Happy First Day of No School!

Yes! It's that time of year again! Monday was the day the public school kids went back.

What I had hoped to do was give the kids a preview of all the fun stuff we'll be doing, hang out and celebrate our freedom from the school schedule by doing lots of fun educational stuff they wouldn't be doing if they went to school. And get slurpees.

What actually happened was that our beloved Grammie was going off on a trip later in the week, so we ended up spending most of the day with her, hanging out, and having slurpees. So that was OK!

We just pushed everything else later into the week. Happy First Week of No School, was nearly interrupted on Tuesday by a Mommy meltdown, but that ended up being PMS, so that was OK (eventually, after chocolate).

Which brings us to today which was great! We tried out our new workbooks (we like doing workbooks from time to time) and then went off on an expedition to the Arboretum.

That was lovely! Our first trip with Oob walking! He loved the nice soft grass under his toes (ours is a bit crispy at present). Best of all: gravel! Yes, the beds in the dwarf conifer garden are mulched in gravel. Perfect for picking up and dropping back down. (I don't totally get the appeal, but I have not yet had a toddler that hasn't loved spending an hour or so doing this, so who am I to argue tastes?)

The older Zoomlians took pictures (the picture was by Mxyl) and played a game of hide and seek that was either wildly successful or dismally unsuccessful. No one found anyone (the garden is vast and lushly planted, and Zoomlians are wily) but no one minded, so that was OK. And they collected 172 cicada shells. That's not hyperbole, they counted them when they got home. Interestingly, Zorg, who collects cicada shells, had just yesterday found one with the cicada still inside ("one without a hole"). It was examined carefully then placed on our maple tree.

I taught the older Zoomlians how to identify pines and cedars. This was a triumph for me which nearly expunges my mortification at discovering (at the age of 10) that not all evergreens were pine trees. I went to visit my grandmother in Washington state and I was surprised at how many pine trees they had... In my defense, we didn't have many conifers on the base where I grew up. To my grandmother (born and raised in conifer heaven), it was like calling an oak a maple. As shocked as she was, maybe it was more like calling a telephone pole a maple. I'm pretty sure my Mom heard about it. My point is: look Grandma, my kids can tell a cedar from a pine! I'm still working on the spruce/fir thing myself. I think it's spruce cones point down and fir cones point up. Or the other way around.

In other news, we are going camping on Assateague this weekend. Please don't rob my house. We have a tent. We can put it up. We can take it down. We have an enormous list of WHAT NOT TO FORGET. I don't know where I put it. This will be fun. Really. Kate told me so! We are actually getting pretty excited!! Now I remember: I have to call Coleman and tell them I found the missing pieces under the tent when I took it down. We'll be fine. We're going to have a great time! Right, Kate?