Butterflies Stage 2

Cyan is very excited! All of her caterpillars are now chryslis and hanging in the butterfly habitat on the kitchen table. The last one changed yesterday. I am hoping that one that fell off into the silk they spun to get to the top is ok. *crossing fingers* (Can you see it?)

Arn't they beautiful with all their gold spots? Cyan thinks that is the best. We are recording all of this in her Butterfly Book, although I have taken to drawing the pictures becuase she wants to be exact. I am sure she will draw some of the butterflies themselves. My little artist.

Butterflies stage 1

We started our life cycles unit yesterday with the arrival of our Painted Lady Butterflies. Cyan and I made an observation booklet this morning and she started talking about what she sees, and how they are changing. She also drew a picture of her observations in the book. Which right now are strings of little mounds of black on stuff that looks like mushed oatmeal. lol... which is very much what these little guys look like sitting in their jar on their food supplement. She is really excited! We got a book from the library on our Painted Ladies and are going to read it tomorrow. We also have worksheets on the life cycles of reptiles (Turtles) and mammals (Bunnies) which we will talk about as the unit goes on.

This will overlap the Early American Studies unit that we have been in for a while, studying pioneer days, horses, and foraging for food. But it is getting her more in classroom mode for a few good talks about writing and how important it is. In this picture, she wrote all the words on the booklet. She didn't spell them herself, but she did the writing. Very artistic handwriting she has already. I was really impressed that she did this at newly 6 years old. Her handwriting is better than her dads. lol!

First Sewing Lessons

Cyan's first sewing lesson actually started last summer. When we made her doll quilt. She designed it, then I cut it out, she sewed some of them together (and I did as well) and then she cut all the strings and sewed the lines of squares together. I bound it, and she has used it for her dolls ever since. This was the project where I knew that eventually, sewing would be added into our weekly routine. Now (March 2008) we sew weekly.

Her design:

Cutting the strings after I put the rows together:

Finished quilt!

Our extended family trip to Bloedel Gardens

Bloedel Reserve Tour 

 

A day in the life of Val and Sarah... or maybe not....

Ok, so I was all ready to document my day... I had plans to clean the dryer vent, get worms with Sarah, do some gardening, play with the 6 kids, and clean house. All normal stuff for me, but a fun day none the less.

BUT, my day started out with a scalded hand because I poured boiling water over it while making my morning tea. Then I walked outside to pouring down rain. No garden day for me.

So I thought, well, we will start about 10 am and go from there... I was cleaning out the dryer vent... quite a straight forward deal right? Yeah, I lost the neighbors shop-vac attachment INSIDE the house... like inside... as in about 4 feet from either side within the venting. I couldn't reach it, Alex couldn't reach it... but heck. We were documenting, so I took a picture:



Sarah came over then, and had the brillant idea of taking my garden hose and shoving it through the house side of the vent and as it pushed through, Alex grabbing the hose attachment from the other side. And we triumphed! It came close enough to the other side for Alex to grab it with his skinny arms and YAY!

While Alex was down there they found a dead Possum!!!! Described by Alex it was complete with grey nose, long tail, and nasty 'glowing' red eyes. All 5 big kids were freaking out... Alex had an audience:



as he was trying to figure out what it was and how to get it out. I asked him if he was brave enough to go get it with a plastic bag. He said he was and Cyan piped up with "I AM GOING TOO!!" They started getting dressed up to go under the house to retrieve the dead critter:

I found this amazing as I don't know any other 5 year old girl that would volenteer for dead rodent removal. lol!



Complete with my dishes gloves... BUT when I went to get them this is what I found under my sink:



Oh lovely... good thing I still have the bits of the shop vac that hadn't been sucked up by my house!

That gets cleaned up and the kids come back, announcing that the dead possum, complete with red eyes, was actually a HUGE PEICE OF DRYER FLUFF! LOL!

Panic evaded, we decided to put the house back together and get on with our day.





But our photo documentation was all done........ the day was not. (now Sarah is typing the story: )

We loaded 5 kids up into the minivan and headed out on our errands; one stop at the farmers market to pick up Val's CSA, quick pick up at Joann's, lunch at Red Robins where I (Sarah) head to the bathroom with ketchup covered and diaper blow out Bayus and Logan, during a public breastfeeding moment of education for anyone watching, proceeds to make Val spray milk about the restraunt while he looks around grinning. Narrowly avoiding an almost elaborate meltdown about balloons as we left the restraunt we get back in the van. Last stop is the worm farm. Armed with our mapquest directions we head farther south.

