Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Catch Up

I haven't posted in a while. I have a little extra time this evening so this is catch up time. Hope you enjoy.

School Days

I think we are kind of in a slump right now when it comes to school. The weather has been very cold and we haven't seen the sun a lot. When my children are a little bummed out because they have to have school on a "snow day", I remind them that when the weather is turning nice, they can be outside playing while the school children will be sitting in class. That sort of brightens their day. We have had a few things this month to break the monotony of things.

We did chores for our friends for almost 3 weeks,
Our February field trip was to Harry London Chocolate Factory (yum), and
We had our Valentine's Day Party.


One day Kara's lesson was about the pioneers. She learned a little about Laura Ingalls Wilder, and she dressed up as a pioneer. (This is the dress that I made for Krista when she was in kindergarten.)



In Science, Kendrick has been learning about living things and what is needed to live. The plants give off oxygen for people and animals to breathe and take in the carbon dioxide that we give off. We had instructions on how to put together a terrarium. This is the little critter that we put in. It is a fire-belly newt. He named it Volcano because it is black with a red belly. They are native to Japan. We bought some newt food but so far it does not appear that he has eaten any. The pet store owner told me they prefer live food like worms and crickets. I hope he starts eating this stuff pretty soon as I am not excited about the live food thing.




This is his belly.


His home. This is a 5-gallon aquarium that we weren't using. Because the newt is so small, he seems lost in this huge thing. He always hides so we have to go digging under the moss to find him all the time. Hopefully he becomes a little more brave over time and will come out so we can watch him do something!

Krista is getting ideas together for the Education Fair that takes place in April. In Science she has been learning about the digestive system, and with some help from Daddy, she is becoming quite knowledgeable about epiglottis, bolus, sphincter and peristalsis. I think my kids may be smarter than me before this is all over with.

A Birthday Dinner

The sister of two of my piano students (Emma) sometimes comes to play with Kara and Kaylee while I am giving the lessons. Her birthday was February 14. She picked my girls to come to her birthday dinner so our family was invited. Since there are 9 children in the family, there is someone for all of my children to play with.


The Birthday Girl


Emma with Kaylee and Kara


Henry playing with the gift bag.

Update on the Goats

The kids whose birth we attended are 4 weeks old now. Here are more recent pictures of them. They are very frisky and are growing. My children were able to name them. The one Kara is holding is Cloverbud because he looks like a goat named Clover. The light headed one on Kaylee is Crystal's Shadow because he looks like his mother, Crystal. The dark one on Kaylee is Molasses because his head is so dark. These goats are Boars (white with brown head).


Kaylee is not too sure about both of them jumping on her. A little later one of them jumped up and hit her nose. It didn't bleed, but it sure didn't feel good.


The goat Clover had twins the day after the owners came back. We went over to take a look at them. The one on Krista's lap is Oliver and the one behind is Cocoa.


Last Wednesday, one of the Alpine goats had twins. I only got a good picture of one of them.

Valentine's Day Party

We got together with some other homeschoolers for a Valentine's Day Party. We had pizza for lunch and the little kids exchanged Valentines. We all had a great day!




Preparing the Valentines.


Lunch. As you can see, there is an over abundance of girls in this bunch.


Opening the Valentines.



The favorite part of the day. The kids went sled riding. They had a wonderful hill to slide down and went very fast. The long walk back up the hill? NO PROBLEM! Hook on to the 4-wheeler for a free ride up.

While the kids were outside, the moms stayed inside to visit and keep warm.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

EXCITING EVENING!!

We are doing chores again for friends. One of the does was pregnant (well, all of them are pregnant, but this one was due any time). When we did chores this evening, she was showing signs of labor. We came home to eat supper and went back over to the barn. One kid had already been born; two more were born while we were there.

Here are your babies, Mrs. O'Brock!



This is the first born.



Second born.



Third born.



All three together.



My kids holding the kids.



When we left, they all three were up wobbling around and getting something to eat.