Dissecting Eyeballs and Other Fun Things

Here are some of the fun things we've been up to the last couple of weeks:

Field Trip to Welfare Center:  We got to see how they make applesauce, store food, make cheese, package Atmit, and other fun things.  We had been reading The Long Winter from the Little House on the Prairie Series so we discussed the importance of being prepared. 

Where they store wheat:

Another Bonus:  While we were there, my friend, Julie, found me a book that I have been wanting to buy called The Big Book of Virtues at D.I. for only $3!  We've REALLY been enjoying reading it during morning devotional lately.

More cute pictures at the zoo:

Watching the Second Act of Swan Lake preformed by Ballet West.  It was preformed for a school audience, so they did a little presentation before it about how they use math on stage and told us about Tchaikovsky (whom we had been studying before we went):

An attempt to get a picture without using the flash on my camera:

  I left Bazinks at a friend's house because I thought he might not like it.  He had a good time with his friend though!  Here are the kids and one of their friends posing after the ballet:

Baby Ray flapped his arms and seemed to really enjoy the music.  I thought I might have to wait in the foyer with him, but I was able to take him in and he loved it.

We had some illnesses (Ray had pink eye, Bazinks had pink eye, Little Miss had an ear infection, Bud had a fever and a cold and so did Rock).  We made one doctor's visit for Little Miss' ear, but she said she felt better when we arrived.  We switched the appointment and made it for Ray's eyes so we could get some eye drops for his pink eye.  The kids played with the camera while we waited, and waited, and waited in the waiting room:

We had been discussing sight because Mary goes blind in the Little House series.  One of the moms brought cow eye balls to our book discussion.  We got to cut them open and talk about what we saw. I was a little worried that the kids would not want to touch it, and I didn't want to have to cut it open myself.  Once I willed myself to do it - it was really, really amazing.  I thoroughly enjoyed it - and you can see by the kids' expressions that they loved it as well:

Cutting through the optic nerve behind the eye:

Taking out the lens behind the cornea:

Splitting the eye ball in half to see the vitreous gel that holds the shape of the eye:

(some kids were squeezing this out through the pupil and playing with it - it feels like hair gel)

Cutting open the optic nerve:

Drawing pictures of what they saw:

Bazinks and Ray seemed to have a good time (when I asked Little Miss what she learned she said, "I learned that watching [Ray] is a lot cuter than watching eyeballs":

Grandma and Grandpa Worwood came to visit yesterday.  The kids had such a great time doing the crafts their grandparents brought for them, listening to their grandma read them a book and reading to her, painting fingernails and chatting with them.  They invited us swimming at their hotel pool!

The water was a little cold, but the older kids were brave and got in it.  Bazinks just played in the hot tub and watched them in the big pool.

Grandma threw coins for them to find in the pool.  Spice LOVED this game and she kept throwing them back in so she could get them again.  She made $2.60!

It's been a fun couple of weeks.