Does that Cuscus like couscous?

Part of our homeschooling always involves animals. My kids have been blessed to have many animal classes and adventures. They think nothing of playing with a lemur or learning to safely handle a crocodile. There are still plenty of animals they have never seen though and one turned up at the final mixed class day of the year. When you google it you will get several types of results for this animals name. the main two are:

This

and This.

The Cuscus (the animal not the food Coussous/cuscus!) pronounced with a soft "u" was a fun new animal to learn about last week. It's a marsupial with a prehensile tail from australia and New Guinea. They are very cute indeed.

Cuscus:

Sometimes the animals that come to mixed class day are new to us, often we have met that species before but sometimes it happens to be an animal we happen to share our home with. The Degu was also a visitor to mixed class day this month, my son was even taking pictures of it. My friend said to him, why are you taking pictures of that degu, you have those at home?! LOL We should just open a zoo ourselves.

If asked "do you want this snake" below

My kids would grab some friends and say help us get this 135 pound snake home!

I do draw the line at things that eat things that are cute though!! I can't feed a snake a little mouse or rat or in the case of the above big snake rabbits or even larger mammals.

So anyway, it was the last mixed class day of the year. I really enjoy mixed class day. One a month my kids get...well...mixed classes, that mixed ages can learn from and enjoy. This works much better for us than some of the more restrictive homeschool classes. This year they had the animals class taught by the Granite State Zoo and also a monthly Mad Science class. This was the second year with Mad Science, the thing my gang likes best about Mad Science is that they do experiments in class and then get take home items to do more experiments at home.

Also on Wednesday, actually before heading to merit badge group, where we worked on computers and Mixed class day, we went to visit the puppies again. They are growing and changing so fast it's fun to watch the changes. Kiwi, the mother dog, looked less tired this week. It's got to take a lot out of her to nurse four fast growing puppies! Oreo, one of their cats, seems to always feel left out when we visit. She meows and tries to get out attention in any way. We do give her attention too but I guess she thinks she should get all the attention!

Oreo the cat batting a high chair strap in an attempt to get people to play with her:

The puppies were just starting to walk the day before we last visited:

Silly nursing pups jockeying for the best position!

All in all Wednesday was a busy but good day.

Freeze's 3rd birthday

Today was Freeze's third birthday. Hayley wanted to mark the occasion in a big way, she sure loves her dog! When he turned 1 Freeze got a trip to the pet store to choose a couple things. When he turned 2 Hayley planned a whole party even down to buying food and filling goodie bags for the guests. Unfortunately the party idea didn't seem to work too well as most of the invitees cancelled at the last minute. I'm sure they had no idea what a big deal Hayley meant it to be and probably thought it was very minor but this dog is a very big deal to Hayley! So we went back to the special trip to the pet store again this year which worked well because Freeze LOVES choosing toys at the pet store. But first Freeze got to open gifts in the morning, everyone in the family got Freeze something, mostly treats but a couple toys too. Freeze opened his gifts with gusto and excitement. After gift opening we needed to set off as some of the kids had activities but we left nice and early so we could fit in that trip to Petco first. Freeze had such fun looking at the choices, he pondered treats and clothes but mainly checked out the toys. He always chooses toys which is a little strange as I would think he would grab treats off the shelves. He just likes toys better I guess! There were a couple other patrons in the store at that early hour, a disabled young man wanted to pat Freeze and wanted to hear all about his birthday, it was a nice treat for Freeze to get the extra attention and for us to put a smile on the young mans face. There was a little girl too who wanted to pat him but she was of the hyper active variety and Freeze got a little scared. The cashier gave Freeze plenty of attention and birthday wishes too, and some treats. Freeze chose three toys and then we chose some treats from the treat bar. All in all I think Freeze had a great day. He slept all the way home and then played with his toys, had a walk and took another nap.

Freeze opening a bag of treats:

What could be in that wrapper?:

I'm having ful alright!

More for me?!

Gimme, gimme, yes I'll share with Bonkers but I just don't know if I want to cats to share my treats!

Here we are outside Petco:

Lots of good smells here!

What should I choose?

Maybe there are good things around the corner?

Potty break, just in case.

Birthdays are tiring!

I think Freeze AND Hayley had a fun day!

