wednesday : well now. that's better.

music

starfall

cool math games

music!


or musical chaos. whatever. :)

bubbles.

a concert of sorts.
I don't know the songs Maddie sang.
I sang and danced Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
And let me just tell you -since you have no way of knowing- that my three (only) true talents in life are being able to spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious really, really quickly (out loud), saying the alphabet backwards,
and rolling my tongue and whistling- whereupon I sound like a tugboat.
There you have it.
Jakub sang Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, and The Itsy Bitsy Spider.

outside.
raking and swinging and throwing and finding.



"Let's play Totally Tut!
And then Operation.
And then The Amazing Mammoth Hunt Game."
"Sure!" blinked his mama.

I haven't really given a heads up on these, yet, so I guess I'll do that, now.
I love Totally Tut!! And Trev does, too, obviously, as it's in our "play it every day" rotation. It's an equations game - you draw a number to be at the top of your pyramid - say, "12". Then you have five numbers on your tray. the top row is for two numbers; "17 - 5", or "6 + 6", whatever.
The next row is for three numbers - the plus, minus, times, and divide symbols may be used freely as you choose.
For the last row you must use four numbers to reach your sum.
You spin the center dial to see if you "draw", "steal", don't take a new number, etc, and then after you are done with your moves (you must complete the entire line at a time, and equal your sum), then you draw another tile as your turn finishes.
It's fifty points for the win of each pyramid, and we play to 100 points.
Really, really fun. And engaging. :)


While the babes played Operation, I set up the Mammoth game.



I didn't review this right away, as I wasn't sure if it was going to be a hit. It's a bit slow moving, and I didn't know how much my children were going to love learning geography this way.
When we played today, Trev said it was his favorite game. I think it's because he's gotten really good at it!
There are six people you can choose from- archaeologist, photographer, naturalist, biologist, journalist, and... oh, yeah--explorer. All of them are different colors so you can tell who's who.
We play with the board, and don't really bother with the coins, as I'm perfectly willing to give my children hints about where they should be looking or guessing.
You can buy "a clue" with a coin, but the clue only gets you to the right continent, so not really worth much, in my book.
Anyway - you travel around the board, landing on the outside spaces. Example: Your landing space says "Kenya", so you choose which square is pointing to Kenya. If you're wrong, you cover it back up. If you're right, you collect that little card covering it, and get the points.
If someone lands on a Golden Mammoth, they can challenge you to a roll of the dice, if they roll higher, they get to swipe one of your little Mammoth squares that you've earned for guessing correctly, or knowing where the country is.
Today Trev's first landing space was Singapore... and he knew right where it was. Who the hell knows where Singapore is!?! says the lady who so obviously does not. :)
Maddie plays with us, but drifts in and out, as she chooses.
There is another part to the game that involves the cards and animals instead of the game board, but we haven't played that, yet, and I'm not even sure how. Someday!
Regardless - a success!

more music.
organ for Jakub,


while Madd was "teaching Piano" to her friends in her room.

jump.

computer play.

open doors and windows

breathing.
aaaah.

Paint!!
with Vivaldi's 4 Seasons.



I've had the idea for a while that I wanted to square off large pieces of paper, and paint a section at a time, while listening to The 4 Seasons. Color, rhythm, strokes... all according to how the music inspired or made us feel.


more winter.
and summer.


a walk.

wait...
make that A Trip To The Park.

which meant...
a half-mile or so walk
er - or scoot.
or ride in the wagon.
you know... depending.



and running and running
and ducks.
and playground play.
and swingin'.
and doooooowwwwwwn the hill.
Well!!!


so uuuuuuup the hill.
and doooowwwwn again.
and up.
and down.
and up!
and down.
et cetera, et cetera.

leave the park.

to return home.

where there's an hour or so of Complete Chaos.
but... well...

[ahem]
a vast improvement, that lone hour.

still!
I shall swear to the end
that
Life, indeed, is fine, fine, fine.