Field Trip Friday

Here's a photo from our Christmas party...it's the only field trip photo I have, the only photo from this fall that I have....so I can't show you all the fun stuff we've been doing. You'll just have to trust me...we've been having fun, for the most part..;)

Caterpillar

Chrysallis

Caterpillar eating a Chrysallis (he was evicted)

Newly emerged cabbage white butterfly (wings are still a little wrinkly)

butterfly (we ended up with five of them....only lost the one that was eaten by a VERY hungry caterpillar)

Releasing the butterflies

A butterfly came into the house a couple of days later...I'm sure if was one of ours coming back to his roots...

Lemonade Stand

We had a lemonade stand before our vacation...it's time for another one, as it's supposed to get pretty hot next week. We did do a little false advertising...it was not fresh-squeezed....but oh well! Annabelle had fun yelling at the cars. We only had a few people stop (two of them being Nana and Pudge), but they had fun serving each other!

Life with Ollie

Square-foot Garden-pt. 3

We've been enjoying Sophie's salad, Anna's baby carrots, Stephen's squash and my onions and swiss chard. (We each had our own beds..) We planted wildflower seeds in a big pot on our deck and the little herb pot on the table is from our house-swapping friends....=)

Anna wanted to plant broccoli and even though it was too late to plant it, we thought we'd try anyway and see if we could somehow defy nature and have a nice head of broccoli in the heat of summer....well, we didn't succeed in that, BUT we did succeed in attracting caterpillars....We now have at least five chrysalis in our little butterfly cage....the girls and I are way more excited about this than broccoli!

More of Anna's Art

The idea of posting photos and stories from our vacation is too overwhelming right now...so I am going to post some of Anna's latest drawings...the first two are her roosters, which I'm particularly found of, then we have a couple of ballerinas and a dancer with a streamer. The last one is an exercise she wanted to do. We've done a few exercises from the book Drawing with Children where she copies designs that are in little boxes. She asked for me to draw flowers in boxes for her to copy...Anna's flowers are on the bottom...the ones that are more artistic and interesting looking...=)

House-swapping in Sunny San Diego...=)

Our vacation was incredible and once I get through the mounds of laundry (yeah, right...), and unpack the boxes in the garage (bring back the clutter that I was hiding from our guests....part of me wants to just leave it out there and see how long it takes for me to miss something...if I go a month without needing any of it....just throw it out....I truly have no idea what's out there...except for a box of shoes and a box with homeschooling stuff in it...I will need those.), I will fill you all in on our vacation. Here are a couple of pictures....one of the house we stayed in and one from one of my favorite days in San Diego....on Coronado Island.

Sprinkler Fun!!

It was HOT today and the only way we could handle being out in it was to hook up the sprinkler! I made the kids keep their clothes on (not that I would have let them be naked...if we had a privacy fence...maybe). I didn't let them wear their swimsuits because our neighbors had some men working in their yard, and you just never know. I'm sure they were nice guys, but a little paranoia never hurt anyone....I'm sure Indy knows what I'm talking about. =) I think she knows where every sex offender in Tulsa lives and she doesn't even live here. =) I'm sure that by the end of the summer their swimsuits will be like second skin and we'll be going to the grocery store in them. Maybe I should call the Duggars and find out where they get their modest swimwear. =) Oh yeah, and notice how dry Annabelle is!

Square-foot Garden-pt. 2

SPROUTS!!!

Verster

Sweet little Ollie...always being lugged around by his sisters and proud of his bling (notice his necklace in the second picture). It's May, which means Stephen has a lot of graduation parties and what nots, so I've had a lot of evenings to myself (the kids were sleeping by 8 tonight...=)). Thus, the blog-happiness of late. Tonight, Stephen is actually hosting his second "Ambleside" meeting, in hopes of starting an Ambleside school in Tulsa....I'll put up a link to their site and to Stephen's education blog...and what the heck, I'll put up one for Ambleside Online (not affiliated with Ambleside Schools....Ambleside is the name of the place where Charlotte Mason lived) More on Charlotte Mason later because I know a few of you haven't heard me go on and on about her philosophy and methods, but most of you have. Ambleside online is where I plan to get most of my curriculum next year.

Anna's Obsession....

First of all, look at this massive tray of sushi that Stephen made (I helped a little...made the rice =)) mmmmmm mmmmm good. But more importantly, look at what's in front of Annabelle. Is she holding her fork...I mean chopsticks? NO...she's holding a pen. The Weinheimer family had the "no singing at the table" rule. Stephen's family had to deal with his mouth....his mom had to constantly remind him to "stop talking and start EATING!" The Zeds of Tulsa are now implementing the "no drawing at the table" rule. She would draw all through dinner if we would let her, and she has when we're too hungry to notice. Here are some of her latest drawings. Notice she's still doing the mirror-writing. I've looked into and it's pretty common among left-handers and has something to do with their language centers being located on both sides of their brain...hmmmm...might be handy information for homeschooling. =)

Camping