Monterey Bay Aquarium

We recently took our first homeschool field trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium. My dad had gotten us tickets and we used them on Karter's birthday weekend. 

There's something very intriguing about the ocean and the aquarium was a cool way to get to explore a small part of it. 

My favorite part was the sea horse exhibit. It was huge and displayed so well. I have never seen so many different species of sea horses and I have been to three other large aquariums. This had the best sea horse exhibit by far. I wish I had taken more pictures.

If you've never been to Monterey Bay, it is totally a worth while trip. We didn't get to spend any time on Cannery Row, but all of the shops and restaurants looked like a ton of fun.

Here the boys are "underneath" a wave

Kohen loved looking at all the fish too.

Can you see the sea horse? 

When I first saw this tank, I thought "what are all those people staring at?" These sea horses are so cleverly disguised. God actually made their body leaf like, so they blend in with the sea weed. This truly was the coolest thing I saw all day. It's called a Leafy Sea Dragon. 

Here is a better pic of it.

Pappa Mick, Kenson and Karter and Harry Otter.

An explanation of my "First day of homeschool" post

Sometimes I have these really, weird, lapses of memory/reality and I forget that I am the mother of unruly boys. I don't know how this happens, I have three constant reminders running circles around me all day.

This happened to me on a Monday, our first day of home school. I was making pancakes and I told Kenson to go wake Karter up and tell him I was making pancakes for breakfast. In my delirium, I envisioned Kenson skipping down the hall, butterflies flitting about, birdies, singing sweetly on the window sill. He gently leans over his sleeping brother whispering softly, "Little brother.... Mommy dear is making us pancakes. Won't you please join us?" My darling offspring would then walk back into the kitchen arm in arm with broad smiles on their faces.

What was I thinking?

I KNOW that this would never, ever happen in my house..... with my boys. Yet, for some reason, I did it anyway.

Was I drunk on French Vanilla Coffemate or what?

What did happen is this: Somehow when the words left my mouth and entered into the ears of Kenson they turned into "Please, please go torture your brother and see just how mad you can make him." So Kenson, happy to oblige, sped down to Karter's room, leaped onto his bed and began jumping, up and down.

Karter, even under the best circumstances, is not a morning person. These were not the best circumstances and he began to scream like a banshee. I have never heard a banshee scream, but I imagine they sound similar to Karter in the height of his fury.

I intervened.

Karter stopped his screaming.

Kenson left Karter's room only to return a few minutes later to continue afflicting his brother. This time he decided to poke him randomly at intervals as he was trying to fall back asleep.

There really are no words to describe what happened next.

Let's just say it was ugly, real ugly.

I got angry, real angry.

This was our first day of homeschool.

It did not go well.

In hindsight, I probably should have just postponed the first day until Tuesday, but I didn't. (please see first paragraph)

It feels like fall

Today I woke up to a very pleasant surprise. I hadn't paid any attention to the weather in the paper or I wouldn't have been surprised.

Good thing, Huh?

It feels like fall, finally. It's cloudy, slight breezy and only 65 degrees. Awesome. Since it was 91 on Saturday, I had no idea it was going to cool down so drastically.

I feel giddy, like a school girl. Hey, I'm a homeschool girl/mom. Does that count?

Autumn is my favorite time of the year, hands down. I love the crisp air,the turning leaves, pumpkins, apples and candy corn.

I need to go get some pumpkins, a bale of straw, some indian corn and some gourds to decorate my front porch.

I also need to bake something. But I don't know what. I don't do pies so pumpkin pies are out of the question, maybe a pumpkin log?

Happy Autumn, Everyone!

Happy Birthday Karter

Karter's birthday was this weekend and my little guy turned 7. I'll share a few facts about him that y'all might not know.

Karter was the biggest of the Pettis babies, being born at 8lbs, 3oz.

He is the only one of the boys that has green/hazel eyes like his mamma.

He has a fear of natural disasters even though he has never been in one.

He loves knock, knock jokes. (would somebody pleeeese tell him some new ones.)

He collects stuffed animals.

His favorite animals are monkeys.

He's also very analytical so he has a thing for numbers and counting. An interesting conversation between him and my sister went something like this:

Karter: "Aunt Misti, what's your favorite letter in the alphabet?"

Aunt Misti: "Ummm, I don't know. I've never thought about it. Maybe M?"

Karter: "Mine is E. You know why?"

Aunt Misti: "Why?"

Karter: "Because E is the fifth letter in the alphabet and my favorite numbers are 5 and 15"

Karter smothers me with hugs and kisses throughout the day, especially when he's supposed to be doing his schoolwork.

He is easily embarassed and doesn't like to be the center of attention.

His favorite food is shrimp.

His favorite color is green.

Karter also thinks I am extremely old. Like older than metal, steel, or aluminum.

That's old.

I'm surprised he hasn't tried to put me a nursing home.

We had this conversation right after he learned to ride his new bike:

Karter: "Mom, what color were bikes back then?"

Me: knowing exactly what he was referring to, "Back when?"

Karter: "Back when you were a kid."

Me: "They had all colors, just like now."

Karter: "Oh"

I can see wheels turning in his little head and I'm wondering what's going to come next when he asks, "Were they made out of wood?"

Happy Birthday Karter Mack! We love you!

Differences

Monday, Karter and I were making cookies. I was dumping in the ingredients and he was manning the mixer. When we were finished, I ask the boys if they wanted to lick the beaters. Karter has done this several times before, but apparently actually seeing the raw eggs go into the cookie dough affected his decision.

He asked, "Can't raw eggs make you sick?"

I replied, "Well, yes, technically I guess they could. But you really won't be eating very much cookie dough and not actually getting a lot of raw eggs. So you probably won't get sick. You've eaten cookie dough before and never gotten sick."

Karter declares, "I'm not eating it."

That's just the kinda guy he is.

This made Kenson very happy. "Cool!" He exclaimed. "I'll eat yours too!"

Because, that's just the kinda guy he is.

Kenson's DIY photo shoot

These pictures really don't need an explanation, but this would not be a blog if I didn't give one, now would it?

Kenson found my camera and used it on his favorite subject... himself.

First day of school

I quit.

Just kidding, but it did not go well.