Little Trains Save the Day

One day at the Roundhouse of the little train family, they were just waking up.  But then, Little Train's owner looked at his thermometer for rescues and realized that there was a job for Snow because of Brutus and Victor.  There was a job for Fire on the whole other side of the place.  They also needed Snow for that rescue, too.  There was one rescue, they needed every train for that one.  It was caused by Brutus and Victor. 

Then the next day, Little Train and Snow realized they needed to  be combined.   Brutus and Victor took down the master map.  So then they unplugged the cord.  They sawed off part of the cord and attached it to the railing of a building.  Then he put Brutus, his train, inside the copy machine.  He plugged it back in and it started to copy Brutus. 

And then the map turned back on because they plugged the cord back in.  Everybody jumped out of their seats when they saw the new lines on the track from Brutus and Victor.  The Professor sent out a call for a train that was willing to go to the new section of track.  The only one that came was Old Rust and Tex.  Then he saw them, but a whole bunch of planes came along on the toughest train's trailers.  The Professor said that they could all go because he didn't know that he would have planes.

So he sent everybody to go.  The planes would look at the top.  The trains would look exactly where it was.  Then they went along to go see what was going on.  But he didn't know that they had put a big boulder on the tracks.  The trains did just as they were going to let all the planes take off.  They yelled and said, "Wait, we have a problem.  We need your help!   There's a big boulder on the tracks so we need you to fly us over the big boulder"  The toughest team said, "We don't need your help. We'll just push the boulder out of the way!"  So it was settled. 

They tied a bunch of ropes to the planes and then they tied them to Old Rust and Tex.  Old Rust and Tex flew over the boulder while the toughest went right through  the big boulder.  Once they got there, they started being copied.  Everybody jumped out of their seats when they saw that they were being copied  along with Brutus and Victor. 

They realized that walls were coming up on every side of them.  The planes couldn't take off, but the toughest team had an idea.  They unhitched their trailers and they drove and they drove and broke out the first piece.  Then they helped everybody else get out. 

But then he saw something horrifying. The toughest team's hook was falling into a blaze of fire.  Snow got copied along with Little Train and they were in the same slot.  And then they fell out into one piece.  They saw a remote control to the train.  They got it before Brutus and Victor.    They got every problem solved with their new train, except for the one that Brutus and Victor always tried to stop their teamwork. 

The End.

George's Garden Picnic

One day, Curious George wanted to have a garden.  He had an idea of how to get to the garden.  First, he made two compasses.  They weren't just any compasses.  They showed him where to go and which path to take underground.  So then, after that, he started digging.  He dug and he dug and he dug.  But then he realized he had a lot more to go, so he dug and he dug and he dug some more. 

Finally, he had finished the tunnels.  Then he ran over to Mrs. Rankin's barn.  They gave him some wood for his cabin door and everything else he was making.  He collected a bunch of acorns for a picnic with Jumpy Squirrel.  got some bird food for the birds at the picnic. 

And then he got to buying some seeds.  When he had planted them and they had grown, he was immediately surprised.  Instead of growing bananas or oranges, it grew banangerines!  He built him a birdhouse and a pretend squirrel tree. 

So then the day came that he decided to invite Mrs. Rankin  and his neighbor, Bill, to the picnic.  But he told them they would have to stay right behind him because of where they were going. 

George went inside and got a flashlight.  He opened the cabin door and started to climb down.  And everyone else followed him.  And they ran with the flashlight on.  They quickly found their way with the first compass.  They quickly found their way on the first turn.  Then they had to come to the second compass. 

And then they arrived at the picnic.  George filled up the bird feeder with bird food and he put some squirrel nuts inside the hole in the fake squirrel tree.  They all had a great picnic. 

The End.

St. Louis Zoo...Free, Hands-On Education!

The boys and I went to the zoo this afternoon and had a terrific time, as always.  I cannot speak high enough praise for the St. Louis Zoo.  We focused on insects, primates, apes, and reptiles on this trip.  The boys on a sculpture outside of the Insectarium.

Resting for a bit outside:)

  The "begged" me to take their picture with this statue.  They loved the snakes, especially the Burmese Python. 

On the gorilla statue before the real thing.

Ahh...brotherly love...with sun in your eyes.

Ready to go home????

Joshua learned about endangered animals on this trip and tried to figure out if each animal we saw was endangered or threatened.  He deciphered the map for us and we took our time reading along the way. 

Photography 101

Pictures of fan and laundry basket lid

Joshua's self portrait

Fire Station Open House

A local fire station had an open house this past weekend that the boys absolutely loved!Joshua exiting the "smoke house" after being trained on what to do in case there is ever a fire in our home. 

He got to put out a "fire" with a real fire hose!We got to see a very old fire "truck"!

We also rode on the back of a fire truck...totally awesome!

It's All Relative

The kids were pretending to be scientists today and calling themselves Dr. Einstein, Professor Einstein, and Baby Einstein.  I asked them if they knew who Einstein was and they knew that he was a scientist.  This started us on a quest to find out some more information.  We discovered a         nice article for kids about Einstein and the theory of relativity.  Joshua really seemed to latch onto the example of an infinitely tall building in which you are in the elevator  falling.  It doesn't feel like you are falling at all, but if people saw you from the outside, they would see you falling.  If you saw them, they would look like they are flying up.

Caterpillar Investigation

We found a caterpillar and observed (played with) it. :)