Walking Like Elephants... a blog of children

Becoming a man

2008-10-07T08:30:00.001-07:00

Becoming a man is hard work.

Lesson #1: Make sure you drink things that have tons of ingredients you can't pronounce, and don't even notice.

Lesson #2: Headphones. Apparently they are an important ingredient. As all three of my men, or men-in-training all have them on as much as possible.

Lesson #3: Act like other men or men-in-training.

Even if it means washing windows.

Lesson #4: Learn to tie a Double Windsor.

Lesson #5: Deer in headlights look when standing next to a girl for photo. This apparently is a very important part of becoming a man.

Lesson #6: When girls dance (and they do)...

be as FAR away as you can be.

Some recent great pics of my kids

2008-09-26T21:08:00.001-07:00

2008-09-26T20:45:00.000-07:00

And now, I have to do a little update on Logan. He really has gotten left behind lately as the other two go on to greater heights of fun learning experiences.

Lately, Logan has taken to some "guys" as he calls them. They are Power Rangers (remember those?), and they were a gift from a long ago neighbors yardsale. My plan was to toss them in the Goodwill bag, but he found them and has carried them around ever since. He talks to his 'guys'. His 'guys' fight. His 'guys' talk and play. His 'guys' sleep with him. And if they are in sight, a full on breakdown happens until his 'guys' are in his hands, curled up with him in his bed. He asks for his 'guys' when he can not find them and we have to help him find them again. He really likes to carry all three.... but he only has two hands, so occasionally, he will volunteer me to be his 'guy holder'.

Another favorite is airplanes. He has two airplane figurines. I think they are both jet fighters. Those bash together mid flight and come crashing to the ground at least once a day with a huge "shooo, shooo, boom!" He is pretty much the cutest thing ever. He still loves going Bye Bye, he still loves seeing airplanes in the air and yelling and signing... but signing is quickly being paired with talking. "More Please" is a favorite phrase, as is "more juice", and "Please mine". They are, for now, paired with the signs, but I can see the day where he is clear enough that he doesn't need the signs and another one of my babies stops being a baby.

He was 20 mos a couple days ago.

our timelines

2008-09-26T18:49:00.000-07:00

In school, the kids are learning about history. We are starting at the beginning with the ancients and moving forward until now over the next 4 years. I have no idea if we will homeschool for that long... but it stands to reason that the study of history should start at the beginning no matter whether you will get to the present or not. But first, considering even Alex had not had history before, we had to start with exactly what history was. So we started with our own history. I had the kids sit down with sheets of paper and put a line in the center of them with receipt tape. Then I asked them to tell me something they remembered... as far back as they could think of. Alex remembered Cyan being born. Cyan remembered Baby Cake. We started there and moved forward until now, writing things down, printing/copying pictures of things, looking things up for specific dates. When that was done, we talked about before they could remember and how we knew those dates. Some of them, I saw the pictures and could tell by what season it was, or what outfit they were in what time in their lives it had to have been. Some of them were in the baby books because not even I remembered them. We wrote all those down as well. Then I explained that that is the way people study history.

These are the timelines they made. Click on the picture for a bigger version. They are pretty sweet... I love how both of them remember the 'dumb bunny', which will forever be named that, because the night before we were to release her, she jumped into the top of her box and broke her own neck.

I am pretty sure making this timeline made it into their memories. :)

2008-09-19T21:30:00.000-07:00

Making fresh apple cider with grandpa Randy and Margret... and mom of course.

Look who lives in our tree!

2008-09-13T21:32:00.000-07:00

These little guys live in the tree down the block about 100 ft from our house. There are two. You can see one of them's ear is covering the others nose in this picture here. Isn't that cute?

Walking bunnies, shucking peas:

2008-07-26T09:36:00.001-07:00

Just a quite update on us. We are all doing really well. Alex is off for the yearly 6wks with his dad in FL and the kids here miss him a lot. Cyan has been taking Domino for a walk every couple days. She seems to love it, although she wanders around and eats dandilions, which we are more than fine with. ;) We have plenty.

Cyan and the neighbor girl were shucking peas for me last week... they were a HUGE help and I got to put these fresh organic peas into our fried rice that night. :)

Logan is a WHRILWIND of baby right now. Into absolutely everything and everywhere and screeching all the time. Full blown toddler mode. It is crazy.

Hmm... I wonder who did it. Looking for clues:

Funny, I think this is the culprit:

And in other news...

Lego City

2008-06-10T18:16:00.001-07:00

The big kids built this lego city. It is a city from another planet. Something with Jedi.

Here you can see a junk yard owner bargining with the pilot that needs the new to him item. The pilot is getting heated.

Life going on per normal outside the Jedi mine.

Where the workers are mining... something. Jewels of some sort. In the background you can see Darth Vader doing... something.

Obi Wan in his new profession as a truck driver.

This must be the Empire's jail. They left some one in here a bit too long.

Target practice. Every Jedi must compete with driods during training. Seems only fitting the would train with them too.

Having Boys...

2008-05-11T19:25:00.000-07:00

The front of my Mother's Day card from Alex this year. Beautiful isn't it?

The inside of my Mother's Day card this year. Yes, it says, if you die, we will miss you. I laughed. Gotta love having boys.

The other day I came home to this on our white board.

Having boys is an every day adventure. God, I love them.

What the kids are up to...

2008-05-04T09:55:00.000-07:00

Observing nature (4/12) Nesting little bird:

Nesting chickadee (5/1):

Getting over chicken pox (4/19).

Learning to respect other peoples dogs (yes, it is healing very well) (4/24).

