Saturday, September 17, 2016

Big Trucks and Wild Rice Festival

What a busy day we had today.  I am not sure if we spent more than a few hours at home.  The day started with tumbling and dance lessons followed by a "Big Trucks" activity.  Then we were off to the wild rice festival in Roseville, came home for a quick nap.  Next we were off to church followed by a birthday party for our next door neighbor, Prince. 

As for gymnastics, Ani worked on hanging from the uneven bars.  Last year she was unable to hang but now she has much more upper body strength and loves the challenge of holding on for as long as her arms will let her.  Emma is happily learning her new dance moves for her "Under the Sea" performance in December.  I think being Ariel is a dream come true for Emma.  Disney music will definitely be heard in our house this fall.

After we finished up morning lessons, we headed to the "Big Truck" show.  When we first arrived, Analise was afriad to board some of the "Big Trucks."  However, after she saw Emma climb on a few, she was ready to give it a try.  Our first stop was the garbage truck.  This was followed by the tractor, snow plow, fire truck, ambulance, Bobcat and school bus.  Mommy wanted Emma and Ani to get in the really large digger but it was a bit intimidating and there was a long line.  Emma decided that her favorite truck was the ambulance which she visited multiple times.  Ani seemed to really like the snow plow and its walkie-talkie system.






The Wild Rice Festival proved to be an interesting event as well.  Here we saw Native American dancing, created gigantic bubbles with pvc pipes and string, saw how they press apple cider, watched a demonstration of how to extract honey from the honey comb, saw the different stages wild rice goes through as it is processed, checked out some buffalo skulls and learned about some special horses that work with police officers.



Perhaps the best part of the day was Prince's birthday equipped with a personal jump castle, gigantic slide and lots of outdoor lights.  The girls loved meeting new friends and running all over the backyard for his party.  By the time the day was wrapping up, both girls were exhausted.  Tomorrow will probably be less eventful with our new dryer coming in and perhaps some apple picking at the orchard. 

Ani's First Weeks In Children's House

Analise recently moved up to Children's House and is enjoying all the sensory exploration and math activities that her teacher has presented to her.  In the past two weeks, Ani has learned how to make her own snack, how to wash her own dishes, how to find interesting work and has received many grace and courtesy lessons (how to give or ask for a hug, how to walk around someone else's work, how to ask for help, etc.).  In terms of sensory and math experiences, Ani has been learning how to pour beans without spilling, how to pull rubber bands to make a variety of shapes, how to stack cubes based on size (the Pink Tower), and how to organize cylinders based on length, width and height. 

Analise's teacher Na says that Ani shows a high level of concentration when she works.  She will stick with a task for a long period of time.  She also loves the class bird, Coconut and feeding the fish. 

 Bean pouring
 Pouring water
 Using funnels

 Rubber band shapes
 Shelling pods for snack
 Grading with one dimension (length, width or height)
Grading with multiple dimensions (volume)

Monday, September 5, 2016

First Camping Trip

Over Labor Day weekend, we decided to organize our first camping trip with the girls.  We went to Lake Elmo with a plan to stay the night only to find out that severe storms were coming through.  So we stayed long enough to swim at the beach, observe at the archery range, set up the tent, grill some burgers and sing some songs.  The girls both had a chance to try out their sleeping bags in the tent before we packed it up again.  Carolyn and Brian came out to enjoy the evening with us.  It was a good thing we chose a spot that was on fifteen minutes from our house.

We will make our next attempt at sleeping in the tent in our backyard next weekend (provided it is sunny).  This will also let us know if we need to bring two separate tents or if we can manage sleeping in one.