A Nice Break from the Cold

The cabin fever has been getting to us. I love being outside, except I hate being outside in the cold. The weather has been dreary, cold, snowy, icy and rainy. A couple of weeks ago, Phillip found a place right down the street which has indoor soccer. We signed Archie up for the Friday night pee-wee soccer. He just loves it! He counts down the days until soccer day. He runs down the field and hustles after the ball and really seems to enjoy himself. Phillip was asked to be a helper, so he and Archie get to play together. The day after the first game, we went to the store to get cleats, 'official' soccer socks and a ball to practice with at home. Archie was so excited about all his gear that he called my parents on Skype so they could see him in his outfit, check out his new ball and see some of his moves. So that has been a lot of fun. Our third game will be this Friday, and of course, the anticipation is almost killing us!

On Saturdays, Archie began an enrichment class at the vocational school. It's candy-making class. He's taken quite an interest in cooking, so I figured he'd enjoy this. He really enjoys it and seems to look forward to the next class. I think he's got three more classes for this quarter. Then we'll see what else they offer and try something else.

Last Thursday during the day, Archie and I decided to have a 'date' together. We got our academics out of the way first thing, then went to lunch together. After that, we went to the library for the once per month Bingo for kids. This was Archie's first Bingo experience, and now he's hooked! He Bingo'ed twice. The last time was during the very last game for the grand prize. Bingo was actually pretty great for our schooling, because he sometimes stumbles over reading larger numbers such as 42 or 63. So it was a nice reinforcement without having to be 'schoolish' to learn it. The grand prize was a card game of 'Deal or No Deal'. He wasn't too thrilled about that at first, but after we played it at home, he loved it. We've never seen it on tv, so we had to learn what the point of the game was. It was fun playing together, but I still have no desire to watch it on television. The home game version was also nice for dealing with even larger numbers into the thousands, tens of thousands, hundred thousands and millions. So we've been concentrating on learning place value and numbers over twenty...all by accident! Ahhh...the best way to learn!

After Bingo, we went to see Bee Movie, the one with Jerry Seinfield in it. We are lucky enough to have the Danberry Dollar Theatres just down the road as well. Movies for three bucks! We've been studying pollination and flowers in science, so Bee Movie really worked right into our curriculum! We originally couldn't decide between Alvin and the Chipmunks and Bee Movie. I'm glad Bee movie was ultimately decided upon. It had some pretty funny parts.

The movie was great and has given us much more to talk about with regard to our science lessons. During the movie, the bees stop working to pollinate flowers and all the flowers and trees die. Archie was quick to point out after the movie that bees aren't the only pollinators...there are the flowers that self-pollinate and small birds, other insects and the wind pollinate as well, so perhaps EVERYTHING wouldn't die, like it did in the movie. Wow...you never know when kids pay attention to something! Occasionally, I have my doubts as to how much attention is really being paid when we are doing school. Is he retaining ANYTHING??? Then he comes up with some odd factoid or information like he did at the movies.

Over the weekend, it warmed up and even got sunny out on Sunday! Happy Day!!! We went to Mount Airy Forest to kick the soccer ball around and play on the playground. The ground is super-squishy from all the melting snow and rain. I remember this stage from last year when we first arrived in Cincinnati. The muddy, squishy ground stage. We had a nice time at the park. It was nice to get out and run around and not be cold!

I got a picture of the boys swinging together on the swingset:

Monday morning, it was still nice and sunny out, but the sunshine wasn't supposed to last all day. So I decided we would pack a picnic and head to the zoo. The zoo opens at 9am, and we arrived as soon as it opened. It is so much more fun getting there first thing in the morning! The animals are up and around because they either just got fed or are being fed...there are hardly ANY people...we just about had the place to ourselves! One of our favourite exhibits hasn't been open the past few times we've visited, so we were hoping to be able to play with the lorikeets. But it was still closed. Bummer.

Our zoo has multiple peacocks running around the place, eating popcorn off the pavement, checking out the other animal enclosures, etc. We got lucky as soon as we arrived at the zoo and found this guy strutting his stuff with his feathers fanned out:

Later on, I don't know if it was the same bird or not, but one of these guys took quite an interest in my peanut butter crackers. He almost snatched one out of my hand! I snapped is picture instead!



Archie was bending down, and an alligator walked up and almost bit off his head! Whew! A close call indeed! :-)

My favourite exhibit that we saw on Monday was the mother gorilla with her baby. They were very cute playing together and I could've stayed all day and watched them.

All in all, a very nice way to spend the morning. Of course, we had to leave tantrum style, like always, because Archie just hates for a good time to end. I was exhausted and desperately needed a nap, which I took as soon as we arrived home. It didn't take long after that for the rain to come again, and freezing temperatures to follow the rain. The warmth and sun was fun while it lasted...