Neighborhood Party

Because there can never be too many parties, right?! Actually, this is only the second one we said yes to--I can think of three other to which the kids were invited! I take it back--there CAN be too many parties! :) That's a lot of exclamation points--the girls read the blog now, so I have to point out things like this. It is a stylistic use of punctuation in order to express strong emotion ... however, (much like all my ...) it is not considered an appropriate use of said punctuation mark in general or scholarly writing.

Back to the party!!! ;)

Our neighbor threw a homeschool Halloween party. I like parties I can walk to :) Somehow she packed like 30 adults and kids into her home. I stopped taking pictures when there ceased to be elbow room for doing so ;) (also, you can't punctuate a sentence with smiley faces--it's just wrong when it comes to the world of formal grammatical expression in end marks).

She decided to get the kids going on games, but accidentally started uncovering the food on the table. This meant total abandonment of games, as the hungry children (ha!) loaded up plates full of festive fall goodies.

Eventually as the puppy chow powdered sugar cloud settled, the games began. They played a funny *sketch a picture with your eyes closed* game--that I think most everyone under our kids' age full-on cheated at by opening their eyes. Oh well, it's not like this was high stakes closed eyes drawing competition :) Also--you really can't use asterisks** to set things apart like I do all the time ... they're meant to guide the reader to an end note that might help illuminate the section of writing by pointing to a source or perhaps explaining an obscure term at the bottom of the page.



Following the drawing game, the kids got to play Halloween charades . . . as you can see we made some modifications to Graysen's costume; he's a bit jazzier now than he was at the karate party :) Gabby just went with the robe. Brennen dressed normally, but claimed he was "a football player," and Caelan slapped a tiara on her head and called herself a princess. The littler girls were still impressed--put some sparkle in their eyes and they are dazzled! She also had a little lady audience for her piano playing. We don't have a full-sized piano, so any chance she gets, she's over there tickling the ivories :)

There was a photo booth set up in the kitchen and G$ and his neighborhood buddy--a.k.a. The Cat in the Hat--got a last minute photo (after a bevy of girls were shooed out of the space so the boys could have a turn :) We left a little early to get back to our school day, but it's not like we won't see them again for Treat Night!

Home Ec Rocks!

The girls are taking a Home Ec. course this year. It is very thorough! Their last unit was on meal planning (it was supposed to include nutritional values as well . . . but we were good with *not too expensive* and *fairly well rounded* :), grocery list making, and meal preparation. For nearly a week of meals, they cooked, I advised remotely, and it was like taking a little vacation (for me :)

These pictures are from their Mexican-flavored meal, which included HOMEMADE tortillas! That was what impressed me :) The rice, too, was made from scratch. My rice is made by La Preferida--the lovely company which provides pre-seasoned rice in a box that I only must needs boil ;)

Let's see, there was also broccoli cheese soup with Artisan bread, venison sloppy Joe's, seasoned sweet potato chunks, red beans and rice, and a few other things I'm blanking on at the moment. Final analysis--this should be more than a one-unit gig! I think helping meal plan and cook should be an EVERY week assignment . . . yes, yes I do :)

Kara-tay Par-tay

Our kids enjoy being helpers--and I think that's great, because the world needs more people who are willing to step in and fill a gap where others don't choose to serve. This was a fun gap to fill--hosting games at their karate school's Halloween party :)

We arrived early and everyone chose which game they'd like to help with--Gabby worked with the stick the smile on the skeleton punching bag, Graysen helped with the bean bag toss, Caelan was the princess of pop for the ring toss, and Brennen (who was more interested in playing football than getting a costume together before we left--so he's a hunter guy--sort of :) worked with the suction cup ninja star throw against the mirrors.

That was a one sentence paragraph, yes it was ;)

The first costumed crowd ranged in age from three to six years (along with lots of baby siblings). I was selected from among the moms present to help judge the costume parade. This was tricky, since we didn't know the names of most of the small children--and several of them were wearing masks ;) They were awfully cute, though, so it was a fun job.

During the games, I wandered around, observing how our kids were interacting with others--there are some challenging personalities in the world and they got to spend some time with the younger versions of these. However, they chose to remain polite and cheerful and encouraging. Nice work, Crew!

