11/20-11/22

Friday started out like most other Fridays do, with a trip to Target to spend allowance. Ella picked a blue whale Webkinz which she named...Whaley. Nic picked a Nerf sword. Excellent. We came home and spent the rest of the day hanging around playing and I don't know what else.

In the evening, Nic and I took off and went to the Physics Phun Night on the college campus. This show is a pretty long and we've seen it a few times now and it doesn't change a whole lot from show to show. We still enjoyed it, especially because a lot of our friends came as well!








Afterwards the kids ran around like crazy, playing tag, hide and seek, and...pelting each other with limes. (?)

Yesterday afternoon we took the kids to see Shorts. Bo and I were unimpressed, but the kids loved it.

Today I went for another hike...


And when I got home, Bo had hung a swing in our tree for this little one who LOVES to swing.
I think there will be grocery shopping, Lego Indiana Jones, a sword fight, a tea party, and who knows what else. Tomorrow is Monday and the start to a busy week...

Happy Thanksgiving if I don't pop on before then!

11/19

Today started with RAINBOWS! I have a crystal hanging from the kitchen window and Nic walked out at just the right time this morning and came back to my room excitedly hollering "Come seeeeeee the rainbowssssss!".


Then we set to work on some fabulous toothpicks puzzles. On the counter, ahem.
We had lots of library things to pick up and drop off, but first we had to finish watching some of the movies.

While Ella watched Charlie and Lola, Nic and I played some dice games on our Giant Dice, which we love. We were racing to add the two numbers together. Nic noticed that 6 and 4 is 10, and so is 5 and 5. I got out the unit blocks and he was pretty impressed at the many different ways to make 10.

Than we all watched Prince of Egypt which lead to a lot of pausing the movie for discussions about The Bible, slavery, looking up Egypt on the map, and other such things.
Ella also wanted to play a dice game, so we rolled both and she told me which had more.
There was also apple eating when I got to dazzle them with my all-in-one slice peeling.
Then we headed off to the library and then came out and did some cleaning together. Nic ended up on the computer and Ella pretended to be my doctor.
She at one point said, "Don't worry, I wont take your blood out", which I was thankful for.

When Bo got home Nic and I headed off for Ninja class and picked up a much anticipated movie and game from the rental store.

Bo has a basketball game to watch...and I'm on my way to pick up a friend for the midnight showing of New Moon!

11/17-11/18

We've been having long talks about Native Americans, Pilgrims, The American Revolution, holiday traditions, consumerism, responsibility, friendship, WWII, WWI, airplanes, leaves, prisms, and other things I can't remember.
Living and learning happens so much and so often I can hardly keep track of it all.
I realized a couple days ago that this Halloween was the anniversary of Nic being out of school for two whole years. I asked him if he's happy and see said "YES!". I am too.

Nic finished another long Calvin and Hobbes book. It was so fun to see him wake up in the morning and run to the table where he'd left it. I'd hear him chuckling to himself and then come running to excitedly tell me about something hilarious. I love that he can have the experience of reading this way, joyfully.

We went to our regular homeschool park day.
This is a large group and they plan a lot of great field trips and activities. Generally we are at park day between three and five hours, and this was a long one.
This week someone had arranged a free vision screening! Nic had his eyes tested and discovered an eye movement issue that we'll be looking into. Ella wouldn't do the test, but that's OK too.
She and I collected some seed pods, played hide and seek with some friends, watched birds in a tree eating berries, listened to some kids playing trumpet, watched some yo-yo tricks, and made mermaid tails in the sand.

After park day we headed over to Nic's ninja class. He and his friend passed the orange belt test!
After that, he played at his friends house and didn't get home until almost 10pm, so the day was done.

Yesterday we got up and made smoothies.

Both kids helped do dishes, laundry and clean up around the house. We all watched a couple shows together.

Nic made mac and cheese.
We had some long talks and tickles and then started the moccasin project we saw and loved from OLM.

We got them all done but the beads. I had to tweaks Nic's a LOT and use a LOT more felt because he's a growing boy dontcha' know? We are excited to wear them for Thanksgiving.