Perfecting new found tallents (4/11), survival skills via Boyscouts:

Starting to really read. (5/1)

Learning to use the hose. (5/4)

And of course, life is not complete, without sound effects (4/16).

Quill Writing and homemade ink

2008-03-29T14:46:00.000-07:00

Alex and grandma Shari made ink while she was here. Alex has been saving it in a little bottle in his room, and this last week, we made him a quill out of a peahen feather we found at the farm the day before Easter. He has gotten really creative with it and has even started making up some of his own poetry... it is wonderful!

Alex's Pyramid

2008-03-22T14:18:00.000-07:00

This was a project he did for school. A paper mache pyramid, complete with one that isn't done (to show the structure) and covered in sand. It turned out really cool! Next time he wants to put little Egyptian men working around it, or something like that. I am keeping an eye out for Egyptian figurines for next time. :) We are working on the Acients next year, so we will have plenty of Egypt study time.

A falcon IN OUR YARD!

2008-03-20T10:15:00.001-07:00

This was so cool! We saw a falcon in our yard today... just sitting on the fence. When they were younger, I would be worried for the chickens, but they are nearly as big as the falcon is now. He didn't look at them twice. I thought it was a hawk, but when we looked it up, it was this:

We didn't get a picture of the one in the yard. When I opened the door to get a picture, it flew away, but the picture above was the coloring it had... I love raptors. The kids are developing my passion for them as well. They are lovely creatures.

Bird Feeders...

2008-03-19T18:02:00.000-07:00

Bird Feeders

A post from my other blog, talking about the birdfeeder... complete with pictures. :)

Lattin's Country Cider Mill

2008-03-15T15:03:00.000-07:00

There were new babies at the Cider Mill this morning... this baby was born about 6 am today.

This sweet little pig really liked running around with Cyan. Just like a puppy!

It chased her around the cage at least a few times.

Alex really wanted me to take a picture of this turkey. "He was huge and looked cool."

Feeding the goats.

Petting the baby lambs.

Playing on the little rides...

All in all, a great morning. :)

Sewing Lessons

2008-03-13T13:09:00.000-07:00

Cyan's fourth weekly sewing lesson. She is working on making stitches larger or smaller. She is not working with thread quite yet, but in the next few weeks we will be making a pillow for her, and a catnip toy for Taio. Cyan is excited to get on with it...

"HEY! I can help!"

"Ok fine. I'll just play with lace."

PS Thanks so much for the bag of lace Allison. It has been a huge hit. ;)

Huston, we have a missing tooth

2008-02-25T09:37:00.001-08:00

Isn't she so cute in that snaggletoothed first grade way????

A week later

2008-01-31T18:48:00.000-08:00

Our little visitor's time here is done. She got to do tons of things with us. We got to fill her journal with a lot of our own activities. :)

Like eating dinner with Taio, the 20# cat.

Taking a front row seat in the car wash.

Going to Alex's 6th grade musical program.

And to the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge with Cyan and a little homeschool friend.

He went everywhere with us. He even got checked out at the vet's when Taio went to get his hair loss assessed (he is allergic to flees in his old age).

All that traveling tuckered SnowSweet right out. Time to snuggle up with Cyan and take a well diserved nap.

The vet said that all the travel had treated her well and she was in tip top shape for her next visit, to Faith, in WI. She heads out tomorrow morning for her next adventure.

Logan's first birthday!!

2008-01-26T15:59:00.000-08:00

My sweet baby is one! Can you believe it?

He went from this (above) to this (below):

To this, in what seems like no time. It is amazing how fast these little ones grow. He is walking a mile a minute, starting to talk, starting to do toddler things, like go backwards off the couch and throw a fit over not getting the right color marker, and pointing at kitties everywhere saying "Ki-t-ee!"

He loved his birthday cake. :) And I love the pictures of the kids with cake all over their overjoyed faces. It's like they are saying "Look what I got!!"

He sure is a blessing. (And a cutie!)

2008-01-23T12:54:00.000-08:00

We have a visiter today. :)

Do you know the story Flat Albert? Same idea... some kids from a class in GA picked a doggy that travels around the country and then on April 30th this year, he will go back to their class and they will map where he has been. Grandma Rose sent him to us from her school she works at in CA where he had fun with a classroom of kids and then went home with her to eat dinner with her cats and dog. His little journal is filling up with interesting stories from around the country already!

Today we took him to the car wash, and he has eaten with our poor mangy cat, and then this afternoon he is going to the vet with us, and perhaps to the goose farm. He will get his ton of experiences from this part of the world (although I doubt it is a good representation of what to do here, but Don told Cyan yesterday that he was NOT taking that stuffed dog to the space needle. LMAO!)

Pictures to come later. :)

Gotta brag...

2008-01-03T15:46:00.000-08:00

I have to brag on Alex a little bit. Because he is in a stage of life that can be SO frusterating for a parent... but man. The kid is just great. After this phase of pushing boundries, and testing patience, and telling everyone and everything they are wrong, he is going to become one of the most amazing men that I know.

Today, he and I built a bird feeder together. It wasn't an easy one either. It was one in which we used plexi glass, and plywood that really wanted to split whenever we put a screw or nail in it. lol... We were making one that fits in front of the window so we can observe the birds more closely as they eat. He worked the whole time, with complaint and frusteration every time I needed something done more than once. lol... but he did an amazing job at each task I asked him too, and worked too hard at some (enough that I asked him to hold something up and he stood there long after I had moved on, just because I didn't say he was done)... it was just neat, to once again, see the man in the son I am raising. The hard worker, the good father, the amazing craftsman... he will be a handy one to have around some day. He learns fast and he works hard.

Right now he is sleeping off the jet lag from the last week in Florida... and I love him even more for it. :)

Picture link!

Catching up...

2007-12-24T10:59:00.001-08:00

When it is holiday season around here, we are almost too busy to document what we have done. Almost... because of course, I still take pictures. ;)

Alex had Crazy Hair Day the last Friday he was in school before break. It is now normal, after trying a "cool do" for a week... Fun stuff...

Last week we were talking about eagles and we decided to have an eagle tea party. So we made 'bear tea' (which is Cold Care Tea and honey), we popped the strawberry popcorn we got from our day at the farm (before the flood) and we made eagle nests. Which are pretzel sticks with cranberries, nuts, and covered in melted chocolate with two marshmallows for 'eggs'. We read a book about eagles and we watched "Living Planet - Champions of the skies" which is amazing! It was such a wonderful evening.

"Crazy kids!"

Logan watching the snow fall outside...

'Not so sure about the guy in the suit mom.'

Sweet Cyan, with Santa from the PD Christmas Party.

Logan Update

2007-12-14T09:58:00.001-08:00

Logans first Christmas time is going well. He is into EVERYTHING. He took 10 steps the other day and has done it a couple times since, but crawling is still his favorite mode of transport.

He has been named the "king of sound effects". He makes all sorts of noises. He has a couple of Cheveron Cars that he loves, and one of them is a police car. So we pushed it around the floor, making a siren noise. And he would take it, and push it around and make the same siren noise. lol... it was so cute! But the impressive part was, when I handed him the farmers truck he stopped making the siren noise and started going "brrrrrrrrm... brrrrrrrrm." Now before you get all excited like we did and think he is a genius, he started making the siren noise with the truck just minutes later... but it was pretty damned cool, none the less.

This is about as long as he kept that hat on. He looked SO cute though! Cyan tried a few more times to keep it on his head, but to no avail. He wouldn't keep it on to save his life.

He sure is keeping me on my toes. In fact, I am going out this moment to grab magnetic locks for some of our cuboard doors because he broke a large pyrex dish yesterday by pulling it down and banging it into another one. Yikes... I will have a toddler soon.

Update...

2007-11-26T21:40:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't updated this in a long time.

Logan is 10 months now. He is walking, but he hasn't taken any more steps than he did last month. 2 steps here, 3 steps there. No confidence at all.

And I am grateful.

He is 24lbs still. Still my lightest baby at 10 months. Wears 24 month clothes (and 2T for length, but swims in them for width) and pops the crotch on the one pieces. I am drafting him a pattern for pants this weekend, and my friend and I are going to make some. Another long skinny boy to add to the ranks of this house. Man... I hope he is a bit thicker than Alex...

He has 6 teeth. He eats absolutly everything that isn't nailed down, and he has been getting really upset about having different meals than us, so he is now eating 'real people food' 90% of the time... "none of that mush for me please" he says.

He signs. He signs all the time. Gestures with his hands. About half the time I know what he is saying. Well, maybe not quite that much. But he does sign when he is eating. "more", "up", "down", "all done", and "nurse" are all signs he uses very consistantly.

He still wakes at least 3 times a night. He still sleeps on me.

He still yells at me when we stay home too long, and is needy.

He is still the smiliest baby anyone outside of our house ever has met.

He had his first stranger anxiety the other day when my friend Sarah climbed into the backseat of my car with him and he couldn't see me. That was NOT ok. When I pulled him out of his seat and had him in the front seat with me (we were sitting talking in the car while it rained outside) he was ok, and even smiled at her. But he was not ok with not seeing me when she was sitting there.

He asked me to read to him for the first time yesterday too. He brought me a book (pet the animals). But we had already read that one that day, so I picked another one, and he kept petting the pages like the other book. So of course, I melted and read him the pet the animals book again. He loves books. When Cyan and I are reading he will sit next to us on the couch with his own book... and only occasionally jump over me to get to the book we are reading. Very cute!

He adores his big brother. He loves Cyan too, but Alex is something special... to be treasured. Alex wakes up with him in the morning (my morning boys) and will take him from my room and play with him while I drag my tired sorry butt out of bed. If Alex doesn't come get him, Logan will throw himself over me and slide down to the ground, open the bedroom door and crawl over to Alex's room and push the door open, or stand there (if it is latched shut) and pound on it until Alex comes and gets him. Alex gets greated with squeals of delight and honestly, I think he loves it as much as I love the half hour that it gives me to wake up each morning. Alex is such a love.

In other kid news. Cyan is doing beautifully with homeschooling. And I am crafting again. So exciting!

Anyhoo... that is it on our front.

Latest pictures of the kids...

2007-11-02T23:18:00.000-07:00

Alex and Logan, Halloween 2007

Cyan, as the cutest good witch this side of Oz.

Sweet big sister...

This one is just better in color... eating the eyeball... Crazy boy.

Logan, the day he turned 9 mos old. And also the day he took his first step!

Logan Took STEPS!

2007-10-30T17:19:00.000-07:00

So our baby is offically walking. He took three steps yesterday, and one the day before. He is standing all the time. Someone offered to give us one of those walker pusher things... and I promptly said NO. lol... he is going to walk plenty soon. When Cyan got one of those things (she still wasn't fully walking at a year) she was walking within four days. I don't need my just turned 9 mos old baby walking in four days. I am happy with where he is... no faster please... but man... it is exciting. :D

In other news, Alex has been making comics. Some are really great! He is getting better and drawing while he is doing this too, although he mainly sticks to stick figures... but the expressions that he gives them remind me of Happy Noodle Boy. They make me laugh... none have though, more than this one:

A boy and his world... a story of dinner.

Fun with Homeschooling in Nature

2007-10-21T22:01:00.000-07:00

Lately we have been doing lots of nature science during our homeschool lessons. Above is Cyan finding an ant colony under our black oak tree in the back yard.

We have been keeping an Ecojournal in her Science Notebook of our findings in nature in our back yard this season. We even made a map of the yard with all the important things marked... like where all the berries are and of course, the chicken coop. lol... kids. They are a lot of fun with stuff like this.

This branch is our fall leaf experiment. We numbered 10 leaves with a sharpie and have been following the progression of the changing of colors and falling of leaves on a chart every two days for the last week. We had a big windstorm last week that took out half our leaves, (including #6, that is in the picture below)... and Cyan got to notice how many leaves fell off that branch because of the experiment and record it in her EcoJournal. It was pretty neat. :)

Here is the whole tree last week. It doesn't look like this anymore. I will have to get a new picture to add here. It is mostly red and brown now. It has been really amazing to so closely observe this change this year. We picked the perfect time. We have seen it up close and personal... the change from summer to winter.

As a family, we have been working on tree recognition. I think Alex is the most into it of all of us. My kids (both of them) are very interested in identifying all the trees around us right now. We got both books Fun with Nature and More Fun with Nature and they take those with us where we go. Alex has even taken to taking a leaf or a seed with him to school and looking in the computer lab to find out what it is after school and walking home. Like I said, they are REALLY into it. Another GREAT book that we found was "Crinkleroots Guide to Knowing the Trees"... wonderful book that my kids want to hear right now over and over again.

Watching Autumn happen through the eyes of my children has been a beautiful experience... and has been a heck of a lot of fun!

For a whole rundown on our homeschool days including more resources, look at my Live Journal link in the sidebar.

Having a big sister...

2007-10-09T12:31:00.000-07:00

Having a big sister is fun... :)

Logan is 8 mos old!!

2007-10-03T22:58:00.000-07:00

I know, I know... he has been for a week now... but darn. Things just get away from me right now. Currently, the little man has 4 almost 6 teeth (he gets 2 to 4 at a time... the poor thing), he is eating anything that isn't nailed down, and is starting to stand, and cruising all over everything pulling just about anything down he possibly can. He looks very much like this:

He got hold of a basket of socks this morning... and pulled them all out, one by one, to throw on the floor. At one point he had two socks in his mouth as he continued his search through the basket. It was adorable... and not a little bit messy.

He is having a hard time sleeping right now. Which is genuinely wearing on my nerves. But he is so lovable that it is hard to even be mad at him at 4 in the morning on the 7 time he has woken up. Although not impossible. lol... He is a constant joy. Our lovable boy. The most social of our small clan, he will smile at anyone, and loves to be out of the house much more than being at home.

He just grew into 12-18 month clothes (80cm), and at his last check up (last week) he was 22 lbs and 27inches. Tall and sturdy boy. He got his first shot at that appointment to... and due to some serious mommy magic (ala: me) he didn't even cry... what a trooper!

He recently discovered that he can make the cat make noise.

The cat loves this new discovery.

Logan spent a long while next to the couch while Taio was sleeping on it, touching, poking, pulling on ears, etc, chanting "che-che-che-che!". Every time Taio would put his ears back, or meow, I would take Logan's hand, put it down on the couch again and say "Kitty says 'NO'."

Of course, Logan thought this was a great game, so he kept picking up his hand and putting it back on the cat... eventually Taio had had enough of this play (after Logan grabbed his foot, Taio hates having his feet messed with), and my completely sweet, docile cat lifted his paw and held it threateningly in the air above the baby. The baby just looked at the paw and kept on poking him. To which I stepped in and started my mantra again of "Kitty says 'no'."...

So there we are... Logan is squealing, and patting and poking the poor cat, I am grabbing his hand each time I see that Taio has almost had too much and is about to swat the little monster, and Taio, who is being as patient as a cat could possibly ever be, holding his paw suspended over Logan's head, hoping that the kid gets the hint. Eventually, Taio swatted Logan on top of his head with a "thwap!"... who sat down hard on the ground, and looked at the cat... completely undaunted, and stood up to start the fun game again.

And the sweet, gentle, loving cat, got up and left the room.

My sweet boy. How I adore thee...

Our First Eggs!!

2007-10-03T22:36:00.001-07:00

I found it (Cyan) in the back of the chicken coop!

Here is Rose... we think she laid the first egg...

We know it wasn't this one (Violet) becuase she lays blue eggs... we still haven't gotten one of those.

Homeschool days

2007-10-03T22:34:00.001-07:00

Wow have we been busy. Cyan and I are working hard on our homeschooling... Logan is working hard on walking... Alex just earned all of his swim signoffs for BoyScouts in one day and is going for his badge next month... the week after he offically moves into the BoyScouts from the CubScouts.

I guess you could say we are all doing well. :) Tired but good.

We have some updates to do, so stay tuned.

To my guiding star

2007-09-17T14:28:00.000-07:00

Thank you for putting this boy in my life.

I have loved watching him grow.

There has been so much in his life.

Some good and some not so much.

But we are sticking it through where many others would have made another choice.

I adore him.I laugh with him.

I am learning to understand him and why he was put here with me.

I only hope I can do the gift justice that he has given me.

For he is truly a gift, from my guiding star.

This songs for you, Alex.

The week you start 6th grade.

Boys... Oh Boy...

2007-09-07T07:33:00.000-07:00

Logan was up at 2am, at 4:30am, and then for good at 6:20am.

And of course, I am more tired this morning than I was yesterday, and Logan is yelling at the top of his tiny voice "MAMA! MAMAMAMAMAMA! MAMA!"

