Almanacs and weather predictions

Today we were reading about Benjamin Franklin and how he became quite wealthy selling his famous "Poor Richard's Almanac" which Mr. 9 had recently read. Mr. 7 asked what an almanac is and we spent some time discussing things you would find in an almanac - a calendar, the tides and phases of the moon, interesting facts, and weather predictions. Mr. 7 suddenly remembered reading about how people would predict the weather based on the moon.
"I think there are typically storms 2 days after the full moon," he reported.
During quiet time he found the book he had read this in and had remembered it exactly right. So now we're going to chart the weather and phases of the moon. We'll see how accurate we can predict the weather.

Reading together

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Happy Easter

A beautiful day of rest was just what we needed!

Shoes

After many adventures in the basement looking for the right size shoes I finally decided I needed to organize what we had. These are all the shoes I've found so far - though I know of at least one pair that's missing from last summer (there must be another box of little shoes somewhere...). It also doesn't include the sizes they are currently wearing (with shoes, sneakers, sandals, and crocs - plus a back-up pair to wear when you waded through a stream in your normal shoes which is a regular occurrence around here) and all the rain and snow boots. And I thought boys didn't need lots of shoes!

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Puzzle Master

Mr. 2 loves puzzles and is actually quite good. I was helping him do his new robot puzzle (thanks Nana!) and got called away to help with some math. When I came back he had finished most of it on his own. I was quite a puzzle-lover as a child so it's fun to have him so excited to do puzzles.

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Our budding actors

This weekend Mr. 7 and Mr. 9 sang in the children's cantata at our church.  They had rehearsed every week since January and knew every word by heart (as did Mr. 2 given the number of times we had listened to the CD in the car).  Mr. 9 had the role of Tim and was really nervous when he woke up Sunday morning.  We talked about it and prayed and he seemed better.  Both the boys did a fantastic job.  Mr. 7 had been distracted in rehearsal but was engaged and singing the whole performance.  And Mr. 9 said every line perfectly in character.  It took a lot out of them so after the second performance we refueled at Five Guys Burgers with our special visitors (Nana, Grandma, and Grandpa).  We were so proud of our guys.

Passport for Mr. 0

We are taking a month long trip across the country in June beginning with Niagra Falls and Toronto (Mr. 2 is really excited to see Niagra - we've had to look up pictures quite a few times since June is still very far away when you're 2).  All the boys have passports except Mr. 0 and I suddenly realized that Canada is of course a different country so we're gathering all the supplies to get him a passport.  After many, many photos, we thought we finally had one that worked but it turns out no wrinkles are allowed in the backdrop (difficult when your subject will not lay still) so we finally had one taken.  He's not smiling but it meets all the requirements.  Soon Mr. 0 will be ready for new adventures anywhere!