Caterpillar-Update

What a difference 17 days make....

Alex the Great-day1

Alex the Great-Day 18

He's a whopper now!

An eating machine!!

It won't be long now until we have a chrysalis!

We turned this....

into this!
You dropped some husks, kids!

Alex the Great-Day 16

Author Fiesta- Around the Year

Cay has planned out this months great Author Fiesta-Tasha Tudor. We have been enjoying many of her books and illustrations.

One of the books that we have been enjoying is Around the Year. The pictures take us through the year with simplicity and beauty.

Gracie is in first grade this year, and although she can sing the months of the year, this book provided us a wonderful opportunity to carefully "say" each month and then look at its spelling and begin to learn to read the words. We also discussed how the year is a cycle that goes "around and around". I printed out the months and we "read" them and matched them to the pages of the book. Then on her own, Grace formed the months into a wonderful circle, showing the cycle Around the Year.

Author Fiesta-Tasha Tudor-Christmas Cookies

This month's author, Tasha Tudor, greatly enjoyed Christmas as seen in many of her books. The joy she found in Christmas is also very evident in the biographical video, Take Peace-A Corgi Cottage Christmas.

Her Christmas themed books always show the many old fashioned traditions that she enjoyed as a child and, later, with her own children.

One tradition that is portrayed in all her Christmas books is making Christmas cookies.

So what better activity for a hot summer day. Make Christmas cookies, listen to Christmas carols, and read aloud Tasha Tudor's Christmas books.
(The themometer is misleading, the predicted high today is only 85 degrees, this thermometer is in the direct sun-bt I liked the picture)

I decided that it would be fun for the kids to paint the cookies today. We make "paint" by using egg yolk and Wilton frosting food coloring. It makes very bright colors.


Everyone got busy stirring--my kids seem to love stirring.
Becky made the dough last night. This saved a lot of time and frustration for the morning activity. Mark and Grace cut out a few cookies, but then Becky took over and finished up the rest. We just handed out new cookies when the littles finished with the one they were working on.
"painting" busily
I guess you need to always be armed when you are making Christmas cookies in August.
Luke did a great job!

We paint them and then sprinkle with sugar.
a gingerbread man
ready for the oven
Mark make "Corgi Cottage" from Lincoln Logs for our lovely display.
Yummy! Yummy!

Amy's new skirt....

Amy's newest skirt came out very cute! I used Butterick pattern #B4687. Amy wanted the waist out of denim, and that worked very well. I made her a size 10, as her waist measurement said, but that didn't fit by nearly an inch, so using left over denim, I cut one out larger, and fitted it to her before doing any sewing.--The waist sizing doesn't seem correct on this pattern, because she is real skinny, and I thought a 10 would be too big.
It zips up the back, with no elastic. This is what my girls prefer. It is very streamline at the top. And, it spins.( Amy is still kind of sick, so this spinning was trully a sacrifice for her photo taking mother-she doesn't go around spinning much on her own anymore.)

Yummy things from the kitchen

I spent some time yesterday sewing and some time in the kitchen cooking.

Becky and I made some yummy peach jam. Hopefully, there is enough to last past the month of September, but with this crew, maybe not.

After that, with the help of Mark and Grace, we made Chocolate Zucchini Bread. Don't let the name fool you, this is not bread, it is cake, complete with chocolate chips. Gracie, who will eat nothing green, was very hesitant to try this, but after she did, she enjoyed trying to trick the other kids into guessing what the "secret ingredient" was inside this delicious, chocolately goodness!

It is always good to find new recipes for summer's bountiful harvest.

Elmer's Glue and Borax Putty

Things are beginning to look brighter on the health front-so today we had science fun.

I had done this years ago, but didn't remember how, so I headed to my new favorite science site, Steve Spangler Science and found directions for white glue putty.

Below you will find our pictorial, condensed version of the directions.

First, assemble science eager children. Or maybe they where excited because I said we were going to make an "icky, sticky, ooey, gooey, mess!"
Next we needed our ingredients:

8 oz of regular white Elmer's glue

1 tsp of Borax dissolved in about 8 oz of hot water

food coloring

Dump all the glue into a pretty big mixing bowl. Then, fill the empty glue bottles up with hot water and shake. Dump all this glue water into the bowl

Add food coloring if you want too. (This did not get on anyone's hands while playing with the putty.)

stir

(let the youngest begin this process, or everyone will cry because they did not get to go first)

Proceed stirring, being careful to follow with the proper age requirements.

Stir some more, even if it has been stirred enough, because everyone needs a chance.

Now add a tiny bit of the borax that has been disolved in hot water. I told the kids that this was the magic ingredient, and it certainly acted as if it was. Immediately we noticed wonderful changes happening to our mixure. The Steve Spangler site explains what is happening, which my older kids read about. There is a very interesting reaction taking place.

We mixed this in with a spoon, adding more and more borax and water until......

we needed to use our hands. Notice the faces on these exceptionally beautiful children. (They seem to be saying, "YUCK"!

We then drained off a little extra water that was left in the bowl.

And then, this is what we had!!!! Call it slime, or putty, or "Gak". Whatever you call it, it is real fun to get your hands into it.

As a disclaimer, I do need to be forthright, and tell everyone that I wasn't alone with the 4 littlest at this time. Amy-14 was on duty the entire time. Laura-12 and Danny-15 were also both close by for when I yelled for help. Examples of this would be ,"Clean Kim off now!" or "Don't let it get in Luke's hair", and last but not least, "Take off their shirts, I think it get stuck in clothes!"

This entertained us for over an hour. (We then put Luke and Kim down for naps, and then Mark and Grace enjoyed it for over another hour on their own.)

It can ooze like slime, or bounce like a ball, or break into two pieces like, well I don't know exactly like what, but it is very interesting.

Have fun with science!! We do!!

Caterpillar update:

Alex the Great has certainly been on a growth spurt the last few days.

You can visit him here as an egg and newborn.

Visit him at days 4 and 6.

Day-9 Alex the Great is measuring 1/2 inch.
Amazingly- 4 days later- day 13 a whopping 1 inch in length.
The pencil hardly looks big anymore.

According to this very good website-Alex the Great is halfway there to becoming an adult butterfly.

FRAGILE

I guess we don't want them to absorb any nasty odors.

Family Reunion #2

Pat and I spent a wet Saturday, alone, at my family's reunion. The kids are still sick and contagious. I am glad they weren't there, though, because they would have been soaked, and probably all gotten sicker.
With balloons blowing in the very gusty wind, we managed to light some birthday candles
and wish the patriarch of the family (my Dad) a happy 80th birthday-again.
After eating, brave nieces and nephews played in the rain, and from the looks of TJ, grew very cold.
I think Josie, looking very cool in her "shades", was trying to wish the sun to shine.