Becky's Latest Cake

Becky made this beautiful graduation cake for some of her friends. The party is this afternoon.
Becky make every one of these pretty tropical flowers. They are made out of gum paste and fondant.

She Can Do It!! But I Missed It!!

I was quite surprised when I looked out the window this morning and saw Gracie riding a bike without training wheels.

I guess, when I wasn't paying attention yesterday, someone taught Grace to ride a two-wheeler.

So far, Matt, Amy, and Laura all claim to have taught her. I guess it was really a family affair. Dan said that he didn't have anything to do with it, so I sent him out to get the pictures of her this morning since I missed the big event yesterday.

Concentration

These Melissa and Doug Beginning Pattern Blocks puzzles are a great hit with both Kim and Luke. You can just see those wheels turning as Kimberly works to solve them.

First Thing Meme

Lisa , over at Are We There Yet? tagged me for this really quick and fun meme.

The first thing I thought today: " I wonder who has to go to school this morning?" It is finals week, and everyone's schedule is here and there.

The first thing I ate today: Chocolate pop-tart- Aldi's brand.

The first thing I drank today: diet-coke

The first thing I said today: " Snuggle down under the covers with me Kimberly, and you will get warm."

The first action I did today: changed the same child's diaper

The first thing I read today: my e-mail

The first item of clothing I put on today: blue and brown striped polo shirt (Danny's)

The first person I spoke to today: I may have said "love you" to may husband at 5:30-I hope I did!

The first chore I did today: I got the first load of ALOT of laundry started.

The first blog I visited today: Montessori Mom - because it was up on my Google Reader and the entry title was "free download"! That gets my attention everytime.

Now, I tag:
Rhonda at Alston Academy
Jenny at My Three Girls
Jessie Mae at Our Elsie Rae of Sunshine
Stacy at Ava Elizabeth and Brendan James

A Great Day-For Fathers and Kids

We went to Grandpa's house today to celebrate Father's Day with him.

Of course, we showered Daddy with gifts and love also.
Ten Kids and a Dad
Ten Kids and a Grandpa
Grandpa and Grandma lost a few trees and a few "parts" of trees this past week during a thunderstorm. They became the perfect playground for the kids this afternoon.

Tree photo credits go to beautiful Becky!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

"Any man can be a father, it takes someone special to be a daddy."

Picture of the Day

You can't convince this mother it doesn't hurt to get hit with a paintball.

Carrot Cooking Camp

We have joined the online Kids Cooking Summer Camp, and the first "camp week" subject was carrots.

Of course, the first thing a did was go to the library and find books with a carrot theme. Our two favorite books were The Enormous Carrot and The Giant Carrot. These books are loosely based on a Russian folktale. The kids had fun comparing the two books. They also noticed the similarity to the story of the Trojan Horse in the first of these books.
Doing activities with carrots fit nicely into our plant study that we did last week.Just last week, the picture above shows our carrot scraps we were hoping would grow.
Our picture today shows the growth our carrot has had. We are going to try to plant it into dirt soon. We don't really know what will happen to it-but that is what science is all about.
We ended our carrot fun with a yummy recipe for carrot cake. The kids did discover that shredding carrots can be a dangerous job!
This is Gracie, moments before she shredded a little bit of her finger along with the carrot.
Don't worry though, a band-aid took quick care of it.

A lot of cooks in the kitchen.
Yummy, yummy!

A cake and daughter as pretty as a picture!

UPDATE: This is the yummiest carrot cake that we have ever had!!

Picture of the Day

You had a great season, Mark! We are proud of you!

Author Fiesta-Where is the Green Sheep?

Kim and Luke have a new favorite book, Where is the Green Sheep?, by Mem Fox, June's Author Fiesta author.
It is a good book if it keeps a 2 year olds attention!
I made these little sheep and colored them the same colors as in the book. I then got out my favorite "school tool" my lamintator, and made then nice and sturdy. We have been matching our sheep to each other and to pictures in the book. It is especially exciting to find where we hide the "Green Sheep." The book is from the library, but this may be one that we have to purchase, or in today's economy, I will put it on our perpetual request list from the interloan library service.

Waltzing Matilda - John Williamson

Waltzing Matilda - John Williamson

These two videos are wonderful Australian folksongs, sung by John Williamson. They are enhancing our Mem Fox study. Home Among the Gum Trees. Waltzing Matilda.

John Williamson - Home Among The Gum Trees (Steve Irwin)

Author Fiesta for June- Mem Fox

Thanks to Cay for getting us started on our June-Author Fiesta.

We have begun our journey into the world of Mem Fox.

We went to the library right away and check out the seven Mem Fox books that our library had on their shelves. (I ordered alot more through the inter-loan library system-they will be arriving soon.)
I also found this tape at the library of Mem Fox reading some of her stories. This is real fun.

As we learned from Cay, Mem Fox lives in Autralia. This fact about Mem Fox gave us a wonderful opportunity to revisit our Australia Lapbook we made this past year. Cay provides a map of Autralia to add to our Author Fiesta binder, and an information sheet about Australia on the Author Fiesta site.

I think our favorite Australian activity we have done so far, that we did not do for the lapbook project, was to learn two wonderful Australian songs. Waltzing Matilda, and Give Me a Home Among the Gum Trees.

We have printed out the lyrics to both of these songs and have put them in our binders. We don't really need the lyrics printed out anywhere though, as we have all memorized both of the songs. As one of my teenagers asked, "What, are we Australian now?"

Waltzing Matilda- lyrics

Home Among the Gum Trees- lyrics

I can't wait to hear more ideas from Cay. I also have some more ideas of my own to come!

Picture of the Day

A new do.

It's all about seeds and plants this week

If you have early elementary aged children at home, this is the only book you need to do a very full study into the world of seeds and plants.
It is full of very simple experiments and activities that are very "mother" friendly. One such activity is seeing if we could grow a plant from kitchen scraps.We are beginning to see teeny, tiny progress.
We did the ever popular "sprout a bean seed in a paper towel lined glass".

We then had an interesting time taking apart our sprouted seed and checking out all the parts.
We left a couple of the seeds in the glass to continue to grow. The sprout above and the sprout below
are the same plant within two days.
We have now transplanted our beans and hope to transplant them one more time outdoors to eventually grow some of our own beans.
Gracie made this cute little seed booklet. It is from Enchanted Learning website. You will find many, many activities to add to your plant unit here.

Hanging out by the pool

Yes, it was a school day today, but it also was 90 degrees-in upstate NY-

So I called a long recess-real long.

Hey, these big kids are BIG for the pool.
We may need a bigger pool.

It's a lot of work having a day of recess.