Approximately 45 minutes later, the little ones left and the big ones arrived. Graysen abandoned his game to join the party, while the other three continued to help (there were a lot of helpers, though, so it was fine for Graysen to play). He self-constructed his costume from cardboard--he's been working on prototypes for months. I think we'll add a little spray paint to jazz it up before tomorrow, but had he not had a mom on the judging panel (as did three other kids in his costume parade) he was for sure in the running for "most original costume." His Spartan moves were impressive.

There were several children who disqualified themselves from receiving a certificate just because they were incredibly rude and sassy. "We're not rewarding that behavior," said a co-judge. Agreed! And some of the costumes--I mean, seriously parents? The little ones were mostly cute and fun, but the elementary school crowd had all kinds of eyebrow raisers.

After Graysen had collected his prizes from the various games, we collectively decided to head out. There was a teen party afterwards--pizza and a movie--but our girls were like, "Eh. We just wanted to help with the little kids." That's cool with me! Let's go home! :)

Feeling Better

We decided to put Radagast back in his big enclosure--minus the woodchips. It looks like a hospital room with all the puppy pads :) His quills are starting to fill in again and he looks so fluffy and new--yes, I know hedgehogs aren't usually described as fluffy, but he looks like a little stuffed toy to me. Very cute--still grumpy as all get out--but cute :)

Just Right in Black and White

Every so often, fb will throw out a fun little challenge. I'm not a fan of chain-letter-like games, so I don't really follow the rules to "tag someone." I don't even follow the "no people, no explanations" of the "seven black and white photos of your daily life," but I think it's interesting to look at our days through a different lens . . . how does your daily life appear in black and white? Which things do you chose to share with the world as a peek of your daily existence? What do you think mine are? Pretty self-explanatory mostly :)












Day 1. Laundry--it was the great fall laundry swap, which takes two days to accomplish. Sorting piles for toss, donate, and give away. Making lists of who needs what because the what has been outgrown since last year. Washing ... washing ... and more washing. And finally, the folding--so very much folding--48 hours' worth of stored laundry (plus the normal wear of the week :)

Day 2. Chickens for Dummies and Karate--these are two big time earners in my week. I'm constantly reading books for the kids, trying to upload some facts myself, and of course watching them learn karate.

Day 3. Our biggest egg day so far . . . until today when we topped that quad with SIX eggs in one morning! That means we've only got one girl being lazy ;) The boys got my day three picture because of their enthusiasm in helping feed the chickens, collecting eggs from the chickens, and locking the chickens in for night-night time. It turns out that you can totally forget you have farm animals--until you can't :)

Day 4. My stack of school work to check never seems to shrink! No sooner do I get through this whole mountainous pile to look up and realize the kids have taken their books, made the corrections, and resubmitted them for another go round . . . I feel like this happens all.day.long. I would have taken a picture of my hands covered in the resulting highlighter marks, but it wouldn't have shown up in black and white ;)







Day 5. Chai . . . for breakfast and evening snack . . . every day, chai :)

Day 6. Teenage girls, sisters, best friends--love, love, love!

Day 7. Don't love, ha! Animal fodder ALL OVER my laundry room, wood chips stuck in the rug, wood chips on new carpet ALL OVER the house--sweeping, vacuuming, sweeping, vacuuming . . . while the guinea pigs and their friends just make messes that only I care to clean up. Oh day six.



Bonus Day! I couldn't leave Buck out of my daily life list :) This super flattering picture is brought to you by . . . Buck teaching me technology, lol! I didn't know I could take selfies by touching the lens on the back of the camera--note my skeptical look, super attractive right? Ha! Caelan says, "Were you two taking selfies again?" there was a skeptical note in her voice, too . . . :)

Shrunkin' Punkin'

Our neighbors' family has a farm (e-i-e-i-o). And on this farm they have some pumpkins (e-i-e-i-o) :)

It so happens, that on our neighbors' family farm, they grow lots of pumpkins that they ship (for free, if I remember correctly) in semi trucks to kids in cities like New York who don't have access to farm-grown pumpkins for Halloween.

This year, a bumper crop meant 3,000 orange leftovers that wouldn't fit onto the truck!


So, our neighbors brought us back a bunch of pumpkins as a bonus carving opportunity :) They are a bit smaller than the first batch, however, the kids were excited to put more ideas into action . . . print, stencil, pin, poke, carve!

