The turkeys

are getting closer.
Maybe we should open the back door and invite them in!

Photo credit: Daddy

Hooded Merganser

Yesterday, my Mom, Dad and I took a "scenic" ride on the way home from very sad calling hours for a father of a young family who died suddenly. After this, it was nice to wind through the countryside looking for some nature.

We weren't dissappointed when we spotted something new, mixed in with a few hundred geese, were strange little ducks. I didn't have my camera, so today I returned and spotted this pair of Hooded Mergansers right away.

I have never seen any of these little ducks in my 40 some years, and my mom and dad have never seen these in their 70 or so years either.

(So Kim, this is a big deal for us-LOL)

We have been investigating this pair of ducks now, and we are hopeful that they will nest here.

I will be watching them- now I know where they are!

(Here is a photo I didn't take of a Hooded Merganser)

We had wonderful day!!

Hey, what are you doing Luke?

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

We started Saint Patrick's Day with our favorite book- Patrick:Patron Saint of Ireland- by Tomie dePaola. It just wouldn't be a Saint Patrick's Day if we didn't read this.

A few days ago we started on some crafts for the day. We made three hearts and formed them into a shamrock, and just as the legend goes, we discussed the Blessed Trinity, and wrote The Father-The Son-and The Holy Spirit on each leaf of the of the shamrock.

We arranged our shamrocks around a old Irish Blessing that I had printed. I found a lovely coloring picture of Saint Patrick here.
We watched our favorite video-many, many times, thanks to our friend Anne. I searched around and found our "shamrock name mobiles"-uh-oh- I need to make one for Kim and then I can put up the whole family.
Becky made some yummy greeen sugar cookies last night- and hopefully- there will be enough for tonight after a dinner of cornbeef and cabbage!

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY EVERYONE!!

Easter Egg Hunt-Northern New York Style

I couldn't resist sharing this photo of my niece Ava- at the annual Easter egg hunt. You've got to love the north country!

Saint Joseph-Pray for us

"Glorious St. Joseph, model of all who are devoted to labor, obtain for me the grace to work in the spirit of penance in expiation of my many sins; to work conscientiously by placing love of duty above my inclinations; to gratefully and joyously deem it an honor to employ and to develop by labor the gifts I have received from God, to work methodically, peacefully, and in moderation and patience, without ever shrinking from it through weariness or difficulty to work; above all, with purity of intention and unselfishness, having unceasingly before my eyes death and the account I have to render of time lost, talents unused, good not done, and vain complacency in success, so baneful to the work of God. All for Jesus, all for Mary, all to imitate thee, O patriarch St. Joseph! This shall be my motto for life and eternity." - Pope Pius IX

Picture from the backyard

Red-tailed hawk with a fresh kill

Picture of the Day

I think she needs a lesson about headbands!

Catholic Daughters-Award Winner

This year's theme of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas education contest was "Jesus: the light of the world".

We were very pleased to learn that Amy took two second places in this year's contest.

She won second place in the art category.

She also took home second place in the poetry category. Her poem is entitled:

The Light

I learned today in religion class that Jesus is the Light.

At first this made me happy, but then gave me a fright.

"If Jesus is so bright," I thought, "Will I be able to see,

When we meet face to face. Jesus Christ and me."

The only thing I've thought of. The brilliant plan of mine

Is to wear sunglasses to Heaven. To not be blinded by the shine.

We Have Visitors

The turkey's are in the backyard this morning, and as Mark said, "The boys are really trying to impress the girls today!"

Unusual things heard

in a homeschooling home.

"Don't you dare eat those counters until you finish your page of math!"

Excellence Award

I was so pleased to awarded this Excellence Award from Erin over at Seven Little Australians!

It is so fun to hear that people enjoy by blog! It is especially exciting to hear from good folks in Australia.

I know that I need to bestow this award on others, and I will certainly do that soon-I have so many I enjoy. But right now-life is calling-(or crying, as the case may be)

This morning, in the midst of babies with ear infections, big kids with the flu, and some kids with just plain colds, I was very pleased to receive this beautiful bouquet of flowers from Lisa, at Are We There Yet, a true "blogging buddy"!

