September 2013 – Andelin Adventures

Legos and the Zoo

A couple of years ago, the zoo had a special exhibit of dinosaurs. This year, they have a special exhibit of Lego animals! Ethan LOVES Legos and so we didn’t want to miss it. So we decided it was time to renew our pass to the zoo and go check it out. While we were there we decided to have Ethan earn the Cub Scout Hogle Zoo patch, and so he wore his uniform.

We also took a friend of Tyra’s along, and since it was a school day, we had all the kids bring their composition books and pencils so they could take notes of the different animals and things that they saw. But that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t any monkeying around. 😛

Every time we pass the big elephant the kids just HAVE to sit on it’s trunk.

Ethan really liked the snake made of Legos.

It was really bright sitting on a shiny polar bear in the full sun. 🙂

Tyra was also working on a scout badge today. She is working on the Animal Habitats badge and so while we were in the building to observe the polar bear and the seals, we had her talk to one of the zoo employees about the Arctic habitat and why it is endangered. She got to find out why “global warming” is dangerous to the animals that live in the Arctic circle, and she learned about some ways we can help (such as not leaving our cars on when we aren’t driving).

Lydia saw the bears on the wall and wanted to “walk like a bear” too.

In the small animal building we had to wait while a couple the kids drew pictures of some of the animals.

Dinah’s drawing of an owl:

Dinah’s drawing of an armadillo:

Jeremy’s drawings:

When we finished searching the zoo for all of their Lego displays, we decided that it was time to go home. Tyra’s friend’s parents hadn’t expected us to be gone all day, which I kind of find funny, because who wants to spend an hour driving to the zoo and only spend an hour there, then spend another hour driving back? I mean, doing that you spend more time driving than you did at the zoo! But I think the kids had a good time, and they really thought the Lego animals were awesome. Hopefully they learned a little something too.

Investiture

Today we had our troop’s investiture and rededication meeting. I don’t have many pictures because I forgot to bring my camera, and the one picture I have, Kyle took with his phone while trying to wrestle Lydia, and Adam to sit still.

Dinah was invested into our troop as a Daisy and got to plant a seed so that she can watch it grow as she will grow.

Tyra got to get up with the Juniors and recite both the Girl Scout Promise and the Law, and then give an example of how she lives the law.

Then we got to give out the awards that we had earned in the previous weeks. The girls always love getting fun patches and awards. 🙂

Caught me by surprise!

I just realized that Chloe will be in kindergarten next year! Which means she is preschool age now, and I should probably be doing more “school” stuff with her. That means she will also be a Daisy girl scout next year. HOW was I not aware of this!? Somehow, I was thinking that she wouldn’t start kindergarten until the next year and that she would start Daisies the year that Dinah moves up to Brownies. I am really finding myself shocked to figure this out. At least I figured it out now and not the week before school starts next year. 😛 But man! Who told her she could grow up so fast???

Adam’s WALKING!

Check this out! My baby is walking!

I couldn’t get a picture of the front of him while he was walking. He was just moving way too fast. 😉

“I Do Mine Job?”

I have a chore chart up on the fridge that sort of splits up some basic chores amongst the kids so I don’t always end up asking Ethan or Tyra to do everything. Ethan and Tyra have more spots on the chart than the younger ones, but as they get older they are expected to help out more. Lydia has one job each day, and that is it. Today her job is loading and unloading the dishwasher. Obviously she can’t do all of that herself, but she likes to hand me the plates and other dishes so that I can put them away, and then I let her sort out the kids silverware on her own.

She gets SO EXCITED to do her job! She will run into the kitchen and say “I do mine job?” Much much different than the older kids who all moan, or grumble or just fall to the floor when I remind them that it’s their turn to do something.