Math Night

Last night Mica's school had a math night event.

It started with pizza in the gym. I chopped up celery and clementines to take with. Then they had salad to boot. It was mostly iceberg lettuce. I've gotten in the habit of taking extra veggies and fruit when we go to school events and sometimes even out to eat. Isaak ate all his pizza, which he usually doesn't.

Everyone working at the event had a number on their shirt. If Mica asked them what their number meant, he got both an explanation of the number and a slip of paper. He then could write his name on the slip and turn it into a table full of prizes. He was pretty shy about asking anyone about their number at first. I had to push him a little. He's no where near as shy as I was at that age!

After that we had some choices to make. Many rooms were filled with different activities. Mica chose art first. Isaak really got into a tub of mosaic wooden shapes. The art teacher printed out coloring sheets, laminated them and the kids could fill them with mosaic patterns. They looked like this:

Source

 Melissa and Doug makes a fancier one like this:

Source

It's a birthday idea for Isaak. I never know if I should go for the cheaper item (since he had fun with it anyhow), or go more expensive? Melissa and Doug's version is around $30 as to where the other generic one is $10.

We had a good talk with Mica's art teacher. She seems VERY NICE!!! As Daddy says, "Not teachery!" To him some teachers seem stuck up, like they know more then most. They have a high pitch, looking down at you kind of voice. Luckily Mica's teachers seem down to earth and not "teachery!"

Mica drew a picture of Batman and Spider-man, while Isaak did his mosaic.

Next we went into the Science room. They had bins of colored marshmallows and tooth picks. The whole idea was to put 3D shapes together. Mica build a 3D triangle and then a bridge that went from one desk to another. Isaak sat around talking about how he wanted to eat the marshmallows. We kept telling him, "NO!" because people's hands were touching them all evening.

Next we went to the food room. In there they got to count how many teaspoons of dried rice and sugar filled up a cup. Isaak really loved that! Then they got to measure different things to make a trail mix to take home. Both boys LOVED that. One thing our boys do well is EAT!

They called Mica's name off 3 times to win things on the intercom. That was fun for him! I know he picked a checkerboard, Toy Story card games and I can't remember the other thing. Mica was so excited he was running around telling everyone, "I won three things!" Daddy got after him because it's bragging. I know that wasn't his intent. He was really just excited. It appears as bragging to others.

It was a fun night.

Day at the Park

Yesterday I volunteered to take my two nephew's Evan and Elijah off my sister's hands. We went to a near by park.

Right away the kid's shouted out, "Isaak's the monster!" Isaak was running around making monster noises at the other kids. I can't stand that they do this! I told all the kids that we're not going to have a "Bad Guy" or "Monster" today! I then took Isaak to a swing to get his mind off of being a monster.

While I was pushing Isaak on the swing, and watching the other boy's play, they quickly had nominated Cousin Evan to be the tornado! He had an orange ribbon thing he had gotten from VBS, and was swinging it around like a tornado. The other kids were running in what they called "The basement," which was the lower level of the play area. There always seems to be a "Bad Guy" in the group. I suppose it's not any different then playing tag and saying, "You're it!" No one wants to be "It". Isaak always is picked to be the "Monster" or "Bad Guy" in this group of 4 boy's. I don't like it one bit!

Here's Evan and his version of a tornado. At least it's more creative then "Bad Guy" or "Monster!" I'm sure this was really great for Mica's fear of storms. Knowing him, it was probably his idea.

I let them run off lots of energy! That's kind of the goal in taking these boy's out of the house! Mica and Cousin Evan are in the grass. Isaak and Cousin Elijah are on the man made ground.

Then we went for a walk to see ducks and went across a bridge. Whenever I see boy's on a bridge playing, no matter what age they are I think of the movie Stand By Me.

Mica kept running back and forth. The other boy's found and branch, broke it apart to push it through the fence. They had fun!

Then we went to a near by learning store. Mainly we talked about what we had at home already and what they'd like to have. It started to sprinkle, so we went back to Aunt Terra's house.

The boy's played good. I think they miss each other. Cousin Ethan showed up (he's in 6th grade) and belongs to Aunt Angela. He gives Cousin Evan and Mica hammy down toys. They were both ecstatic to get a new to them Transformer!

That evening we turned around and went for a walk to yet another park; where Mica will be going to school. They just got all new equipment. The boy's were really excited to play! It was fun to watch.