What to do in the country

Michael loves making tents out of our dining room chairs:

Apparently, one blanket wasn't enough.

Watching a flashlight going around in a circle:
We don't get out much around here. :)

Here he is pretty pleased in there:
It was a bit dark inside. SO I moved his little lamp from his room into the tent. THAT made things a LOT more cozy! :)

After about a week of not having dining room chairs and having to walk around it, the tent has been moved to a corner in our living room using only 3 chairs. The inside square footage is still the same, but it is much more liveable.

Now, we have 2 dining room chairs and a piano bench instead of a piano bench and 1 person standing to eat.

A day in the life. A day in the life!

3/30: Easter Par-tay School Style

On Friday, 3/30, I got to volunteer at Michael's school for their Easter party! I love being a SAHM!

Here are the kids, all lined up and ready. Michael wanted to use his own Easter basket and not the one he made in class:

And they are off!
Michael's pretty competitive when it comes to Easter Egg Hunts:
Peeking at loot:
Michael was the first kid to get his 8 eggs. Here are the first 3 winners inspecting each other's baskets:
Then, it was snack time:
The teachers came up with a super cute idea to put green dyed coconut flakes on top of the brownie and a peep on top - like a little nest. Michael (and some of the other kids) were not terribly impressed:
After that, it was my turn to read books for storytime! Talk about 2 birds with one stone!

Love this little guy's school! He loves it too, so I am glad it was such a good fit for him. After our first experience in Paris, we are so thankful for his current school arrangements!

Check - Philadelphia Independence Hall, et al

Good Friday - April 6, Brian took a day off, just for the fun of it. Miracle of all miracles!

So we reserved tickets to tour Independence Hall and took the day to explore Philly. I think Michael had the best seat in the house:

We arrived 45 minutes early as recommended by their website to get through security.

If Rick Steves had a book for Philadelphia, he would have told us to just get tickets for free at the booth and show up about 10 minutes prior to the tour time.

So in our waiting time, we took a picture:
Michael terrorized his father, and Brian did his best to defend himself:
When we got in, we sat through a short history lesson. Then, we saw the first (of two) room on the tour. Michael got the best spot, and I resigned myself to take some pictures from my back row seat for a 5'1" person:
I ran into the hall and took some pictures of this blue room. I loved this light powdery grey blue, but now I'm sick of it:
And it's all over my house. AAK.

Next up, the room in which the Constitution was signed:
Michael enjoyed most of the talk on this windowsill:
There he is being a putz for the camera.

After this, gift shop time:
He didn't buy these, but it was fun anyways:
Instead, he convinced us to buy him a mini liberty bell that works. Something about Michael - he is a knick-knack collector. He's started himself a little collection in his room.

After purchasing said knick knack, he finally stopped whining and was excited to visit the Liberty Bell.

AFTER Mommy said, "Photo OP!"



We waited in the long, but fast moving line to see our famed liberty bell:

Michael thought the liberty bell was the BEST because it was bigger than his DAD.

After this, we had lunch at La Scala's Italian restaurant because it was recommended in my "Walks of Philadelphia" card. The best thing they had was pizza, which isn't too much of a compliment.

Then, we decided we needed to walk 19 more blocks EACH WAY to see Rittenhouse Square. People had said it was cool and my little "Walks of Philadelphia" card said the flagship store of Philly based Anthropologie was there at that Rittenhouse Square.

Say no more, my friends. Say no more.

So we went and Rittenhouse Square is just that - a square with a diagonal through it. Just one. Nothing pretty. No playground. Just some park benches and a protest.

I'll pass on that next time.

I bet you are reading in anxious anticipation for my account of the flagship Anthropologie store.

It.Was.A.Letdown.

5 floors, each with about 1200 sq ft each and only about 30 different items on each floor. It was A LOT of work for not much payout.

I won't be back. And that was the case for most of the shopping in this "fancy" area of Philly. They even had a Zara, but the store had about 100 things in it TOTAL. RIDICULOUS.

I realize this post has a bit of a negative tone to it (imagine that). We did enjoy our day "in the city!" It was nice to get out and do something different for a change instead of just lounging around in the country and working on the house. It reminded us of how much we do enjoy to travel and see things!

I'm just thinking Philly just wasn't what we had in mind as far as "travel" is concerned! :)

The lean-to

Michael has told us he wants to be an engineer like Daddy when he grows up, which is fine.

However, we don't push it because it's hard to know what you want to do in life, and the last thing we want to do is pressure him one way or another. We don't want a Lifetime movie on our hands here.

Seeing that Michael is decent at math and interested in science-y stuff, I do want to encourage an engineering-minded thought process because learning how to think as an engineer is one of the harder things to learn. If you learn it inherently growing up, it might help one day if he really does decide to be an engineer. I think it helps in normal life to begin with!

SO - what does that mean?

Lately, when Michael has a problem, I try my best not to solve it for him. I ask him:

What is your problem?

What do you know about your situation?

What do you have to work with?

How can using what you have to work with help you towards a solution?

Well, when our little cardboard constructed taped house started falling over (big surprise - a chemical engineer could not build a structurally sound house), Michael fixed it by doing this:

I didn't ask him the questions up there this time, but I did encourage him to "find a solution" to his problem.

So when he said to me, "Come see Mommy!!! I found a solution!!"

I was pretty pleased to see our lean-to.

Faux-Homeschooling

I am not disciplined enough to homeschool. I am barely disciplined enough to take a shower regularly.

However, with the summer months approaching, I am trying to come up with some flexible "lesson plans" covering reading, math, science, language, and arts.

Gosh - that sounds crazy. Honestly, it's very lax and kind of built around play. So don't worry about me over-achieving. I'm not super good at that anymore!

Anyways - I brought in our easel that has been sitting in the garage. It has a blackboard, which seemed appropriate...for...roadkill hangman!

I don't call it that in real life. Michael came up with putting the letters on that road for hangman.

But we have been having fun with it and I wish I had started when he was 3. I am using the Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. It's slow going, but it's going!