Busy, Busy, Busy...

It's the end of the marking period and we're sick with a cold...again. :p The marking period ends on Tuesday, our entire family is sick again, AND I just got over a sinus infection about a week ago that left Spawn behind on his school work by several WEEKS. :o CS Dad tries to do it all, but he just can't keep up without me, so here we are - sprinting to get it all done before the end of the marking period again. ::sigh::

So, in the style of some of my more recent posts, here's a look at our week-in-review:

Nugga helps Spawn with some Math. Drooly help, but the boy loves to curl up on a cold morning with his best bud on the couch in a nest of blankets and pillows for early morning lessons like Math and Language Arts.

This is what happens when you buy your 7 year old (who hates to wear socks like the rest of his family) polar-fleece-lined Crocs online that are supposed to have removable, washable liners that don't come with instructions for removing the liners and said 7 year old spills a yogurt smoothie down his leg into his NEW >:( polar-fleece-lined Crocs. I had to do some online research to figure out the trick to washing the liners. By all accounts, they are removable, but you'll never get them back in again, so online advisers suggest just throwing the Crocs in the wash and air-drying them. Which probably works fine with everything except week-old, dried-up, yogurt smoothie. :p How do I know? I washed them and the entire load of clothes they were in three times to get rid of the yogurt smell BEFORE I decided to just soak them separately and hand-wash them. Sweet jeebus, what a production! >:( Then, I hung the Crocs upside-down on the dual shower rods in the bathroom. (I have no idea why there are two shower rods -they were here when we moved in.) The bathroom is right next to the utility room - the home of our furnace - so it gets really toasty up there above the shower. The Crocs were dry in no time flat!

Spawn and CS Dad did a very cool experiment this week in Science lessons. CS Dad showed Spawn how humans can affect the food chain by ruining local ecosystems - like beaches that are both fish and bird habitats that are affected by oil spills. They poured vegetable oil and hot cocoa mix into water to make it REALLY dirty and oil-looking, then dipped 3 feathers in the mix and set them aside once they were all grimey and oiled-up. Next, they dipped the feathers in three different cleaning 'solutions': cold water only, hot water only, and hot water with dish detergent added to find what was the best way to rescue birds that are affected by an oil spill to undo the damage done by man as best as possible.

I can't tell you how much I LOVED this lesson. Spawn doesn't care for getting dirty, so this also illustrated for him how soap helps get you cleaner when your hands are dirty - a nice bonus to the lesson!

CS Dad just couldn't pass up the opportunity to show Spawn how soap chases away oil and dirt.

Spawn's last-minute swimming class, snack bento that I packed as we were RUNNING out the door this afternoon (clockwise from top): Invisible (ie: dye-free) Grape Kool-Aid in the SpongeBob Sigg Bottle, a 1/2 cup of canned, sliced peaches (we are REALLY low on fresh fruit right now, but I had no qualms about polishing off the rest of the can of peaches for lunch ;)), and 3 marshmallows with about a 1/4 cup of Annie's organic chocolate bunny grahams.

Spawn can't manage something as slippery as canned peaches with a food pick, so I threw a pack of reuseable, plastic utensils in with his lunch bag. (And chuckled at the prospect of taking out the fork and spoon and leaving him just the chopsticks to see what would happen ;) - hee, hee...evil Mommy thoughts!)  I'm not sure where you can get these utensil sets anymore. I got mine from IchibanKan Online last year before they closed. :( Maybe try J-List?

 The final, packed, snack bento product. I love this freezer pack lunch bag!

And just a little while ago after we finished dinner, I was giving Nugga a little tail/hiney/haunches rub with my feet since she insisted on laying on the couch. This is the stink-eye she gave me when I stopped the hiney-rubbin'. "You not done puttin' the rubbin's on my hiney, Mama."


I ♥ cyberschooling!

Chrissi, Cyber School Mom

My 100th Blog Post!!!