We turn down a dirt road with a lot of over growth, the road is so narrow that there is only one way to go - deeper in.

We pass broken down buses with curtains on the inside, we pass broken down cars with curtains on the inside... in the surrounding fields we see wood 'shacks' with curtains on the inside. (At this point we get a bit nervous, but there WAS a sign that said "worm farm" at the begining of the adventure as well as a warning to 'beware of gnomes', so at least the inhabitants had a sense of humor.) Finally we come to a sign that says 'Parking, Honk your horn' where there was NO PARKING WHATSOEVER, just the dirt road with a van parked along side. A few honks with no response and Val decides to get out of the van and look around. She enters a 10ft tall tarped carport with what looks like piles of coffee grounds on the ground, something crusty under her feet, a 'pit/hole' in the ground with some dark liquid in it and 'vats' of more of the dark liquid surrounding her all around. She exits the carport and starts walking down a path (at which point she leaves my eye sight and I get out of the van to keep an eye on her). Val is approached first on the path by a large but gladly friendly dog, and then another dog. Next she passes several pot pipes laid around on broken washers and various bits of metal that no longer had a shape and last but gladly not least she finally runs into the 'worm farmers' that also gladly are super friendly kind people.

They gave us a tour of the worm farm and explained how the run off from the dirt/compost/coffee ground piles drains into the hole in the ground and then they bottle it as 'worm tea' and sell. Unknowing what this was we smiled and nodded, just glad that there was some explanation to the eversointeresting set up. They did not however offer information to the pot pipes but I'm sure its just another piece of raising 'happy' worms. In order to turn around to get back we had to go still deeper into the hippie commune and I had to make a million small back and forth pivots in the van between a broken down car and a boat, both of which I was very wary of hitting. Not only because I didn't want to hit it in general but also because I had a sneaking suspicion someone could be sleeping in anything I saw. The happy ending to our so far way too eventful day is that we got 5lbs of worms for $30 (a great deal) and headed home with sleeping baby/toddler. Val and I both commented as we left that it was such a fun outing......you know...... because we were together and all ok. :P

On the drive home we pulled to the side of the road when we spotted someones yard with LITERALLY hundreds of kids plastic yard toys... (wouldn't you stop?) In the pouring rain we tromped through piles and rows and heaps of yard toys with the 2 five year olds and the 7yr old. We were SOAKED and as we drove home the combination of body heat and rain water made a sort of minivan sauna, it was fun.

(Val again)

We get home to yet another blow out from Logan this time (second of the day)... at this point, the outfit count for the 6 children, is as follows (oldest at top):

Alex: 2
Elias: 1
Cyan: 3
Hannah: 1
Bayus: 3
Logan: 4

Sure hope the dryer is fixed!

Right this second, the husbands have the kids, Eddie is holding the baby and Don is replacing a Ken's head that was dramatically being thrown against the door because apparently his behavior was unacceptable for the royal ball. You all know that Barbie has a mean streak, be warned.

We are finishing dinner alternetly writing this post, editing each others bits, and laughing maniacally.

Laugher fixes everything right? As Sarah always says, what is good, is great, but what is bad... is a GREAT story.

Nutrition and Manners Party

About once a month, our homeschool group sets up these parties. They always have a theme, and we all participate as much as we can with the set up.

This one is a Nutrition and Manners party. Each of the mamas got to talk to the kids about manners, how to eat so your body stays healthy, and then we filled our placemats with the things we loved, that were healthy for our bodies. The kids were great... some of course, picked favorite foods (thinking in particular of one little boy who drew nothing but Mac and Cheese on his 'plate'... which made all us moms laugh), but all of them were creative and they had such great questions about what was healthy, what gave us energy, how to set the table... etc. It was just a great class!

Here are our placemats (we got them laminated at the free teachers lamination from Staples):

On the back of each, all of the rest of us wrote a quote of why the other person is a wonderful addition to our family... On the back of mine it says: "You make me food and let me cook" ~ Alex "I like your strawberry applesauce, YUM!" ~ Cyan "'Practically perfect in every way.'" ~ Don

Here is the front of mine up close:

And Dons (I made his, but true to form... this is what the guy likes... starch and cheese... it made him laugh when I brought it home):

Here are the kids... Alex first:

Theirs also have a food pyramid on the back.

And Cyan's:

And here are a couple pictures from the class:

A friend and other homeschooling mama reading a book on table etiquette:

Another homeschool mama and friend talking about the placemat project:

Dear friend and other homeschool mama reading a book on how to keep our bodies healthy: