Charlie's 2nd Grade Immigration Day (Feb 24)

Here's another delayed post from last month that I am just getting to.  It's amazing what can be achieved during Spring Break! :-)

The entire 2nd Grade was involved in what was called Immigration Day.  They learned about how immigrants back in the day traveled through Ellis Island and what they experienced trying to get into the United States.

Charlie was given his role of a 22-year-old dairy farmer coming in from Germany.  He is traveling with his "wife" and are trying to make their way by train to his aunt and uncle who lives in Pennsylvania. 

We tried our best to dress Charlie up based on that era without having to buy anything in the store:

I think we nailed it??!  Now... with a little pizzazz :-)

Photographs were taking prior to the event and was posted in the MPR (Multi-purpose room). It was taken in black-and-white to make it look like it was taken a long time ago.  Would have been fun if the photos were taken when they were dressed up for the part.  I think they were told not to smile either. Ha ha!

Here is the "boat" that the immigrants arrived in:

Here is Charlie on the boat.  He looks so cute:

In the meantime, I have been walking around in just my socks because my shoes/clogs totally crumbled!!!

I had these shoes in Graham's closet for maybe a year now and I guess the dry air just made the rubber soles literally crumble to pieces!!! I actually left a trail of black rubber crumbs in the MPR which I had to later sweep up.  But as you can see, I even tried to "MacGyver" it with a rubber band but nope, totally failed.  So into the trash they go!

Here is the line through the "interrogator".  Charlie had to defend him and his "wife" so they can get into Ellis Island a.k.a. the MPR:

I managed to find this old-school suitcase at a discounted store. Maybe a bit heavy for Charlie but it definitely looks the part!  He packed some clothes, a pack of cards, some dice, and some jacks :-)

What a fun project with the kids!  Although I heard later in the day that some kids were in tears because they did not get through interrogation or perhaps they did not pass the health inspection or whatever else that went on at Ellis Island. Some kids that were grouped into families had to decide whether to split up or stay together.  Can you imagine actually going through that in reality??! Everyone learned something for sure today!

Golf camp (Feb 24-27)

Somehow it has taken me this long to post about the boys' golf camp.  This was over a month ago now at the golf course that's not far from us.  I think it took me this long to post because there were so many videos to download!

I am so happy to see how Graham's swing has miraculously improved!

Graham's swing from April 2017: https://youtu.be/1bziV3_pt9M
I love these memories from Abu Dhabi Golf Club.  Graham was only 7 years old then, pretty much how old Charlie is now.  At the end of the video, it's funny how he notices how he is only his tippy toes and facing the wrong way. Ha ha!

Graham's swing from July 2018:

Graham's swing today:

His balance is so much better and I LOVE his tempo!  Maybe he is paying attention to all those things that I am telling him :-P

Charlie's swing has somehow gotten shorter and faster.  Must be the influence from baseball!

Here is Charlie's swing from last year:

Charlie's swing today:

Still not too shabby!  He is such a natural.

Graham is always loving the bunkers.  At least he is in there trying to get the ball out vs raking the bunker like he always enjoyed doing when he was a toddler:

We took a brief stopover by the lighthouse on the way home from the golf course one of the evenings.  I think Graham said he saw a blow spout of a whale?!  I didn't see it but still worth the stop. It's so pretty here:

Boys will be boys - climbing on rocks:

Sun is almost going down:

On another day after golf, we are stopping over at a fast food restaurant for dinner.  Daddy is away for work and Graham had to reschedule his violin lesson at another location.  So, we only had 30 minutes before getting to his lesson!

On the last day of Golf Camp, there is the usual putting competition. The view from up here is not too shabby either:

Look who came in 2nd!

 Here's a highlight from Graham's putting competition:

Charlie had some good putts too but then he had a few clunkers too - 3 or 4 putting at a hole.  Here is his highlight though. You can tell he is really nervous (or at least I can :-)

Did you see Charlie wipe his forehead??! Ha ha!

Somehow Charlie got put in the same group as the older kids when he had been putting with the younger group.  So when it came to announcing the winners, his name was not called even after 3rd and 2nd place, and so he was expecting to win!  Inevitably, when they didn't announce his name at all, he was totally deflated.

After all that after-school golf in 4 days, the boys still wanted to practice.  Poor Charlie was obviously still upset:

Well, at least it's another pretty sunset to end our day:

The next day... another pretty day with the clouds!  This was my best photo-moment while driving :-P

Until the next golf camp!  I signed the boys up in the summer - towards the end of June. We'll see if it happens! I think we are still waaaaay behind the curve of slowing down the infection and death rate.  I was reading some postings today in a local App that there has still been sighting of kids having soccer and lacrosse practice and such.  Such silly people!  Don't they understand the "Safer at Home" order and "Social Distancing"??! 

Spring Break! Tackling some home projects

It is officially Spring Break!  Phew... I was getting so beat up from 2 weeks of homeschooling. Ha ha!  I really wonder how these families that homeschool do it.  And most of them have like 4 kids - at least the ones that I know of.

