today we got up early and headed down to Tucson to help Steve and Tasha (Dave's brother and his wife) move from their rental to their very first house.  The house is SO cute.  I didn't get a picture of the house.  But once the moving van was all cleaned out, I thought about taking pictures.  Nice timing, eh?

Sloane even managed to talk Aunt Tasha out of a few pieces of jewelry ~ like this really cool butterfly barret.  Thanks Aunt Tasha!!  Sloane loves all the pieces she lifted from you.  :o)  And Thanks Steve for the Margarita Agave.  She is loving the spot I chose for her in the yard.

We went for a walk to Walton Park today and Sloane practiced hanging and getting up on the bar...

Then Quinn and Sloane found worms in the wet soil.  With all this rain we have been getting, the worms come out for a bit of sun.  The kids thought that was pretty neat.

Here's Sloane looking for more worms.

Quinn, John and Keegan got a little see-sawing in.

Park Day by ourselves

Today was a gorgeous day.  Everything was fresh and new from the gobs of rain we got last night.  It has been AGES since we've seen rain.  

Anyway, all the other members of our homeschool group backed out of park day so we decided to go out and enjoy the day.  And what fun we had!  The kids played together and laughed.  I love it when we can play together

Early morning walks

We are still walking Emma in the mornings.  And the kids' favorite place to stop is Walton Park.  Sloane loves the bar to hang from.

The kids were digging in the wood chips and found lots of worms that are coming to the surface from the rain.  Sloane thought that was pretty cool.  She wanted to bring them home.  I had to do some pretty tall talking to get her to leave them there.

The reason they were digging in the wood chips is because Quinn was making a house with a garage.  He is forever building, and pretending to live in his creations.  He is so his daddy!

Fun Monday

Today was a fun filled day. First, we went to our regular Monday park day a little early to attend a cool Mad Science class. The picture below with all the kids at the table was taken before everybody got there. We had about 10 families attend which was 30 kids. Great turn-out ~ GREAT class!

The first experiment was a mixture of cornstarch and water. Then everybody got to take turns HITTING the mixture to see what would happen. As it turns out, your fist bounces off of the mixture. But if you stick your finger in, your finger goes right in and gets messy. ewww!

Next, they made green slime. That was so fun to watch everybody get excited as it thickened up.

After Mad Science, we quickly got a bite to eat and headed across town to our part I pottery class. We even ran into 4 friends that we didn't know would be there. Below, the kids have just gotten their clay and they are pounding away on it to get it pliable.

Now they have made a ball nice and smooth to begin their first project ~ a pinch bowl.

Here is Quinn, working away on his.

Ta-da! Here is his first one.

Now, he has put some stars on the outside to jazz it up a bit.

Quinn's second bowl has stamps on the inside along with his name and a picture of something I can't remember right now.

Here is Sloane's mug. She put a couple of flowers and a star on the outside...

and stamped her name on the inside. I can't wait to see these when they are finished. In two weeks we go back. They will have been fired and ready to paint. Then they will be fired once more and we will get them a week later. Check back for updates...

Today we went to the Desert Botanical Garden. We started off by joining a tour. It was 45 minutes long and full of cool information.

They gave the kids a scavenger hunt of things to find in the gardens with a prize at the end.

Sloane loved this delicate little flowers on the cacti. I think she like any kind of flowers. ;o)
Here is our Gamers group that we went with. Usually we get together at one of the houses on Fridays to play video games, X-Box 360, computer games, trampoline, make-believe and anything else they can dream up. But today, we ventured out of the house to get some fresh air and check out the local plants native to our region.

On our way out, I stopped the kids to get this photo with a Chihuly. They are so beautiful. These are the only ones left after a giant Chihuly exhibit last year.

Gettin' back on the horse

It's been a while (a LONG while) since I've posted anything here. I guess I was on a hiatus. But now we're back and you'll have to see all the fun things we've been up to.

Poor Emma (the dog) has been needing to go on walks and we just have not been good owners. But we are turning over a new leaf this year. It has been almost two weeks and she has gotten a walk and sometimes two walks every day. She is so much happier! And she is slimming down. Yay! for Emma and Yay for us!!!

While we are on our walks with Emma, we stop at Walton Park to play. The other day we found a flat soccor ball. But the flatness didn't bother the kids at all. They kicked it around for quite some time while I walked Emma around the field.

Next stop on a different day was the playground. The kids love to climb and use the monkeybars.

Marble Run

Today the kids were playing with the marble blocks.  It was fun to watch them figure it out together.  I think they liked watching the marbles go down just as much as building the tower.

Skate boarding

Sloane has decided to skate with Quinn since we spend so much time at the skatepark.  Check her out!

Bug Class

One of the mom's in our Friday homeschool group is an entomologist.  She offered to give bug classes to the kids.  Well, we were thrilled!  On this particular day, the kids got to make ants out of marshmallows and toothpicks.  

I think Quinn's looks a lot like a snowman.

Matthew's is pretty cool...Treyson has a different take on ants.  :o)  He is

going to eat his ant!

Next, we made ants on logs.  (celery with peanut butter and raisins)

This was fun-filled day.  At the end, we made mazes for our rolly polly (potato bugs) to go through.