Sunday, June 25, 2017

Lifestyle of Learning 2017 Edition: Volume Twenty-Three

June 18-24
This week was quite eventful.
It began with celebrating Father's Day and, as is illustrated below, I have the boys more or less trained to take a photo around the dinner table before we dig in but it seems that there is still work to be done with the husband (sigh).
It was a delightful day though.


While Maceo was in rehearsal for the end of year show Bishop went to the airport to....(drum roll, please)...pick up Christian who has returned home from Korea!!!!
I had made him a sign welcoming him home.  I wrote it in English and Hangul and attached a couple of balloons.  It was noticed and appreciated!

Christian and I watched the end of year troupe show at the theatre.  Maceo sang Usnavy's part in In the Heights.



On the first day of summer the family went for a walk at the nature center.  It was delightful.
The boys walked ahead of us getting reacquainted.


They stopped...
...what are they looking at?
A lizard that wasn't bashful at all!



A water strider and its reflection.






On this flower is a clear wing hummingbird moth.  This is the first time I have ever seen one.  Christian spotted it first with his young sharp eyes.

It had been a while since we had last seen a great blue heron.
It was like welcoming an old friend back home.  Lovely.
And Christian spotted these American Bullfrog tadpoles as well.  This was another first for me.  Did you know that it can take a year for these tadpoles to develop legs and it can take 2-3 years for it them to fully turn into frogs?!?

After hiking we cooled off with some ice cream or, for Bishop and Christian, Transformers slushes from Sonic.  Yum!
Bishop is still working on perfecting his pizza.  He has developed a crust recipe that is entirely his own and rivals the best I have ever had!



There were some lovely natural findings in the yard this week,
including these interesting Stinkhorn Mushrooms.  They hang around for all of three hours.
And they develop a stench that attracts flies who will then disperse the spores.  This was also a first for me.  It was a good week!
Maceo had dance lessons and vocal lessons and Broadway Backwards rehearsals and saw a production of Shrek the Musical.
He had three performances of The Addams Family
and had his final Teen Players show.  Jeff Jenkins, an award winning comedian and former assistant producer at Second City in Chicago, performed with them and it was an amazing experience for Maceo.











 Teen Players has been such a great experience for Maceo!!!

Bishop had his paid culinary internship and logged many hours at the pottery studio.
He also took a bracelet making class at a local bead shop.  This was a really positive experience.  I see more jewelry making in our future!



Afterwards, Bishop went to a friends house for an evening of marathon D&D playing while I went to a production of Shrek the Musical.

It's been an exciting week full of fun and challenges!