Homework on the deck

Because it is about 70F (in March?!)

Fire down the road

Got a really good view of a pretty big fire that was just down our road - and was sad that the boys weren't at home to see all the fire engines (I lost count at 7) or the fire fighters in full gear (newspaper said 55 responded). But was shameless enough to take photos.

Cool Painting

Turquoise blossoms. Done by Mr 7 for entry application to Art Trek camp over Summer. Using techniques taught in his art class at school.

Executive orders

There has been a lot of press centred around executive orders, so I thought there should be some sort of summary according to me explaining them.
I should note, abc news (that is, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, not the local abc) does some really good summary articles too.
(see http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-31/what-is-an-executive-order/8225770)

There are three branches of power - the courts, congress, and the 'executive branch' that is, the president.
Executive orders sort of bypass congress (which helps, because getting stuff through congress is sometimes sort of impossible, given the hem, politics), but they can be shown to be unconstitutional and overturned in the courts (we have a very good recent example).
They can't go against federal laws. But they can be as powerful as law. Slavery was abolished by executive order by Abraham Lincoln. And there has been a back and forth on several issues, where Republican presidents will do one thing by executive order, that Democrat presidents will then undo.
At the moment, President Trump appears to be trying to move through his list of campaign promises quickly by Executive Order. It is having mixed success, and there has been mixed reaction locally.
On one hand, he is doing what he said he would do, on the other hand, I think Congress is starting to feel left out, and to struggle with the detail required in the background of the executive orders. Repealing Obamacare would be one example, building a wall on the border with Mexico would be another.

Jigsaw puzzles

We moved Mr 5 up to 100 piece puzzles this birthday, given that the 60 piece ones were getting done a bit quick. I got the pleasure of seeing the boys work together on this one.

First Flowers!

The little twittering tweeting birds are back from their southern holiday, the flowers are budding, the plum blossoms are out, early daffodils are flowering, the countdown is on to the cherry blossoms - must be nearly spring!

Post script - these got burnt by a frost about 24 hours later...

Muddy Buddies (cereal and chocolate)

This is a recipe on the Rice Chex box. It is terrible when you have children who can read these things... but as a fun activity, hubby and the boys made these.