Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Friday's field trip was to the Recycle Center. The kids learned lots of great information and I learned alot too. For example, did you know you are not supposed to put lids or caps of any kind in the recycle bin? This includes water bottle caps, yogurt lids, screw on caps, milk jug caps. I'm not sure if it is just in our area or a nationwide thing. The lady conducting the field trip said the caps fly off and act like bullets in the automated machinery and can really hurt someone standing nearby. The Recycle Guys on the stage were created by the state of South Carolina's recycling campaign.

The center has a viewing platform for students to watch the trucks unload. The recyclable materials at this center are sold to other factories which in turn will make this stuff into new stuff like cans, paper, etc. Luke loved watching the front end loader push all the recycling materials into big piles.

Here are a few recycled creations that other students have made. Recycle Robot.

Colorful fish made from plastic bottles.

A cool chair made from recycled cardboard.

The table and benches that the students are sitting on are made from recycled milk jugs. The carpet is made from recycled water bottles (I think).

Afterwards, we planned to take the kids out to lunch. The burger place I had in mind had closed down. Oops! So we opted for a different place that I *thought* was like a TGIFridays or Chili's. Turns out my memory is failing me and it was a little more upscale than that. The kids were loving the "fancy" restaurant. My friend and I were dying knowing that the bill was going to be a bit ridiculous. We knew we were in trouble when the kids menu didn't include prices! Yikes! I thought it was quite tacky that the restaurant served boxed Kraft Mac & Cheese and canned fruit and still charged so much money. Let's just say we won't be going back there any time soon.

On a fun note, we saw "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair in the restaurant. Whooooooooooo! Let's just say he has lost a little of that flair in his old age. After we explained who he was, Fletcher really wanted to go get his autograph, but he left before we did.

We love Friday field trip days!

For Sale

Yep. We're still trying to sell our Honda Pilot. It's a 2007 EX-L w/ DVD, leather seats, sunroof. Super clean, garage kept, one owner, only 42,350 miles. $22900.

If you say you saw it on the blog we can cut you a really good deal.

We have it listed on craigslist and autotrader.com.

C'mon. You know you want to buy it.

Picture yourself behind the wheel.

Hand Sanitizer

After my post earlier this week about our trip to the fair and my germophobic fears, I thought this was only fitting:



You can see more of Tim Hawkins here.

Bath Time

If you recall, Kevin is the bath guy at our house. It's pretty much been his job ever since Fletcher was a baby.

Kevin and Luke have this ongoing dialog every single night regarding the temperature of Luke's bath water.

No matter what temperature it is, Luke will step in and say, "Daddy, it's too hot!" Kevin could make it ice cold and Luke would still say it was too hot. I think he just likes to see if he can get a rise out of Kevin. :) Kevin ends up letting Luke put a little bit of cold water in the tub from the faucet and that seems to satisfy Luke.

Last night, this was the conversation I overheard:

Luke: Daddy, it's too hot.
Kevin: No, it is "luke"warm just like you like it. (Note my husband's clever play on words)
Luke: No, it not wukewarm.
Kevin: Yes, Daddy made it lukewarm just for you.
Luke: (getting frustrated) NO, Daddy! It is not wukewarm. It is wukeHOT!

High Flying

Fletcher has been asking for a tree house all summer. For several reasons that I won't get into, Kevin just wasn't ready to take on a tree house project and the time and money involved right now. We didn't want to do a play set either since our backyard is sloped and it would take some significant engineering to find a large enough flat spot to put a play set.


So I ran across this and thought it would be a fun diversion. No, it's not a tree house, but 7 kids can play on it at once and it holds 600 lbs so Mom and Dad can play too. But it is lightweight enough that it can be moved around the yard when Dad needs to mow.


They've already traveled a million miles in their imaginations. Luke says he's "going to MawMaw and PawPaw's house" when he's the pilot. Fletcher says he's "going to an air war" when he's the pilot.

A Little Culture

This weekend we headed down or out or over (I wasn't driving so I'm not totally sure of the direction) to the Cabarrus County Fair.

