First Day of Co-op

Today was our first day back at co-op. Our day began early - Emma was up and had dressed herself by 7:30, and Brandon had gotten up at 2:30 (after waking up and being too excited to go back to sleep, he came downstairs and spent the rest of the night on the couch - we didn't know this until much later, by the way). Classes started at 10am, so we headed out about 9:30, and we got there just in time.

Brandon started the day with Latin. He really enjoyed it - his teacher is a retired military guy who seems to be really excited about introducing the kids to Latin (he was loud too. I could hear him on the other side of the building). Emma started her day with Around the World Literally, where they'll be studying geography through picture books. I walked her to class, and one of the other little girls yells "Oh, Emma sit here by me!" Friends are a very good thing.

Emma's other classes are Life Science, Art, and Ancient History. She said history was her favorite because they got to play I Spy. The rest of Brandon's day included Biology 2, Drama, and Quilting (guess who's teaching that). He said Drama was loads of fun - lots of games and stuff.

I'm teaching Lego League to ELEVEN 6-8 year olds (all but 2 are boys). It's a bit rowdy, that one. And, I'm teaching the Quilting class with 6 little girls and Brandon (I keep thinking he'll change his mind about that, but he seems happy with his decision). That class went a lot faster than I thought it would, so the last 15 minutes was spent with much discussion of the Jonas Brothers - Brandon wasn't particularly moved by the conversation. We start cutting out our quilts next week, and I'll try to plan enough activities so he doesn't have to endure the "who's cuter, Nick or Joe?" debate again.

All in all, it was a pretty good day. Is it bedtime yet?

Our First Postcards

We sent out our first postcards this week. So far we've sent to Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Holland, and England. This is the map we're using to track all the postcards we send and receive.

Today we actually received a postcard from Seelze, Germany. The funny thing is that it wasn't a postcrossing card. I had won a book from a blogger over there a couple of weeks ago, and when she shipped the book, she also sent a very nice bookmark, and the postcard that Emma is holding. How cool is that?

The very pretty card (held by the very pretty girl) shows the gardens of Herrenhausen in Hannover.

The white and yellow pins are our sent postcards. The green one shows the one we received. Along with the map, we're going to be creating a scrapbook to showcase our collection.

Nauticus Museum

We spent a very pleasant Saturday afternoon at the Nauticus museum in Norfolk. Here are a few pictures:

If you didn't know this already, there are mermaids all over Norfolk. They're all decorated differently with themes and colors unique to their location. There's one in MacArthur Center that looks like a giant chocolate mermaid complete with a partially opened silver wrapper (and a bite taken out of her tail). The one in the photo resides in front of the Nauticus Museum.

There were more mermaids inside the museum.

Some more funny looking than others.... (according to Emma, the kids are 'glubbing' in this picture).

This is the USS Wisconsin. The kids thought it was pretty cool that this cannon shell is taller than both of them.

We spoke to a very nice man on the ship who was retired navy. He taught us a lot of neat things like how, when it was in the South Pacific, it got so hot and they were there so long, they raised the poles on the sides of the ship (where the life-lines keep you from going overboard) and attached tarps across to keep the sun off the deck. He also said they lost quite a few sailors over the years who just 'fell off the boat.' Yikes.

What a great day!