Sometimes And Maybe

Sometimes, if you listen,
then sometimes you will hear
the sometimes birds that sing their song,
sometimes, into your ear.

And maybe, if you look,
then maybe you will see
the maybe flies that float around
so very merrily.

~~by Ranguvar

The Shadow

The Shadow
by Ranguvar, formerly known as Padme


The sun is bright, the sky is light.
So why does it feel like night?
It is the middle of the day
So why does this spot look so gray?
Over there, everything is warm and jeweled;
Over here, everything is dark and cool.

I will never understand
How day and night work hand in hand.
And if, I think, I even tried
To know how they work side by side
My brain would burst!
It's so complex!
Oh, great, now I am quite perplexed!

These works that I can't figure out,
Why, they just make me want to shout!
I guess that I will end my rhyme
As the little child, confused with time.

By The Brook in the Meadow

By the brook in the meadow
There's a marble path

That leads to a gate

That never hath

Opened its bars

Of jewels and gems

To show the world

The special Cerlems.

The world of Cerlem

Is an interesting one

Where day's light is moon

And night brings the sun.

Where giants so small

Play with elves that are tall

And the roofs are the roots

And heads rest in boots.

There are clouds in the river

And grass in the sky.

The birds walk on land

And puppy dogs fly.

And if all of the tales

That I say are true,

Then the one of Cerlem

Must be, too.

~~a poem by Padme, hereafter referred to as Ranguvar

Pecos Bill

Pecos Bill

By Angel

March 2010

Bill was the youngest of twelve children. Every one of them wore a bright star on their right hand. Then Mom and Pop decided to move. On the way, Bill fell out of the wagon. By the time his family noticed he fell out, it was too dark to find him.

But a coyote found him. Her name was Grandy. She taught Bill how to howl at the moon. Soon Bill was as talented as the rest of the pack and he could talk to all animals.

One day, a cowboy came riding on his horse. The cowboy’s name was Chuck.

Chuck said, “Baby.”

Bill repeated, “Baby.”

Bill founded out Chuck was his brother. So, Bill went with him. Then he was a cowboy and his brother said, “You need a horse.” So Bill caught one, and he named it Lightning.

Then he saw a girl. He asked her to marry him. She agreed to marry him if she could ride Lightning. She did ride Lightning. She was bucked off Lightning’s back. Bill was sad. He taught the other cowboys his tricks. The End.

The Cat Book

Cats are amazing animals. Cats come in all sizes and colors, and spots and stripes. Cats are pets and cats can be wild, too. By wild, I mean leopards and cheetahs. And cats can be tame. Tame cats love to play. Some tame cats do not like to play. Some cats are lazy.
The cheetah is the fastest land animal in the world. It is God who made the cheetah. And more are made every year. How many kinds of cats are there in the world? Not two in the world, there are about thirty-two kinds of cats that live in houses.
--by Wendy

Happy Superbowl!

Halloween 2009

We had such a fun time tonight at our local Family Festival. The girls looked awful cute (below) as a Rock Star, Genie, Ballerina Pig (being a Plain Pig just wasn't cute enough for her), Jedi Knight and Jewel Thief!

With Sparky the Fire Dog at the Festival.

They love anyone dressed as a giant animal. Weird.

Diego was a bit insulted by the pink leopard cami and pink tutu, but he knows he looks cute.

Little Beau, the Ladybug


OK this is not from Halloween. Padme took this picture of Mema and Poppie with the new camera they bought her for her birthday. :)

Easter Pageant

End of Semester for Co-op!

Co-op is over until September! Woo and Woo and Woo and Hooooo!!! We LOVE our co-op and have so many sweet friends there, but we will enjoy having our Fridays off for a few months! We will continue doing our Home-Schoolwork, but our co-op classes are finished until fall!!

Here are a few of the projects the girls made this semester:

From Mad About Mosaics:



From Early Explorers - Christopher Columbus painting and project:

Also from Early Explorers, Cibola - the Lost City of Gold:
From Modern Art Masterpieces:


From Adventures Down Under, echidnas, didgeridoo and boomerang
I will post separately some videos of the End of Semester Program.

What a great semester we had! We're glad for the break!

Christmas Carols

Dora's versions:

"Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright.
Round your vermin, mother and child.
Holy infany, tender and mild.
Sleep in heavenly peace. Sleep in heavenly peace."

"O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphal..."

(OK, triumphal could be a word. But it's not.)

Man, I love this kid!

Gingerbread Party!

We recently attended one of our favorite Christmas traditions, our dear friends' annual Gingerbread Party! We are so grateful to our sweet friends for hosting about 100 people every year for a big Gingerbread House competition.

The kids each make their own Gingerbread houses from graham crackers and icing. Each family brings a bag or two of candy, and helps clean up the ensuing mess. We have so much fun watching the kids (teenagers included) use their creativity.

Below are pictures of our houses. The pictures were taken on my cell phone, thus the poor quality.

Erin really loves candy. She took this home with her, she didn't actually eat it.

Angel ate hers, though:

Those of you who know her aren't at all surprised.

Killer Wheels

Pictionary. It seems like a fairly simple game. You read the card, pick something to draw, and your team guesses what you drew. Easy, right? Not so at our house tonight. Our new daughters have little to no exposure to family games, or family time at all, for that matter. There is definitely a learning curve involved!



To be fair, it's often difficult to tell what the younger kids are drawing. That's why we make sure an adult is on each team, to help with the guessing when the drawings are difficult to decipher. And, sometimes, those who haven't yet developed good reading skills need help reading the card. Fine. No big deal.



