Halloween 2010

The Dragon

S's costume was easy.  I bought it at Goodwill for $4!  E and F are the typical girly pretty sparkly fairy princess.

The Blue Fairy Princess

The Pink and Purple Fairy Princess

IJ helped me create his Perseus costume.  I made the outfit, he made the sword.  I found an old serving platter that was perfect for a reflective shield.  Medusa's head was made from plaster wrap and toy snakes. Talk about your hands-on learning!

Perseus

Medusa's Head

We are once again heading out to the community center's Halloween night where kids play games for candy.  We are working the Cub Scout game booth and helping to clean up afterward.  Last year the kids got so much candy they didn't even miss trick-or-treating!

The Face

The girls and boys have been split in their own rooms for awhile now and everything is working out great.  Although every time I tucked F into her new lower bunk, she pointed to the bunk above her with an apprehensive face.  I tried to understand what she needed, but I never could.  I could see that she was pointing to a certain board above her and I thought she may have seen a spider crawl into the crack.  Spiders are common in this bedroom (E has quite the blood-curdling scream).

Last night, when she started pointing and acting weird, I actually got into her bed and saw what she could see:

The Face

Pretty spooky, no?  I asked F if it talked to her.  She said yes.  I asked her if the face was her friend.  She said, "It is NOT my FWEND!"  F is the third kid in my home that has slept in this bed and the first one to see this now obvious face.  And all those years M and I snuggled the bottom bunk kid to sleep, we never saw it either.  Happy Halloween!

IJ and The Coolest Picture Ever

That is IJ jumping over three kids and breaking a board (held by M) with his Flying Side Kick.  This pretty much sums up the last three years of Taekwondo!

157 Pictures: A Week Reviewed

Crawling for the Baseball

 I didn't take as many pictures as I thought I would...mostly because I knew it would be awhile before I downloaded.  Or maybe because my life is boring...NOT!

Trying Carrots

We are getting ready for our Homeschool Halloween Party/Exposition.  IJ has been getting all the arts and crafts he can handle this week.  That is what happens with busy families- art projects get put off because they aren't as important as eating or clean clothes.  Then you have to do them all at one time because you have to show the school district that you are really using those art supplies you are getting reimbursed for.

Creating Medusa's Head

Adinkra Cloth

But I guess the mess is centralized and is out at one time.  Like batch-cooking a bunch of meals at once.

F Forgets her Boots

The rains have come, bringing dirty feet and giant slugs...

...and very hungry chickens that want to get out of the rain:

Ginger tries to get in the house!

I opened the front door to feed the cats and found this crowd of chickens, waiting for their food.  I made the mistake of feeding the cats first and setting the bowl on the brick ledge.  Two seconds later I went back out to feed the flock and found they had chased the cat away and knocked down her bowl!

"Feed us or we'll eat your cat.  And your dog."

Guess Who Can Crawl?

Someone woke up from his nap today with a new skill!  I took plenty of pictures, but alas, I need a new computer before I can post them.  The first thing he crawled for was Pokemon Cards.  The second was a toy car.  The third was a baseball.

And Now...

...Now I am done blogging again for awhile.  Until we finish our massive, ginormous backup.  This last time I accumulated 168 pictures on the digital camera.  Any guesses on how many will be there next time?

Foraging for Food

Gettin' Ready for Winter!

 If you want to sit by the fire this winter...

...you better help carry the wood!

Chilly Autumn Morning

I'm not a morning person.  I have to force myself to get out of bed when my alarm goes off.  I'd rather sit by a fire with a hot cup of coffee than prevent chaos from ensuing any day of the week.

But the other morning I put on a jacket, packed up Baby D, and went for a morning stroll, just as the sun was coming up to burn the mist away.

I saw dew-soaked spider webs.

Spiders.

 And sunflowers.

I enjoyed the peace, quiet, and beauty of our property so much that I've gone on a few more morning walks since.

Building Atoms

The backup stopped last night with two days left to go, so M is giving me an opportunity to catch up on my digital pictures, blogging, and data entry.

We are working our way through REAL Science Odyssey Chemistry and the kids are really enjoying the labs.  But I think any kid would enjoy this:

Building atoms out of marshmallows! We are also making a giant periodic table of the elements on the floor.  The neutrons were regular marshmallows, the protons were coconut-flavored, and the electrons were mini marshmallows.  

"Can I eat some neutrons?"

F learned a lot about the parts of an atom.  She now calls all marshmallows trons. Unfortunately, we ran out of marshmallows when we were building so next time I will buy double than what was called for.  After we were done and the kids were dying to eat their creation that took so much energy to create, I quizzed the kids (E too) on vocabulary and gave them atom part rewards.

Let them eat...Atoms!

 And when we were really done, I scooped up all the atom parts and made Rice Krispie treats with Cheerios.  And just gave them forks to eat it with so I wouldn't have to cut them into squares.

Sit, Baby, Sit!

Which one is Pink?

He sits!  I thought he would never sit because he spends so much time on his tummy.  But after two days of plopping him down on his bottom, he found his center of gravity.  He is also King Raspberry.

Now for some bad news.  M is in the process of adding more memory to our network.  We have finally reached the point where we need a terabyte-sized hard drive (in addition to double monitors!  That's cool!).  We are also going to start backing up our data online so we don't lose our precious pictures and data files.  So our system will be down for several days while our lives are copied to the new hard drive.  Which means no blog!  We'll see ya when I get the All Systems Go! from my IT guy.