She also sent along some delicious chocolates"A Box of Virtual Chocolate
No calories or fat, and it breaks no Lenten fast or sacrifice!"

And a little leprechaun to make the very special delivery. Thank-you, thank-you Lisa, for the treats!

Now, I would like to send this along to

Jenny at My Three Girls

Jessie at Our Elsie Rae of Sunshine

Stacy at Ava Elizabeth and Brendan James

Lori at My Little Wonders

Here we go again....

You Are Garlic

Of all the spice types, you are the most universally loved. You get long with pretty much everyone, and you leave a lasting impression. You adapt yourself well to situations. You can fit in or stand out, depending on what you're called on to do.

What Spice Are You?

A Science Day-What is Air

Today was a science day. I have a day like this once in a while, especially after writing quarterly reports for the school district. They have this pesky section in the report to write what we have done in science, even in the report for the little kids.

I have a second grade science text book, so I looked through it and came to a section on air. A total chapter on air- this, I knew I could do.

Of course, we are not a text-book type family, so I looked up "air" in the library computer system and found these two nice books. Let's Try it Out in the Air and Air is All Around You

Both of these books contained some very easy experiments that small kids can do to help them understand some of the principles of air.
We learned that air takes up space. If we blew-up a flat paperbag the air took up space inside the bag, until it was big and round.
We also learned that if you breathe in and out of a paperbag, you get really dizzy.
We made paper airplanes so that the air could help them to fly.
Can air hold something up? If you drop two pretend fruit at the same time from the same height, they hit the ground at the same time. The air doesn't seem to do anything.
But it you drop a fruit and a flat piece of paper, you can see that the air holds the paper up in the air, as it floats to the floor. After this, we crumpled the paper very tightly, and dropping the fruit and crumpled paper, we were very surprised that they hit the floor at exactly the same time, even though the paper was a lot lighter than the toy.
In our next experiment, we stuffed paper towels into the bottom of a glass, so that when we turned the glass over, they wouldn't fall out. Next we carefully put the glass into a sinkful of water upside down. The glass is full of air, so the water can't get in and make the paper towel wet. Last, we tipped the glass and let out a big bubble of air, then we could see the water getting higher into the glass. We did this until the glass was finally full of water,the air was all gone, and the paper towels were wet.
This very simple experiment also impressed the kids. A glass of water was left on the counter and was watched for about 15 minutes. Bubbles appeared on the inside wall of the glass. This showed us that there is air in water, and because of this, fish are able to breathe underwater.
So of course, we looked at our fish and then looked up information about fish and learned how fish use gills to get the air out of the water. We decided that this is great and it would be wonderful to have gills of our own.

Now, I am ready to fill in a little bit of that pesky science section in the quarterly reports.

Happy Meal--a photo essay

I thought we were done with Dr. Seuss....

but I still have a big pile of Dr. Seuss books that I am reading aloud to the kids, and today I picked up this book, My Many Colored Days.

I had never heard of it and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It certainly took me by surprise.

"My Many Colored Days was written in 1973, but Dr Seuss felt that he couldn't adequately illustrate it. Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher provided paintings which add incredible dimension to the text.
The result is a wonderful visual metaphor for presenting the gamut of emotions and a clever way of talking about feelings with one's child, whether it's a grey day and we feel down; a yellow day where we're busy as a bee, or a mixed up day." from an amazon review-Jim Carson.

It is wonderful to be surprised by something when you least expect it.

It's Dr. Seuss' Birthday!!!

We have been having a wonderful week learning about Dr. Seuss and his books! You can see what we did here, here, here, and here.

Today, we had a super celebration to conclude our unit with a birthday party for Dr. Seuss.

The kids helped in the kitchen by mixing up the cake and getting it ready for the oven.

I printed Cat in the Hat hats from here. We then colored them. Mark and Grace stuck with the traditional red and white hats, but Kim and Luke were a little more creative. (Yes, Kim is listening to an ipod while she is coloring.)

Becky decorated our cake and then we were ready to sing "Happy Birthday!" Everyone had fun blowing out the candles!

Mark and Kimberly having fun.

Luke licked his plate clean. A wonderful end to a very fun Dr. Seuss week.