We planned to go to Sky High and enjoy the home school jumping price they have every Monday.  Pete took the day off of work to join us.  When we got there, they were sold out.  Then our friends, the Rizio's, arrived and we decided to go to the beach for a little while.

We parked by the Newport Pier and spent 75 cents (as opposed to $36 to go to Sky High) in the meter.  We saw the lowest tide I have ever seen.  The water barely reached the end of the jetty.  That left many things exposed.  Starfish, sea anemones, crabs and mussels.

Who knew it would turn into a science field trip?

During the first week of school, which started on August 23rd, the kids were assigned some science/literature assignments on the topic of Dudley.  All of the kids drew a tobacco hornworm.  Elijah and Luke were asked to write in their journal as if they were Dudley.  This was an opportunity to be creative, pretend to be a worm, pretend that worms have feelings and emotions, and write in the first person.

Dudley, drawn by Elijah

Dudley, drawn by Luke

When we went to the pumpkin farm we got five pumpkins for $20.  And we also went in a corn maze.

We sat on a tractor and mom took pictures of us.

John got a little pumpkin.  We got to see our cousins at the pumpkin farm and the pumpkin patch was really big.  We built a big pile of pumpkins and then dad took pictures of us lying down on them.  And we were faking that we were sleeping.

It's the end of our first week of school.  We had a treat to start our week off.  The kids named him (or it could be her) Dudley.  Pete put together a little film about Dudley using iMovie.  I have to brag about the photos at the beginning because they were taken by me.  Enjoy the film.  More entries about Dudley will be coming soon.

The shells are named Wink, Blink and Pink.  They like the sand.  One day they got washed away in the ocean.  To drink they had to sink.  Pink is the pink shell.  Wink is the brown shell.  Blink is the yellow shell with the blue hat.

A little girl was riding her bike one day.  And it was busy on the street because cars were going fast.  And the little girl that was riding a bike was so busy watching the cars that she fell off.  There was a boo-boo on her knee.  And then a cat came up to comfort her.

Here is a poem Ruth learned for school.

12/9/09

We took a magnet and we taped it onto a little car.  And we took another magnet and put it next to the other magnet and it made the car roll.  It was fun that we didn't have to touch the car and it rolled smoothly too.