Oh yes we did. It's been almost 10 years since I've been to a county fair complete with rides, games, pageants, petting zoo, pageants, 4-H displays, and every fried thing imaginable. Fried Oreos, really? The fairgrounds are new so all things considered, it was a pretty clean fair.

What a day! Fletcher and his buddy Tucker had a blast riding the rides. We bought wristbands for them so they could ride as many things as many times as they wanted to without having to mess with tickets.

This was a big step for me considering all of the germ issues I have. I did make the boys use hand sanitizer after just about every ride so they (hopefully) won't contract the "fair funk" virus. I'm sure other people thought I was nuts. But I was happy to see hand sanitizer pumps outside of the majority of the food booths. As much as I wanted to introduce the kids to the joys of a funnel cake, we skipped it. I did however get a piece of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting from the Methodist church booth (I figured of all the booths out there, they were probably the safest bet). It was some of the best carrot cake I've ever eaten!

Fun house/house of mirrors.

Kevin gets the Rock Star Dad award. As I've gotten older, all of those rides that go round and round or up and down or well, any direction really, make me nauseated and dizzy. So Kevin stepped up and rode the kiddie rides with Luke. At the end of the day, I asked Luke what his favorite ride was. He told me the "wollercoawster"(pictured below).

Here they are in the Monster Trucks. I think the carnival ride operator wasn't sure that Kevin would fit into the truck.

This was the fire engine.

Four Wheelers!

More four wheelers. They are wearing jackets because it had been raining off and on all afternoon. It actually made the day much cooler.

Superheroes! I told Fletcher and Tucker, "DO NOT put your mouths on those face rest things."

A camel with a turkey in the exhibition hall. Now there's something you don't see every day at a county fair. There were some other interesting "people sightings" as well, but I figured they might get mad (and possibly beat me up) if I took their pictures.

Can't go to the fair without a ride on the merry-go-round.

Bumper Cars. Poor little guys. They couldn't figure it out and kept going around in circles.

This ride was one that went around and around and up and down and then did the same thing in reverse. Fletcher almost threw up. I could tell he was very ready for that ride to be over. This was the photo before it started. He didn't look nearly as happy when it ended.

What a great Daddy!

I didn't get a good picture of them riding the ferris wheel. Kevin and Grant (Tucker's dad) both were a little leary about riding it considering the entire structure was propped up on a stack of 2'X2' boards. I forgot to take a picture of those. They survived.

Fletcher asked if we could go back next weekend.

Please Stand

I've mentioned before that Fletcher's school is mostly based on several education theories by Charlotte Mason. If you are interested, you can read more about it here.

Starting in kindergarten, all students learn the "seated learning position" which includes sitting up straight in their chairs, feet under the table, hands folded in front of them, no leaning back in the chair and no talking. Instead of the teacher having to say, "Sit down, be quiet, don't touch, turn around, don't lean back in your chair," she only has to say "assume the seated learning position" and the students know exactly what to do. And they do it without question.

When there's an issue whether it is talking out of turn or acting silly during a lesson, the thought is that the student needs to regain his self control. The student already knows what he is or is not supposed to do so the teacher doesn't need to get into those details. She just simply says, "(Name of child), please stand." No arguments, no back talk, no child saying "but I wasn't doing...". The student knows exactly what to do. He stands up by his chair with arms at his side, no wiggling and no talking until the teacher tells him to sit back down a few minutes later. Of course, if the behavior pattern continues, then there are other consequences like having to leave the room or lose precious playground time.

I know some people may think this discipline seems weird or strict. But I love it. It is based on respect and obedience which are sometimes lost with children and teachers at schools today. I cannot tell you the number of times I lost valuable teaching time when I taught school when I had to stop and deal with a student who was misbehaving in class.

Well, guess who has had to stand twice this week in class.

Excessive silliness and fidgeting with his pencil colors.

Sitting still is hard for a 6 1/2 year old boy, but not impossible. He's learning. And rightful so, I think his teacher is being very strict these first few weeks of school to create the right learning environment for her students so they can have a great year.