Snapshot Summary August 25-September 3, summer week 5 Our Not-Back-To-School Edition

Snapshot Summary, August 25-September 3

 Aren't these great notecards made up from one of my photos of the boys?

The weather has been beautiful this week, so we have spent some time outside.

 Quentin found an empty egg shell in the backyard.

 We went swimming at the neighborhood pool.
(Can you see the mountains in the background? The ever-present mountains are such a joy.)

 We went bike riding.

 We attracted the attention of some local residents.

 We gathered willow branches for future projects.

 James has such an eye for art in nature.

 They played spy missions on the 90 degree day.
One was to get to the little tent in the backyard without being seen by the guard with the hose.

 "Oops, I have been spotted. I better hide."

 "Did I make it to the tent without being spotted?"

 "No way!"

Forced out of the tent by the hose guard.

Quentin painted gnomes.

Quentin and I needed glasses, so we took this opportunity to learn about the eye.

It was Quentin's first time to the eye doctor.

Here are the glasses he picked out...

and here are mine. They should be here in about a week.

Katie has been keeping a journal of her adventures this summer.

 She puts all sorts of things between its pages such as pressed flowers and origami...

sketches she has drawn and even beach glass! I just know she is going to treasure this one day.

Sam finished reading the Hobbit to us and we decided to read some interesting picture books for awhile.
"Mark spends a busy, noisy day helping out at Gram's seaside hot dog stand. After the last customer is served and the grill is scrubbed to a silvery shine, Mark sails off with Gram for a promised surprise -- and finds a nighttime sea full of shimmering moonjellies." ~ from the front cover

I read them The Night of the Moonjellies since we had so recently studied jellyfish. We learned, however, that the moonjellies are not traditional jellyfish after all.

The following is a description of the moonjelly from Mark Shasta's(the author) website

The Moonjelly is a small sea creature about the size of a child's hand whose scientific name is "Ctenophore" (pronounced tee-ne-for.) Ctenophores, like many sea creatures, are bioluminescent. This means they are able to give off light through a chemical process in their bodies. It looks like a blob of clear, colorless jelly. Like true jellyfish, ctenophores are invertebrates and made up mostly of water. But ctenophores are not true jellyfish because they do not have stinging cells. The harmless moonjelly is actually a species of zooplankton. For those who really know their sea creatures "Comb Jelly" is the most common name for these discreet creatures. There is a true jellyfish in the sea with the name “Moon Jellyfish," but these are not the moonjellies of the book.

source

"Along the beach I picked up pieces of sea glass, worn and rounded by the ocean. Then I found something that felt like jelly. I put it in the plastic bag with the sea glass, poured in some seawater and ran the rest of the way to Mar-Gra's." 

What better treat to have with this book than sea glass candy?

We also read Truman's Aunt Farm. 
Truman sends in a coupon, which was a gift from his Aunt Fran, for an ant farm, but instead of ants, he gets aunts! He feeds and cares for them, watches them work and play, and finally finds homes for them. In the end, he and his very own Aunt Fran share a special day. 

We have studied ant on a few different occasions, (the class I did for Sam at co-op, our garden mural project, ant farm nature study) so we decided not to do any ant studies...

 but we did have jelly sandwiches and rice pudding for lunch...

 and a picnic dinner featuring little hot dogs...

 overlooking the lake at Warriors Path State Park.

 We had ant hill cupcakes for dessert. Quentin made the little toothpick insects.

 See the chocolate sprinkles ants.

 Then we went to my very favorite place in the whole world...

 and walked in the stream...

 while everyone else attended to their individual pursuits.

 Quentin's glasses came in on Friday, which has opened a whole new world for him.

This is his first look at the world with his new glasses.
We had no idea that he couldn't see well at a distance. It was just picked up at a regular check-up screening.
He was amazed that he could see individual leaves on the tree in a distance as before it was always a shapeless blob of green.

 On Saturday Katie and Sam took Quentin and James paddle-boating...

 while Steven, Alex and I enjoyed the stream and playground.

Later that afternoon, the same four went bike riding on the Kingsport Greenbelt, a paved biking trail that runs  beside a stream.

 The kids to the Covered Bridge to feed the ducks and geese.

 Afterwards they came back to to make buttons.