A Fabulous Find

I have lived in Las Vegas for over 21 years and feel like I know most of the fun, little places to take my kids to around town. However, today we were invited on a new field trip to McKee Ranch in the southwest part of town. I love any opportunity to get my kids around farm animals since they are sort of a novelty in Vegas.

I knew my girls would have a great time when we got out of the car and heard a rooster crow. My kids' faces lit up with excitement while Avery tried to imitate the sound. The ranch is free admission and the owners let you bring carrots and crackers to feed the animals. They probably have more animals, but we fed goats, sheep, pigs, bunnies, chickens, a turkey, and a lot of horses, including little miniature ponies. The ranchers will also let you in the pastures right next to the horses which is rare. The ranch was full of old wooden toys, little benches, toilet planters, an old outhouse, a horse tire swing, and the extremely rare wooden merry go round.

If you are looking for something FREE to do with your kids one day, I highly recommend the McKee Ranch.

Polar Plunge

Taylor and Sydney have been asking me since the beginning of March if they can go swimming in our pool. My answer is always, "No, the pool is freezing cold and I am not heating it until May." I have also tried explaining to them that even though it is starting to warm up outside, it doesn't mean the pool is warm yet. Of course, my babbling goes in one ear and out the other.

So today when they asked yet again if they and a friend could jump in the pool, we said, "Go for it." It took just one dip of my foot into the 60 degree water to let me know that it will be another month or so before I jump in that water. I figured my girls would decide the same thing once they put their feet in. However, there was no dipping their toes in. They just came out and plunged right in.

Taylor and Samantha, being the tough girls that they are, tried to pretend that the water was just fine to quiet my laughter.


However, Mom was right as usual. The pool was FREEZING and they made a desperate dash for the hot tub.

Of course, Avery was anxious to sport her new swimsuit from Aunt Susie and to try to keep up with the big girls.
Avery has now reached the age of the fake, cheesey smile.

Status report

Hmmm, should I keep homeschooling or should I not? That has been the question hanging over my head for the last month. Well, actually, it is a question that I pose to myself on a daily basis.

Although some days have been bumpy for us, here are some of our celebrated successes over the past 7 months:

• I have finally trained Sydney to not say, "Nothing, " when Sheldon or someone calls on the phone and asks her what she is doing.
• I have finally convinced Taylor that Math worksheets are not just "busy work".
• Avery will now sit and do puzzles or color with crayons for 30 minutes at a time before throwing them at us. It used to be about 5 minutes.
• We have made friends with the lady at the gas station where I get my daily Dr. Pepper so I can cope with teaching Math to a certain child.
• Sydney used one of her vocabulary words from a History lesson on Babylon to accidentally insult someone. After apologizing, we decided to focus on the fact that she remembered the word. ;)

All joking aside, we are having fun with the K12 program and have registered for another year. I don't want to bore anyone with my many reasons for continuing to homeschool so I won't. Wish us luck!