School's Out (Forever!)

In our little corner of the world, we are surrounded by family and good friends. We spent the entire summer with both. Unfortunately, yesterday was the first day of the school year for some of them. It was interesting to hear about the first day of school. One of our neighbors had his first day of 1st grade, which was his first day of all day class. When he told me he had a busy day learning, I asked what he learned? "The inside rules, the outside rules, the lunchroom rules..." I swear that is exactly what came out of his mouth. It made me want to cry. Are there rules for outside? I mean common sense says stay in the fenced schoolyard, but beyond that? So after our friends answered out questions about their day, they asked questions about our day. When are you going to start doing school? Have you tried to explain unschooling to a schooled 1st grader? LOL How about a 13 year old girl that hates school? I just said we "do" school every minute of every day all year. We miss them when they are in school. Fortunately, our family wakes late, and they only have to wait a few hours to see friends from across the street. These hours are filled with various things from day to day. Here is how our day looked. We watched some movies from the library about mammals. We decided we are going to use our tiny baby pool to build a frog pond in the backyard (after we let Sarah borrow it for the RE conference.) We Googled "build a frog pond," to see what should and should not include in a frog pond. We played with our Nintendo DS'es and had a lesson in home economics while we cleaned the house. We watched Bill level a spot in the backyard for the new patio! Daddy arrived home and complained about the school traffic. Dom drives through 2 school zones on his way to the office! This morning is killer bc the concrete is begin poured for the patio so we are restricted to staying in the house. Finally, the girls wake up! I think we may leave the house while the work is being completed. There are a couple of museums here in town we have never been to. I think, since school is back in, maybe today is a good day to visit. For fun, I put in some "craft" pics that Mady and Karae made @ the last sleep over before school. We also shot off a rocket this weekend! That was a blast! (Pun intended!) Mady got to ride Bunny around for the first time this wknd. She still needs to gain some weight but she looks much better.

As a side note, while I was mowing the yard yesterday morning, a bee found my ankle to be to close to its' hive. I have a huge, painful, swollen knot on my lower right leg. I included the pic of the hive. While I love observing wildlife, this wildlife is a bit too dangerous to have right in the backyard. I will spray them with water later today, then take the nest down. I don't think the bees will die, they will just be knocked loose from the hive so I can remove it from the fence with a rake or other garden utensil.

As another side note, our new chinchilla has been acclimating to our house for a few days now so, it is now time to let him explore further. For safety, and sanitary reasons, we use the exercise ball to allow Snowball to roam the house while we watch. He is the softest little critter you could ever lay your cheek on and a hoot to watch jump around.