You all know Anne Of Green Gables right? Well in Anne of Avonlea she and Marilla adopt twins... Davey in that book IS my son. Asking questions like "How hot is it in hell? I wanna know." and "If we could make trees grow gum drops, would that be cool?" and "If Star Trek was real, could I have a holo-deck?" and "When do I get a cell phone? Becuase EVERYONE in my class has one. I don't want to be weird, I don't want to be the kid that is left out... I wanna cell phone mama. Why can't I have one?"

Yep... ALL of these were yesterday after 6pm. *pulling hair out*

Oh and yesterday morning.... good lord. So I am in the shower... and Alex comes in and asks me what he has to do for school. I say

"Pack a lunch, and get your socks paired."

"What do I put in my lunch?"

"Why don't you grab one of each of the sandwiches out of the freezer (I froze some "Uncrustable" style sandwiches for their lunches last week)and see if the meat ones are better when they are really cold." We had had an issue with our lunches getting warm and the ham and cheese sandwiches were really nasty all warm. So this isn't a new thing, we had been experimenting with this for a week.

"What?"

"Why don't you grab one of each sandwich. One PB&J and one Ham and Cheese one. And take both... then you have the PB&J if the Ham and Cheese still doesn't work out."

"What do you want me to do with it?"

Pause... really, he can't be asking me this."Wear it on your head like a Taira."

"WHAT?!?"

"The sandwiches Alex... you eat them."

"Ok"

So I get out of the shower, and Alex says "They wern't good."

"What? When did you have a cold one?"

"Just now." Holding up a frozen solid Ham and Cheese sandwich.

"Like you just got them out of the freezer and tried to eat one?"

"Well yeah! You told me too!"

"Oh good god."

A few mintues previous, Don was sitting in the living room getting Logan dressed (who came in the shower with me and so at this same time I am getting dressed in the bedroom) and Alex makes this horrible face while he is eating. Don says "What's up?" and Alex says "Cold bread... Yuck!"... Don thought he let his toast that went with his breakfast eggs get cold, and thought weird, but I guess some people don't like cold toast... whatever. On no... little did he know my son was trying to eat a completely frozen ham sandwich!

Boys... Oh goodness.

Cyan's horseback riding lessons

2007-09-01T12:11:00.001-07:00

She loves this so much! She would go every day if she could. She gets to do the entire thing... from cleaning to brushing, to giving treats... this time we had to cut it a bit short so Don could get to work, but she still is improving SO much every time she goes. This time she could get AJ (her horse) to go all the way around the arena and she played "horsey baseball" which meant she walked AJ around the cones in a dimond and had her do tight circles around each cone. She did just great!

Here is a blow by blow picture slideshow of her hour and a half in horsey heaven.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bluerosemama/2007_9_01/photo#s5105312804084398290

Logan meets canning peaches

2007-08-22T11:04:00.000-07:00

View Album

Get your own

I love canning season!!

Butterfly unit, stage two

2007-08-21T13:12:00.001-07:00

Cyan is very excited! All of her caterpillars are now chryslis and hanging in the butterfly habitat on the kitchen table. The last one changed yesterday. I am hoping that one that fell off into the silk they spun to get to the top is ok. *crossing fingers* (Can you see it?)

Arn't they beautiful with all their gold spots? Cyan thinks that is the best. We are recording all of this in her Butterfly Book, although I have taken to drawing the pictures becuase she wants to be exact. I am sure she will draw some of the butterflies themselves. My little artist.

Logan, 7 mos old tomorrow.

2007-08-21T12:59:00.000-07:00

Here is my sweet baby... moving very quickly from being a baby. He is pulling himself up on EVERYTHING. He just discovered the wealth of stuff to put in his mouth on the coffee table and figured out that he can push Cyan's stool around the kitchen and "walk" behind it. *sigh* It is making mommy's (and daddy's) life very full suddenly, as he becomes faster and more mobile. He still is the smiliest baby ever... will even smile at complete strangers without hesitation. He loves to laugh, and loves to play. And as long as people are paying attention to him he is very content. His sleeping habits are getting better, which is making me feel more real and in the world. He is just all around a real joy to have. :)

Learning new things... he has been "kissing" me for about a month, but this is one of the first times he has "kissed" (read: slimed) daddy. Isn't daddy lucky?

Usually it is grabbing and pulling to you that is bothersome about the kissing... he really has a nack for getting handfuls of hair in the attempt to love on you. Ouch!

Sweet boy!

Life Cycles Unit = Painted Lady Butterflies

2007-08-14T22:25:00.000-07:00

We started our life cycles unit yesterday with the arrival of our Painted Lady Butterflies. Cyan and I made an observation booklet this morning and she started talking about what she sees, and how they are changing. She also drew a picture of her observations in the book. Which right now are strings of little mounds of black on stuff that looks like mushed oatmeal. lol... which is very much what these little guys look like sitting in their jar on their food supplement. She is really excited! We got a book from the library on our Painted Ladies and are going to read it tomorrow. We also have worksheets on the life cycles of reptiles (Turtles) and mammals (Bunnies) which we will talk about as the unit goes on.

This will overlap the Early American Studies unit that we have been in for a while, studying pioneer days, horses, and foraging for food. But it is getting her more in classroom mode for a few good talks about writing and how important it is. In this picture, she wrote all the words on the booklet. She didn't spell them herself, but she did the writing. Very artistic handwriting she has already. I was really impressed that she did this at newly 6 years old. Her handwriting is better than her dads. lol!

More Garden Friends

2007-08-12T16:32:00.000-07:00

This is the backside of our bean teepee. We planted a nastirituim seed at the base of each supporting pole and they have taken on a life of their own, out spaning and sometimes out growing their bean neighbors as they fight and reach for the sky.