So, first off... been wanting to hang this on the door that leads to the garage for the longest time.  Technically, this door is not to code (not fireproof) so eventually it will need to get changed out.  So why not put some holes in it while we can. Ha ha!  Graham and Charlie still struggle to get their hats from the bench rack, so figured this would make this easier - once we all get back to our normal school routine... whenever that might be!

One task done... check!  Next on the list is sealing our bathroom floor tile.  I had to put up a sign for Bobby not to use our bathroom.  The bottom illegible part that I wrote down reads as follows: "Do I really sound like that???!?"  Just an inside joke about how Bobby has been making fun on how I sound like when I tell the boys to do something.  Nice, eh??! 

Here we go! I started at 9pm and actually had to wait an hour before the 2nd layer. I guess I really didn't think this through so much when it came to the start time!  Although I have been going to bed really late, so it didn't matter too much:

Shower floor tile sealed... check!  And yesterday, I decided to paint this door that's in our bedroom door.  The previous owners must have rented this master bedroom out as it is the only explanation for this door that leads into the backyard patio.  I didn't paint it when we moved in because we thought we would just remove the door and seal it off.  But then, the movers used it to move our big heavy bedroom furniture into the room.  So maybe we should keep it?  But this white just didn't appeal:

So.... looks like this might take a few coats.  I am doubting my decision now:

Urgh... almost there!

Now you see it, now you don't! Ha ha...

I could still see some of the white from the door, so had to paint that a bit.  Also some white on the other side of the door frame, but too much work involved so nope, not doing it!

In the meantime, boys are having fun playing badminton in the backyard.  Although looks more like a tennis swing!

Moving on...!  I was determined to get the other raised bed done up.  Thankfully it was a bit smaller than the other one and thankfully the one big bag of soil was sufficient:

The boys continued to play in the yard.  So glad we have this yard!

Graham is crocheting. Ha ha! Love it!

This lizard scared me a little.  I probably destroyed its hiding spot:

Tada!!!  Planted edamame in this plot.  So glad to find out that these plants don't need to be staked.  For some reason I thought they would need some sort of trellis to climb but nope!

We'll see how long it will take for this to grow.  No mulch so I used some rocks that I found while digging to hold the weedblocker down:

So far so good on the corn too and look, our Venus Fly Trap is growing a little bit too.  Still so tiny but I can definitely see that it's grown after all that rain!

And jackpot!  Look at all these veggie seeds that I found in the garage! 

Better start planting some more salad/greens too.  Maybe that will motivate the boys to eat some??!  Graham found some sunflower seeds and so he planted some of those.  Will keep you all posted on that.  Supposedly it's good to plant those with corn.  Who knows why??! I just believe everything I read on the internet :-P

Okay, so here goes... supposedly the high excess of Nitrogen left from the corn is good for sunflowers.  And sunflowers that eventually die off is really good for your soil as it increases the organic content and the water holding capacity of your soil. Who knew! See... you just learned something new today. You're welcome :-)

First trip out of the house (since Safer-at-Home order)

Technically it won't be the first trip out of the house for Bobby and I since we have had to do some grocery shopping.  But both Graham and Charlie have not been out at all since the Stay-at-Home order. Actually, they haven't been out since homeschooling started 1.5 weeks ago!  I'm surprised that they haven't complained more about going out.  Perhaps they do understand the situation that faces all of us at this time.

Graham and Charlie are ready with their cameras.  This is the first time both of them have a camera each and on a mission (some sort of mission that Bobby and I will only find out soon enough).  I am trusting Charlie with my big camera!

It is now a timed entry into the Botanic Gardens.  Honestly, I am really surprised that this place is even still open to the public.  I mean ALL beaches and nature trails and parks are ALL closed!  As you can see, the place is empty. Yay on social distancing!

Bobby made sure to show me this plant, which he said is also known as the "Husband Plant".  Ha! Ha! If only... :-P

Bobby and I loved how the boys were so into taking photos:

So intense!

I got it too! Do you see the snail on the leaf? Although I'm going to blame the wind on making the image out of focus on my phone :-P

Bobby is taking the lead in this stretch:

Interesting looking flowers/plant:

Hmm... no one is waiting for Mommy to protect her from the "High bee activity area"!!!!

I swear that bee flew away just as I click the camera on my phone.  At least the flowers are pretty :-)

Gotcha!

I told you :-)

Graham and Charlie found something!

It's a bunny rabbit!

We are slowly sneaking up on it:

Here's the rest of the sneaking up on video:  https://youtu.be/9nUFu12doII

Too cute!!!

After all that excitement, we are taking a break at an open space.  We literally have the whole place to ourselves:

Not too much quiet time for Daddy though!

 The boys are such monkeys.  They love laying on top of Daddy!

A fun day at the Gardens!  I love Charlie's little silly face right in the very corner :-D

Hopefully the Gardens will continue to stay open.  It was definitely really nice to get out and stretch out our legs.  I have definitely been home for too long too!  Plus, even my stretchy leggings are getting tight around the waist.  YIKES!