Chickens, Evolution, Ice Cream and Jackson Pollock

The chickens are starting to look like mini chickens, not dinosaurs with proto-feathers.

Ursula and Lucy

Athena

Even Paisley looks like a chicken now!

They have been free-ranging for chunks of time over the past few days, they are still cute and curious.

The science education enrichment project is underway, we've watched, as a part of what we call "dinner theater"( an occasional evening when we will pop in a video to watch over dinner)  Discovery School Evolution with Bill Nye. I've planted books in key spots around the house, so that she is likely to just browse through them.  My favorite, we eat out on the screened porch all summer, I placed the book I was reading out there and underneath I placed two books that I wanted her to look at, making sure that they hung out a bit and were visible. As she came out to eat breakfast I went in to get some juice, by the time I returned she had  opened one of the books and was leafing through it.  We discussed science topics over breakfast.  I went a little over the top and placed a couple in the bathroom, it was too obvious, especially since I won't permit her library books in the bathroom because they might get wet.  She mounted her "do as I say not as I do" protest this morning and I 'fessed up that I wanted her to read them.  I'll put a couple in the back of the car today, I guess I'm not all that subtle, but it works!!  I have been planting books that I want her to read in her room for years, usually while she is a bit too young for them.  They sit there for a year or two and eventually I will find her propped up on pillows on the couch reading them, they have been there so long that she doesn't realize that they are a plant.  Oh, I usually find these books at thrift shops and yard sales for about twenty-five cents each, so the investment isn't very great.

Next week, we are headed to the Natural History Museum, with the thrilling Metro ride first (and last), of course!  We're taking along a friend, whose parents have been given the heads up to the specific focus of the trip.  We'll have lunch in a deli off the Mall and probably stroll the Mall eating ice cream (those of us who can eat it, at least), no need to make it a forced march.  Maybe we'll step into the Hirshorn to see if they still  have the Jackson Pollock up. My daughter has decided that she loves Jackson Pollock, which is great, as long as she doesn't follow him  in his lifestyle.  Maybe we'll use some of the leftover house paint I have in the garage and create something Pollock-esque, I know the painting will match the interior of the house that way! We can run through the sprinkler to clean up.  I digress, but that is pretty much what the blog is about isn't it? My ramblings...