Happy 7th Birthday Delaney!

Happy Birthday!!! She's been waiting for this day for a few weeks now...counting down the days, hours and minutes till she could officially call herself SEVEN! On the day of her birthday around 10am, she asked me "Mom what time was I born today?" (meaning the hour of her birth) I told her in the afternoon at 3:12 pm. A crest fallen face followed by "Oh, well I'm really six for a little while more then." This year was a 'date with Mom and Dad' year. She chose to go to Fatz restaurant. She ate Calabash chicken and thick-cut french fries. To top it off, she had a three scoop ice cream sundae with strawberries, whipped cream and a cherry on top! What a treat. After dinner she went on a shopping spree. Grandma and Grandpa sent her money and she couldn't wait to buy a 'Pillow Pet'. She found the one she liked--a turtle--and debated for hours what to call it. In the end, she chose Tommy. She wanted a ladybug birthday cake and I was glad to oblige her.

Loving her beloved 'Tommy the Turtle' pillow--thanks Grandma and Grandpa.

A new soccor ball and coloring set from Granny and Papa, along with simple gifts from siblings helped round out the special day for her.

Happy Birthday my little girl, you're quite a beautiful treasure. I love your smile and thoughtful ways. What would I do with out your help day to day with your younger siblings. I love the way every morning, regardless of how cold it is, you're outside after breakfast running around the backyard playing SuperGirl!

Happy birthday Super Girl. I love the patient way you have with Liam and Brianne. You are quite a example to us with your steadiness in wanting to read the scriptures each day. You have a shy smile and delightful laugh. I love you. Dad

Book Group-- Peter Pan and A Veiw to Saturday

Reading is an important part of our homeschool. We love to listen to books on tape, read aloud together at home and read books, then gather with friends who've read the same book to discuss and have fun with activities based on the book we've just read.

Book group time has come again. Based on the age of the child we read either, A View to Saturday or Peter Pan.
In our house we only got the first book read, but the younger kids had quite a lot of fun acting out the sword fights of the second!

Could it be?.... Peter Pan or the dreaded Captain Hook!


In the book "A View to Saturday" we read about the lives of four kids and how they work together to win a 'competition of the minds' type tournament. We recreated an event often happening in the book--an afternoon tea!

We got out the fancy dishes and little finger sandwiches and had fun trying many different herbal teas and learning a bit about proper etiquette.

It's that time of year...

It's that time of year again.....oh how I love to garden--dig my hands in the dirt, watch tiny seeds sprout and grow to glorious green plants with vegetables or flowers crowning their beauty.

I told myself last year that I wouldn't start seeds indoor this year. But, I just couldn't resist...when the stores start stocking the shelves with garden supplies and garden catalogs arrive in the mail, I fall prey to the gardening bug. I just can't help to delve into the dirty fun of playing in soil, setting up the grow lights and wait eagerly to get outside and start the peas, lettuce, carrots and other spring veggies.

This year, Barry and I plan to expand our garden. Barry purchase a tiller last year and now we'll start tearing up the ground in our garden plot. I'm also adding more trees--plum, bartlette pear, golden delicious apple and black tartan cherry. Along with more raspberries and two blueberry bushes, I hope to one day fullfill our fruit eating needs. (Except banana, to bad I can't grow banana's here.)

I've added more asperagus, rhubarb and I hope to find some artichoke plant and try to grow them.

Airplanes, Bridges and Egg Drops

During second semester we studied physical science. The kids built paper airplanes--learned about Bernoulli's law and some concepts of aerodynamics--and then had fun competing against each other as to who's airplane went the furthest.Using only a manila folder, playdoh, 5o straws and 100 rubber bands, they created-- with out any adult help, ideas or involvement (and this was quite hard for the parents in the younger kids classes) a bridge.
We studied what some elements of a good bridge are and then they went to town.
They were competing against each other as to who's bridge could hold the most weight.

This was a very challenging task for the younger group....although I'm told that the last time they did this the kids in the 5 year old class beat the 10 and 11 year old!

Another competition, this time, an egg drop. Using only rubber bands and Popsicle sticks, and napkins, the kids had to create a crate to house a raw egg that wouldn't break when dropped from at least 5-6 feet above ground.

Connor created a parachute with a napkin for his.

The airplane competition is underway....

Connor's bridge withheld the two block of wood test!

Here's Cailin and Noah's bridge...sadly it didn't and fell under pressure.

The first level of the egg drop challenge....

Eweee, it didn't make it! All three kids passed the first drop. From there Kim, the director, went up the ladder behind her for the second round, which didn't fare well for them. All eggs broke except one--Congrats to Greta!

Sleepy Head

It must've been a long and tiring day....he didn't make it through movie night awake!

Court of Honor

My scouts are busy, busy, busy. Ryan obtained the Star rank. Now he'll be busy working on his eagle scout service project and a few more badges so he can obtain the rank of Eagle scout. Connor's rank is Tenderfoot. Although he's just starting the trail to Eagle scout, he's loving it-- Camping and hiking, working on merit badges and going to meetings, he loves it all.
They both got quite a lot of badges! I'll be busy adding them to their sashes. Way to go boys!! Happy Scouting!

The Love of a Mother

My sister-in-law, Risa is now expecting twins...two cute (and already beating up on each other), little boys. She's had quite a whirlwind of a pregnancy. At 24 weeks she was put on total bed rest. A few days later the doctor admitted her to the hospital for bed rest due to all the various complications she's been having. So, for the next few months she will lay flat on her back while her little ones grow big and strong so they can come into this great grand world. She's close to 28 weeks now, if the babies come now, there is a 95% chance that all will be well for them.

