Easter Egg Decorating

 

Getting the colors ready...

Coloring the eggs...

Working together...

The finished  product!

If You Build It, They Will ...Eat It

 

 

Here is Joshua starting with the icing.  He was the project supervisor.

 

 

 

  Brian was in charge of the candy and where it should go. 

 

 

    

 

 

                               The finished product! 

  Lucas was not happy until it was time to EAT the gingerbread house. 

What can you make with spaghetti and marshmallows?

Joshua and Brian read a wonderful Usborne book entitled, 100 Science Experiments. They decided do one of the experiments that involved making stuctures out of spaghetti noodles and marshmallows. Joshua made several different stuctures and even tried to build a tower strong enough to hold a toy car. Brian was able to help build one tower, but it was a little challenging for him. Lucas was wanting to be right there in the middle of the action.

This is the structure with a piece of paper on it on which he was going to place the car. Will the building stand?

It could not withstand the weight of the car. So sad. We will try another day....

A Couple of Big Turkeys

Joshua and Brian made these beautiful turkeys to decorate our Thanksgiving table out of a Pringles can. Keith said he made a Pilgrim and Native American out of cans as a child. I looked for a template online and could not find one, but I found this site that offered a cute turkey template. They had a blast doing this!

Mr. Builder

I was busy in the house the other day and came around the corner to find Lucas in the bathroom very busy, to say the least!  He had stacked all of the toilet paper into a huge tower.  He loves to build and stack and put things in containers and dump them out again.  He's getting  into our potatoes as we speak...well, I'm off....

Grandma and Grandpa B Visit

  Brian took the bottom photos of Grandma and "Silly Grandpa."

Brian is Reading!

Brian reading a book again that he read yesterday.

Cicadas...Cicadas...Everywhere!

Joshua and Brian found an abandoned shell of a molted cicada.  This started us on a quest to find out more information on the cicada.  The boys made observations and measurements.  We made a page for Joshua's Science Journal.  We even folded an origami cicada!

This is what Joshua wrote for the journal page. "The male cicada is the only one that can sing, because it has tymbals.  The males also have a square shape to their abdomen.  If they lay their eggs in trees, they can damage them.  All bugs (insects) have three parts of their body: head, thorax, and abdomen.  Periodical cicadas dig tunnels in the ground and come out every 13 or 17 years when it gets warmer (usually in May)."

AWWW! Joshua's self portrait at age 5

I found this picture while going through some old papers.  He drew glasses with the nose pieces and even boogers!  (Hee,hee!)

Experiments with Grandma

  Grandma K did some experiments with Joshua and Brian the last time we visited.                 

Book Narrrations

I See a Leaf

Kate and Jill gave Miss Hill one leaf, but Jack gave her a thousand and three.

Storm Chaser

You should never worry when there is a storm.

A storm chaser is a vehicle that tracks where the storm is, so that other people will know where the storm is.

Red, White, and Blue

The colors of the American flag are red, white, and blue, just like the title. Just like apples are red, blueberries are blue, and the White House is white. The sky is white and blue. Baseballs are white and red. Jeans are blue, as we all know.

Joshua read these books by himself. This is his summary of the books.

Future Engineers?

Today, Joshua and Brian decided to build and create using craft sticks. They had a lot a fun building and learning along the way!

CD Player Demolition!

The boys had a great afternoon taking apart our broken cd player. All three of them got in on the action. It was quite the learning experience!

Joshua Slideshow

Joshua came up with this idea and we found out the drawings will need to be darker. He also chose the transitions, etc. (There is no sound, just a slideshow)

Brian's Story

Brian had a LOT of help from Joshua (maybe too much) :0)

Joshua's Story

Check out these special effects! (Hee, hee)

Make Sure You Help Others, Not Just Yourself By Joshua

Once upon a time, there was a big boy. His name was Tom. He asked his mom and dad if he could go and look for his lost sister. Her name was Shilan. And one day he went exploring out in the woods. And a bear chased him down to a pond that it had rained so much that it had grew over all the land, except the tallest hills. The tallest hills looked like tiny rocks. And then he went along and jumped from tiny rock to tiny rock. And then found a boxcar, except its' pieces were all falling apart. So he decided to not live in it. And then he found another boxcar that was perfect to live in. Except he did not know there was a train right next to it, but not coupled.

And then it turned to night and he made a pine needle bed in the boxcar and went to sleep quite quickly. And then a dog barked and woke him up. And then he opened the door and saw a dog with his back paw up with a big needle in it. He pulled and pulled and finally got it out. And then he made a smaller bed for the dog to sleep in and wet a handkerchief and put it in the sore. They slept good, but something went wrong. A tree fell over and fell right beside the car and make so much wind that the car went very fast down the hill. It kept going along the rail until it hit some buffers and went so fast backwards that it crashed into a train that was right in front of the boxcar when it started. It hitched up to the train. And then the boy went into the train and tried to get it moving and it finally did. It moved forward and then he kept going and going until he came to a volcano that erupted right that second. And then he tried to make the train go really, really fast to get past the volcano quickly.

What he was doing the whole time was looking for his lost sister. He finally found her and kept dancing and dancing together with his sister, Shilan. And then they lived together in the boxcar because their father and mother had died while he was gone. And they had a good time and then they had a good feeling that day. Then the boy remembered that he had left the dog where the boxcar used to be and he asked his sister to get in the boxcar and she did. And then he jumped into the train and hurried and hurried and bumped into a car full of fruit that was coupled to a people car and then he went really fast backwards to the volcano. And asked everybody to get into the boxcar and the people train. Then they went back and picked up the dog. Everybody had fun with the dog and eating a lot. They all lived happily ever after.

The End.

(Joshua has been listening to The Boxcar Children, by Gertrude Chandler Warner)