Clothing Crisis

So much to write about... I have been super busy lately (Leah ended up in the hospital Tuesday night and we were at the doctor again today) and it is hard to play catch up. But here goes.

First, I wanted to write about our trip to the MD Zoo on Saturday. It was wonderful! They have two parts -- Africa and Maryland. :-) One of the highlights of Africa was the leopards. Instead of being fast asleep in the sun (like the lions and cheetah), the leopards were on the prowl. We watched them for a long time. We got to see them climb rocks, drink, eat (paw at blocks of frozen meat hanging from a tree), even argue over food! Rebecca was fascinated by the growling and the tense standoff. Then when we saw the giraffes they were sharing their food so it was a nice contrast between carnivore and herbivore.

The zoo had a baby elephant (born March 19th - 290 pounds!!!!!) and we entered a contest to name the elephant. Our family's suggestion was Cookie. I wonder what will get picked.

Yesterday was Drama Central here as Leah was moved from size 4T clothes to size 5T. I removed her clothes from her dresser and her closet and Leah pitched a Huge Screaming Fit. It was unbelievable. I just left her in her room with the two bins of 5T opened up and on her little table and didn't try to coax her to try anything on or anything like that. She calmed herself down and got interested in looking at her new things and she has been changing her clothes constantly for the past 24 hours. Then Natalie saw her and started saying, those are my clothes Leah, and we had to sort out that when you grow bigger you get new clothes and your sisters get your old clothes. They are so close together that there is hardly any time before the clothes get passed down and sometimes people are still attached to certain pieces. But it looks like it will all work out... at least until Leah sees Rebecca wearing her clothes from last year. :-)

My birthday is tomorrow so the children are meeting with a friend tonight to plan a surprise cake for me and presents. Then we will do a special birthday breakfast in the morning. From what I can understand, the presents are going to be artwork cut into pieces to make puzzles. That should be a fun morning.

I have decided to use A Child's History of the World instead of The Past Lives Again as my main text for Ancient Civ. because it is already set into more of a storytelling format (the other has chapters with discussion questions at the end; it is a textbook) and the civilizations are intertwined, which is what I want. More of a realistic view of how they developed over time and interacted with one another. I'll add the scheduling to my website - my planning for that is chugging along and I hope it helps people who are teaching or prepping for those blocks.