Adorable :) (Well, they were more adorable before our random 70 degree day that melted them into only somewhat still recognizable pumpkin art by the time I got around to taking their picture  . . .)



The pumpkin sticking out its tongue in the top photo is by Gabby, and the double Spartan sword pumpkin next to it is by Graysen. Caelan carved the super cute buck and doe heart pumpkin with *love* inscribed below--it was really cute the first day, I promise :) And the pumpkin with eyebrows is a co-effort by Gabby and Brennen.

No Comprendo

Caelan is taking high school Spanish this year. She's done Rosetta Stone for IDK how many years, but this is the first time with written work. You can tell when she's just not feeling an assignment--and I assure you--this test was put off til the very last minute (ahem.)

What do you think . . . should I award points for creativity?

Note her answers to b. (la chalkboardo) and h. (la pluma sharpenero) . . . ummm, no points for you!!! :) 

Game Time

Mr. G is constantly creating games and costumes! Gabby was considering being a Hobbit for Treat Night--Graysen made her two enormous feet out of cardboard that her shoes would fit inside! Pretty neat :) Brennen is having a hard time getting a costume together, so Graysen built a chef hat from white paper, found an apron, and taped on a swirly, black moustache he made from paper.

But one of his latest ideas is a Bible board game.

You can see in the picture there are little huts set up along the pathways. If you reach these huts you can use the gold you've earned by finding Bible verses to buy things (like opportunities to move forward more quickly).

On each roll you choose a purple or pink card (whatever is next in order), follow the Bible verse address and see what your reward will be. Many of the verses had to do with treasure . . . some were completely random . . . and others (like the one I got) directed me to pay taxes to Caesar :)


I thought it was incredibly well thought out. I suggested that the person rolling the dice could read their scripture passages out loud to make it a more interactive game, and he agreed. I asked him, "How long does it take to play through one game?" He said, "Well, it depends on how fast you are at finding Bible verses." Ha! He was right--if you don't know your little book locations--like Philemon--you could be playing G's game all day :)

Pumpkin Plop

I saw that description on a friend's fb post and I like how it sounds "Pumpkin Plop." :) I can hardly believe the size of the $5 pumpkins Buck found at Costco! I mean . . . he had to use an electric saw to bust those bad boys open!




He's the master pumpkin carver--I always stick to the triangle eyes and nose with the goofy toothless smile. Buck finds ideas online, prints them as stencils, then goes through this elaborate process of pinning, then pock marking the outlines before ever a carving tool reaches his hand! Now, he's training the young Jedis in this same art of pumpkin carving.

My new job is to take pictures and watch the festivities :) It's nice that the Crew is old enough to do pumpkin day almost on auto-pilot. We ended up with A LOT of seeds, as you can imagine given the size of their orange containers. Oven roasting them was my other job, because Graysen says that I am "the best pumpkin seed maker in the world!!" Whew! Didn't even know that was title, and it's mine!! :)






I took a little break from my photo taking to run the chickens up a pile of yumminess from the carving party. Buck says having the birds is better than a garbage disposal. In fact, we're noticing how much less often we take out the kitchen trash now that the chickens get all the leftovers :)







Everyone was proud of their accomplishments--we had some college football, some NFL action, and . . . . some love, hearts . . . :) They look pretty cool lit up at night too!

Unhappy Hedgie

Hopefully his medicine will be in today (finally!) I think he's tired of the natural essential oils treatments :) Poor dude! He looks better though . . .

Decided

This was a big weekend for our karate crew! Buck had testing day off of work, so that he too, could witness the kids all earning their decided second degree black belts. They gained their first degree black belts about a year-and-a-half ago, so this was another lengthy effort to increase ranks. We're told that after the third degree, they cannot earn their fourth degree until they turn 18--this is a ways a way for the boys, so we'll see how long training lasts in the distant future.



For now though, we spent two full hours watching this enormous testing class demonstrate their weapons skills, take their fit test, perform their form, break their boards, and answer up to the judges. I tell you what, we were impressed at the kids' efforts on the mats!



As it turns out, several of their friends from the beginning are retiring now that they've reached second degree. Class just won't be the same without them (or their parents, because I like to talk to the parents :) However, we're glad for the learning time they had together, and the friendships will continue outside the karate school.