::Imagine circus music playing here: doodoodoodoodoodoodoodoodoodoo::

I've got tons of stuff to update, but I couldn't find my camera card reader, so here it is - all at once. :p So, first, here's a bunchof random photos of stuff we did this week:

We call this one "I don't need my eyedrops, Mama, and I'll bite your face off if you try.":

Notice she's laying on no less than 3 pillows and 3 blankets in this one:

Spawn's Swimming Class Snack Bento from last Friday - 1-15-10 (clockwise from left) Wild Cherry Capri Sun, Apple Walnut Soy Joy (they were giving these away at the Y two weeks ago and I nabbed half a box then ;)), 2 Baci chocolates, and grapes in the goldfish box:

This was a lot more disposable/waste than I usually let myself put in Spawn's lunch, but he asked for the Capri Sun, we had the Baci leftover from his Christmas stocking, and we got the Soy Joys for free... :p

I packed Spawn's snack bento in this handy little lunch bag - it has freezer packs sewn into it so all I have to do is stick the bag in the freezer the night before and pull it out ten minutes before I pack it so it softens up so the freezer packs don't break from being unbent. Spawn's SpongeBob Sigg bottle full of filtered ice water fits nicely on top, don't you think? I bought both the bag and the bottle at Wegman's last year. =)

This is all I got back after the drive home. No Capri Sun pouch, no Soy Joy wrapper, no Baci foil...which I just realized means they're probably stinking up the floor behind the driver's seat in my car right now... >:( AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE THE LOCK & LOCK CAME FROM!!! :o I didn't pack that on Friday, but it had marshamllow and chocolate graham cracker residue in it, so I suspect this is one that Spawn stashed away that I packed several weeks ago. Yuck. :p Boys are  gross. :p

No Saturday lunch bento to show off because Spawn played hooky from karate class to go to his best friend Spike's super hero birthday party at Kehler's Kids Fun Factory in Broomall. It was a bit of a haul because Spike lives in Chester County and we live in Northampton County - almost on the border of Monroe County - not exactly next door. ;) I didn't think Spike's mom could top last year's birthday party for Spike, but she managed it! Spawn was going to wear a super villain costume, but chickened out at the last minute. :/ So much for those adorable capes I'd been working on. :p Spawn decided they were too babyish for a cool party, so we left them at home. :(

Spike and another friend get a hula-hooping lesson while Spawn and the other kids enjoy the moonbounce:

Spawn plays the hula-hoop circle race game with the other party-goers:

We play this game at family reunions with two longs lines of ten or twenty people and race from the beginning of the lines to the end as fast as possible. First hula-hoop to the end of its respective line and that line wins. =)

Spike takes a stab at the hula race game:

Spawn and Spike take a whack at the BIG trampolines side-by-side:

Spike's 18 month old sister, Ladybug, foams at the mouth to get out there and play with the big kids:

Spawn runs the obstacle course race:

Spike's hero cake and decorations (made by Unique Cake & Catering, 103 17th St, Bristol, TN 37620-1931, (423) 764-2253)‎:

Superhero tablescape with 'real' glowing kryptonite:

Spike and Spawn at opposite ends of the table whorking down cake and ice cream like it's going out of style:

Me with Spike's mom's and grandmother's poodles (from left to right) Jacques, Gigi, Jean-Luc:

Yes, that's Lola at my feet at that moment, too. I was like flypaper for pooches suddenly!:

Saturday night, when we got home, I discovered I could peel dead, dry skin off my face with packaging tape. Don't ask. :p

So, there's what you missed this week. I know - we're boring. :p Thank goodness for the occasional birthday party! CS Dad is doing some math with Spawn, so there's hope for some entertainment value there, too. ;)

I ♥ cyberschooling!

Chrissi, Cyber School Mom

On my honor, I swear, never, ever to leave another banana in a lunch bag...

...and forget to check that Spawn ate it for lunch ever again in my lifetime. Furthermore, let us never speak of this hideous moment again.

Spawn's Swimming Class Snack Bento 1/8/09:

Contents of bento (clockwise from top left): Apple & Eve apple juice box, Clif Kid Organic Z Bar chocolate brownie bar, 2 1/2 slices of Wegman's fruit cake, red grapes, 16 slices of pepperoni (the bag swears that's a serving size, so we'll see ;)), a colby cheese stick cut into cubes, and a Dannon Danimals yogurt drink thing. Also, I'm missing all my freezer packs, so I have some frozen, pureed peaches that I'm using to cool and supplement this snack. ;)

I know what you're thinking - that's a MASSIVE snack bento for a 7 year old! BUT - Spawn usually eats big and keeps eating after his homeschool swimming class. We are going to my in-laws' for dinner, but with him going through another big growth spurt right now, I have no trouble imagining him polishing this off.

I was going to stash in a few of these tiny dill pickles, but Spawn caught me trying to sneak in new foods and he swears he still doesn't care for pickles. :p So I ate them. :p

Special thanks to my friend, fellow mom, and fellow bento-er, Eileen, for gifting us with all of the picks used in today's bento and pickle photos. =D Spawn especially loves the cowboy and flag picks!

Chrissi, Cyber School Mom