Me in Place

We sold something and were paid in cash. Which means I had a good ol’ fashioned 100 dollar bill in my hands. But, frankly (franklin?), I am opposed to the hundred dollar bill. Because of Ben.

See his face?

I hate his look. He’s all, “As if you really need those cute shoes!” “Budget, budget, budget!” “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

“But, Ben,” I say, “I know this is my grocery money, but….that book! It looks so good!”

“But, Ben! That purse is on saaaaaaale!”

“But, Ben….it’s for the children!”

So no fun hanging out with Benjamin.

We are studying ancient history this year using Susan Wise Bauer’s Story of the World. (It is a four volume curriculum that takes you through history chronologically.) The very first chapter introduces what history is and what archaeologists do.

I found clearance things at Borders to help with our project. They were little blocks of hardened material – kinda little tiny pebbles – which they had to chip off to discover what lies beneath. (Ooh, did you see that movie? It was creepy.)

We buried them in the sandbox and the archaeologists got to work:

Even Mr MIP got involved in his children’s edjamacation:

Chipping away at fake history:

Discoveries! Archaic spiders!

Dinos! (these grow in water – as all ancient, petrified plastic dinos do, of course)

We started school on Monday and I pulled out all the stops in the creativity department. Just kidding. Actually, I saw the Scrabble Jr Cheezits at Woodman’s and thought, “Aha! A way to get SuperBoy involved in spelling!” This being his first year of spelling workbooks, I wanted to make sure he kept his excitement for longer than thirty seconds.

The older sister found all the letters needed, and put them in a pile for him. He pulled out his workbook and spelled in Cheezits. Hopefully some of it will sink in!

I thought it was unusual, but very sweet, when I noticed how well Miss Artist and SuperBoy were playing together. Miss Artist was working with her Pixo Chix playset – they’re little bitty beads you put together on a plastic sheet and then you spray them with water and when they dry, they stick together. She has a house they’ve been designing:

Note the bedspread and pillows – those are examples of how the beads work:

Then I noticed a little something…

And realized what SuperBoy was designing:

Before we get back to what I’ve been up to, let’s focus our attention on he who shall be called Mr MIP. He has always been into mountain books, mountain maps, mountain movies, etc., etc.

But lately he got the actual climbing bug. And this summer he was able to spend a few days in Colorado climbing two 14ers, as they’re known. (14ers are mountains over 14,000 feet above sea level.).

Here are some pictures from the first climb – Mt Elbert. Mt Elbert is the second highest mountain on the continental US (Mt Whitney is the highest). Although it is the second highest, it is rated a Class 1 because the incline is gradual. All of the above information should be checked for facts before using it in your mountain report for school, because I’m too lazy to look it up and I’m asking Mr MIP for this info while he’s watching one of his favorite shows, Burn Notice.

Little pika on the trail…can you see him hiding?

Mr MIP took along the small buddy of our eldest…Even Swifter summitted!

Hmmm…I don’t remember writing this on the grocery list…

We bought three packs of water bottles and told her whatever she earned would go toward a Disney Souvenir Fund for our upcoming trip. She’s doing pretty good business at our garage sale this weekend!

Meanwhile, as can only happen in real life, SuperBoy picked today to wake up with a bad headache and an upset stomach. He threw up all over a pillow from my couch and our living room rug. Guess what my garage sale funds are going to go toward?

Ah, until you’re a mother, you have no idea.

Father-in-law put in a heater in their pool this summer. You might want to be nicer to me ‘cuz yeah, pretty much best pool ever now. And you don’t have to swim with 150,003 other people’s kids.

But there’s only so much pool awesomeness a girl can take before she must demand a Blog Adventure!

So we piled in the car and drove to a diner I’ve wanted to try.

Food was A-
Gross Floor under our table was F
So – overall, a C experience! If you’re ever in the Portage area, give it a try. Maybe they’ve cleaned the floor by now.

All in all, a perfect blog adventure.

Have a great, sunny summer-y Monday!

Kitty got a whisker cut. I apparently should have responded with more urgency when my daughter asked if cat whiskers grew back.