Cyan found another little friend today... I remember these from when I was just a weebee. This is a tiny baby catapiller. Living in our overabundance of beautiful orange flowering nastirtium vines.

Summer Friend

2007-08-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

While harvesting food you can find all sorts of friends. We have learned that these little bugs like the salad bed. Snails (really pretty honest to goodness yellow snails) love blackberry bushes, lady bugs like the cone flowers, and bees (not yellow jackets, real little honey bees) love blueberry bushes. It is fun to figure out all of the places these little guys like to live.

Newest pictures of the kids

2007-08-10T08:55:00.001-07:00

With homeschooling fun, and Logan crawling, the harvest of veggies and the foraging of berries, and with the regular summer activity level we are everywhere... and often Logan is crawling around covered in berries (which he loves) or the remains of chewed up green beans and we are just enjoying the summer. :)

Video of the crawl and sprawl...

2007-07-30T21:06:00.000-07:00

http://picasaweb.google.com/bluerosemama/2007_7_29/photo#s5092824587909934178

Cyan's quilt

2007-07-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

For the first week of our homeschooling experiment, Cyan wanted to make a quilt.

She picked her fabrics and I cut out the 4 inch squares. We laid them out 5X5 on the floor and we talked about patterns, and what pattern she would want her quilt. We picked that the chickens moved 3 spaces every row and then kept with the pattern.

Here Cyan is cutting the threads off of the rows we sewed together. They weren't perfect, but this is her first quilt afterall. :)

Here it is all done! When we had finished the rows, we ironed them and put the rows together. Then I backed it with the fabric she chose, and blocked it with bais tape.

She really likes it! (And so do her dolls!)

Oh the joy of being a 6 yr old girl...

2007-07-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

There is no joy compared to spinning in a brand new pettiskirt on your 6th birthday.

Happy birthday beautiful girl!!!!!

Little Papa

2007-07-07T19:55:00.001-07:00

Alex is a natural papa. He sang his own tune and sat on the swing with Logan...

...and Logan promptly fell asleep.

Adventures of June 28th ~ A day in the life of Val and Sarah and all the kids... Or maybe not.

2007-06-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

I was cleaning out the dryer vent... quite a straight forward deal right? Yeah, I lost the neighbors shop-vac attachment INSIDE the house... like inside... as in about 4 feet from either side within the venting. I couldn't reach it, Alex couldn't reach it... but heck. It was terribly interesting, so I took a picture:

My friend Sarah came over then, and had the brillant idea of taking my garden hose and shoving it through the house side of the vent and as it pushed through, Alex grabbing the hose attachment from the other side. And we triumphed! It came close enough to the other side for Alex to grab it with his skinny arms and YAY! Success.

While Alex was down there they found a dead Possum!!!! Described by Alex it was complete with grey nose, long tail, and nasty 'glowing' red eyes. All 5 kids were freaking out... Alex now had an audience of 4 younger children, all waiting for what he was going to do.

as he was trying to figure out what it was and how to get it out. I asked him if he was brave enough to go get it with a plastic bag. He said he was and Cyan piped up with "I AM GOING TOO!!" They started getting dressed up to go under the house to retrieve the dead critter:

My sweet unique girl... I don't know a girl alive that would volunteer for large dead rodent removal.

That gets cleaned up and the kids come back, announcing that the dead possum, complete with red eyes, was actually a HUGE PEICE OF DRYER FLUFF! Panic evaded, we decided to put the house back together and get on with our day.

Worried about reading? Uh, no... why do you ask?

2007-06-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

Cyan was getting me Logan's clothes yesterday and she pulled out a blue striped pair of pants... she says "Look mama! This one has dark blue, light blue, teal, and aquamarine stripes on it!" Alex says "That is more of a green than an aquamarine" she replies "Yes, but aquamarine IS blue and green silly! It's like when you mix teal and green together. And periwinkle is when you mix teal and blue together... see?" I just sat there with my mouth open. She can only recognize 20 out of 24 letters on sight in the alphabet, but for some strange reason I am not worried. ;)

Hanging with the Dad

2007-06-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

Logan is 5 mos old in this picture. :)

2007-06-19T07:55:00.000-07:00

Logan will be 5 mos old this Friday... can you believe it?

I can't.

He is starting to crawl backwards, starting to play, and starting to eat real meals everyday. It is just incredible how fast they grow at this age.

He loves to laugh, and he smiles at everyone. When I first pick him up after a nap or something I give him kisses and he will grab my face and "kiss" me, which means that he slobbers all over the side of my face, but I love it. It is so endearing!

He has the most amazing expressions. His eye brows set the tone for his face and they can make him have any expression that a grown person can have. It reminds me very much of the baby that plays Elora Dannon in Willow. She had the most amazing expressions and I remember saying that she couldn't have possibly been as young as she was in the movie. And now I have a baby that can do the same thing.

He is SO sweet, but a bit of an attention hog. He will screech at you if you do not see him and he esp likes screeching at me. Most of the time it is super sweet now (except at 3 in the morning) but I can just imagine being upset about it at a grocery store when he is 2. *sigh*

He is happiest when he is in someones arms or in the sling. He likes to look and touch and hold everything. Cyan and Alex were not this curious at this age, but it didn't take long, so I am guessing he is just a bit ahead of the game. We are about to start baby proofing... amazing that we will need to so soon, but with him already crawling backwards, it won't be long before he figures it out and is totally mobile.

He loves toys. He has a few that I collected from since before he was born, and he will play with all of them. His favorites are his teething ring doll and the two in the pictures above (his string and block shape thingy, and his baby Einstein classical music and light up toy).Has a great sense of himself and what he wants, he always goes to sleep pretty easy as long as I don't keep him from his schedule.

