Barcelona

Someone at the school had free airline tickets to Barcelona that they could not use, but they had to be used right away. Bobbi offered to watch the kids, so Andrea and Brian got to take an inexpensive little honeymoon to Barcelona for two days. We had the best time! Here's a brief slideshow of the sights.

Commercial

...We interrupt this blogcast to bring you an advertisement. Our friends, Eddie and Kirsten Moran have started a new web business making Birth Announcements. They're pretty cute too. (The announcements, not the Morans... Though, of course, they are quite nice-looking as well.) If you are expecting, or know someone who is, check out their website: Celebrate Life Announcements. Mention our name and you will receive...well, nothing...except an opportunity to talk about us behind our backs. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...

The Joy of Homeschooling

The beauty of homeschooling is that we can do whatever we want, and act goofy doing it. (Perhaps our next lesson should be a review of the words to "Old MacDonald!")

This video is inspired by the American Greetings e-cards that Grandma often sends to the kids. Click here to see the "professionals" do it. Be sure to leave a comment if you want to see more Chins Twins movies in the future!

Adventures in Ransom #8

Conversation held this morning between Ransom and Brian, typical of their daily talks:

R: Do you know what I want you to build me?

B: Let me guess, a treehouse?

R: No, no, no. Remember I want an outhouse, not a treehouse!

B: Oh.

R: But there's something else that I want.

B: What do you want me to build for you?

R: I want you to build me a robot that is my size and can shoot frozen out of its fingers.

B: I see. What would you do with it?

R: If there's another boy who has a robot that shoots hot out of its fingers I can have my robot shoot frozen to stop it.

B: Oh, that would be useful.

(Pause)

R: Daddy?

B: Yes?

R: Do you think that there is a boy somewhere out there asking his Dad to build him a robot that shoots hot out of his fingers right now?

B: Gosh, I don't know. Do you think so?

R: (Smiling) Yep!

B: What should I build the robot out of?

R: Hmmm...let me think what you should build it out of.

(Pause...priceless look on his thinking face...finger to cheek and eyes looking up.)

R: Oh I know, you can make it out of metal.

B: What kind of metal?

R: Titanium.

B: OK.

R: But how will we get the frozen inside?

B: Maybe we can put the freezer in it.

R: No! It's not ice cubes, it's snow!

B: Oh.

R: Maybe we can go to a place where it snows and fill up the robot with snow. And we can always get lots of buckets of snow and keep them in a room that is frozen, with snow blowers on the ceiling and when we need more snow we will go in the room and get a bucket and throw it into the hand through the arm...but...(finger lightly tapping the chin in contemplation) how will be get the snow blowers on the ceiling?

B: How do you think we should get them on the ceiling?

R: Why don't we can get a tool that can make little lines and we can do it around and we can take out some of the roof and then we can put the snowblowers in...and a fan to blow the snow around the room...and we can see how that works.

(Pause)

R: Hey! Do you think we can do it in the laundry room? I've been thinking of that.

B: That's an idea. I'm glad you've got it all figured out.

R: Yeah, so can you do it right now?

Lisbon

The capital of Portugal had some great sights and amazing architecture, which we viewed from the top of a double-decker bus. Unfortunately we did not do a very good job of taking pictures. Here's pretty much all we've got:

The 6.5 hour drive had really beautiful olive orchards, vineyards, and grassy fields, arguably making Portugal's landscapes superior to those of Spain (Uh...no pictures.)

Surprisingly, everyone's favorite part of the trip was a visit to the Oceanarium where we were able to see amazing species of sea life. Ransom, our little zoologist/marine biologist, was in his element. (Uh...again, no pictures...bad blogger! bad!)

Anyway, despite a few setbacks (getting lost, driving through the "authorized vehicles only" gate (oops), the pre-arranged accommodations falling through, and a lot of walking in search for any sign of fast-food) we had fun exploring a new town and just being with Grammie and Pa!

A Visit from Grammie and Pa

Brian's parents are just getting home from a 10-day visit to Spain. We all had a really great time. Among the highlights were:

Castles:

Public Transportation:

Dad learning how to drive in Spain:

Eating out:

Early Thanksgiving /Christmas:

Chocolate con churros:

And a trip to Lisbon, Portugal! (Images to follow in a subsequent blog post - hopefully.)

Thanks for coming Mom and Dad. We miss you already!

Acting Silly

Grammie and Pa arrived on Thursday and the kids got deleriously silly. Here's a sample.

Adventures in Ransom #7

Ransom has really been into animals of any kind. He can tell you about 20 different types of sharks, how salmon swim upstream, which wales eat what, etc. His latest fascination is the horned lizard. One type can even squirt blood from his eyes. No one believes Ransom when he tells them, but you can click here for proof.