Weekly Wrap-Up - May 4

Busy week! I've been trying to fit in more hands-on stuff for Little Bit, in between everything else we've been doing, so on Sunday, I asked if she wanted to play "ice cream store". Needless to say, that got her attention. based on an idea I'd seen on Pinterest, we made "ice cream" by mixing flour and baby oil together until it was moldable but not too sticky. Then I handed her plastic bowls and a plastic ice cream scoop and told her to have fun. And she did!! Since I'd called it ice cream STORE, she insisted on "selling" us ice cream for awhile, but then she just had fun seeing how many scoops she could fit in the bowls and such. I'm not sure if the consistency got better as it sat, or if she got better at figuring out how to pack it into the scoop and pop it out in one piece, but later in the day, when my camera wasn't handy, she was making some very realistic scoops :) She had a BLAST!

Her sisters, being opportunists, instantly came up with the idea that Little Bit needed to go to a REAL ice cream shop to "see how it's done". I have to admit, it didn't take TOO much arm twisting to get me to go get ice cream! And, since the closest ice cream place also happens to have a free petting zoo, and it was a gorgeous afternoon, after we enjoyed our ice cream, we enjoyed the petting zoo.

We've continued to soak up as much outside time as possible. The girls found a male carpenter bee (so it doesn't have a stinger) with an injured wing and have been torturing nursing it all week. They think it's pretty cool that they can hold a bee, since he can't fly AND can't sting . . . poor bee! They've also spent lots of time this week playing basketball and otherwise enjoying being outside.

As usually happens this time of year, pretty much the only "book work" we do is review products. Afterall, one of the advantages of schooling year round is being able to toss the books aside and enjoy the weather when it's good!  We do have quite a few review products we'll be sharing with you over the next several weeks, so that's kept us busy as well!

Wednesday was rainy,  so a perfect day to listen to our next Herb Fairies story, all about Plantain. Our neighbors, E & J came and joined us, and stayed to play for a little while after listening.  I had to giggle at Lexie, while she's been all for trying recipes with chickweed and violets in them, since Plantain is our go-to bug bite poultice, she's had experience with chewing it up (quick, on-the-go poultice, chew a few leaves till you have a paste, stick it on the bug bite). As soon as we'd finished listening to the story, she announced that we were NOT eating Plantain, it's nasty!!! (don't tell her, but I recently read that it tastes better cooked, like spinach, so I might try to convince her to try it that way, we'll see . . . hee hee ). 

Thursday afternoon the girls declared it HOT and begged to go wading in the creek, but it was still running REALLY high from Wednesday's rain (we got a LOT of rain on Wednesday) so mean mommy said it wasn't safe. They had to satisfy themselves with water balloon fights and water guns, but from the shrieks and laughter I heard, they managed ok LOL.

Friday, I woke up with a stomach bug, that left me pretty much sleeping all day. The girls happily spent the day outside again, and proved that despite their insistence that they do ALL. THE. WORK around here, they obviously do NOT because just one day of me NOT doing all those things that they claim "don't count" left the house a complete and utter disaster, sigh . . .  On a positive note, my much anticipated new phone got here on Friday (my old one had gotten to the point where it froze pretty much every time I tried to do anything on it,and the battery only lasted a few hours, which rendered it pretty useless, and with homeschool convention coming up, I REALLY needed a reliable phone (there is much price checking and other such research that goes on at homeschool convention!).  So YAY for a new toy for Mommy (I used "testing the camera" as an excuse to get all 4 of my sweeties in a picture, even if dh does look abit pained by it all, hee hee).

Sabbath, I still didn't feel great, but felt enough better to go to church. I did decide to let Lexie and Ashlyn do most of the Sabbath School program, and couldn't resist snapping a picture of Ashlyn and all the kids sitting in our "garden" corner, while she told them the story. This was on of our busy Sabbaths, with dinner at the church afterwards, but all went well and we headed home for another afternoon and evening of lovely weather for the kids to enjoy. They pretty much didn't come in until bedtime :)