Valentines Day and Zebras at the Zoo

Happy Valentines day!  (a few days late!)

This is Levi's valentine shirt, made with the only zebra fabric I had on hand, chosen because we got to meet the zebras on valentines day!     I really like this pattern though next time I will make the arms longer.  Levi seems to have monkey arms - I used one size for width and 2 sizes up for length and the arms just fit him in length even though I made the cuffs a little wider!     I'm going to modify it some more to make it work, because the body and shoulders fit him really nicely. 

Embroidery design from Lynnie Pinnie.  This one didn't stitch out quite as nicely as I'm used to with these designs, I'm not sure why but I didn't worry too much for just a valentine shirt. 

He paired it with his "twist and shout" pants.  

Some pre-party crafting: 

We went to the Explorers Club Valentine Party.   He used his metal detector to look for treasure (didn't find any)

And climbed a tree

On valentines day, we went to the zoo.    We got a special invite to see the zebras before anyone else.  The new extension allows you to see the camels, lemurs and giraffes more easily. 

Levi showing off the "love monster" I made him for valentines day.   They gave him zebra ears to wear too!

Jahari (the big male) kept looking at us on the new bridge.  It looked like he was asking us for snacks, now that the new extension goes along the edge of the giraffe area.   Giraffes usually get snacks at the giraffe platform.  

And another giraffe was easily seen

The zoo had a quartet serenade the zebras (both girls)  for valentines day.  They had bouquets of "flowers" made from hay and apples. 

Finally the zebras came out.   They were hiding a bit at first, because they aren't quite used the rhinos who now have to share their enclosure. 

Aren't they pretty? 

More love monsters I made for valentine gifts!  

Happy Valentines Day!

Groundhog Day Lapbook, and Two Little Dresses

Levi wanted to learn more about groundhogs for Groundhog day so I found him a lapbook and we chose some of the activities to do. 

First we had to find out what the "results" were this year, so we watched this quick clip here.

This was the lapbook I found, from Homeschool Share, we didn't make every single element, but did talk about all of it and made many of them.    I introduced classifications for the first time, something I find confusing myself.  We learned about diet, rodents, the history of Groundhog's day, how groundhogs help/harm farms, and how much dirt groundhogs can really move (700lbs!).  

We also watched this short video, all about groundhogs. 



Here is Levi's finished lapbook! 

The cover is actually a paper bag puppet printable, I found it here.   Paper bag puppet printables are great for lapbook covers because they are already split.   Levi chose to paint this with water color paint.   

 

And Levi presents his lapbook the phone rang in the middle and threw him off!  

These are some little dresses I made.  I don't often make girls clothes, so its fun when I get to!   These are from a free sewing pattern, the Izzy top.   I added some length to make them into dresses.   

And now I am back to sewing, getting a few more shirts made for Levi for our camping trip this weekend.   We are very much looking forward to the Florida Earthskills Gathering!

Legoland!

We went to Legoland yesterday!   An online carseat friend sent us passes, so I surprised Levi with a day of fun.    Its a 2 hour drive from us, so I threw Levi in the car in the morning, it took him over an hour to even ask where on Earth we were heading.     I stealthily called the Kids Place Live radio station that we had been listening to all morning, and had Kenny Curtis announce that Levi was heading to Legoland.   He was so surprised!  It was great   

Our day, mostly in pictures:  

A new lego shirt I made, on my embroidery machine

 Lego guy, I think this is a lion from Chima or something.

 We went right to the back of the park, and ended up with almost no lines all day except for Coastersaurus and the Safari ride, which were still both only about 10min waits.   

Ford Car - we kept seeing kids trying to open the doors!

Driving School

Techno Cycles  - you pedal to go heigher

Roller Coaster car

Kid powered tower

Hero Factory

Batman and Robin

Pirate show, with very cool waterskiing

 Miranda Valentina, star of the waterskiing show

Pond with pumpkins and woodland creatures (made from lego)

Mini Land

St Augustine, see the real thing here

Levi in the stocks

More lego guys, making "bunny ears"

They have a neat greenhouse with actual growing things and some lego farming stuff.

A cow to milk - I was surprised that its not made of lego! 

 Levi and I with a giant lego pumpkin

 4D movie

Granny Apple Fries.  These are made from apples with cinnamon and sugar on them, and minus the whip cream, Levi could eat them.   I found a recipe that looks similar here. 

Gator Lego guy.  I think this is another Chima character. 

This skunk guy was one of Levi's favorites.  It was next to a bathroom and made loud fart sounds followed by "soooorrry"  

Knight by the dragon rollercoaster

Red and black creepy guy that Levi wanted a picture of. 

Some more mini land: 

Tiny orchestra, they even had lego violins!

Pizza guy, Buddy and Nai Nai are in Italy so I'm going to send them this picture.  

And for our last ride of the day, we went up in the Island in the Sky and got a view of the whole park  

It was a really nice day, we were able to go on all of the rides, and see 2 shows, no crowds and lots of fun!