We didn't get them all done because we had cousins over for dinner! Yummy tacos, follwed by dress-up, airplane battles, a fantastic guitar duo, and Crazy Machines.

That was about it. I'm off to stir up some fun for TODAY.

Really?!

Has it been since September since I posted? That's crazy. We've moved (!) as well as got, and recovered from the (unconfirmed but 90% certain) Swine Flu, and all sorts of other things.

The dust is settling and we're slowly starting to get into some sort of routine-ish rhythm. We are busy though- park days, ninja classes, gymnastics, visits with family, and playdates with friends... I am longing for time at home to just be us and work on the projects brewing in our minds. Hopefully more of that happens soon, and I hope to be better about documenting that on this here blog.

Here's some snapshots of the last couple months.

Ella and her good friend did some wall decorating...
While their mamas made completely-from-scratch pumpkin pie!

With the pie they bought on the trip to the pumpkin patch/corn maze. This is what it looks like when you say "Hey guys, sit in the pumpkins so I can take your picture!"

Halloween Carnical at the gym.
Pirate Girl and Jango Fett.
The men-folk went to the driving range, so Ella and I put on classical music and broke out the watercolors. I love that she doesn't just make mud colored pictures anymore.
Nic is still into Calvin and Hobbes.

Rainbows are a good thing.
Calculatin'.
Purple "Green" smoothies. My new favorite. Super sweet blueberries, banana, spinach and honey.
Hammer+Nails+Friend=Fun!
Friends with chickens rock!
Balloon face invades the van!
Taking babies for a drive...
Chess. Love.

Kiddos with the Flu. :-(
Kids sharing Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards.
Lizard friend visits our window.

I've been hiking with a friend. Amazing therapy for this mama's soul.


See?
Calendar Time. Implemented after Ella saw it on Caillou (I think) and decided we should do that too.
Nic continues the Lego battle.
Ella found a good spot to hang out at Open Gym.
After gym we went to a friends house. The boys video-gamed, the girls ballooned and other things.

All is well!

Camping with friends.

On the road...
He spent the two hour drive learning to blow bubbles...success!

Sort of parking lot-esque, but still nice. No bears, that's the key!
We got four sites in a row and had six families, with a total of 12 kids.
Mermaid washed ashore.



Frog catching.
No bites, but fun anyway.

Unschoolers take over the beach!
Ducks came to visit.
Huddled around to roast marshmallows for breakfast.
Raccoons all over the place.
The path to the lake.
Weeeeee!
Adventurin'.


Fire!
Sunrise.
Sunset.

nothing at all

His cousins taught him Mancala, and then he taught me. Love it!
Ella has been busy taking care of her puppy litter. See the teeniest one on the bottom? She's her favorite.

And birthing babies in the bathtub.

She's also been busy making her name out of various things, mostly recently the balancing bears.
9:09am on 9/09/09.
Waterpark awesomeness!

Rain in the desert, hallelujah! We are big fans. It's always fun to see who notices it first and how they announce it and then we all run outside. Ella is a lady, so she uses an umbrella. Nic and I are more 'get your face wet' kind of rain lovers.


REAL tea party. Chamomile and strawberries, delightful.
Nic has been experimenting with taking shadow photos of various figurines.
Reading, reading, always reading.
Also, lego.
and music.
and coloring.
and stickers.
and cleaning.
and questions and sometimes and answers.
and Ninja training.
and friends.
and round and round again...

happy loving busy silly fun crazy

Ella asked me to make her a dream catcher. Ella pulled down the landmark cards and made up names for all of them like "Tower of Dreams" and "Fantasy Water" etc.


checking out the cool stairs at the farmer's market.
buggin'.
physics show.
desert museum. nic and i got to see our first ever wild rattlesnake.
seriously, this is where i live people!
open gym.

swimming.


celebrating a friend's birthday.
family game night, trivial pursuit jr.
magic rocks!
woah!
ella's drawing.

fabric scrap collage.
sewing kit.
faery village from recycled bottles.
whew!