The Eyes Have It

OK, yes I know it's a corny title.. but how often do we really get to be corny, silly and goofy? Today was another lesson, obviously about eyes. First I showed him a picture with an eye and the word EYE printed on it. Then we hung up our words: EYE and EAR on the wall. That way he can see them all day long. He was so funny. I was trying to get him to talk and he kept telling me: "Mom, I'm eating!" That's what he's been calling me this week... I'm not sure how I feel about it...I had him look at pictures of our family and tell me the color of each person's eyes. He wasn't overly impressed with my efforts... but we did notice that some people have green eyes, some people have blue eyes, and most of his Leavitt family have brown. Of course, the Leavitt family picture I was using is almost 6 years old. There have been many blue/green eyed additions to it. Riley kept say that Jeanie (his 7 year old cousin) was Emmaline or Hannah or Faith. He wouldn't believe me when I told him it was Jeanie. The first activity that we did today was making sequin bottles. We filled empty water bottles with water and sequins. Then we shook them up and let the light make pretty swirls of color on the wall. Then Riley and I made pretend binoculars. I used a paper towel roll, cut it in two, glued them together, punched holes and tied a string to it. I let Riley used some of the sequins to decorate. I told him that we would use them on our nature walk. Then we played a fun game of water eye toss. I used wiggle eyes and a shallow pan. I had Riley stand a little ways away and toss the eyes into the pan. He was so funny! He really liked doing it and he got pretty good at it too. Then we used the really big googly eyes to make puppets. He named them: Demya and Benson. I think the name came from the fact that our puppets had curly hair and so do Mya and Ben. He made Demya and I made Benson. He was so funny, he used funny voices to make the puppets talk. By this time it was lunch... and Emmaline was up from her nap. During lunch I used some pictures from the LDS art work to tell the story about how Jesus healed the blind man and how the Nephites were able to see Jesus after he was resurrected. It was cool to have both Emma and Riley excited to look at the pictures. Emma got upset when I didn't show it to her sooner! Then when she saw what we were looking at, she started to squeal, her legs were just going! They know who Jesus is... and they can feel the Spirit. After lunch, we went to Tule Spings Ranch. I figured that was one of the few places in Vegas that doesn't feel like you are in Vegas. It's so beautiful! There are trees all around and a bunch of ponds. The point to going was to use our eyes and ears to hear the world around us. We heard the wind, saw way too many geese, saw the ducks, and looked the different kinds of leaves and trees. Riley with his binoculars. I carried Emmaline in the backpack. It made it easier than trying to push the stroller. This is a cat tail I pulled out of the pond. We had fun waving it around and letting the seeds blow into the wind. Riley told me that it looked like snow or bubbles. I love it when the lighting is just right to catch a great picture... This is where Allen and I took our engagement picture, and where I took both TJ and Mary Lynn's and Demya and Bensons' engagement pictures. I've never really been disappointed with Tule Springs! Emma's helping to collect leaves for our nature bag! She was so cute. She started cooing as we walked along. I think everyone enjoyed the outing. It was nice to get out of the house and see some beautiful things!

YEAH FOR EYES!