Lake Pine Picture Post

After picking up Robbie from preschool we went over to the local lake for a picnic lunch and nature walk. Yesterday while driving I happened to see that the swan couple were back and wanted to see if we could find them.
Yes we did!
Along with these unidentified black birds
and a blue heron.
Emily scoping out the lake
The others chose a closer view
Here is one interested in our bread
They brought a few friends
Isn't this a gorgeous?
this too...
I ended up taking over 200 photos, so many good ones.


A true love pair...

Some canadian geese decided to get too close to their 'island'. Here is the male puffing himself up
before chasing the goose back to shore
We watched the swan chase the geese around for more than 20 minutes while his mate slept in the middle of the lake. Very exciting stuff for the kids and much more than I expected from our nature walk today.

Peace

Trying this again

It has been a long, hard winter and I am so glad that Spring is here. Even if the weather today is more like February than nearly April. The truth is we've been busy, busy, busy and trying to share one laptop between four computer users has been a bit difficult. My time to get on and keep the blog updated was severally hampered. Recently we finally picked up another laptop, which is making things much easier. I'm hoping to keep this site fairly updated, especially for my family to keep up with the kids.

Yeah, keeping up with the kids. That is the trick lately.

Mary is still playing soccer and still LOVING it. She had a pretty good Fall season, played a great indoor season and has started off the Spring going crazy scoring three goals in three games.

In addition to playing soccer, Mary has also begun her own business along with Katie doing pet sitting in our neighborhood. They have several clients and are busy just about every weekend. She also completed her Red Cross Babysitting class in January and is looking for some "Mother's Helper" clients.

Katie has been busy this past winter with her drama class and girl scouts.

She sold a BUNCH of GS cookies this year. Was very responsible managing all the money and deliveries.

This past weekend she performed in our town's talent show singing a solo of Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me". She did a very good job, even if I felt that the song was not right for her voice. She sung to the music only and did not forget a lyric. I have a video of the performance but cannot get it to upload. She enjoyed it so much that she is already planning for next year and has asked to take the group singing lessons after drama class is finished this year.

If singing and drama wasn't enough she has become refocused on learning the flute (now that her fingers have lengthened a little). Everyday she spends time watching video lessons and using her beginning flute book. We really need to get her over to the church on Sunday night for some of their free intro music lessons.

Katie's Brownie troop has been great this year. Very service oriented, while still having fun. Right now the troop is completing activities necessary for bridging to Juniors later this Spring. This week the troop provided and served food for a Family Homeless shelter group. Each week a local faith organization houses & feeds homeless families, this week the church Katie's leader belongs to was hosting. Katie volunteered her Daddy's 'super-secret' pasta dish, so she and Mary and Randy spent Tuesday preparing enough to feed 18+ persons. It was a big hit, but even more importantly Katie had a great time visiting and being with the children in these families.

She and Mary were invited to come back out tonight, Thursday, to help serve and visit with the families again. Both of the girls are really looking forward to the opportunity.

Katie has begun practices for Spring Softball and is looking forward to playing for her third season. This season DH is one of the assistant coaches for the team and is having a lot of fun working with the girls.

Emily has been enjoying her art classes this winter and enjoying having a dedicated art space in the house for her. Art has been very relaxing for her larger-than-life emotions. She loves books and loves learning, as long as it is on her own terms.

We are still working through The Continents unit study. The very same one we started back in October. We are having a lot of fun exploring different places around the world and I see no reason to rush it.

Robbie is finishing his first year of preschool and has really enjoyed it this year. His speech has improved so much, maybe because he is using it sooo much. I thought that only girls were talkers. He loves letters & words and is already putting the two together. We've definitely learned to keep screwdrivers away from him, as just about every toy he has gotten for Christmas has already been dismantled.

Here is the danger of living in the same house with three big sisters. He becomes their living doll.

His activity and interest in life keeps me on my toys throughout most days.

School-wise we have a few different unit studies we are working through, but generally have stayed focused a a child-led, creative path.

Visting Grossology exhibit in November

Bowling for Mary's and Emily's Birthday

Mary running in the 1-mile Turkey Trot. Has led to an interest in cross-country running.

The kids' creative/homemade costumes at Halloween. And, yes I allowed them to dress me up too.

