Games, games & more games

Qwirkle is a really good game. The premise is to form lines of 6 tiles that either share shape or color as an attribute. It is great for developing logic and strategy. Scoring requires simple addition. Replenishing your hand means you have to know how many you have left and how many you have to pick to make sure you have six. Mikey and I played a game called Wheel of Life. It includes 5 cards each for life cycles of a frog, a chicken, a bean, a tree and other things. One game was putting them in the order of each life cycle. Then we played "memory" with them face down on the table trying to collect a set for yourself. Another game was to remove some cards and having to ask your opponent for a specific card by describing the card. Gavin and I played Math Magic. We didn' t think it was going to be as fun as it was! The colors on the tiles told you whether you had to add, subtract, mulitply or divide the numbers in that color. The goal is to make the highest number you can with what you were given. I think it's a sticker on his head. Mikey has been playing with these letter tiles for several days now. I was just about to get rid of them because no one played with them before.

A school dance

I can hardly stand it, really. How is it that it is time to send E off to a school dance. He wanted me to wait in the car and not walk him to the gym, by the way.

E's Soccer Game

Soccer games at Ethan's school are awesome. It reminds me of why we picked a private, special education setting for him. It's truly his game, the kids own it. It's so "usual" in nature that you forget that each of the kids attend this school because their needs were such that they just could not be met by their sending school districts.

It's just a soccer game with all the trappings, cheering each other on, the yells of "hey, I'm open!", high fiving, disappointment at the other teams well-placed goal, and the occassional air guitar (wait, is that just Ethan?) Go Blue & Gold!!

What they saw today

Gavin has acquired a science/chemisty set he plans on looking at in the next couple of weeks. He assembled a "Bioscope" that came with it which magnified and using natural light, acutely lit whatever object was on the attached slide or in a small round container.

Items that made it into the bioscope: salt, pepper, wood splinter, a cicada, a cicada leg, a cicada wing, sand, soil and water from the fish tank.

A train ride

Ethan had off from school, so we rode the train just for fun. We left from the Dunellen station and went to Westfield. We got off for some Rita's Italian Ice and then headed back home. They had a great time - now the baby is obsessed with 'choo-choos'.

The Pumpkin Patch

Norz Hill Farm was a perfect place for pumpkin picking, maze walking and hayriding. With a cousin and a sister, in tow, even better!

I don't think anyone had ever pet a water buffalo before!

I did not like the corn maze at all. I felt like we would be in there for ever, and I was certain we were going to lose someone - namely Ethan or Sean! But it made for this nice snapshot.

A Smooshy Pictorial

Here's a view of life...Smoosh-style!

Chocolate cheesecake on a stick - so fortunate to find out so young.

You can eat a banana under the computer desk.

A bug-in-a-cup for entertainment purposes - thanks, bubbos!

Taking off!

Self-explanatory.

A cuddle with a bubbo.

Working on his pound of dirt.

Suiting up.

Feeding a deer friend. Being taught how to properly roll down a hill.

Yup.

Thanks for looking!

Cub Scout Camping

Ready...

Set....

Go!

I love that the boyz get this experience - makes great memories - and *LOTS* of laundry!!