He is such a joy.

Our critters:

2007-06-13T13:31:00.000-07:00

Having chickens has been a huge experience for my city kids. As the chickens get older they have turned from the sweet little puffballs that they want to hold all the time to squalking stinky ugly adolecent birds that they still have to take care of. Big lesson there. ;) They still do take care of them without complaint, and now that they are outside everyone is enjoying them a bit more.

The one below is by far and away the most unique of our small flock.

This is Violet: And this is Violet at 5 wks old. Finally outside. :) YAY!
Here are all the girls:

My daughter, we call her 'the one who speaks to animals':

"Hey Taio! Look what I have!"" Yeah. Lunch!"

I grew these!

2007-06-05T16:42:00.001-07:00

There are peas here and cilantro at the bottom. The rest is moms.

Crazy Hair Day!!!

2007-06-01T12:16:00.001-07:00

Just some clippers, some corn syrup,

some food coloring, fake flowers, paper, scissors... and voila!

You have some seriously crazy hair for the schools Crazy Hair Day:

The Green Beehive Rose Garden:

The Checker Board:

Do you see what I see?

2007-05-30T09:08:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures from our trip to the Zoo on the 29th of May. We found all sorts of things that wern't on the list. :)
Do you see what we see??

We found our toes...

2007-05-25T19:14:00.000-07:00

Logan is 4 months old! Can you beleive it!?! And for his monthly birthday he decided it was a good time to find out what his toes tasted like. He has spent the last three days tasting them in all forms. Yes, he removes his socks first. lol... SO CUTE!

Apparently Logan was dirty

2007-05-16T16:52:00.000-07:00

I laid Logan down and went to get dipes... and when I came back this was what I saw... Logan had rolled at least twice to get to the cat, but Taio seemed fine with that... in fact, the baby needed a good cleaning.

And yes... We have a huge cat:

Meet our new babies...

2007-05-10T19:56:00.000-07:00

Introducing (Starting at the top right and going counter clockwise) Sage, Lilly, Clover, Rose, Iris, and Violet. They are our new baby chicks. We got them today. Sage is mine (Alex) Rose is Cyan's, and all the others are our family's. They are laying hens, they will lay eggs for two years and when they are done, some people keep them as pets, but we are not sure what we are going to do. We like them a lot.
This is Cyan holding Violet.

She is an Aracona chicken. Violet and Iris are Araconas, Lilly and Rose are Rhode Island Reds, and Sage and Clover are Golden Sex Links. When they are bigger they will run around the yard and pick bugs out of mom's garden, and they will also make great manure.

Here I am holding Sage.

Thinking at the farm

2007-05-08T19:50:00.000-07:00

This was a trip to the local dairy farm and cider mill. I take trips there all year for our milk, apple juice, eggs, and a few fresh produce items that don't grow in my garden and the kids love to come with me. It is a wonderful place to go, especially in spring. Babies everywhere. This winter we had a series of big storms, taking out a bunch of trees in our area... this was one that was next to the pig pen. They have since rebuilt the pen and gotten a new little potbellied pig who is compeltely adorable, but this stump was apparently very tempting.

Here are just a few of the other babies (I actually didn't get a picture of the pig... them on the tree was just too good of a shot... I completely forgot about our little pork friend.)

And by far and away the sweetest picture all day. Alex was SO excited my Baby Bjorn got small enough for him to wear Logan. Alex has been a wonderful canidate for any woman his entire life. He just is one of the nicest people, high energy, enjoys domestic chores and likes pleasing people. Add to the list now comes a great attachment brother... and he will be a hard one to pass up in his twenties. :) He will be one wonderful catch for some lady... I just hope she is worthy of him.

My friend got Cyan a tadpole... so we were looking over the duck pond at the farm for frogs, and low and behold, we found three! Here is a picture of one.

I wonder what our tadpole will look like when he grows up?

Helping dad mow the lawn...

2007-05-01T21:58:00.000-07:00

Aside from the dust in his eyes, Logan loved helping dad mow the lawn. He was so cute! Just hanging out on Don's back as the lawn got shorter and I weedwacked the front yard (something he couldn't be on me for, not safe).

He loves his hands now... pulls everything to his mouth. Wants to grab things... likes to hold on to my hair. It is SO sweet... being able to get his hands are still new, so he gets really really excited about it. :)

Here is sweet Logan on his 3 month birthday. He is starting to roll, and getting preferances, and starting to get tastes of food. Growing so big. :) My sweet baby.

Cyan funnies again:

2007-04-05T09:28:00.001-07:00

Cyan and Alex were sitting in the back seat of the car playing their favorite game "Elemental Formers". This is half something they saw and half something they made up together and each "former" takes a power and they run with it. They draw them, color them, imagine them, etc... They were picking powers and Alex was saying:

"And this one has the power of FIRE!!!!! And then this one has the power of AIR!!" with all the dramatic boy sound effects included. "Over here is where they keep their ignition fire starter thingy... and their air blower. And when people attack them, they can burn them up or they can BLOW THEM AWAY! Wooooooooosh!" closing the side compartment in the back of the van a little too hard, and then pointing at the pocket in the back of the seat: "And in this pocket is their darts... they are poison... don't touch! Then over here is where they are spending their time making potions and creating new formers! Yeah! Booooing, bing booooooong"

And Cyan pipes up with: "and over here in this one is where they keep their arts and crafts!!!"

And listening from the front seat I think: 'Yep... still a girl.'

Logan's smiles

2007-04-03T09:41:00.001-07:00

Here is a test video of Logan and the kids trying to make him laugh. lol... Alex was taking this video. He was very proud. :D

Val

A new thereory by my 5 year old about extinction.

