saturday

paper airplanes were the beginning.

which led to the MSB Soaring Into Flight kit.

which meant more airplanes designs, rockets, parachutes, and balloon helicopters.
not surprising, hmm?

 Maddie The Engineer

prehistory scenes.  now that's A Surprise!  : )

Trevy got his new pachyrhinosaurus in the mail, so, you know...

today was family Birthday Party day for Natalee of The Cousins,
so of course our time revolved around this momentous event.

somehow we managed to pass the time until early evening...

Madd wanted to get on her bike (she wants to learn two-wheeler style), so she came to get me to ask if I'd like to come and watch and take pictures.
so we all headed to the neighborhood church parkinglot for some wheel play.
Trev is getting good on the skateboard!

well - what I mean is that considering a couple of weeks ago he hadn't even ever really been on it - now he's keeping his balance while pushing, and learning to lean into and steer his board.  Awesome!
Madd didn't try out her bike after all because she was running and fell and hurt her knees, but after resting for a bit she got on her scooter - funny how that's working, too; not too long ago -like two weeks ago- she was sort of desperately "catching up" with her pushing foot, and now she uses it properly for pushing - her balance and speed are amazing on that thing.
I love seeing ability flourish!
maybe it's because with the way we learn everything, some things don't show up for a while.  :)

the wiiiii was played again.  I didn't realize 'til yesterday that it hasn't been on much (except for Netflix and Jake Long) - games have only been played two or three times in the last couple of weeks.
that's the way it goes, sometimes.

eventually Grammy came to pick us up to take us to the party.

you might like this one -
I took my Family Math book with me, I hadn't really checked it out yet - that is I hadn't made notes about games or ideas I think we'll find engaging and fun.
so I took it along with a marker so I can start making notes... a quick reference for myself.
I was going through it in the car, and saw that one of them is a game where you write down numbers in a row of boxes, and then the other players try to guess what your number is, from your saying "higher" or "lower", and they mark off the numbers with beans or buttons or something to keep track.
like the Price Is Right price-guessing game, I thought.
Hmmmm....
"Hey, Trev... wanna play a game?"
I wasn't sure if he would remember the numbers that he had mentioned, and wasn't certain of how the game would go, but I thought I'd give it a try.
We started between 1 - 25, to keep it simple.
"Okay... I have my number."
"Seventeen!"
"Lower!"...
The first few times he guessed it in three guesses.  (We all took turns at guessing and giving the clues, as we wanted.)
We moved on to 1-35, and then 1-50.
We passed most of the thirty-five minute drive to Cousins playing this game, shouting and laughing!
In fact, Grammy got in on it, and we passed our exit (by two!) and had to turn around.  :)
Trev didn't seem to have any problem remembering in what direction he was moving (higher and lower) - he narrowed the numbers down in no time.
Cool.

With Madd I played the pre-reading "I'm thinking of a farm animal that starts with the "pp" sound game.

and then just to see, I created another game, "Trev... I'm thinking of an animal with three letters that starts with the letter "D"."
Grammy got in on that, and it was funny that they were like, "Doe!"  "Deer!"  "Duck!"  (using four, just in case I had made a mistake, I guess.  : )  )
finally, after about three or four minutes of wracking their brains, Trev got "DOG!!"  :)  yup.
cool.  two new thoughtful games for the car or while waiting.  gotta love that!

so there was dinner,
and Cousin Play Love
and a lovely walk in the (almost) country.
there were Pooh Sticks
and running
and tagging
and Dragon Up!-ing.
and of course coming back for cake and icecream.

too soon! it was time for the long, sleepy drive home.

a day well lived
and well loved.