Dissection

Do you wanna know what that is in the picture?...that reminds me of a movie line..."Do you know what that is highness? That is the sound of the shrieking eels." (name the movie). Anyway, we had a night theme goin' on for home school and had been talking about owls. Come to find out, Hickman Charter had owl pellets available (sanitized, I might add) so I thought that might be really cool for the kids to see. For those of you who are unaware, an owl pellet is a regurgiated mass of undigested parts of whatever the owl ate. Yes, I have to admit, it was kinda gross...fur and bones all over my kitchen table left me seriously sanitizing when we were through. But, it was also very interesting...and possibly even fun! Anyway...here's what it looked like when we started:

And here's the best we could do at separating things out. I should have put a ruler with this picture so you could tell how teeny all these bones were. It's a miracle we managed to get this much out without snapping them all into even smaller fragments!
They gave us a diagram with the pellets so we could figure out what kind of animal skeleton we were looking at...turns out ours was a mouse. Surprise surprise. The other things on the diagram were: bird, mole and rat. I was really hoping for a bird or mole...just something less ordinary.
Jemma diggin' fur out of the skull.

There it is all cleaned up!

And, another shot.

We had to soak some of the bones in water for a while so the fur and what not could be scraped off/out easier...here's Carter keeping an eye on things.

And, after the dissection was all over (and CLEANED up) we painted owl masks.

Gavin had gotten up from his nap at this point and was permitted to join in the fun. NO, I did not let him participate in the dissection. Can you imagine the mess he would have made!?!?!

Side note: I really need to make these kids some art smocks...I have a pattern and gobs of fabric. Now all I need is time. ;)

Airplane Museum

During Brandon's last break ( yes, that was 6 weeks ago...) we went to an old air force base to see what is now an airplane museum. It was impressive. TONS and TONS of aircraft. And better yet, they're old aircraft with tons of history behind them.

It was RAINING (that's in caps because it wasn't just a little drizzle...it was really raining, and all the planes were outside...and we're dorks and didn't bring umbrellas...), but the kids were good sports so we walked around in the rain for almost an hour checkin' things out.

Cool helicopter. These look like they would be scary to fly...not a whole lot in front of you.
Takin' a break in a gazebo to escape the rain. Carter looks ticked...it's been so long now that I don't remember why...it's possible he didn't want to sit on that railing.

I thought this 750lb. bomb was pretty impressive...

...until we came to this plane and saw...

...this explanation...

...about this big ol' bomb. 42,500 lbs. makes 750 lbs. sound like nuttin'. Kinda scary stuff if you ask me...and this baby is from the Cold War. Makes me a bit nervous about what kind of bombs they've got now.

There was lots of space to run around out there. So, the kids did...

...and Gavin tripped and face planted right in a pile of dirt. Awesome.

All in all, we had a great time ckeckin' out all the planes, and don't worry; we got the dirt washed out of Gavin's mouth. ;)

Mischief Maker

Dear Gavin,
You're taking your afternoon nap right now. The house is resting too. When you're awake, nothing is safe. So, (internal sigh of relief), for the next hour and a half, there will be peace. :) Here's a little peek into some of the stuff you do EVERY DAY, ALL DAY LONG.

Play in the Vaseline.

Fling margarine all over the kitchen...

and smear it all over the inside of the fridge. (I guess I can be grateful you did this with the cheap stuff and not with real butter...one whole pound of margarine smeared all over the kitchen, fridge and you = 45 minutes of de-greasing. You owe me big.)

Innocent and adorable toddler play - you LOVE to be outside,

and in the bath, but you leave the bathroom floor completely covered in H2O by the time you're done. Splash-oholic.

You LOVE a good bowl of ice cream,

and putting on your daddy's deodorant.

Coloring is no fun if you have to do it on paper, so you color on the floor and walls and yourself.

If I can't find you, you're sure to be in garage or in the kitchen...and if it's the latter, I'm sure to find a disaster.

But when you do make a mess, you're happy to help clean it up,

and I guess that helps me keep my cupboards a little more organized.

You wear me out little man, but I can't imagine our family without you.

ps. You recently learned to get out of your crib, so, at 21 months you are sleeping (like a champ) in your toddler bed. Youngest of all our children yet. Jemma and Carter were pretty proud of you, and I'm pretty sure you thought you were big stuff too...here's a little video of you in action, mischief maker.