Originally I planned to take the kids to the Children's Museum for a Homeschool Hangout focused on fossils today, but then I decided we would skip it and wait two weeks to go to the one on robots and programming. I thought we'd be at a field trip tomorrow and decided to get some errands done today instead. In addition to returning things at the library prior to our trip to Chicago and also doing some shopping at CVS and the grocery store, we were on a mission to buy strawberry plants to get them planted before we left. First we visited a large farmer's market that is held every Wednesday all year round near the library. We bought some grapes, but the only plants we saw for sale were flowers, bonsai, etc. - no fruit or vegetable plants. Then I drove to where I had purchased some plants and bushes in Milton last year only to discover it's now an antique store. Oops! Next we tried an Amish greenhouse in Turbotville. They had plenty of vegetable plants for sale (broccoli, cabbage, tomato, etc.) but no strawberry plants. Our last stop was at a hardware store in that same town which has a greenhouse, but they won't be selling plants until May 1. They WILL be selling strawberry plants so I will either purchase them from that store or I might buy some online. I know we won't get any fruit this year from our strawberry or blueberry plants but I want to at least get them planted this year so that we can enjoy the fruit in future years. I think we'd get some strawberries next year, but we'll have to wait longer for blueberries. Until then we'll keep going to the berry farm to pick strawberries and blueberries.
The weather was simply gorgeous so the kids enjoyed playing outside with some of the neighbors for awhile in the afternoon. I would have loved to have been able to go for a walk or a run, but there wasn't time. I made rigatoni and meatballs and started the process of making pulled pork so that Paul will have food to eat while we're away. I also made a batch of chocolate chip cookies to give to my cousin's family in Ohio on Friday. I was planning to make two more batches of cookies (M&M and white chocolate macadamia nut), but that will have to wait until tomorrow. I am making those so that Paul will have some cookies while we're away plus so I have some to take to my sister's family in Chicago. I also planned to start packing today, but that didn't happen. After dinner we rushed out the door so that Oliver could have his first soccer practice of the spring season and Nadia could have her first softball scrimmage. She was only there for half of the game because of AWANA. They were playing the other softball team from our league.
I brought my new lens, and it is definitely a good one for softball. If money were no object, the 70-200mm lens would be the ideal lens for softball, but that one costs far more than the one I got (and also is a lot heavier). I can crop pics when I edit them to compensate for the fact I can't zoom to 200mm, and I will probably bring a second lens to some of the games so that I can get a wider angle than I can with the 135mm.
Tonight was the second to last night of regular AWANA (not counting the night they do the car races). The kids all had their cars weighed. Oliver's was perfect. Ian's is a little too heavy, and Nadia's is a little lighter than is ideal. Paul will adjust the weights over the next two weeks. Ian and Nadia did a great job of saying several verses tonight, and this means Ian only has ONE verse left to say to complete the extra credit book. He already finished the regular book twice. Nadia only has to do three more sections to finish her book (not counting the extra credit portion). Next year I'll make sure she stays on track to also do the extra credit part. I realized rather late in the game that she was not on track to finish the book so she really had to kick it into high gear the last few weeks to be able to finish it. Oliver's memorization skills thus far are nowhere near as good as Ian and Nadia's were at this age. Hopefully he will be able to handle the Sparks book in the fall once he turns five as that involves a lot more memorization than the Cubbies books he's done the past two years.
Originally we had three field trips planned for this week. The one to the alpaca farm on Tuesday was rescheduled to next week due to rain. If it actually happens next week then we'll miss it. If it gets postponed yet again, then we will be able to do it. Today's field trip was cancelled by me for reasons that had nothing to do with the weather. Tomorrow's field trip at Bald Eagle State Park was originally supposed to take place last Friday. If it had been rescheduled for today that would have been perfect as it was in the 60's and sunny out. Tomorrow's forecast looks very dubious. Even if we end up staying home tomorrow, they won't be doing a math paper because Nadia finished the third grade textbook today. If we have math tomorrow, we'll be doing flashcards. She ended on a positive note by earning a 92% on her paper today (a review of algebra that included addition, subtraction, multiplication, long division, and word problems). Many times if I were to grade her papers her score would be MUCH lower than that (often in the 70's and sometimes even lower) so I was very happy with that 92%. Math definitely isn't her strongest suit at this point in her life. I am hoping that working with flashcards over the next two months will help her to be more successful in fourth grade in the fall.
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