Thursday, November 8, 2007

Thanksgiving Party

I have been sewing up a storm again... it isn't that often I actually get my sewing machine dusted off lately. It is hard to find the time with Logan, and especially since my machine is in the garage, and it is COLD out there... but this week, I have found the time. And I made this beauty for Cyan for her Pilgrim/Native American Thanksgiving Homeschool Party. I will get a better picture of it soon... I haven't hemmed the apron, the top of the apron still needs to be finished and she took off her cap, but man... she looks so cute!




We also made sillouettes of our kids. I think I am going to minuturize these and put them in nice frames for the grandparents for Christmas. It will be hard to get Logan, but what a sweet gift it would make! (I am surely going to do this for my own home...)




And here is my sweet girl, in her pilgrim outfit, with her Native American trading beads that she just made in a repeating pattern, and a big grin. :)




What can I say?  I love my girl.  :)

Friday, November 2, 2007

Northwest Trek

Our study of temperate forest animals has taken us to some really amazing places! I thought that the nocturnal animals study was the most fascinating thing ever, but wow... these animals we have around here are wonderful!


Here is a place to get print outs for a similar study. Some coloring pages. A neat site where you can make your own field trips to explore new biomes.


From the top of the tram track... we live in a wonderfully beautiful area!



NorthWest Trek is a huge animal preserve with hundreds of animals... all native to our temperate woodlands around us! They have a variety of animals that have been rescued and others that have come to live in the area because it is protected and lush. We plan to go there every couple months for the rest of the school year.


Here are some pictures of the animals we saw:


Bald Eagle eating breakfast:



A Bighorn Sheep ram and a calf:




A Mountian Goat:



Rooseavelt Elk:



A pair of Swans:



A Bison male that stoped the tram for about 7 minutes, apparently he needed to check us out:



A pair of Bald Eagles (these two were wounded and NW Trek has been rehabilitating them... but they can not fly, so they can never be returned to the wild. The other Eagle that is at the begining of the photo shoot was wild.



Mountain Lion... it is odd to watch something that would gladly eat you with no glass between you. He was stunning, but a bit unnerving.



And my favorite picture from that trip... the Snowy Owls. The female is behind and the male in front. Doesn't it look like she is yelling at him and he is falling asleep? I love it... that happens in my house too. lol!



There are a few more pictures that can be found here, but those are the best of them. We also saw bears, wild wolves, a fox (which we just got done reading the book Amber: The Story of a Red Fox which I HIGHLY recomend (very real, much like Meerkat Manor would be in book form) so it was perfect we got to see this sweet little noctural critter for ourselves), racoons (Shirley Woods also writes Kit), beavers, wolverines, badgers, golden eagles, and frogs in the childrens area.

It was an amazing experience to go and see all of these animals we had been reading about in person! I loved it and any one who is within about 100 miles should take the trek to NW Trek... you won't regret it.