Saturday: strawberries

We went to pick strawberries this morning.  We almost didn't go because it finally rained last night and it looked like there might be a little more rain coming.  The boys decided that they still wanted to go.

Isaac had his winter boots on, and it was a good thing.  There were dryish paths, but I don't think I could have kept two kids' feet mostly not wet.  It didn't rain while we were there, so that was nice too.

We didn't get a ton of strawberries, but it was still a nice outing.  And these strawberries are delicious!!  It was well worth the trip.

We gave Ben his Father's Day present early.  (It was Legos, of course.)  So we spent more time in the basement working on our sets.

Friday: this and that

Isaac made a duplo machine this morning while I was making curry.
(Joshua is playing on a big piece of brown paper in the background.)


Then we went to close beach.  We took a kayak, which was really a rather nice way to get there.  We almost left after about a half hour because I was done playing "look for tiny rocks in this big bucket of sand."  However, the boys started pouring water into a hole near the top of the beach and watching how it went down.  Then Isaac made some channels.  An hour later we finally left for home.

We received a delivery and the box was coming apart.  I finished taking the box apart to make sure all the pieces where there (they were).  The boys can't resist the lure of a box though.

Thursday: rumba

Isaac finally finished cleaning his room for the week (although to be fair, it was a weird week).  So it was time to rumba.

Isaac was excited to play "keep away from the rumba."  He invited Joshua to come play too.  They closed the door.

Fifteen minutes later I hear, "Joshua, do you want to ride the rumba?"  I went down to the basement.

Fifteen more minutes pass, and they come out of the room.  Isaac's hair is wet; he played "keep away from the rumba" so hard that he got all sweaty.

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Joshua got to see Dad before picking up Isaac at science camp.  He got to see the robot wheel, something that we had told the kids last time that they might never get to see.  (The accelerator is now called "robot wheel," because that's apparently the coolest part of it.)  When the robot wheel moved, his mouth opened in amazement.  Then he got to move the robot wheel with the buttons.  He proceeded to take advantage of the time without Isaac by asking what every piece of equipment did.

Isaac was very jealous that Joshua got to see the robot wheel and he didn't.

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Aunt C stopped by to add some more flowers.  She hollered goodbye to Isaac.  Isaac ran outside to find her and they talked for a while on the porch.

Wednesday: Joshua's special thing

We looked for my dad again today before we picked Isaac up from camp.  He was gone, so we continued on our way.  (I'll admit, it would have been nice to see him, but I think Joshua really likes to push the buttons on the elevator without his brother.)  We stopped by the VanKley musuem to look at the fish.  There was someone inside, so we got to go in.

Amanda: Look at me.
Joshua: all the fish are looking at you!

Do you see all three Nemos?

Here they are again.

We looked at the other animals too but didn't spend much time as it was about time to get Isaac.

Isaac: today we got to use chemicals.  Real chemicals!
Amanda: really?  Did you use them or the teachers?
Isaac: I did!
Amanda: what did you use?
Isaac: lemon juice, milk, dish soap.  We put a piece of paper in them
Amanda: oh, did you test the pH?
Isaac: what's pH?
Hmm...hopefully they just used different terminology and it wasn't that Isaac completely missed what was going on. :D

Tuesday: afternoon

Isaac has a chemistry science camp at Hope most afternoons this week; that's his special afternoon activity.

Joshua's special afternoon treat has been going say hi to Dad after dropping off Isaac.  We found Dad yesterday, but not today.  So we tried again after picking up Isaac.  We managed to find him and both boys got a treat and got to push assorted buttons for the accelerator.

Monday: the day

This morning we had a pest inspector come to look in the attic; a few night ago I heard an animal.  The boys were interested in what she was doing, and she said she was going to see if there were any animals in the attic.  Joshua said, "Monkeys?" with a hopeful lilt.  "No," she replied, "although that would make my job more interesting."  "Elephants?" Joshua tried next.  "I think those would probably have fallen through the ceiling," she responded.

It turns out we have some bats.  Not many.  Good since bats aren't too bad for anything, but they're rather expensive to get rid of.

We played outside for a bit after that.  Joshua wanted to bounce some balls.  Isaac made an elaborate sidewalk chalk obstacle course.

There were lots of lasers, arrows and bombs to jump over.  Then there was a section where I had to answer jokes correctly.  Things like, "how did the chicken cross the road?"  (It flew.  I got it wrong.)  "How did the chicken get in a jam jar?" (It got jammed.  I got it wrong on a technicality.)  "How did the chicken get on top of the house?"  (It jumped.  I received partial credit for saying it flew.)  I eventually only responded with "it flew" and so the questions changed so that I gave the right answer.  Then I had to do the chicken dance before I reached the end.

What else...Isaac has a science camp this week.  He seemed to enjoy the first of four days.  (Although he was sad not to get quiet time and ipad time today.)

Sunday: Legos 2

Here's the quarry Ben made for the digger a while back.  We've moved most of the sets to a different area, but wanted to get a video of it even if the digger wasn't there.  (Ben and I have been taking pieces from it for the various sets we're putting together.  So far we've managed to get it back together, but there will be a day it doesn't work.)

Here are Isaac's machines.  When you only have a few together they work well; when we tried to put them all together it was just a little much.  Maybe we'll make them again when he's older and can fiddle with them a bit more.  (The video isn't great.)

Ben finished the Saturn 5 rocket.  It was supposed to be a gift for him, but we have two boys that like to do Legos too.  However, it worked out really well...there was a lot of repetition, so Ben did two parts and Isaac would do two parts of the same thing.  Ben found it very interesting to put together.

(We've cleaned up recently, but you can see some bins in the background.  We finally gave in and sorted all the Legos by color.)

Joshua has enjoyed helping me, although we haven't spent as much time working on ours.

And one more of Joshua helping Ben.