She's quite tired of laying in bed, who wouldn't be, but the love of a mother will help pull anyone through tough times as this. Besides she'll have quite the mantra to say when they get into trouble---"you better behave young man, do you realize all I did just to get you here!!"

The girls and I took off with freezer meals in tow and hands ready to clean to help them out.

We had a great time visiting with them....and of course can't wait to come back to see those two cuties in person.
On the way home, we stopped at a Walmart off the interstate. The girls found these plaid caps. Apparently Cailin has been wanting one for quite a while now--so what the hey, let's get them a great keepsake to remind us of our fun time traveling in the rain to DC to visit family.
(It was quite rainy, so much so, that the road to the temple there was blocked due to flooding. Bummer, too, because we were hoping to spend a bit of time at the visitor's center too.)

Time with the Great Artists

>(in picture above--left- Delaney's Gainsborough painting, middle standing-Cailin's Monet with dabbles and dots of color. laying down in middle--Delaney's Monet. right standing--Connor's Degas, a bird in flight. laying down--Cailin and Delaney's Degas)


For six weeks, during CC, the kids studied various artists from the classical and impressionism era. Not only did they learn a little bit about each artist, but they also tried to imitate a certain characteristic they used in creating their masterpieces.

Their studies began with Rembrandt. He was know for having one side of his subject face shaded in shadow and for strong facial emotion. He was a famous portrait painter. Photography was not available, so the only way to have a picture of your self was to have it painted. Few people in history are know by their first name, Rembrandt

Harmensz van Rijn was one of them. The kids tried to draw a person with a lamp placing light on one side of the face, creating shadows on the other side.

Then came Linnaeus, he loved nature and drew flowers. What makes him special is that he drew each part separately along with one complete flower. He was also a scientist, and is known as the 'Father of Taxonomy', his system of naming, ranking and classifying organisms is still used today.

Thomas Gainsborough was a famous English painter of landscapes and portraits. He was the most sought after painter of his time for painting portraits. He liked to paint fancy landscapes, ones that were more ideal or imaginary than real. The kids had fun creating a background scene on paper. Then, on another piece of paper, they drew themselves, cut it out and glued it onto the background painting.

Here the classes create stencils, trace around them, then slightly move them--trace again--move--trace, to help them show movement in their object.

Edgar Degas, is the artist the kids are studying in these pictures. He was from Paris, France. He was also known to be a draftsman, sculptor, and graphic artist. He studied law but preferred painting portraits. Although he didn't consider himself to be an Impressionist, he was grouped with them during exhibitions. Traditionally Impressionist painted outdoors with bright and light colors. He preferred to paint indoors. His artwork is famous for showing movement. He loved to paint dancers at ballet, races and romantic night life of Paris.

Over the top of the crayon drawing they added a color wash of paint

They also studied Claude Monet, he's a French artist who is best known as the leader of the Impressionists, a group of painters who painted as they saw or felt, rather than what was really there. He liked to paint with short brush strokes, dabbles, and splashes of pretty color. He also liked to catch light and reflection in his work. He loved to paint simple thing, especially reflections in water on plants and trees.

Morisot is one of the few women painter of the Impressionist time period. She used bold wide strokes and like to add texture--salt, eggshells--and such in her paint. The kids had fun painting with cornmeal, salt, iron shavings and egg shells in their paintings too.

My Bathing Beauty

I'm tired of washing dishes, but not this cutie. She loves bathtime!!

It's Pi-Day!

Today we took a short break from the normal school routine to celebrate Pi-day.


Pi is the mathematical equation used to figure out the area and circumference of circles. In fraction form it is 22/7---in decimal it has endless digits. However, the first three digits are 3.14. I found a website that claimed that 22 years ago, someone took the numerical date of March 14 and crowned it to be PI day--and thus, we celebrated the day having fun with fractions, circles and of course making pie....lots of pie!

Delaney and Liam experimenting with paper plates cut into various sizes of fractions.

Creating with different sizes of circles.....I may not be scrap booking much, but the papers and supplies sure are useful for crafting.
Showing off her
circle bear.

Later in the morning, I pulled out the ingredients and utensils needed to make pie crust. Although I'm not a great crust baker, I attempted to teach the kids how to make tender and flaky crust
They each measured and mixed, blended and rolled out a crust for their own pie.

Cailin and Connor chose to make an apple pie. Delaney made a chocolate pudding pie. I tried my darnedest to get Ryan to join us, but he just didn't want to make his own crust. He gladly joined us in the eating of them though....hummmm this sounds a little like the Little Red Hen story.

After getting the pies all made, Connor spent some time telling us about Archimedes. He's the Greek mathematician that is credited to have formulated pi. He also memorized the first 15 digits in the decimal form--- 3.14159265358979

Brianne enjoyed joining in the fun....sadly for her, we squelched her joyous moments to preserve our hearing.

Barry and Cailin made a quick trip to the grocery store to procure the most important ingredient in apple pie eating.......vanilla ice cream! While there, an older gentleman asked Barry why Cailin wasn't in school. He said "She is! We home school." He then told him about our pi day celebration. He said "Wow, I never had such a delicious day in school". Too bad for him, because I know that public school kids have fun like this too--some of the activity ideas got for today were from a teachers idea website.