Dino Pit and Botanical Gardens

Matthias' preschool took a trip down to Zilker Park near downtown Austin. There is a dino pit there and some animals and birds. James stayed home from school and came with us as well. We had a lot of fun. After the rest of the preschool left the kids and I drove over to the Botanical Gardens in Zilker Park. They are really beautiful and we had a great time looking at all the plants and exploring. I love hanging out with my kids. They are so fun at this age and great for little trips!

Chalk Monsters

Matthias and Hannah spent over an hour in this chalk. They colored a huge rainbow of chalk and just sat and played in it. Super thick chalk covering everything and they got all covered. Tons of fun! 


The road burn on Hannah's face is from a crash she and Matthias had on their bikes earlier in the week. They were going opposite directions and his wheel caught hers and she went flying off the front of her bike. 

The two of them have been playing really well together lately. They spend the mornings together and often James reads for up to 5 hours after he gets home from school. So they end up playing together for most of the day. I have really enjoyed watching the two of them play together and the dynamics they have with one another. 

History Lessons

We are doing History lessons together, me and the kids. We have the past divided into 4 segments, one per year so this year we are doing prehistoric. We've read/learned all about evolution and dinosaurs and early mammals, etc. The kids sometimes write a paper or draw a picture or make up a story or play a game to go along with what we have learned that lesson. Here are some fossils we made with mud. The boys each did a leaf, Matthias' is hard to see because it didn't leave as great of an impression...it's in the top, slightly off to the left of center. Hannah did a turtle shell (from a plastic turtle). We pressed everything in the mud and then left it for 4-5 days until the mud got dry and hard. 

Easter Dress (and ties)

Hannah's Easter dress turned out great! It took me about 12 hours to make and the fabric was, um, a lot. But I knew that going in and it turned out amazing! I was really happy with the results and it was a pretty complicated pattern and I really enjoyed making it. I wanted the boys to have cool pink ties, but I don't love making ties so I just bought those. It was a lot of fun. I love Easter dresses. =]

Cleaning the Bathroom

So I decided James is old enough to clean a toilet so now I am absolved of cleaning the kids' bathroom! Hannah does mirrors, Matthias counter and James the toilet. It's lovely. A couple days before I grew anticipation by saying "On Thursday you guys get to learn how to clean the bathroom all by yourselves" in a really excited voice. All morning on Thursday I talked about how exciting it was that day because we were going to clean the bathroom! The kids were stoked.

So when I was teaching James a few weeks ago the following conversation took place:

Me: So you can clean the bathroom every Thursday now.
James: I'm going to clean 2 times a week-Thursday and Friday.
Me: If you're going to clean twice a week you should do days farther apart like Thursday and Monday.
James: But Monday is too far away.
Me: Well you can go clean my toilet right now. (James ran to my bathroom)
Hannah: When can I clean the toilet?