2007-03-30T09:27:00.000-07:00

My dd was sitting a the table at the end of dinner and we were getting ready to watch Harry Potter #4 and she pipes up with

"And then Voldamort went back, and there were hundreds of them and then he killed them all with "Avada Kadavera"." completely matter of fact.

"What honey?"

"The dinosaurs. Voldamort killed them all... the strongest wizard in the world. That's why they arn't here anymore."

LOL!!! She can be SO cute sometimes!

Alex's fun with K'NEX

2007-03-29T08:30:00.000-07:00

Mom's cousin Karen got me these K'NEX for a late Christmas present. And I love them so much! I made a motorcycle that I put my dog Nunook on. It looks really cool. I made a picture frame and I put a picture of the burnt mountain called Dewey Hill that they set fireworks off of and burned lots of the trees. I can hang the picture frame by the top, or put it on a desk (which is really cool) and I can also change the picture in it.

The Daddy Daughter Dance

2007-03-25T11:58:00.000-07:00

She was SO proud!

Student of the Month!

2007-03-24T09:17:00.000-07:00

This was the first time I was student of the Month! it was relly happy but also embarrassed. Its cool that I was student of the month because I got picked more than once in heads up 7up. I also got a pensile that said " PGS student of the Month".

Pinewood Derby Car Race

2007-03-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

Here is my car for the pinewood derby race. We made a Limo with nails on top. It was super cool looking. The car sucked though, it lost every time. My friend Logan (yes that is my brothers name too) won all three races we ran together. Too bad my car sucked. I will get a better one next year. It was fun though.

When there was nothing on it after the races were done, we played at racing on the track that was left up and I won three races with out anything on my car (no nails or weights). I was really excited that I won three times after the race, but was upset that my car didn't win any of the races like last year. Last year I was third out of my troop with my car.

Some Cyan ditties...

2007-03-22T12:25:00.000-07:00

Cyan started talking very early. She said Dada at 7 mos (which isn't that uncommon) and then proceeded to say kitty-cat (titty tat) at 8 mos, and just kept going from there. Over the years the girl has said many things that make you sit back and wonder where she got her adult vocabulary with this tiny voice and this little lisp. Lately she has been singing. Singing a lot. She loves to make up songs for Logan, loves to sing about what she is doing... she even sometimes sings herself to sleep.

Some of the things she has said over the years:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June 2006:

We walked into Sarah's house one morning and Cyan pipes up with "guess what!?"

Sarah says sweetly "What Cyan?"

Cyan: "We're going to get our very own baby for Christmas!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nov 2006:
Don is getting Cyan out of the bath. My stringy and stretchy unmentionables hanging to dry on the towel rack.

Cyan says: "Whats that?" pointing at a thong.

Don says: "Mom's underwear."

Cyan: "Hmmm... doesn't look like much."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

March 2007:

Cyan is sitting in her room, getting her shoes on to go to lunch when she lets out this huge belch.

Don, shocked of course, says "What do you say??"

Cyan says "Excuse me." and giggles.

Don says to her "Cyan, really, you do not need to burb with your mouth open like that. What Princess would belch like that?"

Cyan, completely matter of fact: "Fiona."

Don stands there, dumbfounded.... because of course, Princess Fiona does belch like that. lol...

Baby Logan

2007-03-21T16:02:00.000-07:00

Here is some of Logans first acheivments... SMILES!

Alex's MI Project

2007-03-21T15:41:00.000-07:00

On March 2, 2007 I presented my State Fair Report. It was on Michigan. I had some extra stuff that my dad sent me (he lives there) and I got an A+ on it. My teacher added the + because I did such a good job. I got one of the highest grades in my class. Some of the other kids also got A+. I learned that Michigans capital was Detroit and now is Lansing. I also learned Michigan state flower is the Apple Blossom, the bird is the Robin, and the tree is the Winter Pine. I also learned about Rosie the Riveter was a icon that stood for women at work while the men were at war, and also that Henry Ford was the man who used the assembly line for Model T cars for the first time. The Detriot Zoo was the first zoo to have cage-less open exhibits in America. MI also has the only floating post office in the country. It is called the J.W. Westcott II. The last thing I learned was that four flags have flown over the land that is now Michigan. The French, Spanish, English, and United States.

By Cyan

2007-03-21T13:44:00.000-07:00

See what I did? I made a picture entitled "Alex, Mommy, Baby, and Me" last Novemeber. Mama loved it, so she said she would put it on here.

Look whats missing!

2007-03-05T19:10:00.000-08:00

I lost a tooth! I lost it, but then I swallowed it when I was eating an apple. Mama said it would be ok to write a note to the tooth fairy instead of putting my tooth under my pillow. So this is what we wrote:

Dear Tooth Fairy,

I'm sorry tooth fairy, today was a happy but sad day because my tooth fell out, but then I ate it on accident while eating an apple. So toothfairy, you are very beautiful and I want to know if you are a real fairy. I am so glad my tooth finally came out! But sorry I ate it because I didn't know it was gone, but would you still leave me a treat tooth fairy?

Love Cyan

More fun in the snow

2007-01-16T12:06:00.000-08:00

Here is the snow girl mama and I made.

She is going to have a baby any day now and I will have a little brother.

A fun wait for a late bus

2006-11-27T09:58:00.000-08:00

Cyan's First day of Kindergarten

2006-09-21T16:13:00.000-07:00

A healthy breakfast.

Ready with her new backpack and favorite dress.

Getting on the bus. Alex being very sweet not to butt in.

Waving by to Mama!

Look what I can do?

2006-07-12T16:01:00.000-07:00