So we played Pictionary tonight. Padme went first - she drew a globe and Greenland. No problem. Then Lil Yoda went - she drew a fairly decent looking washing machine, but ran out of time so we never guessed it.



On Angel's turn, she first asked if she could just draw the design that was on the back of the card. At that point I told Baloo, "I thought you guys explained this game to the new kids!" He returned, "We thought we did!"



We explained that, no, she must read the card, then draw one of the objects listed on the card. She drew a lovely sailboat, all the while saying, "It's an object! It's an object!" We guessed it and applauded her. Then, she returned her card to Daddy, who pointed out that sailboat was not, in fact, on her card and she couldn't just randomly pick something to draw. Pretty funny, but probably a common mistake.



When Dora's turn came up, she asked Baloo to help her read the card. She decided what to draw and began. She drew a circle, then scribbled all around it and over it. "I'm done!" she announced, then turned around, expecting us to know immediately what she had drawn. We had no clue. We convinced her to draw it a different way. This time, she drew a circle, and cut it into pie slices. Again, the scribble all around it. We gave up. She wouldn't let us give up, and kept scribbling around it. Finally, she looked at us like we were idiots and said, "Killer Wheel! See the wheel and the fire all around it?"



What?



Baloo, at this point, was rofl, and informed us that the card actually read, "Killer Whale."

Padme's First French Braid

I was again reminded that older children really are wonderful to have around.  With three new long-haired beauties arriving in our home, I quickly recruited Padme to help me with hair-fixing!  With her help, we were able to make it to church on time, complete with cute pig-tails and braids!

Last week I taught Padme to french braid.  French braiding is not a difficult concept, but requires quite a bit of dexterity.  Your fingers must be strong, and must be able to do different things all at once.   Here are some pictures of her first french braid.  I think she did a fabulous job!  She's going to be such a great Mommy someday!

Galileo

We recently finished reading Along Came Galileo by Jeanne Bendick, the same author who wrote Archimedes and the Door of Science. Both are excellent, well-written books designed to introduce children to these men's lives and ideas.

The girls also talked about Galileo in their science class at our co-op. Below are pictures of the projects they completed. Some of the gumdrops didn't survive the journey home, but you get the picture. ;-)

Preventative Measures

Each week, the children have zones of the house for which they are responsible. This week, Padme's zone is the kitchen. This is generally considered the most difficult zone, so Padme instituted some preventative measures. When we entered the kitchen this morning, we were met with this sign:

Bone Scones

Yesterday the girls & I made Crispy Bone Scones from a recipe Lil Yoda got off of the Webkinz website. Turns out they were just bone-shaped shortbread cookies, but they were actually good. We had a lot of fun, anyway!

It's pretty difficult to shape a cookie into a bone. Just in case you ever need to know.

The Pigzal

There once was a Pigzal,
part pig and part weasal.
He slept all day
and his name was Diesel.

He had a sniff,
he had to blow.
He blew so hard,
he blew up snow.

The snow was pink,
and his hair was, too.
And, if you ask me,
he smelt like goo.

The goo was green
and so was the cat.
And, I'm sorry to say,
she was stuck to his back.

----by Padme

Clay Christmas Ornaments

I recently received the below recipe for Clay Christmas Ornaments from a friend in our homeschool group, and decided we would make them today. Here is the conversation that followed:

ME: Guess what, girls! We are going to use the oven to make some special Christmas decorations today!

LIL YODA: Ooh! Mommy! We should make the Decoration of Independence!

...We haven't actually reached that point in history, we have only gotten as far as Captain John Smith, so I let it slide. She must have learned the term from watching National Treasure the other night. ;)

We had a lot of fun making these ornaments. This recipe made about 10 ornaments. I must warn you that this is a very long, all day sort of project. After prepping the "batter" we spent about 1 1/2 hours shaping the ornaments, then baked them, cooled them, and spent another hour, at least, painting them. Then they had to dry. Then the varnish and more drying time. Then we flipped them, varnished the back, and waited again. We started about 10 this morning and finished about 6 this evening. (OK we played a lot in between but you get the picture! The point is that this project took over my kitchen for the whole day - just thought I'd warn you.) The results were definitely worth it though!

Here's the recipe, from http://www.teachartathome.com/ :

Christmas Clay Ornaments

Supplies:

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

water

tempera paints, various colors

paintbrush

clear nail polish, polyurethane or liquid floorwax for glazing

yarn or ribbon

1. Mix together the flour, salt and enough water to make a smooth, soft dough that is not sticky. (If it is sticky, add a little bit more flour).

2. You can either add tempera paints to the clay to create various colors or wait until after the ornaments are hard to paint them. (Creating colored clay is better for younger children who can't paint well).

3. Be sure to create a hole as your last step using a small paintbrush handle.

4. Bake ornaments on a baking sheet that has been dusted with flour for 30 minutes at 300 degrees, or until hard but not heavily browned.

5. If you used white dough only, paint with tempera paints when cooled.

6. When the paint is dry, brush with one of the following glazing mediums to make it shiny: clear nail polish, polyurethane varnish or liquid floor wax. (This step works well wiht the colored dough, but it may cause paints to run if painted after baked. That is only the case, however, if the glazing medium is put on too heavily or brushed a lot). Allow to dry thoroughly. Turn over and glaze the back too. Allow to dry.

7. String with a loop of yarn or ribbon for hanging.

The Three Detectives

Three Little Detectives. Left to right: Detective F-Meier (Lil Yoda), Detective E-Meier (Padme) and Detective S-Meier (KMe).

Never leave children unsupervised around makeup.

Here's the video introduction:

Where do they come up with this stuff?