7 - School Day with Kylie

Yesterday our good friend Kylie came over to have school. Her mother and I have a bi-monthly co-op set up, so she does a two-hour school day at her house once a month and I do one once a month.

It took me weeks to form an idea of what to do, but I finally narrowed it down a couple of days ahead of time. We focused on candy canes. We read The Legend of the Candy Cane, watched a YouTube video on how the candy is made, made Candy Cane Cookies, and then twisted pipe cleaners into candy cane shapes.

We had a good time. The cookies took about an hour to accomplish and even then not all the dough was used! I think the work was a little tedious for the children after a while. Don't you love Nathan's picture? Notice the flour on the tip of his nose. :) Nathan worked at his cookie dough as if he was kneading bread dough. It was really like he was playing with play-doh and I took the opportunity to quietly take bits of his dough and make my own cookies to save time. He karate chopped, he used his elbows to pound it out, he rolled. He was loving life.

Lani came to have lunch with us and the children played. I had been having a rough time of it with Kaeley. The girl would give me the ugliest looks! Ugh, so frustrating! So, I already had baggage with her, so when I walked into Nathan's room to find all the sheets from Kaeley's bed and Alynna's bed in his bedroom and Kaeley hanging off his loft bed like it was a jungle gym I kicked her out of the house. No, seriously. I kicked her out. So what if it was raining? Okay, it had stopped raining for a while, but obviously the girl had some energy that needed to get out, so she put on her rain gear and headed outside to the front playground. Lani gave permission to Kylie to go as well. I didn't know there was practically a lake in the sand! Kylie lost her boot and put it back on, I think, before we got out there. Sure enough, it happened to Kaeley as well. She stepped into a small, but deep, sand hole and her boot got stuck like it was in quicksand! I stood at the door watching them take turns trying to get the boot out. Finally it schlopped out and we had to have the girls come inside. They were filthy! Kaeley's raincoat was sandy and had to be washed out. Both of the girls had to change their socks and pants because while they would tug at their boots both feet stood firmly planted in the sand. I'm rolling my eyes as we speak. I filled Kaeley's boot up with water, dumped it out, and pure brown mud water came out! It took three fills to finally get the boot to run clear.

It was quite an ordeal, but it's not everyday us SoCals can play in the rain puddle. You know what I'm saying? "Hey, look, kids! Another sunny day!"