Rainy days and thoughts about next year

We've had two rainy days in a row. They were both days we didn't have to go anywhere, we got so much accomplished! Unfortunately rain or not the rest of the week will be crazy-busy.

This morning in our Monday morning breakfast meeting, I was talking with the kids about how busy we have been this year and took a poll of how many thought we'd been too busy. Well all three boys felt we've been too busy but Hayley felt things have been just fine. For a quiet kid she sure likes to be out and running around. She LOVES shopping and just generally loves going places. Perhaps she will travel some day like I did in my young adult years.

One thing is for sure we need to be less busy next school year. We had a good balance at one point but this year we over did it. After a certain point it's not fun anymore. There are also the rising gas prices to consider, things are generally a 30-60 minute drive each way for us. I am hoping for an average of just over 2 days out a week. I say two because there will always be one or two weekend boy scout things a month that send us over but I think if we are out only 2 days most weeks then things will go a long better here at home. The kids will have to make some choices and I'm sure there won't be a consensus at first. We'll have to wait and see how this turns out.

I am starting to think about curriculum for next year. I can see that we have plenty of things already that I can use, our shelves are certainly not bare and our budget is non existant but there are so many fun learning items to tempt me, it's awful! I can see why so many have a curriculum addiction, I've been there myself in the past, it's all just so fun looking! Having said that some fun looking things never made it off the shelves here and some weren't fun at all when we tried them. I do need to get a couple things but I definitely need to think with my head before clicking place order not with that part of a homeschool Mom's heart that pounds when the new curriculum catalogs arrive in the spring! I also need to remember that I no longer have a young child, my baby is going into 6th grade! I have no need for those adorable preschool and early elementary learning toys!

So those are my rainy day thoughts. Tomorrow among the busyness we will celebrate Freeze, Hayley's Labrador dog's, birthday! Freeze is turning three. As I said on my FB when we researched dog breeds Hayley learned that Lab's "have an extended puppyhood of 3 years". Yes I can say that is true! Freeze is a lot calmer now but there is still a ton of puppy in that big dog! It's amazing we survived those three years!!

Freeze then- almost 3 months old:

Freeze now almost 3 years old:

Still cute just 100 pounds heavier!

Dog Party at the lake

Since the better weather has finally arrived we've been taking daily walks to the lake with the dogs. Today some doggie "summer friends" were at the lake and ready to play. Freeze, Hayley's black lab, knows Aurora, another black lab, from summers past. Auroira and her little doggies sibling only live at the lake in the summer. Then there is a mostly black Border collie who we also only see in the summer. Today all were at the lake together and after doggie re-introductions were made, they all had a grand time. Tristan and Hayley threw endless sticks into the water for the dogs, 5 in all as we'd brought Bonkers-our peekapoo, to the lake too. The younger dogs all played hard and long, Bonkers played a little too proving that even though she's 11 and has health issues there is still a little puppy left in her! We stayed about an hour and then all the tired dogs went to their respective homes for naps! Freeze turns 3 in just a few days, this was like a dog party just for him!

Do a good turn daily

Colin and Tristan get so much fun from Boy Scouts that we try to make sure the participate in most of the service projects too. While not quite as much fun as camping it's important that they help out rather than just enjoy all the fun stuff! My boys and a handful of other scouts changed the veterans flags at one cemetery while a larger group took on a larger cemetery. It only took an hour and a half, and part of that was spent re-setting a large gravestone that had fallen over. Although the boys wanted to repair it the dads decided it would be better if adults only re-set the grave as it was VERY heavy and they didn't want the boys to take a chance on getting hurt.

Tristan places some flags.

Colin looks like he's running! Some of the graves that needed flags were aways apart.

The other scouts my boys worked with near the grave that needed re-setting

Hayley helped out by carrying old flags after they were replaced.

Pictures of spring

From late April through May it finally becomes spring like here in New Hampshire. Below some signs of spring, flower bulbs starting to bloom, frogs and tadpoles, looking for frogs, toads, snakes and the like at night, star gazing and Freeze wanting to pull Hayley back into the lake before the water is really warm enough, to play catch the stick!

When the kids outgrew the turtle sandbox several years ago we decided to let it go wild and see what happens. It has over time become home to several frogs, a couple water newts and this year the frogs laid a huge clump of eggs in there so now there are MANY tadpoles. It's been fun to watch the turtle sandbox evolve.