Art Lesson: Self Portraits

We looked at one of Van Gogh's and one of Norman Rockwell's self portraits.  Then, we gathered on my bed as we drew the pictures on clip boards while we looked in the mirror.  We tried a method of outlining in crayons and filling in with markers.  It was a lot of fun!  The kids are all so neat about things.  :)

Josiah's birthday party

 Legos

 Philip the trapeze artist

 Sophia, Zion and Jubilee

 Colson

 sweet brothers, Colson and Walter

 playing with Playmobile

 just the guys . . .

 Josiah the birthday boy--6!

 Lucy, Josiah's sister

 Zion--balloon game: have to sit on balloons to pop them--didn't work but was super fun!

 Sophia and Matthew

 Sweet Six Year Old Josiah

s

 cold!

 batman cake

Jack being a silly boy!  :)

My little newscaster

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCWAobtZ4qY

Check out my link to see Samuel giving the news of the day!

School Day #7

 beans in egg shells experiment

 reading instructions and checkmarking the steps

"Let me see!"

 Art lesson--different lines (thick, thin, smooth, rough--chalk, wavy, curvy, zig zag, and spiral)

bike fun!

 Sophia

 Olivia

 Kayley and Samuel

Christy and Olivia

We had a good time hanging out with our friend yesterday afternoon after school work.  Deanna came with her kids, Coady, Caleb, Christy and Caden.  Alana came with Kayley and Olivia.

School Day #5

 Philip is practicing writing his "f" and is saying the sound it makes.  Suddenly, he gets his characteristic gleam in his eye and says, "F is for fight!"  That was not in any of the examples given in his workbook surprisingly. . . I was just happy that he was coming up with his own examples.  :)

We made cave paintings.  This is the dun horse that was found in Lascaux, France.  We are learning a bit about ancient history and art.  Philip's is really good.

last week

 watching a PBS Mostly Mozart program (about 1/2 of it anyway)

 helping Sophia count the dots and trace the number

 counting money practice

 making cards for Jess' birthday--Kayley and Philip's idea

 Samuel with no training wheels!

 Kayley and Philip with no training wheels!

 play-dough with Grandma Mary  :)

Happy Birthday Jess!

A nice walk

 Philip is holding our "bug jar".  Each fall, for the past 3 or 4 years, we have come upon some whole-preserved dead bugs (as well as a piece of snake skin--that was unfortunately in our yard under the playset!!!).  We just put them in here.  I need to mount them on something.  This morning, to our delight, we found 2 new ones right in our driveway before starting for our walk!  The kids were so excited!

 Sophia has designated this baby stroller the outside one.  Bitty baby had a nice walk but everytime we stopped she would cry and Sophia would have to push her back and forth to keep her happy.  :)

Oh, and in case you are concerned, Sophia informed me that the "older girl" (her bigger baby from Gma Helen and Uncle Mike) was "taking care of all my other babies--just giving them a bottle if they cried".  Hillarious.

 Here, we are observing the man emptying our recycle bin.  He is always friendly with the kids in that he waves.  He can't help but notice their awe at his work as they stop what they are doing to stare!  Today, we were right by the road so we said, "hello" and had a quick chat.  It seemed like we were in the cartoon, Caillou, where everyone that Caillou (a 4 year old boy) encounters about town with his parents is friendly and kind.  Cute experience.

 Sophia and Philip were interested in this large butterfly/moth that was dead.

Sophia was giving Bitty Baby quite a thrill--running!  Such a fit and active mother!  Look--Bitty Baby even turned her head to the side in fright!

Okay, so the rest of the day, we did our school routine and went to church but the big news of the day was that our neighbor girl/friend rode by on her bike--without training wheels.  That did it for the boys; Dad took off their training wheels and all five kids were ruling our little block!  (The two littlest girls on their trikes--Sophia of course was busy both handling the steering and peddling, and holding her Harley Baby.)  The boys (and Kayley) were quite adept at handling the balancing of their bikes.  They are getting it!  Wahoo! 

After that, we headed to church.  A wonderful ending to a blessed day--oh, but on the way we stopped for coffee.  I spilled it down my shirt--all over the front--on the way out and then hit my forehead with the car door while getting back in.  Lovely  :)  At least my shirt was brown!

Back to school again . . .

 We started back into our school routine after a 6 week break.  We take a short walk after our Bible reading and breakfast.

 On the way back, Sophia ran in the alley and skinned her knee.  I had to get a picture--so mean!  Don't worry, I cuddled her as well and carried her home.  Samuel rad ahead and came back with a wet washcloth and his little first aid kit.  However, Philip and Sophia had already worked out the Dr. Philip plan with his little first aid kit--so she wouldn't let poor Samuel help her. 

 her boo boo

 If you look closely, you can see her tears.  poor baby :(

 Back to work

 The kids took photos of me reading their Spanish book to them.

 Ancient History/Archeology dig:  Jess and I buried some items while they were asleep the night before and then watered the ground to make it a bit more difficult.

I am attempting a menu plan rotation.  It lasts for a month before it starts over.  Right now, we are in the North American week.  I actually made the fried chicken!  The potatoes came from a box and the green beans and tomatoes are Phil's.  I even made chicken gravy!  Wahoo!  (Sophia had just had me write in her journal that morning--what food do you like: chicken gravy).  Funny.