There and Back Again: A Hobbit Party

My little hobbit wanted a party to showcase legos, the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Here is our grand adventure!

The fellowship were summoned by mail.

Frodo gets ready for the adventure. 

He loves the South-farthing pipe weed.

Here are some of the cast. Legolas, Gandalf, Frodo and Gimli

And what do you know, Tolkein himself showed up along with a dear friend, C.S. Lewis!

 Arwen Evenstar and her elf guardian

A hearty luncheon with stuffed mushrooms, Farmer Maggot's crop of veggies, Tasty Sausages and of course, Lembas bread (made from crecent rolls!).

Orc Grog (growlers of beer) for the big folk and rootbeer for the littles.

After a good hearty meal, clues were hidden and a map to Middle Earth was passed out to the Fellowship.

Tolkien gives the first clue.

Hidden among the Trolls (thank goodness they were stone!) they find one of the clues.

 

A journey into Mirkwood Forest...

they find another.

And yes, the Hobbit went barefooted!

Finding the treasure! No one guessed that Frodo had the ring!

Then it's time for cake. Lego Smaug atop his treasure and a treasure map.

Everyone but birthday Hobbit blew out the candles. He was too busy with his treasure.

Science, Science, Science!!!

We have had a lot of fun with Science this spring already. I can't wait for it to warm up so we can get outside for even more exploratory fun.

The other day we made goo from Elmers glue, water and borax. The boys have spent hours playing with this stuff. Attacking cars and legos. But be careful, it will stick to clothing and carpet. It's a good thing we live in a "rental."

Last week for our grand finale Student Tea Time we got the stuff to make carbonated fruit! It's basically fizzy fruit and all you need is fruit like grapes, apples and pears, a Nalgene bottle and some dry ice. It takes about 2-1" cubes placed on top of your 3/4 filled Nalgene and within 24 hours your fruit is properly fizzed. The students and the boys loved it! We even had one (unacceptable) container blow up in the hall. So do this experiment at your own risk and research it first!

We had left over dry ice so naturally we had to conduct some experiments with it. Or really just play with it. We did find this idea on line.




Today I got to go along with Aeneas's class to the Discovery Museum for a morning of science. They learned all about the sun and how it helps plants to grow. Played a game and then got to pretend being scientists using their observation skills. The kids were so cute and such good little scientists. They had lunch and got to play in the museum afterward.

We were lucky that our good buddy Ryan's class came along with us.
Ryan, Aeneas, Elias and Kadin

Now which of these things require the sun to grow?

Check this out?!?

Aeneas's little buddy Elias

The Discovery Museum does a terrific job with school groups and the Mad Scientists were awesome with the kids!

Can you spell Entomologist?

The entomologist has turned 5! How is this possible?!? We registered him for kindergarten last week and bought him his first real backpack for his birthday. He got to move up to the top bunk for the first time last night. And although he's not actually heavy enough to move up to a booster seat, he's getting one (albeit with a 5 point harness) ! Is this actually happening?

I am sure so many of you remember the little guy from his first days into this world. He is as independent and stubborn as they come. I am beginning to understand that second kids are just their own people. They feel the need to assert that independence as individuals in stubborn ways that both drive their mothers crazy while bringing a sense of pride at the same time. This guy loves people. Although he will fight me tooth and nail over which pair of white socks he wants to wear, he also can't stand to be by himself. He follows me around and is under foot just like an infant at times. He'd rather wallow on the floor and wait for me to finish my email than go find something fun to do by himself.

Here is what I find him doing when I am busy on the computer...

I have found that if I take some one on one time seriously without distractions, it serves as a charge for him to play independently for a time afterward.  I sat up in his bed yesterday and had him tell me all about the bugs he got for his birthday and then he left charged long enough for me to take a nap up there for the next 45 min. I couldn't believe it.

Here he is entertaining himself by drawing but only after some one on one time!

Here is Entomologist Aeneas with all of this gear on, ready to go catch some bugs.

He has a ridiculous passion for things he finds interesting and right now that thing is bugs. He routinely digs in the recycling bin looking for things he can poke holes in and use as a bug catcher. Recently we checked out another really fun book from the Library called "Bug Zoo." I picked it up in hopes to prolong the lives of the little critters we pick up on our hunts. It teaches you how to build, care and feed the little guys. We have had so much fun building habitats and and catching bugs and now that he has gotten his real bug catching gear from his birthday, he's all that much more official.

Here is one of our bug habitats that we built using stuff from around the house and  a few things from the hardware store.

This is the invention of all inventions. It's called a bug pooter. It's basically a bug vacuum that you power with your mouth. Both boys spend hours flipping rocks and collecting things in it. They had no less than 50 rolly pollies in them yesterday.

You can hear him telling you how the pooter works and how it is made.



Happy Birthday my little scientist. You are amazing!

New Shoes

Summer has officially arrived here in the Rockies and looking forward to our upcoming camping adventure, we took a trip downtown to look for some summer, river, playing outside in the dirt shoes. We found some for Neenas and ended up paying $30! Which was a little steep but figured they needed something really good and durable. We walked across the street and found the exact same shoes, last pair, in Diddle's size on sale for $15! So we figured it at $20 bucks each, name brand and new, not so bad.

This is literally what they have looked like since we got them home. As the snow melts, any open dirt creates heavenly mud holes for these two little boys. It's like a tractor beam. They love their new shoes and love even more, getting them dirty. I feel like the "Cat In the Hat Came Back" at bath time. I've scrubbed it twice this week and it's only Tuesday! I have come to the realization that the effectiveness of one bath every week and a half is melting away with the snow.

We wandered this evening for close to a mile through open sage brush, thistle, mulch piles, rocks, mud holes, prairie dog towns and Neenas walked the whole way saying "We're goin' on a hike. This is a hike, Mama. And we're gonna camp out here. I'm a good hiker. This is a hike."

The last week has been a good break in week for those shoes. We're glad to have the warmth again finally but along with it comes the mud and dusty bodiesnwhich I had forgotten about over our winter hibernation. Any bets on those shoes lasting through the summer?!?!