We spent another night at Nana and Papa's house last night.  It's become a Wednesday routine this month so that I can make it to my dentist appointments.  The kids have really enjoyed being able to spend time there.  They made smores last night.  They've got it good.    
     Today we messed around with some stop motion photography when we came home.  It's another one of the kids' big passions right now.  Big Girl has made many many of these short films on her "cell phone"/app. machine.  She's getting pretty good at it, but she's frustrated that she can't add sound and play around with other features.  I bought her a book on Amazon, for beginners, that links up with software and the ability to use a simple web cam to do some pretty fun stuff.  I'm looking forward to seeing what she comes up with.  Big Guy can't resist learning and playing around with it, too!  It's a lot of fun to see their creations. 
     Tomorrow we're heading to a gem and rock class/demonstration.  The kids have always been really interested in this topic, so I think they'll really enjoy it.  We shall see.  Then off to the park to hang with some friends. 
     The kids have been really happy lately.  I can't argue with that.  They've even been extra nice to each other and have been caught participating in little acts of kindness to one another and the family as a whole.  I have witnessed household chores being done without a single word from me or Big Fella.  Wow!   The more I follow their leads, and remember to be mindful of my words and actions, the more it all comes together.  Flexibility is key, and not the yoga kind of flexibility...I still stink at that kind.  :)

     So, now that I got that out of the way (see below), here is today (in a nutshell).  I am troubled everyday that maybe we're not doing enough, what if the kids aren't learning what they're "supposed" to learn.  By the way, I'm finding that what we're "supposed" to learn doesn't always count for as much as we'd like to think that it does.  So anyway...we woke up, the kids were thrust into the tasks of breakfast, dressing, and getting ready for a follow-up appointment for Little Guy (who's bike did a real number on his lip this past weekend...7 stitches!). 
     While we were there we did some dot to dots on my tablet (Little Guy knows his numbers pretty well it turns out).  Little Girl was busy reading all of the signs and buttons and pamphlets that she could discover from the car to the office and back again.  Big guy was busy goofing with his "phone" (a.k.a. old smartphone that is no longer a phone, but a tiny computer device/app machine...but don't tell him that, he might lose street cred.).  Big girl was home knocking out some math and typing in peace and quiet while we were all away).  Ok, so that went well...his lip is healing nicely. 
     We stopped at the nursery to pick up some flower baskets.  While we were there, big guy was curious about what snapdragon flowers looked like.  So, we found some.  He liked the way they looked quite a bit, pondered over how the bees could get the nectar out because of the way the petals fold together, and decided we'd better just get some to plant and check it out ourselves.  So we did. 
     We went home, ate a quick lunch and headed out to the library.  We spend a lot of time, and overdue book money, at the library.  We picked up some new books and magazines on the current topics of interest in our house:  bees, making bead jewelry, butterflies, other insects, a wii game, etc. (arm loads of books).
     We came home just in time to meet the piano teacher who had just arrived for weekly lessons, for all but Little Guy.  While Little Girl was making music, Big Guy got busy planting snapdragons...48 to be exact.  Now...we wait... and see how bees will get to the nectar.
     Piano lessons finished, there was some playtime in the neighborhood.  Just as I was about to come in and slave over dinner preparations (ha!)...Big Fella saved the day!  "Let's go to Applebees for Tuesday, kids eat free night!" he says.  Yay!  No slaving.  We eat, laugh and generally just be merry...good times.  Then, off to Walmart (blech) for a car battery.  Well, it's either that or buy/lease a new car, which we might just end up doing anyway.  Stay tuned...
     While we're there, Big girl remembers that she's just picked up some books about beading and so we go and check out the beads.  We find a perfect little starter kit, and round it out with some beads that she finds irresistibly awesome!  She can't wait to get started as soon as we get home.
    We get home, let the beading begin...after a little more playtime with the neighbors.  Meanwhile Big guy is interested in expanding his poop scooping business and decides to carry a flyer over to another prospective neighbor/customer.  He's a real entrepreneur, this one.  When he gets home, he remembers to check out a free computer programming/animation/game development website that I had heard about and spends the next hour or so fiddling around with it and learning more than I could in a week.  Ah...youth.  His ultimate goal is to create and market an Android app.  But for now... scooping poop is his primary source of income.
   So finally Big girl gets down to the business of beading.  After examining and organizing all of the tools and beads, she decides on a bracelet.  She's really looking forward to making hoop earrings.  It's a bit of an obsession actually...but all in good time.  She makes a lovely purpley, silvery and sparkly bracelet that I would TOTALLY wear!  She realized in the process that jewelry doesn't make itself.  It takes time and patience and good eyes! 
    The Littles were busy painting watercolors outside on the patio table (less mess ya know).  After that, we scooped up some ice cream cones, rounded everyone up eventually, tossed the Littles in the shower and managed to get them all upstairs for the washing, brushing, and dressing for bed.  The Littles picked out a couple of favorites to read.  Little girl read to me, which was a treat.  I stopped in Big girl's room where we discussed and read a little about the invention of bubble gum.  Then I stopped in Big Guy's room, where the lights were out a little earlier than usual, because he's itching to get out of bed and resume discovery of all things computer programming/animating/etc.  I expect he'll be up before the crack of dawn.  When we'll start this thing called life-learning all over again.
    So...is it enough? 

Well, we've done much in the way of learning, adventuring and exploring.  I'll sum up:  The Titanic, the symphony, Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, hikes galore, bees, butterflies, messy science club, polymers, organic gardening, piano lessons, many trips to the library, and a trip to the emergency room...to name a few (a FEW!)  This actually doesn't even begin to scratch the surface, but as I am new to idea of blogging, I slacked a little. 

This is where it starts.

I'm not sure that I have much to say that would be considered "blog-worthy", but we'll give this a shot anyway.  Here goes.....