washing machine entertainment

After a several week long slow death, the Maytag repair man informed us that our washing machine of twelve years was not going to make it, or at least it would cost more than it was worth to repair.  This lead to the purchase of a new front loading washer, which apparently is much more entertaining for the kids.  They discovered that it is fun to watch the cycle spinning around and at the end of the cycle it plays is a fun little tune.  The minutes count down on the digital display, and when there are just a few minutes left whoever is around will call the others to come and sit down and watch until the end of the cycle.  

Chalk Fest

Kylee was invited by the art teacher to be the captain of the Lewis Chalkfest team. The chalk competition, held on March 31st, was part of the Los Leones Student Arts Festival that included music performances by various high schools and artwork displayed by students in elementary, middle, and high schools.  

The art teacher gave chalk to Kylee so she could practice at home on our driveway and porch. These were here practice drawings. 

The Bob Lewis Chalkfest team included Sydney, Kylee, Kenna, Kaeylan, Daniel, and Mrs. Owens.

The team is given 2 hours to complete their drawing with the theme "Cats in the Wild".  Kylee was the one assigned to outline the drawing and then her and the team each had assigned parts to shade in.  

 

This was the final product.  Everyone who walked by "oo'ed" and "ahh'ed".  It was on par with the middle and even some high school drawings.  We were all very impressed.

These are some of the drawings from the middle and high schools.

There was also a large indoor display where there were about fifteen to twenty select art projects from each school.  Kylee and Julia both had a project on display there.  

There were plenty of other activities to keep the whole family entertained during the festival.  

Luckily there was face painting and lots of treats and snacks to keep them entertained.  

Brayden did not want to get his face painted, but he was very anxious to meet the nickel. 

Blakes toys

I have been pretty lucky as all of my kids are good about entertaining themselves.  Blake has been the most creative with what keeps him entertained.  He plays with random objects that he makes talk to each other and pretends they are super heros.

He has played with toothbrushes several times which are on of his favorites.  I have caught him in the bathroom with them talking to each other.  I guess there were 2 toothbrushes that were in a relationship because they gave each other kisses.  I could also hear Blake having them help each other cross bridges and saying things like "hang on".

Besides using them for drawing on paper and the table, Blake has the markers doing a lot of talking and traveling to different locations  to interact with each other.

The shampoo bottles were talking to each other and were put in all different kinds of formations.

When I was grocery shopping with Blake he asked for two twisty ties when we were in the produce section.  He proceeded to play with the twisty ties while I shopped.  He first used them to make various mustaches, then he had them chasing each other around the cart.  One of them even went to jail.  I don't know where he learned that one from.  The two twisty ties kept him thoroughly entertained the whole shopping trip.

Pinewood Derby Pressure

Brayden's 2nd Pinewood Derby was on March 30, 2012.  He wrote down some notes from a den meeting on "pinewood derby theory" and planned out his car diagram beforehand.

This year he went with a hornet shaped body race car with a metallic blue finish and firebird sticker decals.  He was feeling the pressure after having won it the year before.  I heard him pep talking his car before each race.  

The cars lined up ready to race.  

The way the brackets were arranged he didn't have very many races.

Brayden ended up winning 3rd place which was a lot more exciting this year because the award was candy instead of a trophy.

Randy's everywhere

With the return of Randy Julia has had him on her mind.  She has been creating Randy drawings whenever and wherever she has the chance.  They are on the backs of school work, on a card for Uncle Ryan, notebooks used at church and anywhere else she has a chance to draw.

        

Enchanted Rock Spring 2012

On St. Patrick's day we went to Enchanted Rock.  It is an enormous pink granite pluton rock formation, the largest in the United States. It takes about an hour and a half to get there.  It is a popular park to visit so you have to arrive early because they close the gates when they reach capacity,  then you have to wait in line until people leave so you can get in.  

The view from the top is beautiful and the hike up is relatively easy.  Blake made it without any trouble.  

There was a neat "cave" to explore.  

After exploring the rock we sat down for a picnic lunch.  

Enchanted Rock is close to Fredricksburg, so on our way home we went out to the wild seed flower farm to look at the flowers.  It had been a rainy spring so we expected to see lots of flowers, but we were a few weeks to early.  What we did see was pretty. 

Spring Break with the Herreras

First on the agenda was playing nonstop Super Mario Brothers until they passed the 8th level.  With that accomplished we were able to move on and do some sight seeing.  

March 14 - San Antonio has 5 missions, with the Alamo being the most popular tourist site.  We have recently discovered that we enjoy visiting the other missions because there is more to explore and you don't have to fight the crowds of people.  We decided to take the Herreras to see Mission San Jose.

Of course we still had to take them to see the Riverwalk and the Alamo.  In the 2 years that Carlos has been here to our 9+ he has explored and gotten to know San Antonio better than we have.  He was our tour guide when we went downtown.  He knew a free place to park that made for a nice walk along the River to the tourist areas.  

The Alamo

March 15 - We spent a fun day with the Herreras at Sea World.