Optical Illusion

 

Wait, who is taller here?

This exhibit was at one of our local museums and was an excellent way to teach optical illusions. A year later when I showed the kids these photos it took them almost 2 minutes to remember how this had worked.

A Tale of Two Beds - part 39

This post is all about Sweet Daughter and her tiger. This tiger has scared me so many times in the middle of the night. The light reflects off its eyes and she will sometimes have it laying down, standing up, etc. There are times there are eyes shining at my height in her bedroom and that freaks me out.

Here the tiger is slouching against the wall while she holds onto one ear.

Sweet Daughter is in this picture. Her face was not covered believe it or not - I did check.

Different night (same pajamas) and this time the tiger's paw is covering only her mouth and nose. I moved it off, but I can't imagine sleeping like that!

Once again, here are the links to the previous tales. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Frustration, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21, Part22, Part 23, Part 24, Part 25, Part 26, Part 27, Part 28, Part 29, Part 30, Part 31, Part 32, Part 33, Part 34, Part 35, Part 36, Part 37, Part 38.

Birthday Wordless Wednesday

After visiting and holding real tigers, we surprised her with this stuffed tiger. She still asks for a real tiger as a pet. We keep insisting this is as close as she is going to get.

Other Animals

This is the final post from the exotic animal park in Oklahoma. These are just some of the other animals we were able to interact with. They also had a large number of animals you couldn't touch - tigers, lions, ligers, etc. Those pictures just aren't as interesting.

I don't like touching snakes. I'm not too bad if they are on the ground. Right after this Sweet Son pushed the snake completely off of him and it started darting it's tongue toward my face. I wasn't thrilled to say the least.

The snake looks much more relaxed for them, but if you notice the tail is wrapped completely around Sweet Daughter's throat. They neither one complained. We decided we aren't a snake family.

Petting wolves. They are domesticated and were really just like big dogs - big, wet, stinky, shedding dogs.

Camels

This post is the second in a series from our trip to an exotic animal park in Oklahoma. This post also proves camels are always photogenic, haha.

We were offered the "opportunity" to kiss a camel. Yes, you read that right. They gave us a cookie to put half in our mouth and half out and the camel would lean over and take it from us. This had mixed results.

First up, Wonderful Husband gets a kiss

I'm next and really not sure I want to kiss a camel

Should have gone with my instinct, though our tour guide enjoyed my reaction

There is no way the kids were going to get close to kissing a camel after my reaction. They just fed him from their hands.

Smart kids

Birthday Trip

This year for their birthday the kids had very specific requests. Sweet Son wanted bacon. Sweet Daughter wanted a real tiger. Wonderful Husband (his birthday is the same week) wanted a trip out of town. I made all of their dreams come true.

First the bacon, we ate at diners or Sonic for every meal for the entire trip so he had bacon 6 meals in a row. That was the easy part. Real tigers and a trip - this took some research. I found a place in Oklahoma that calls itself an exotic animal park. The reviews were extremely mixed. Some people said it's great because you can hold baby tigers, see animals that you wouldn't normally see even in a zoo, etc. The other reviews hated it saying the tour guide was crude, cussing, and clearly didn't care about the welfare of the animals. The many large animals were all in cages and not anything even close to a natural habitat. I had no idea if this would turn out great or awful, but it was my only option for combining a trip and real tigers.

The day we were going to visit the tigers it was raining. It rained the entire time we were there. This made it exceptionally muddy on the dirt trails. It also made it cooler and the animals much more active. We didn't see any animals pacing in cages and they were all well fed and the cages were clean. We also didn't get the usual tour guide. Our guide was appropriate and explained everything clearly.

Baby tiger!

She had help holding it

They look at each other

Awwww

The family with a different baby tiger. This one wasn't as docile as the first so it didn't do any individual visits.

I will post more photos from other parts of our experience there next week.

Birthday Balloons

Our tradition is for the kids to find many balloons to play with on their birthday. One year we filled the playroom. One year we filled the hallway. (Each year we seem to pick smaller and smaller rooms...) This year we did some in the hallway and some in each of their bedrooms.

Notice how they are both sleeping on their beds correctly? It's awesome!!! Happy 6th Birthday

Birthday Wordless Wednesday

He asked for bacon, which he did get (read tomorrow's post). We also got him this. He seems just a bit excited, don't you think?

Sugar Cube Pyramids

When studying pyramids in Ancient Egypt, one of the projects is to build a pyramid out of sugar cubes. This was fun and not as messy as I had expected, though certainly not neat.

She started by dumping them all out and trying to group them in a pile.

He started with a very exact method so it would be perfectly square.

Her finished pyramid.

His finished pyramid.

He didn't stop there. He added an entire complex. The side pyramids for the wives, the path from the river into the pyramid, etc.

Building a Castle

As part of our curriculum, when studying the middle ages, the kids made a castle out of a box. They did all of the cutting themselves. We only helped tie on the string for the draw bridge. They also decorated their boxes.

She colored all of the outside of hers and part of the inside.

He wrote Do Not Enter.

Caption this contest

What would you caption this photo? The best answer (as determined by me) wins a prize. Prize value will increase with each unique person who offers a suggestion. Winner to be determined by the 22nd and announced on the 23rd.

(Yes, that is a Lego fish in the handle of his light saber.)

Unofficial School Photos

I have already explained how we ended up with an 8 year old taking school photos for us this year. Her mom served as her backup photographer. In case something happened, her mom wanted to make sure we would still get some good photos. Here are some of the backup photos.

Sweet Son isn't any more cooperative and while I love these photos, I still prefer the ones by our official photographer! That's a huge compliment since these were taken by a professional photographer.

Wordless Wednesday

This picture captures their personalities so well

School Photos

Sweet Son didn't want to smile. He didn't want to have his picture taken. He didn't want to meet new people. He didn't want to be some place new. We had an 8 year old photographer trying to get good school/homeschool pictures. She did really well considering the difficult subject!

Unfortunately this photographer has now moved out of the country and I am once again wondering what to do for school photos this year.

School Photos

In year's past the kids attended a Montessori school and we always bought one school photo. They are expensive and not great quality. Now that the kids are doing homeschooling (and attending the school I teach at for fun classes), I wasn't sure what to do about school photos. Then a friend posted on facebook that her daughter was trying to get work as a photographer. Here are some of her photos of Sweet Daughter.

Did I mention the photographer is 8 years old? These are amazing! Now for the challenge. Come back tomorrow to see some of her photos of Sweet Son who is incredibly uncooperative when it comes to photos, meeting new people, and smiling.

Kids Turn 6!!

Posed photos are nice, but I prefer photographs with personality. These photos tell more about our kids than any of the others.

I highly recommend everyone get photographs taken regularly. I can't imagine not having these images to look over and love!

Kids Turn 6!

Here are some more of the photos from our session. It takes a great photographer to not only get us all to smile, but to make us look good!

She stood on the rock so she would be taller. This is a technique she learned from me, haha!

Come back tomorrow for the last of our pictures, the ones where you can really see the kids' personalities shine through.