Macaffe's Knob

These are a couple of photo's Connor took recently while on a hiking trip to Macaffe's Knob. He hiking, and so does his YM's leader, Bro. R Fisher.

Playing with Words

....and eating them too!

It's time for our monthly book group meeting. Our book this month is The Phantom Tollbooth by Jester Norton.

Once again Cailin and Connor finished the book, Delaney and I did not....ooops. However, we did read much of it and we all had fun playing with words-- idioms, alliterations, similes, metaphors, homophones (in Dictionapolis) and a few numbers too. (Can't forget about Digitopolis)

Discussing what we enjoy best (or didn't like) about the book.
Denise lead the discussion this month. She gave them the challenge to create a new 'detour' for Milo to take. Here they are planning their new world.

The kids took Milo to many new fun places....like, climbing Mt. Metaphor to reach Summit Simile.

Now, the really fun part begins....they used sugar cookie dough and letter cut outs to create edible cookies of their own....Yummy! Add some sprinkles and you're bound to have delicious word you can eat.

3rd Swallow Study

Last week, Brianne had another swallow study. Dr. O, Dodie, her speech therapist, and me (of course), wanted to find out how she was progressing with her swallowing ability.

She's doing great, in fact unless something new comes up, this will be her last one. With a sippy cup and solid food she's building perfect looking bulbous of food and they slide down her throat well. Her epiglottis is closing and she's not micro aspirating--except when she drinks liquid in her bottle (in her sippy cup she can handle all thickness with ease). For that, well continue to thicken slightly, however, we don't have to thicken as much, just a 1/2 tsp of rice cereal per ounce of water or milk will be fine.

Don't you just love the halo around her head....I just knew she was an angel....of course her head band had nothing to do with it!!

Rembrandt, Monet and My Great Artists Too

In my quest to read many books to Delaney and Liam, when I'm at the library I pick out any book that has an interesting cover or pretty pictures and text.

I came across a serendipitous gem the other day....
Bridget's Beret by Tom Lichtenheld

In CC, we are studying a few of the great artists. Who they were and what style of painting they did.
Unbeknownst to me, Bridget's Beret is about a girl who loves to draw and paint and she wanted to have a hat, but not just any hat, a big black beret. The kind of hat that lots of Great Artists wear. There are pictures of Rembrandt, Sissley, Monet and Picasso. I loved how Delaney saw the pictures of Rembrandt and Monet--and without prompting she recognized them!

Well, after reading about Bridget, we too gathered some hats and went to work painting.


Our hats are on....we're ready to paint.

At the end of the book there is more information about different artists and their style of painting. Connor was intrigued by French artist Georges Seurat. He invented a technique called pointillism, which is simply painting with many dots of color. Connor tried his hand at pointillism

"And where is Ryan?" I can just imagine myself saying this 20 years from now as I look at this blog in book form.....well, painting and crafting are just not his thing, but he's here. As we are having fun painting he is busy working on his book report on "Number the Stars" or latin, or possibly geography or math.


A beautiful budding artist!

Valentine's Celebrations

This holiday may be a 'Hallmark' holiday, but the kids have lots of fun planning, creating and sharing their valentine friendship with their various friends.

Cailin found the ideas for these cute valentine's in an American Girl magazine. She couldn't wait to make them and share them with her friends.




Spending the day with our friends...


A party's not a party with out food!!

Just trying to get every last morsel of goodness

Liam loved delivering his valentines....some kids recieved quite a few from him.

My Valentine Sweethearts

What a wonderful Valentine's day surprise.

Connor initiated preparing this great feast and the rest of the kids wholeheartedly joined in.

I think he got up around 6am to prepare pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs and toast with jam.

This is the heart shaped--morphed into a blob--pancake made just for me.
I was so proud of him doing the sausage. He had to find it in the freezer, quick thaw it, then cook it till it was done--something I'm not always able to do.

Liam was quick to point out that he made the toast!

A wonderful valentine's morning from 5 little people that I love so dearly.