18 March 2011

Weekly Wrap-Up: Zoo Field Trip!!!!

It has been a good week here. Lots of packing has been accomplished. I'm already sick of having STUFF everywhere, but this too shall pass. It will surely provide motivation to get everything unpacked once we are moved! I want to give a shout-out to my fantastic, amazing, helpful mother-in-law for helping to pack my kitchen this week (I sat aside the things we'll need for the next couple weeks). She's coming back to help again soon too, and I couldn't be more grateful.

School is pretty much routine right now. I'm doing very little direct instruction outside of math and reading(no history or science right now). The kids are plugging away at their independent work beautifully. We're finishing our read-aloud soon. The weather has been great, so the kids have spent lots of times outdoors, which is so much more important sometimes. Next week will probably be very similar, and then I'll disappear from the weekly wrap-up for a week since April 1st is moving day.

Around the house this week, I managed to squeeze in making a double batch of laundry detergent. That should last us a couple months. I'm using citrus castile in my detergent right now. It smells amazing! I highly recommend it. It's super easy to make. I know I've posted this several times, but, just in case someone new wanders by my blog, here's the LINK TO THE RECIPE.

I started watching the weather early last week since we were getting a nice day here and there. I figured it was time for a zoo trip! Yesterday was the day! It was 68 and sunny. We arranged to meet my friend, Rayna, and her three kiddos and spent 5 hours traipsing around the zoo. The kids had a blast just playing together and enjoying the sunshine and animals (though we picked the wrong region to explore this time of year and didn't see as many animals as usual). Rayna and I had lots of time to chat. It was a perfect day! 

We don't usually stay at the zoo for 5 hours. Since we have a membership, we usually go for 3 hours or so, see what we can see, and head back home. It's more like a trip to the park for us. We love the zoo. I love it as much as the kids. After 5 hours, we were all a little tired (or a lot tired). Lukas wanted to know how far I thought we walked. Actually, he asked "how many miles" did we walk? Interesting to note, I once knew exactly which path was a mile and walked it purposefully twice a day during my college days working at the zoo. The paths are a little different now, but, with adjustments for the added loop in the Congo, I'm guessing we made it a mile and a half yesterday. The kids were troopers (especially the littlest ones).

I didn't take my camera for this zoo trip, but Lukas took his. Here are a few shots that he took.





Last night we were blessed to meet our friends, the Schraders, for dinner at Red Robin. We are super excited for them to move to this area soon. Their kids are lovely, and we had a fantastic time over dinner. It is unfortunate that we're officially moving away from Columbus, but we'll still be close enough to hang out and visit. We're glad for that!

Since we were in that part of the city, we stopped by Trader Joe's for some castile bar soap for the bathroom. It's the only soap that doesn't cause Ava's hands to peel. We then stopped by our friends, the Cunninghams, to pick up all of their recently unpacked boxes. We got a LOT of great boxes that are ready to be re-assembled and packed this weekend! We also ended up visiting with them for probably an hour and a half, which was a blessing as well!

Obviously, we had a busy, blessed week. I'm tired and not really looking forward to a busy Saturday, but I'm super excited for the possibility of a seriously productive packing day! I have spent the last four Saturdays feeling under the weather, and, even though I'm still stuffy and sneezing a little, I'm planning to knock some things out of the water tomorrow! Watch out kid bedrooms...the mama tornado is on the way!

That's a wrap on this week's happenings. For more creative ideas, words of wisdom and general info about the ins and outs of homeschooling, visit Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

4 comments:

  1. You just had to say Red Robin, didn't you? :-). Looks like a great week!~Mary

    Http://www.homegrownlearners.com

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  2. Fun! We plan to go to the zoo next week, and we're all looking forward to it!

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  3. Love all the time you spent with friends this week. Good luck with the packing.

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  4. Times with friends is the best time in my opinion. Love that the kids are working independently for you!

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