February 27, 2010
Day Trip To Cadillac

Paul enjoys spending time on the DNR website looking for new and exciting things to do and places to visit. This time he discovered the State Park in Cadillac was offering free dogsledding for the kids. It was snowy and cold, but a beautiful winter day just the same. So, we loaded up the truck and headed up north. The kids had a great time and would love to do it again sometime.

Allison and Gabrielle wait for the sledding to begin.

Sam and Gabrielle went first

followed by Nicholas and Allison

After the dogsledding - they got a chance to do some computerized skeet shooting.

We also got free hot chocolate and cookies to warm up when we came inside.

February 18, 2010
The Spoiled Brat

Nicholas had to present a Shel Silverstein poem in front of his class. They were supposed to be as creatives as possible in their use of props, etc. At first Nicholas wanted to take the easy way out and just read his poem, but with a little prodding he let his imagination take over. We checked with his teacher and found out that it would be OK to use his sister as one of his props. Allison was the spoiled brat. The more we practiced at home - the Gabrielle and Sam wanted to take turns as well. By the time, he presented it to his class he did the presentation twice - once with Sam and once with Allison. Allison did a wonderful job - but the sound on the video didn't turn out very well. The run through with Sam however, had better sound and ended with a hilarious moment where I actually had tears running down my face from laughing so hard.

The Spoiled Brat by Shel Silverstein
The spoiled brat cut a hole in her hat,
The spoiled brat put a coat on the cat,
The spoiled brat got into a spat
‘Bout whether a rodent’s a mouse or a rat.

The spoiled brat broke a bike with her bat,
The spoiled brat told the policeman to scat,
The spoiled brat told her sister was fat,
And sat on her birthday cake ‘til it was flat.

The spoiled brat, she cusses and she spat,
The spoiled brat pulled the wings off a gnat,
The spoiled brat fell into a vat,
Got cooked up for dinner and that was that.

But in spite of the pepper,
The salt and the sage,
The onions and garlic and oil,
Nobody would touch
A bite of that brat
Because she was so spoiled.

February 1, 2010
Off to Space we go

Allison, Sam and I go to story time at the library every Monday morning.
We read several books, sing a few songs and do a craft.
This week we talked about space and they made a rocket ship.
The rocket ship was made by recycling Crystal Light canisters and adding a cone on the top and fins on the side. Then they decorated their rocket with stickers.
It was such a cute craft that the director gave me extras to take home. When Nicholas and Gabrielle got home from school they were very excited to hear that they could make one too.
Here they are with their finished projects.