Bird Week/Transportation Week

I have an awesome friend (Lauren) who did this little program last summer. At the time I thought she was pretty ambitious and wasn't too worried about keeping my kids busy because I was having a baby and that was my only focus for the summer. Now that school is over and the baby is almost a year old(!) I realized how smart she was and decided to do a similar thing. I got her list and we've been doing activities the last few weeks and my kids have really enjoyed it.

The first week we talked about birds. We checked out books from the library and made bird collages. We also went to the Tracy Aviary. It was so fun. The highlight of the trip (really the only reason why we went) was to see this guy. The Laughing Kookaburra. During the last week of Kindergarten, Sophia's class did reports on Australian animals. She chose this bird and was so excited about it! She was seriously so happy to see one in real life. She was a little disappointed that it didn't "laugh" while we there but it was still cool to see I guess. Here we are waiting for the bird show. It was pretty great as well. We also saw these beautiful columbines (not birds. I know). I couldn't believe they had this huge field of them! Lauren, I took these pictures for you. They were seriously so beautiful! We also saw these crazy birds (with a random kid on the side). The Owl Forest was pretty cool. I hadn't seen this part of the Aviary before and it really was cool how they did it. The flamingos were a big hit as well. And so were the pelicans (even though you can't see them). We finished the week by making these bird cages. They probably would have worked better with card stock and not just decorative paper but that's ok. This week we talked about transportation (planes, trains and automobiles). We checked out a book from the library that showed how to make different things that fly out of paper. Here are the girls decorating their "butterflies". Here's Sophia trying to get her "butterfly" too fly. I have to say I was not too impressed. Not with her gliding capabilities but with the book.We also took turns pushing Mabel in the doll stroller to talk about other things that move.We also took a trip in an automobile to Salem pond so that Sophia could ride her bike. Salem Pond is seriously only about 5 minutes from our house and Lilly still managed to fall asleep on the way there. She is so her mother's child!Overall, it's been a great week and we're looking forward to Princess Week. Thanks again for the ideas Lauren!

Here's a few other random happenings from our week. Have you heard of the game "Pop the Pig"? In our house we like to play "Pop the Mabel". It's where we stuff her shirt full of toys until she screams and insists that it's enough. Unfortunately, Lilly is the only one who really likes to play that game. While Mabel was napping yesterday, I went to check on her and found these 3 monkeys in the crib. I don't know how they all managed to get in there but they were sure crazy!Last night we went up the canyon with one of Doug's brothers and had a fun picnic. Mabel discovered that she really likes watermelon. She seriously ate about 4 slices of it.She was seriously getting drunk off the watermelon. Look at that cute face though! How could you not resist giving her more! She seriously loved it so much. It was hilarious.