our family and feel resentment toward each other for hogging all the resources.  But I can't keep everything.  I can't.

People think that I take cast-off items because "I have such a huge family and could probably use it."  I know their giving is an act of kindness, but it kind of isn't.  They bought into the consumer lifestyle.  Their kids didn't appreciate their stuff.  They don't have any younger siblings to hand it down to (or they don't want to keep their childhood treasures for their grandchildren), so they send it to my house.  Your treasures come here to die, did you know? That puzzle lost one piece the first day it was here.  And I burned it with the rest of our paper garbage.  That paperback book series you laboriously taped back together when the glue started to get brittle and the pages fell out?  They will also be destroyed.  I will find a chunk of pages and toss the whole thing.  It's so wasteful, but that is our culture.  I hate it.

But I don't think my kids get it.  I think that because they get so many hand-me-downs, they feel no need to conserve what they have.  Who cares if the dog chews up a My Little Pony? Someone will want to offload a whole bag on them in a few months, probably, and if not, they can always find one at the thrift store for the price of a tooth.  Mom says, "Pick up all these repositional stickers NOW or they are going in the garbage!"  Who cares? They can just ask for more for their next birthday or Christmas and since there are so many birthdays around here, they can just gang up and get group presents.  "Pick up your clothes and stop putting clean clothes in the laundry for me to wash or I'm going to pack them all up into trash bags and then we'll see how you feel when you don't have anything to wear!"  Oh, Dad would never let Mom keep their taekwondo uniforms and who ever heard of a naked ballerina?  Mom and Dad paid for those lessons; they aren't going to keep them from their dance clothes and shoes and waste their money.  And they don't really care if their clothes are stained and have holes-they're homeschoolers and no one sees them, right?

Sounds like my kids got just a little spoiled, doesn't it?

And it sounds like it is time to do some extreme decluttering.  We have until the end of November to find out if everything in this house actually has a place.  We have six short weeks to find out if we own more things than we have places for.  If I don't have a perfectly clean house by the end of November, Christmas presents will be cancelled!  Oh, we'll have a tree and candy, but no toys.  No toys, no clothes, nothing with parts.  No "consumable" craft projects (because the end product isn't consumable-it's more junk), no art supplies, no science kits.  No games for family night, no critical thinking solitaire games, no self-contained learning activities.  Nothing.  This mom is DONE.

Climbing Wall

For a post on the last time we enjoyed Camp Seymour's climbing wall, click HERE.  Back then, I was two months away from Daniel's birth and Fiona was not quite two.

Fiona

This time, Fiona got partway up the wall and Daniel worked on his patience....

 ....so he could have a turn as well.  Bless his heart, all he wanted to do was swing around on the rope.

Daniel at his Maximum Height

 Shane and Evie made it to the top in about two minutes...

"Look out at the water; it's the best view in camp!"

And then Evie lost a shoe on her way down...

Ian was with us, but he works as a volunteer helping keep kids in line and getting helmets on.  Wait, that's what I did.  Ian hung out with his friends and talked about video games.  But he did also keep an eye on kids who were bouldering on the back wall (no harnesses needed).  I taught a bunch of little homeschoolers how to stand in line and wait their turn.  If they weren't in line, they didn't climb.  I'm super thankful that none of the kids fell out of their harnesses because I have never put them on a child before.

In other news, we've added a few ducks to our flock...

They are muscovy ducks and should produce some tasty meat next spring.  Heidi cut her third tooth by banging it on her crib rail.  Mark joined me in a Whole30 challenge; I'm on Day 19 and he is on Day 1.  And we are still waiting for Ami's baby...due Sunday!

Cute Heidi

Just some cute pictures today... I actually took them a few days ago when the sky was so blue and the air so warm.  You really get a glimpse into her personality in these snapshots...

Synchronized sandbox emptying

She loves her brothers and sisters and they constantly entertain her with their antics.  She has reached the age of emptying laundry baskets, one item at a time, and pulling pots and pans out of the cupboard.  She even unrolled the toilet paper.  Isn't that cuuuuuute?