Kiddo Time

Last month Little Man and I spent one on one time together, and Little Lady spent time with her Daddy.  For Christmas Little Man received a 6 month subscription to KiwiCo.  It sends a kit once a month, and Little Man wanted to put together February's kit after we got dessert.  He chose I Am, a shaved ice place.  He loved his cookies and cream shaved ice.  

This month's kit was making a Phantom Projector.  It was a lot easier to do than we thought it would, and it was super cool.  We tried several optical illusions.  It was awesome nerdiness in a box, and we loved it. 

Here's a look inside the projector with the reflecting mirror.  We're excited to work on another KiwiCo project.  He still hasn't done January's box, so we're thinking of working on it this weekend just for fun.

Little Lady opted for a dessert and game night with her Dad.  She got frozen yogurt at Yogurtini, and then they played Jaipur & Everdell (her current favorite game).

The Family Who Knots Together Stays Together

The women at my church were getting together to make fleece blankets for an adult hospice center, and another organization that gives them to foster children.  I couldn't go to the activity, because I was working, but we decided to do them together as a family.  Both of the organizations had specific specifications for the blankets.  We made 2 adult blankets and 5 foster blankets. 

We watched old Disney movies we hadn't seen in forever while we cut and knotted the blankets.   

A Sinking and An Excavation

 

The kiddos had two days off this week for parent/teacher conferences.  We took advantage of their time off to head downtown to the River Market.  The Arabia Steamboat Museum is the perfect museum to get back into visiting places since you can't actually touch anything in this museum.  You watch 5 minutes segment movies that explain the sinking of the steamboat on the Missouri River in 1856 and then the hunt and excavation for it in 1988.  All of the recovered artifacts are behind glass.  This museum is absolutely fascinating, and the kiddos loved it.

All of the passengers made it out alive after a huge log punctured it, but all of the goods and luggage sunk.  The only casualty was the mule tied on the front deck.  All of the artifacts were perfectly preserved, so it is the largest single collection of pre-Civil War artifacts in the country.  It is incredible how many things were being carried on this steamboat. 

The kiddos had a nerdy-heaven moment.  One of the original excavators came up and started talking to them.  He gave them details about the dig and about this mule.  He also told them a story about eating one of the pickles that were still in perfect condition in one of the jars they found.  He had a very captive audience.  He gave them all kinds of nerdy facts about how the museum is built in the exact shape and size of the steamboat, including where they put the wheel. 

They loved the Thompson Company box!

Next door was a really cute candy store.  It had all kinds of bizarre and fun kinds of candy you don't normally find in a grocery store.  I read a book a while back that talked about learning to love and embrace where you live.  One of the suggestions in the book was to support locally owned businesses.  The author talked about choosing a local business and spending $50 in that store.  It's a way to help your local economy and encourage love of your hometown.  I was telling my kiddos about this idea, and of course my children were more than happy to spend $50 in a candy store.  Hahahaha.  That's not quite what I had in mind, but the museum is owned locally by the very 5 men who excavated the steamboat and the yes, the candy store is a locally-owned shop.  They each chose something from the candy store, and we talked about all the cool artifacts we saw on the way home.  The older kiddos wanted to try a bunch of crazy saltwater taffy flavors.  The little boys chose matching foxes with lollipops.  It was a great morning!

 

An Abundance of Music

We've added two more instruments in the family!  Little Guy has been begging to start violin for over a year now.  We have a rule that they have to play piano for a full year and prove that they will practice consistently and behave respectfully with the teacher before they can add another instrument.  Little Guy practices, but he was struggling in lessons with Mr. Scott for a couple of months.  Little Guy finally pulled it together in December and all of a sudden he's doing really well with piano.  He's reading his notes really well and making progress.  It was time for us to hold up our end of the bargain.  

Mrs. Alla is from Russia, and she's awesome.  Little Guy is very serious at lessons.  He REALLY wants to play.  He has a quarter-sized violin that he's decided to name November (after his birthday month).  He learned all the instrument parts and the string names at his first lesson.  We need to get him a new shoulder rest though, because his neck is longer than your average five-year old.  Alla can't get over how big his hands and neck are for his age.  She keeps thinking he's in 1st grade even though he's not even in Kindergarten yet.  

BB also asked me if he could start voice lessons.  After he heard Little Man sing in the recital he decided he really wanted to do it as well.  It's pretty wonderful to have my boys singing.  I just love their sweet voices, and it's really exciting to me that BB has made so much progress on piano that he now can play his songs for voice when he's practicing.  Little Guy asked if he could sing as well, but I told him let's focus on violin for now.  I'd prefer to wait until he can read before he starts voice lessons. 

It's a bit of musical insanity around here now.  The music room is the most coveted and fought over room in the house:

Little Man: Classical Guitar, Piano, and Voice

Little Lady: Cello, Piano, and Voice

BB: Piano and Voice

Little Guy: Piano and Violin 

It's sweet music to my ears.

What Do You See?

 Little Guy loves to "read" Brown Bear, Brown Bear to whoever will listen.  Today's (mostly) willing listener was Luna.  The look on her face is priceless.  

Children's Broadcast

 This weekend our church had a worldwide conference for all of the kiddos.  My kids loved it.  They each made their own drawing of them praying.  I love all the details they put into it.  

One Day

 Little Guy got to go to preschool for one day this week.  You can tell he was pretty excited.

A Week Later

After a week of polar vortex-like temperatures we are finally back in the positive numbers.  My children finally went back to school today for the first time in a week.  Their Valentine's parties are a week late.  I told them they should just hold out for another week and they can combine it with St. Patty's Day, but they didn't like my idea.  We've mostly huddled inside trying to stay warm.  School kept getting canceled, because of the roaming power outages in the area.  We have been lucky and haven't lost power, but we know several people who have not been quite so lucky.  

Yesterday it was finally "warm" enough that the kiddos could enjoy the new snow.  

I'm afraid to get the gas bill, but in the meantime we're thrilled that the temperature is supposed to climb above freezing by the end of tomorrow!  We will not be missing the Polar Vortex of 2021.