Signing Time!

I absolutely love natural learning.  I wish I could spend each day, staying in our cozy home, exploring the world according to what interests my children.  Sometimes I can.  This last week, sign language has been the topic of choice.  It all came about innocently enough...  All I did was grab a few Signing Time! videos from the library to keep the girls busy while I did school with the boys.

I Love You

Then, during one of our many trips in the van, IJ asks, "What happens if you are deaf and you can't see?"  This started a discussion about Helen Keller and the definition of the word dumb.  I happen to have a book about Helen Keller in our vast library...and IJ was off!  We've talked about  Braille and tried to feel signs with our eyes closed.

The Story of Helen Keller

All of a sudden, all the kids in my house were so totally into signing!  But let's take a step back into time to when I first started using sign language and Signing Time! videos.  Way, way back, back when S was about 18 months or so, I heard that using sign language helped babies and toddlers communicate when they were unable to communicate verbally.  I was having trouble communicating with S; he was absolutely uninterested in communicating with us to the point where the pediatrician wanted his hearing tested and to send him to a neuro-developmental specialist.  S passed his hearing test no problem and I decided that I didn't want to go down the professional "special" path with S.  So we tried signing with him.

Did it work?  No!  S wasn't interested in communicating at all; verbally, physically, nothing!  But IJ learned all sorts of signs!  And when E was a baby, she used sign language better than verbal language.  She found that using her hands was easier than taking the pacifier out of her mouth!  M and I found using sign language was easier than hollering across a crowded room.  M used sign language on his surveys to communicate with co-workers across a loud river.  We started using signs with F, but she learned to talk so quickly and effectively she had no use for signs.  And this is when everyone forgot...until now.

 My kids are amazing!  F learned all the letters and signs for come and play and I love you.  Her buddy from field trips thinks she is something else, because not only does she know her letters and sounds, she knows how to sign them.  Evie is spelling words-mostly the names of her family members.  S has a new trick:

"I can make an r with my legs!"

...and the boys are having fun making words, sentences, and learning the difference between American Sign Language and American Indian Sign Language, which fits nicely in our history and Cub Scouts.

Camping in the Rain Anyone?

After another crazy week in my house, which this time included a day with mastitis and a trip to the doctor; Taekwondo tests for M, IJ, and S; a trip to the zoo; and a Taekwondo tournament for sparring and poomse; we had an opportunity to go camping with our Cub Scout pack.  In the rain.

And because M and I are the Wolf den leaders, at least one of us had to go and lead an activity.  Since M was at the tournament with the boys, I packed up the three youngers and planned to spend the day in the rain leading little boys with ADHD even though my own Scouts weren't even there.  Because that is the kind of leader I am.  When I signed up to lead, it was to lead all the boys, not just my own.  Which is a problem I've had with other leaders in the past.  Anyway, I digress.

Wet Rats

I was able to come home early because one boy got sick and went home, one boy had an afternoon soccer game, two boys didn't come, one went on a hike with his brother's den, and one just wanted to throw sticks in the fire.

M and the boys joined the Scouts after dinner.  They thought about camping, but every spot was full or flooded.  Darn! 

S and IJ

D

E and F

Everyone got to sleep, nice and cozy, in their very own beds.  And have a nice, hot, delicious breakfast when they woke up.  Instead of borderline camp food.  Hooray!

Homeschool Day at Woodland Park Zoo

We tried to attend Homeschool Day at the Woodland Park Zoo today with our local homeschool buddies.  But the workshops were so boring!  The workshop for Pre-K through 4th graders was appropriate for preschoolers.  The workshop for the 4th to 12th graders was worse!  So we skipped the rest and explored the zoo on our own.

Play fighting (they must be two little boys)

I should have known today wasn't going to be the best day in homeschool education when E threw up in the van, on her lap, just as I was going to go through the toll booth on the Narrows Bridge.

Sitting on the Hippo

F and her Favorite Buddy-who carried her all day!

 We got to see the giraffes "crossing the street" to their other habitat.  That was really cool!

Time for Lunch!

And anyone who knows IJ knows exactly what he comes to the zoo to see...

IJ and his Best Friend are so excited!

We got about 50 pictures of the snow leopards

 The snow leopard were feeling frisky while we were there and put on a good show.  They were jumping on the roof of the viewing place.  They sounded like they were going to break through!

How many kids can you fit in a hole?  Seven.

 Although animals were exciting, the kids had way more fun crawling into holes on the side of the path, climbing rocks, and hanging from tree branches.  How annoying.

These three are mine because they are all wearing green!

My kids would also do annoying things like exclaim, "Look at the crow!" or "Squirrel!"  Hello!  These are common every day animals!  Maybe we've been out of the city too long...  They would also say, "Look, a leaf!" instead of watching the fish or otter or bear.

"I don't even know where I am!"

Baby D was a trooper and didn't give me any trouble at all.  Between the two moms that had babies, we have five ways of transporting these babies: two strollers, a sling, a backpack, and of course our arms.

These are the only monkeys I saw

Boys.  They can hardly keep their hands off each other.  Every time we turn around, they are jumping on each others backs, showing off their fighting moves, or trying to pick each other up.

The other thing that attracted the kids (more than holes in the wall) was the shiny thing maker.  For only two quarters, you can smash a penny flat and put a picture on it.  Oh, to be young and easily entertained again.

I don't see us heading out to any zoos for awhile since my kids have learned all they can about animals.  So I guess it is time for a trip to the... science center?