Flamingos and Family

We just got back from a trip to South Texas for the Kieschnick family reunion. It was held in in the little town of Bishop at the American Legion Hall. There were about 150 people there. We had good ole Texas BBQ with all the fixin's. I learned about some of the Kieschnick genealogy and met with some aunts and uncles I haven't seen in a while.

The kids hit it off with some of their cousins (not sure what type of cousins they are....once removed or second twice removed....I'm not sure how that works). (They found quite a bit of common ground between the Barbies and the electronic games.)

Then we spent several days with Grandma and Grandpa. We went to the Corpus Christi Botanical Gardens which was having their Flamingo Exhibit. Anyone who wanted to could enter their decorated  flamingos.

Payton's favorites were the ones from, ahem, Flamingo Lake :)

Ian liked the Star Wars flamingos. They were falling apart, but we liked the idea of them more than anything.

I liked the herd of flamingos and 'Monet and Monique'.

I also really enjoyed the plumeria trees that were in bloom.

Despite, Ian getting a little too hot and Payton getting about 15 mosquito bites on her legs, we all had a fun outing.

Ballet Camp

Last week, Payton attended a ballet camp that covered Swan Lake. She saw a video of the ballet, learned some of the dance, made crafts, and had a really nice time.

On the last day, the girls put on a little Swan Lake dance for us.

The Oceans

 Last week, we focused on the oceans and sea life. I have a big map of the world that focuses on animals and where they live, so I hung that up in a central location in the house. We learned about one ocean a day and where it was located.

So, as part of the study of sea life, we went to the Dallas World Aquarium. It was pretty cool, but not quite what I expected. When I think of aquariums, I think of huge tanks of fish and aquatic life. The first thing you see when you get to the DWA are cages of birds - don't get me wrong they're beautiful exotic birds. But birds all the same.

The first sighting of something aquatic was at the bottom of this huge atrium filled with a jungle -  a huge gray manatee. I don't know much about manatees, so Scott started to fill us in on all things manatee-an.

Despite the initial lack of aquariums, the atmosphere was pretty spectacular. I particularly like monkey island where we were eye level with the top of a tree where a mommy and baby monkey perched. I don't know what type of monkey it was....

There were alot of touch screen computers filled with animal information, but the kids didn't want to stop long enough to find the one I was interested in. Payton would take a picture of the screen and move on.

It would have taken a while to navigate the computer, so we just walked along and enjoyed the sights.

The kids thought that one of the coolest things they saw at the DWA was a diver cleaning one of the aquariums :)

My favorite was the sea dragons...

Fitness and Nutrition

Each week this summer, I'm trying to have a theme (mainly so I have something to focus on). The first week was building and measurement. The second week was VBS. This last week, I tried to focus on fitness and nutrition.  

For fitness: We learned some yoga moves. Payton and Ian both had swim lessons. Payton had basketball camp. And Ian was suppose to have indoor soccer - until he broke his wrist....

 

Payton's basketball camp was a little kinda fun to watch. The coach was a no-nonsense sort of guy that, you could tell, had taught 5 and 6 year olds intro to basketball many times. Payton learned all the lines on the court, how to throw a bounce pass, how to throw a chest pass, how to dribble, and how to shoot. On the last day they tried to put it all together. 

Payton was a little frustrated with her dribbling and she still can't get the ball up to the basket consistently, but I think she had a good time in the class. 

For nutrition: We talked about the different food groups and how much of each group we should be getting each day. I tried to emphasize the importance of vegetables (considering I have to bribe Ian to eat them and Payton won't eat them at all), but it didn't seem to phase them on bit.  Then we had a cooking day, where they helped prepare a nutritious meal - pigs in blankets and a salad.

Grandma led the bread making and pig wrapping class. I think the kids really enjoyed this part - especially kneading the dough. They were less than thrilled about making the salad and in the end didn't try the salad.....sigh.

The Cast

We went to the orthopedic doctor yesterday and Ian got a cast. He chose a lime green one - to match his shoes.

The break on his radius is a small one, but it will still take 6-8 weeks to heal. He'll have to wear the cast for 3 weeks. Then he'll get it X-rayed again and get a removable splint. While he's in the cast, he cannot get it wet. If he gets sweaty, I'm suppose to use a cool hair dryer to dry it. The techs giving Ian the cast were trying to tell me horror stories about skin getting wet, infected, and peeling off as the cast is removed. Thus, I'm a little paranoid.

Plus, whenever he eats, he still uses his casted-hand. That white stuff on his cast appears to be some type of cotton wrap. Picking up peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, picking up cut strawberries, bananas, sausage - you name it - comes in very close proximity to this white, absorbent material. Another reason for me to become a little paranoid.

I took a garden glove today and cut off the finger tips that Ian is forced to wear while consuming food :)

Yup, It's Broken.

I wasn't expecting for it to happen so soon.

You know kids usually have a broken bone here or there while growing up. I had mine when I was in sixth grade.

Ian decided to jump from his bookshelf/platform to his bed and have his first broken bone at the ripe young age of 4.

When I heard the screams, I knew it was not your usual kiss-it-and-make-it-better-injury. We watched him for a little while to see if he would start using his arm again, but nope. He cradled his left wrist in his right hand and didn't want to use his left hand at all - even to scoop ice cream into his little mouth. (Ian's left handed and if anything would have gotten him to use his left hand, ice cream would have persuaded him.)

So, Ian and I went to Acute Kids in McKinney which was the best Urgent care clinic I've been to (actually I haven't been to many others, but they were really nice!) We didn't have a long wait. We got the X-rays done there. Ian got to watch a Diego and a fishy kid's show on NickJr. while we waited. It was relatively painless.

Ian thought it was cool that he got to see pictures of his bones. And I swear he was thought it was pretty cool that he broke a bone.

The diagnosis is this: a distal radius buckle fracture. He has a temporary splint on now, and we have to follow up with an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow.

I'm just shaking my head because this is prime swimming time and I have a feeling we won't be able to be around water for 4-6 weeks! Ugh!

It's Pandamania!

God is wild about us!

We had our last day of Vacation Bible School this week. It had a Panda them. The church was covered in bamboo backdrops and pandas.

The kids had such a great time. They  are wild about the new songs they learned, about the crafts they made, and about the games they played.

I volunteered to help out at VBS and somehow got appointed to be in charge of the elementary school crafts which included kids going into 1st thru 5th grade - about 70 kids overall. I didn't have to come up with the crafts, just organize them, execute them in the time allotted, and direct the other assistants. Thank God I had an assistant that was much more like a team leader. She was awesome. Then I had four teen assistants that helped. Without them, it would have been truly chaotic. But, we survived and I think most of the kids really liked the crafts they took home. Here are some of them.

Prayer Journal

Lantern

Jonah

Whale with Jonah inside (Jonah looks like his fin in this pic)

    

Rain Stick

Ian (God made us.)

Giggle goggles (God watches over us.)

 The pandas were cute, I have to admit....

I made this lantern panda to decorate the craft room....

It even lights up :)

So, maybe next time the kids a panda they will think fondly back to VBS and some of the bible points learned there  - maybe :)