Work days, Tea Parties, Art and McWane

I hope this finds you all doing well! Last weekend was Labor Day Weekend and we had plenty of opportunities to grill out, swim, and hangout with friends. Eddie and I decided instead to have a workday weekend at the house. We have been gone so much and there was a BIG need to take care of some things at home. Alex was not real thrilled with the plan, as many of you may not know he has a girlfriend. Caity's parents had invited us all over and he absolutely wanted to go of course. Our yard was just such a mess, and Alex thought if he got it cut Eddie and I would change our minds, but that was unfortunately not the only thing we had planned and some of it needed Eddie's attention. So we stayed home and took care of the house and yard. We did grill out and used the leftover chicken for some really yummy chicken wraps for lunch. On Monday Bri planned a tea party complete with invitations she gave out. She expected you to dress for the occassion as well. As you can see Dad was a hard sell. She is explaining the finer points of a tea party to him in this picture and he still could not mind his manners! She had to ask me to help her with him, and still we had some issues. I'm not sure Dad will be invited back again.

After the tea party Bri washed up all the dishes herself and put them away. She is getting to be such a big girl!

On Tuesday we had karate, but other than that it was a quite day. Well unless you count cutting okra, putting it up, and doing school lessons. Not to mention the mounds of laundry or housework that was done. Of course if you look at the house you would wonder what exactly I did.

Wednesday was a super busy day, as it will be most of the time, at least until mid-December. On Wednesday we went to Art Appreciation at the Museum of Art. We learned the basics of art, line, perception, color, shape, and texture. I learned alot and Bri really enjoyed it too. Our docent was very nice and very informative. The teens had a different docent and went with him without any parents. Alex said it was good, but his docent was a little boring. I heard many of the teens say he was adamant about them finding the center. He seemed to enjoy it though and asked when the next class was. Our next class will be about Leonardo Da Vinci at the Musuem of Art and we will also go to the Southern Museum of flight to look at Lenardo Da Vinci's flying machines. After we finished our art lesson we spent some time in the Indian exhibit which is a favorite with the younger set, the teens went to the sculpture garden to "hangout" and chat for a little while. This picture shows Dae and Bri in an Indian tepee. The Indian exhibit is a children's hands on area where they can play in an Indian village. There is a meeting house, teepee, canoe, clay, games, musical instruments, just all sorts of fun things to do.

After the museum we met with Dena and made a swap of okra for eggs. We have fresh eggs to eat, and some more eggs to try and hatch. I'm not sure if I told you all, but we are trying to hatch eggs as part of a science project. The first three were not fertile, well one was, but it died for some reason and believe me if you candle an egg and see nothing after a week get rid of it. Don't listen to any sweet voices asking you to keep it for just one more week and see next week. By the way candling is the equivalent of a sonogram for an egg. The first time we looked at the egg we saw veins and a dark red center which means the egg is fertile, the other eggs only showed a yolk. Anyway, Saturday we had a major stink bomb for an egg. It smelled awful! I took it out of the incubator and gave it to Eddie in a plastic bag to dispose of. We are now trying with three new eggs. Dena was so kind she gave us 8 eggs, but our incubator can only hold 3. She told us they would be good on the counter for 14 days, so if these eggs are not fertile we can pick 3 more eggs. If these eggs are not fertile then Ms. Dena told Bri she could pick a couple of chicks at her house. Bri likes that idea, but really wants these eggs to hatch.

Anyway, after we met Dena and made a swap the kids and I headed to McWane for the kickoff of Chemistry labs. Alex really loves his lab time at McWane. This time his teacher is all of 20 and weighs maybe 100lbs, she is really cute and I'm pretty sure that plays into the enjoyment of the lab class too. Anyway, the turned a penny into gold. It looked really cool too. While they were in the lab Bri and I hung out and investigated McWane. We went so much with Alex last year that over the summer we took a break. McWane has added many new things. One of the really cool things going on right now is they are hatching bamboo sharks. They have the mermaid purses (shark eggs) up against a light, just like candling chicken eggs, so you can see the baby inside. We saw one that is very close to being ready and we saw one that is very young. You could tell he was still connected to yolk and looked like he was trying to break free, but of course if he did he would die if he did. The other egg had a nearly ready to hatch shark in it, just like a baby it had very little room to move. It takes something like 4 months for a bamboo shark to hatch. It was a really cool thing to see. The picture below is Bri and Dae petting a dinosaur of sorts. From the look on Bri's face she is not so sure about what Dae is doing. You have to love the Spradlins, they love to dissect anything, and trust me never give them ideas on what to dissect. The love to look at the inside of anything, so why not pet it too.