The mini & maxi snowmen with their creators.

Mary's favorite part of the Museum of Life & Sciences.

Life is busy, but fulfilling in many different ways.

Peace

Nightgown 1 - Done

Finished Emily's first nightgown late last night. Just in time for our trip to the mountains this weekend where it is going to be very cold.

The pattern ended up running large, which is okay. I hope that Emily will be able to get a couple of winters out of her nightgowns.

I've got one more to make for Emily and then I have already received orders from the other three for pajama pants.

Peace,

Amy

Biweekly Update

*****


The Fall weather has been drawing us out in the evening for fun by the firepit. It has been nice to take a breath for a little while and catch up with everyone. The big girls have been sharing the campfire songs they learned at camp this year.

We've been busy these last couple of weeks. Emily finished her weather study and selected Continent & Cultures study. Today we put together her world map and colored in the continent of Africa. The first stop on our 'journey'.

Katie has finished up her study on Vikings and spent most of today putting together her "Viking Village" as her finished project for the unit.

Mary provided a little creative direction/suggestions to Katie's project.

Mary's project today was to make a 3D representation of a Slave Ship from Story of the World Vol. 3 (Eventually we will finish vol 3 and move on to vol 4).

We are all having a lot of fun with our unit studies. It has been a really good addition/change to our school.

Katie finished up her softball season this past weekend. She loves playing softball!!

Katie really likes playing catcher! We'll see if she continues to like this position in a couple of seasons when she starts playing in the kid-pitch league.

Mary also had a soccer game on Saturday. Each week her team is getting better and better. Last weekend they had a tie against the Wilmington team. This week they got their first win 3-1, and Mary finally broke through for her first goal of the season. It has taken her so long to get into the swing this season with her knee injury at the very beginning.

This coming weekend we have a rare weekend off from any activities. Still not sure what our plans are. Maybe do nothing but nothing for a change.

Peace,

Amy

October, really!

The month of September flew by. It wasn't helped by the fact that I have not really felt well for the past month and my mood has been in the dumps. Every day we have had something that needed to be done, generally outside of the house. So, I've just been concentrating on making it through each and every day.

School, surprisingly has been my saving grace this month. We are having a very good fall term so far this year. It is busy though, because I am basically doing three different curriculums/approaches for each of the girls. My days are very long, but every one is having a much better time of school this year and much less fussing over the work that needs to be done.

Mary is doing a physics unit for her science. She loves the hands-on, building approach of physics. Here is one of her recent projects studying force, angles and gravity.

Emily is doing a weather unit study from Intellego. The lesson for this day was to examine the sky and determine what type of clouds were in the sky. As you can probably tell from the picture, we had to postpone the activity due to the weather being too nice. Not a cloud in the sky to identify.
As you can see, on the days Robbie is home he is very involved in our school day.

Katie is studying Whales. She is also using an Intellego Unit Study. Here, Mary is working with Katie for her activity about whale blubber and how it helps them to stay warmer in the cold waters. Mary had actually done this activity somewhere else, so she and Katie did it all by themselves.
Emily has spent a lot of time lately 'creating'. She has been building with legos, doing recycling art, and lots of painting.
And, of course we have had soccer. Lots and lots of soccer. Mary practices three nights a week and we have had to travel for a few games so far. This past weekend we had a game in Wilmington.



Because, I have been driving to soccer games DH has been pulling softball game duties. It works out better because he can actually help with the base running/coaching duties. But, the camera goes with me. I don't have any recent pics, but Katie is having a lot of fun and has improved since she started last Spring.

Katie has also started her Brownie group for the year. She is in a new troop this year and has meet with them once so far. She says the new girls seem really nice and her troop leader is very experienced.

My big boy turned 4 this weekend. WOW! He is enjoying his 'school'. He gets up in the morning and "helps" me pack his lunch for him and gets ready to go with no fussing. He is funny though, on school days he insists he has to wear a shirt with a collar, "just like Daddy". Every other day of the week stained t-shirts and shorts are what he wants.

I'm hoping that I will feel much better during October than I did September. The girls and I are looking forward to taking our nature study out to the woods now that it has gotten cooler. Not to mention just how much needs to be done to get the house ready for the winter months.

Peace,

Amy