i'm afraid the kids haven't done anything terribly educational today.

I'm trying like crazy to get some of my own schoolwork done so they are sort of running free.  They are being really good though, and I love to overhear them while they play.  The imaginations those two have are something else.

I'm currently working on my Master's in Education, almost exclusively online courses through Regent University.  If I were clever, I could put a link to the site, but I'm not, so if you care, you'll have to look it up yourself; Regent.edu.

I took last semester off to have the baby and started back up this summer... and thought i was choosing a reasonably easy class. ha ha. jokes on me.

But, I'm almost finished, two more semesters, I should graduate in May!  whooooooo hooo.

lemme try another picture today, see if I remember how I did it.

well looky there, I did it, first try out of the gate. these are my littles, Jessi, Joy, and Joey. the big ones run too fast to photograph. I need one of those setups like the national geographic wildlife photographers use. you know, a blind and a trip trigger thing.

yesterday we all drove down to Duck, NC for an anniversary party for Jeff's aunt and uncle. 20 years. wow. we are almost at 6 years and I can hardly remember life before marriage.

we told the kids we were going to the beach and they got so excited. not sure why... we live on a peninsula, water is a pretty common sight. anyway, they chanted "i almost see the beach, i almost see the beach" over and over and over and over and over and over...

 i was trying my best to point out anything and everything that would keep them engaged for a few minutes, just for a break from the "I almost see the beach, i almost see the beach, i almost see the beach."

we did everything from look at cows to count red cars, but my favorite was when jessi spied one little cloud off to the edge of the sky (it was a beautiful, almost cloudless day) and exclaimed, "I see a, a, a one of those animals that Jonah rides!!"

Confused I asked, "a camel?"   "Yes, yes" she exclaimed, " a camel a camel"

"honey, where do you see a camel?" I asked her.  "over there, in the sky, that cloud is a camel cloud!"

and sure enough. it was.

so yesterday our weather gave Noah a run for his money.

I let the kids play cooking (gave them a mixing bowl and some tools) and they were busy for a while.

I was in the other room and I hear, "do you have a purple?"  "no, go fish"  "do you have an orange?" "no, go fish."  "do you have a taco?"

taco??

i had to take a peek.

so there they are, sitting on the kitchen floor, one of the small drawers open and a whole stack of packets in between them.  a handful of koolaid packets (thus, the purple and oranage) and various seasoning packets...thus, the taco remark.

leave it to creative little ones to spend a rainy day playing "go fish" with food items.

I'm loving it.

by the way, the kids have decided that they need another new baby.  a baby boy. or, as joey clarified this morning... a baby boy AND a baby dragon. yeah, i'll get right to work on that.

dontcha just love how anything, and i do mean anything can be turned into a learning opportunity?

tee hee hee...3 y.o. jessi was going potty and wanted her belly rubbed to, uh, help things along.  so, afterwards, i drew a rudimentary alimentary canal for the kids.  they now know about eating with our mouths, swallowing down the throat, then the food goes down the "sophagus" into our stomach, which does (insert hand motions here) "mash mash mash."  then it goes through long, long, pipes, just like a water hose, called intestines.  in here, our body takes the good stuff and uses it to grow big and strong, then the other stuff goes down, down, down to our bottom... and you know the rest.

since my favorite version of "assessing" is to have them tell daddy what they just learned, that is what they did.  they used the picture i drew and explained it all to dad. 

not a half bad understanding for 3 and 4 year olds.

so..... we shall see. already none too successful.  i tried to load two pictures and it said they were too big. 

anyhoo, this is my little marilyn monroe.  such a drama queen, 3 going on 14.

only... you can't see her.  i'll have to work on pics another day.  it's way late. i'm tired and my ear hurts. 

ok 4 edits later, this isn't the marilyn monroe picture. but it's a picture. i'm fullfilled. good night.