After reading Tim’s mega-post, I just had to chime in. First, he forgot to tell you about the strawberries. Probably because he picked less than I did. :-) We had a gorgeous day and picked around 20 lbs.

Lisa 10

Tim   9

Piper 1

Just to solidify my victory, I need to add that I also finished well before he did… with one hand tied behind my back. No, really, Piper finally lost her top front tooth and I had to hold it for the last several minutes of picking. But we’re absolutely not competitive in any way. :-)

I’ll try to get a picture of the front-toothless little girl up soon. She’s actually doing quite a good job talking despite the handicap. She told me Daddy asked her what her favorite things about the trip were and she said “everything”. After further discussion she said “The White House and the monuments, particularly Abe Lincoln because I love the Gettysburg Address.” Interesting about the White House since we really didn’t see it that closely. Way to far to walk in that heat after already hiking over to Abe. I know she really liked walking around the paths at Mt. Vernon too. If it hadn’t been for the unfortunate shoe incident, as in “Piper, where are your shoes?”, I think we’d have spent more time just wandering the estate. Wow! Another highlight was getting to see an Anorthosite at Air and Space Museum. While it wasn’t the actual Genesis rock, it was still very cool. One of Piper’s favorite movies to watch is Galileo was Right from the series From the Earth to the Moon. It’s all about the Apollo 15 astronauts learning to be field geologists so they can do something other than pick up pretty rocks when they go to the moon and culminates in – you guessed it- them finding the Genesis rock.

Time to head upstairs, but I’ll leave you with a most excellent quote from the movie:

The mind is not a vessel to be filled, it is a fire to be lit. Plutarch

Hi everyone,
New pictures are up in the gallery from May and our trip to Washington DC. We camped outside the capital for four nights and visited the Air & Space Museum, the East Wing (Modern) of the National Gallery, Natural History Museum, National Archives, Mount Vernon, National Zoo, and the monuments on the mall. The Air & Space Museum was a highlight for Piper and she thought it was fun to see John Hancock’s signature on the Declaration of Independence. I think that camping and going to the water park attached to the campground was probably her favorite. We did get one round eye moment when a guide at Mount Vernon said to us that George Washington could have been standing right where we were when he found out that he had been elected President of the United States.

As for me, surprisingly, I found Mount Vernon the most interesting. The guides and the presentations do a wonderful job of humanizing the person we associate with the stiff figure on the dollar bill and quarter. Another highlight for me was seeing Burt Rutan’s Spaceship One hanging right next to Chuck Yeager’s X-1.
(Read on …)

Piper will officially be a 2nd grader in 2 days. She is currently taking a CAT test and we’ve told her that when she finishes she’s done for the summer and officially graduated. :-) The CAT test is a standardized test that I can give Piper without jumping through a lot of hoops. I deliberated, but in the end decided to just go ahead and give it to her. We have a few options for reporting to the school district. The one that we had originally chosen was a narrative. The administrator here insists on math and writing work samples with said narrative because she does not trust parent’s objectivity. (Don’t even get me started on how I feel about this subject.) This is technically 2 forms of reporting which is over and above what the law requires. It seems trivial, but it’s really a bad precedent to set. However, I have no interest in starting a fight. On top of that, after reading the narrative the test actually seemed less invasive. It provides details about pretty much everything we’ve done this year, including lists of field trips and books we’ve read. All I’m handing over with test scores is a bunch of numbers.
Despite driving me to distraction when we were doing the test prep booklet, Piper is not surprisingly doing very well so far and thinks it’s kind of fun.
Piper has had a very successful year overall and definitely earned her 1st grade stripes. Here’s a picture after she finished her 2nd grade level Hooked on Phonics. Those are the finished charts in the background. She’s actually started reading the abridge copy of Black Beauty on her own. Tim and I are playing it cool, but come down and do a happy dance after she goes to bed. :-)

We’ve been filling the bird feeder in the summer for the first time this year and have tons of wildlife in the backyard. The squirrels decided to have a party a couple days ago and invited all their friends. Piper and I sat and laughed while watching no less than 6 squirrels scurrying around. I cannot even describe how funny this was to watch. They squabble over choice positions and jump sky high when they accidentally bump into each other. You probably had to be there. :-)

The luna moth hatched this morning! Neither Tim nor I were holding out much hope since we’ve had it for over a month, but Piper and I continued to faithfully wet it each Monday as instructed. I went to open up the butterfly house this morning so that Piper could take it in and there it was right by the zipper. It must’ve just hatched since following is the progression over about 2 hours. We’ll let him (pretty sure it’s a him based on the antenna) out tonight to go in search of a mate. Wish him luck!
(Read on …)