Odds and Ends

I have a bunch of new pictures to post, so I'm splitting them into 5 separate posts.  I'll start with some odds and ends...

Back at the end of March we had a strange day.  There was this wet stuff coming out of the sky.  Not only did it rain, it rained down all day.  We didn't know what to do with ourselves.  Caroline's game got cancelled.  We couldn't play outside.  Nothing.  We were all shocked.  We haven't had much rain for about 4 years now, and never it seems for a whole day, especially on a weekend.  Forest fires are getting worse (as I write this the smell of smoke is drifting into the house.  For the first time ash is floating around like snowflakes.  Very weird and horrible.) and the ponds are so low that fountains can't run.  For a change of scenery, the kids set up an iPod viewing station on the old big wheel.

One day after school, Kevin asked to do his workbook to be just like Caroline doing her homework.  I had bought a couple workbooks for him a while ago so that he could work on writing his letters and such while Caroline did her homework.  He threw a fit, so I let him go on and play.  But this day, he begged to do his workbook.  I let him pick the page he would do.  He picked "K" of course.  Then he asked to do more!  I couldn't believe it.

The kids have also been excited to play with water outside.  This particular day they broke out the sprinkler.  Sorry I'm so far away for these shots.  The sprinkler has a powerful stream and I was trying to save the camera.

Kevin, still not a fan of getting his face wet!  Caroline having a ball!

I had found some cute shoes for Caroline while she was at school.  When she got home, she was excited to try them on along with some nice spring clothes.  Doesn't she look all grown up?

At Caroline's school, they started a program called the Principal's Club.  The kids have from January until the end of April to get all of their addition and subtraction math facts mastered.  Caroline quickly passed through them.  The kids that finished continued to take mixed addition and subtraction tests, and Caroline got bored, so she asked her teacher if she could start multiplication (they still have not learned this in school).  She blew through these too.  Last Tuesday, she decided to start division (she is the furthest ahead).  She came home from school on Wednesday after mastering 1's and 2's, and decided she was going to learn all of the rest through 10.  She made a chart like she has at school.  Caroline went through her flash cards and passed all of the tests.  She was so excited and proud of herself.  Tom and I are so proud of her too.

We bought water balloons to make a craft for Easter and had some extra water balloons.  The kids were excited to go out and have a water balloon fight.

Most of the balloons didn't hit their intended target, and the ones that did hit, bounced off and exploded in the air in front of them.  Caroline was disappointed she didn't really get wet.  In fact I think I was the one who got most wet from filling them up!  They still had fun trying though!