Into the sunshine

There is not a speck of green anywhere to be found, but the sky was blue, the sun was shining and the children were happy as we took a walk along the Erie Canal path.

Our section of the Erie Canal is 1 minute drive time from our house and a perfect spot to get out and enjoy the sunshine. Mark always seems to catch a glimpse of wildlife on our treks. Today he spotter a kingfisher, a weasel and this beautiful cedar waxwing.

Another wonderful hint of the springtime to come.... hopefully the next trip down the canal we will see something GREEN!!

A Springtime Garland

The last two garlands I made were crocheted, so I had no help from the kids, but this springtime garland is all paper and all kid!! You can see my February garland here, and the March garland here.

But this garland came out sooooo cute, that even though it was made by the 9 and under crowd, I just love it!!

We used scrapbook cardstock and paper for this craft.

I made a pattern of a bunnies head out of a cereal box and Mark and Grace traced the pattern onto spring colored cardstock and then cut them out. We then cut triangles, about the same size at the bunny, out of patterned scrapbook paper.

Simply glue wiggle eyes onto the bunnies. Then glue a triangle nose onto the bunnies. This job fell to Kim and Luke. Gracie drew on the whiskers and mouths. So simple but so cute.

I then used a needle and cotton yarn to "sew" the triangles and bunnies together.

Hang and enjoy

I saw this idea somewhere out there in the world wide web. I would like to give credit to the original crafter, so if you have seen this please leave a comment so I can give credit where credit is due.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday, Amy!!

My newest favorite "school tool"

The Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center It comes with ready made activity cards and there are many other printables available at the Crayola website. But the best thing about it is the fact that any 8x11 size paper fits into the board. No more page protectors for us. I've used workbook pages and pages that I have printed out in the board. It works great for the bigger kids also. There are fine tip Expo markers out there now a days, so the big kids can practice spelling words and work on science worksheets and then I save them for later use. I am so glad I bought 2 boards for my 2 kindergarteners.

My favorite pattern ever....

While making our Saint Patrick's Day shirts I fell in love with the pattern. Simplicity #3852 I couldn't resist this cute fabrics featuring Luke's favorite characters, Lightning McQueen and Thomas the Tank Engine. Next up in the sewing que: a play dress for Gracie.

Happy 17th Birthday, Amy!!

Happy Birthday, Amy!!! We love you and are so proud of the beautiful young lady you have become!!

Gorgeous Sundays--Make My Monday

It was perfect springtime weather on this glorious Sunday.

On the drive to Grandma and Grandpa's house, we had the luck of spotting a pair of red-tailed hawks on their nest. They took turns flying back and forth to the nest....they must have been feeding new babies. Grandma has some blooms in the flower garden which the bees found very yummy.

A female downy woodpecker enjoying some dinner.

Luke, Dale and Aunt Pam.

The temperature reached 50 degrees today---time for the first campfire of the season.

We were happy to see Aunt Pam, Uncle Brian and Lindsay and Dale.

Dale gave Luke some instruction on how to feed a fire.

Mark's first drive of the season.

Let the fun begin.....Grandma is here!!

Make sure to notice Grandma roasting a pretend marshmallow. Kimmy tossing on the last stick of the evening.

What a fun family Sunday we enjoyed....we are truly blessed!!

Macro Monday

Spring has finally sprung, and it looks like it is going to hang around for a while.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, visit Soulemama to leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Yarn Along....

From the founder of Yarn Along~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? As you can see, it is seed, plants, and tree week here at the homeschool. These books are what are taking up most of my time this week---reading the books, with many hands-on activities to following our reading sessions. I have begun Amon's Adventure: A Family Story for Easter as a read aloud. During Advent we read Bartholomew's Passage. Amon's Adventure takes place thirty years after Bartholomew's Passage during the days leading up to the first Easter.

I have 12 rows of garter stitch left on the basketweave baby blanket. This is a good thing because the baby shower is on Saturday. I love how it turned out!! Once this blanket is off the needles I will be starting something new to show you next week.

SHHHHHH!!!!

The bluebirds are checking out our birdhouse!!

A Visual for the Earth's spinning core

We learned in science today about the composition of the earth. We learned that the inner core is a solid sphere of extremely hot iron. The outercore is liquid iron, and very hot as well. From Mark's science book, Behold and See 5: "The fact that the outer core is liquid means it can rotate a bit more slowly that the inner, solid core, and a bit faster than the crust." We then tried this experiment. Get a raw egg and spin it. Stop it, and then let it go again. If you do this, it will start to spin again, because the yolk is still spinning even though you stopped the egg shell from spinning. The yolk spins faster that the egg shell, just the way the Earth's core spins faster than the Earth's crust."

Macro Monday--Trying to hold on to spring

Last week these sprouting tulips were promising us the coming of spring.....

this week, they are just trying to hang on in the snow and cold temperatures.

WE NEED SPRING!!!

2011 Oneida Lake Ice Break-up

Today's field trip was to visit the great ice break-up at Sylvan beach....huge mounds of giant ice slaps are piling into snow castles, on this east end of Oneida Lake. There is still so much ice on the lake, the piles are sure to grow, especially with the strong winds blowing onto shore today....