Weekend of Indoor Fun

I've never really suffered from allergies. Until Georgia. I'm not suffering as much as my children, but my eyes are dry and itchy and every so often my throat feels a little raw. The kids, however, have been learning fun phrases like "do you have a frog in your throat?" and "you sound like you're hacking up a lung!" Since you could see the pollen in the air the last few days of last week, I decided to stay in this weekend.


We stayed in our jammies and enjoyed all sorts of fun and relaxation inside. Jace and Gracie were pretty understanding about this, but Tyler...he wanted one thing. "Ow...ow..." That sound could be because he racked his head on the wall (which he did tonight), you're holding him and he wants to get down (although he's been saying "walk" more than "down" lately), out, or car. This weekend it surely meant out. Poor little guy went to every door, pointing in his cute, new jammies, with boogers running down his face, begging, "Ow...ow..." He never got to go out.

Hopefully this week the allergens won't be so bad and we can have tons of outdoor fun!

Grandma asked if I'd taken a picture of my little beggar. I didn't get one with whining and boogers, but here he is saying, "cheese" for the camera!


So, since I was being a mean mama (or thoughtful, depending on how you look at it) and keeping the kids inside, what did we do? Well, we watched movies, some cartoons, baked cookies and ate them, painted, colored, read, and napped. It was a wonderful weekend.


The kids have already drawn a dozen pictures for Dada. He's been gone for two days. They're enjoying themselves, though. And if it helps them to draw Dada in Army camo when they miss him, far be it from me to mention that he's actually in the Navy. Besides, there was enough correction going on. Gracie, as the teacher, suggested that Jace draw his Army picture on purple paper.


"I don't think so. Purple is not an army color." He drew his on orange instead.

The kids did most of their coloring at their new lap desks. Since we're going to be on the road for approximately 80 hours of driving, not including stops, over the next few months I thought it might be nice for the kids to have an easy way to work in workbooks, draw pictures, read. they love them and have been using them at home a ton!




Jace even hid his CRCT (assessment test) practice at his the other day! These are going to be great not only for the road but also for homeschooling! woo hoo!



I mentioned that we read too. Jace got yet another book from the library that is probably too old for him. It's called Good Bye, Billy Radish by Gloria Skurzynski. I googled it and read a few reviews. It's called a young adult novel. It's a 5.8 level book, meaning it's almost 6th grade reading level. I decided we'd read it together. We've read two chapters now and he's learned lots of new words. Today's chapter was a little sad. Hank, Billy's friend, had to take his brother a dinner pail at the steel mill. (The book takes place during WWI in Pennsylvania.) While he's there a ladle of molten steel breaks and a man melts into the liquid steel. Thankfully we didn't read this right before bed. (whew!) We talked about it a little and if Jace ends up having nightmares then we'll put the book back on the shelf and leave it to read another day...a few years from now. But if he's OK with it, we'll continue reading.


And don't worry, we read lots of other books too. All the kids piled on Mama and I tried to read about trucks, animals, and Fancy Nancy amidst the elbows in my kidneys and the hands in my face.


Let's hope for some clean, fresh air this week, though! We also played hide and seek and there are so many more places to hide outside!