In this picture Bri, Dae, and Cressie (she is in the far corner looking on) are trying out the new exhibit of I think some kind of dancing thing. I know they had to step on certain colors at certain times, but I never tried it out. There were a lot of kids on this exhibit.

When we finished at McWane it was 4:30 and time to head home for dinner and church. Bri wanted to go to church with Dae so she went home with her. Alex wanted to go to his church. When we got home Deb found out her dad was in the emergency room. So she needed me to pick up her kids and mine, along with Alex. That meant I needed to be in two different places at one time. Talk about stress. Anyway, Eddie was able to help me and we were able to get all the kids picked up in time. Deb's dad is doing fine, he is having an angiogram today. Basically though he wound up in the ER because he is diabetic and has heart trouble and had worked all day without eating which caused him to pass out. When he did eat it made his blood sugar spiked really high. Does this sound like anyone we know? He is fine now though.

Thursday I had a doctor's visit to get a couple of moles biopsied. One was a gray mole and the doctor told me they call them blue nevi and are usually benign. She did tell me they have deep roots though and that all the root needed to be removed. So she made it sound like nothing, "we will just punch it out so you will not have stitches". Okay punching it out leaves a hole and makes the area sore. This area is on my shoulder and think I had a reaction to latex. I've never had that happen before, but the band-aid I was using caused the sight where it stuck to turn red, puffy and itch. I switched to latex free and it seems much better now. The other mole was on the tip of my nose. That mole used to be flat, but lately has been humping up some so they shaved it off for a biopsy. That included a shot in the nose. It really was not as bad as it sounds though. It is bruised, but overall does not look too bad. So I will have the results in about a week. The best part was walking around with a band-aid on the tip of your nose and watching people look strangely at you, but not ask anything.

Friday was supposed to be Spring Valley Beach day, but I was just exhausted and could not find the energy to go. In truth I think the whole dermatology event affected me more than I thought it would. Alex was more disappointed than anyone else at the house, but he has gotten over it. As a lot of people did not go because the weather was so iffy and at $12 a person you don't want to chance thunderstorms running you off.

Saturday we had a lemonade stand. There were three lemonade stands in different locations that day and our stand made the most money! Yeah homeschoolers, you rock! We made $180 dollars in donations and had a list of people sign up for Freshair Family. The other booths made $30 a piece. We were in the Mountain Brook Western parking lot. Let me tell you, rich people do not like to give and they can be very rude! The teens pressed forward though, were kind and handed out brochures in the face of some very rude folks. It made me think of the Bible verses that talked about how hard it is for a rich person to get into heaven. Then the girls had the lemonade and the cuteness factor going for them. If you are not familiar with Freshair Family I would encourage you to check them out. It is a wonderful organization that's goal is to get people outdoors. They plan trips all over the state, camping, canoeing, caving, gardens, hikes. We have been on several things with them and we have had a blast. They pay the children's entrance in, and sometimes they pay adults way in too. They used to pay for everything, but they lost some funding and are trying to raise some donations, and are currently working on some grants. The creator of the group offered an awesome opportunity to our group. She wanted to plan at least one field trip a month for our homeschool group and it cost it us a whopping $25 for the year for a family, no matter the size. Everything is paid for, with the exception of the canoe rental in May which we are having a fundraiser for. Verna is an ethnobotanist and has several friends around the state and can get people and fieldtrips that can otherwise be hard to book. For instance, Thursday we will go to Turkey Creek with a McWane person to tell us about the folaige and possibly do some seining in the creek. I'll post next week about that. We are really excited about the opportunities. In October we will go camping at Dauphin Island and learn about bird banding, and have a guided tour of Fort Morgan. We are super excited about our opportunities with this group.

Well that has been pretty much our week. I hope all of you are doing good and have had as many awesome things come your way as we have. We are truly blessed!