I Wonder......

Ever had one of those days where you just wonder about everything? Why life is the way it is, what you should do about something, how should you do it? Questioning each scenario, examining every facet of information available then trying to determine the correct direction to take? Ever feel like your brain has turned to mush after all the pondering is through and look something like this?>

I have had those type of days lately and this goofy girl of mine can bring a smile to my face no matter how pressing the matter at hand may be. :)

In our home school experience we took a "wonder" day and explored it using all our scientific materials that were available to us. We gathered specimens we "wondered" about and using magnifying glasses and our handy dandy microscope we were able to unlock some of the mysteries behind bee hives and snake skins and a live lady bug!

Below you can see my 6yr old monopolizing enjoying her discovery. (Notice my son's expression does NOT seem to enthused? Can you wonder why with two little sisters who have a "ME" complex?
Below is another view of her viewing a specimen under intense scrutiny.
They enjoyed observing in great detail their finds and making various hypothesis about them and look forward to finding more things to "wonder" about in the lovely warm spring weather that is to come! I think I may need to order more glass slides......

Crazy Rabid Squirrel

This is a video of a squirrel I took while at the Tree House Exhibit at the Catawba Science Museum. It reminded me of my children at bedtime! It also reminded me of the video Over the Hedge where the squirrel gets all hyped up on caffeine. So funny!

Spring Is in the Air

We have felt what the taste of spring feels like here in the mountains. Of course we HAD to go outside and enjoy the crisp air and melting snow. We have done schoolwork outside and mixed in some playtime and bubble blowing and old fashioned monkey business. We have also taken a field trip to a science museum and enjoyed a planetarium show along with petting sharks, seeing an electric eel and other sea creatures and just exploring science. All this while running my ninth grader and her friend back and forth to drama practice each night and other school functions in which I feel like I should put a taxi cab sign on my roof and start charging. :) Busy season it is, but at least the snow is melting and we have seen geese and robins! I think winter is on her way out and spring may just be right around the corner!

Above you see that grass plus 50 degrees means it is bubble blowing time!

My kids have been wanting to ride their bikes for weeks now. So they HAD to get them out and see what it is like riding in the snow. They found out real fast that they needed to stay on the grass. I remember as a kid I couldn't wait to get my bike out the first signs of spring!
Here is my little monkey just hanging around! She is getting so big!
Here she is making a top at the museum.
Here are all the kids having fun testing out the Spin Circle.

Do you see the look on her face? She is rolling different objects to see which rolls faster. She loved this exhibit.
You can't go wrong with Lincoln Logs. I used to LOVE these as a kid and I have to say that they had an awesome amount and I played at this table and had fun building the little houses.
Here is my son building with wood scraps. All of these with wood and creatures were taken in an exhibit called "The Tree House" and it was a favorite among the kids.
Above is a puppet show that I was able to watch. It was very entertaining. :)
Here they are building wind mills with Tinker Toys. Another favorite.

February, the month of snow

February was a month of nothing but snow, snow, and more snow. My oldest, who is in public high school, went a total of about 8 days to school the whole month of February. She is so sick of snow days that she about cries now when she has them. Alas, I am sick of being woke up at 5:55am to a phone ringing and "attention parents and students, school will be closed today". We officially hibernated for the month and have just started getting back out to all the lovely places like the grocery store, library, school, and after school functions. But, today we are back home and no school due to what? More snow! It was a very beautiful snow that came though, nice big puffy flakes that stuck to everything because it was that heavy wet snow that blanketed each and every particle with its lovely puffy whiteness. I don't mind the snow, or even the hibernation. Especially now that it is March and we know spring is just around the corner. My two that are home schooled continued with their studies and we did more crafts and other indoor fun stuff. I also stepped up in my crocheting to actually reading patterns instead of just winging it on my own. You know you lead a quiet life when you finally get out to Wal-mart and get excited because they have gotten in the one crochet needle you have been missing but could never find. I was like a little kid and could not wait to get back home to try it out. We also have been doing a lot of reading. We studied Abraham Lincoln and George Washington for school and read lots and lots of books regarding the two. More on George than Abe right now because we are starting to study the Revolutionary War so it tied in quite nicely. We have enjoyed the winter and have even gotten used to hiking to our car on the days when we have been able to get out. We have been blessed with kind neighbors who brought us to our home with our groceries with their massive 4wheel drive truck when my car would not make it up the drive way. This saved us from having to load the sleds and pull them up the hillside drive to the house. I can now hike up the drive with my 3yr old in tow and not break a sweat nor get winded so I guess it has been good for me. Now if only I could get motivated to actually work out inside, then I might see more results! Instead I have been enjoying the fruits of my children's baking experiences. We have made cookies, brownies, cupcakes. All of which they consume rapidly, but I too manage to snag a few in the process. I look forward to spring and summer where we can get outside more and work off some of these extra winter pounds I have put on. I feel like a bear who is hibernating only I eat all winter instead of sleep! I did manage to sneak off for my birthday in which my hubby came home on a mini drive by and took just me out to dinner. This was very nice. We have started spring cleaning early and in response my children have discovered toys long forgotten and are now playing with them like new found friends. In short we have been just enjoying spending time together and learning new things and, well, waiting for spring! < >
Below are random pics.
Here is my oldest doing what she does best and that is reading and watching movies on the computer.
Here is a pic I took today of the lovely whiteness that covered everything.
Here are just some of my sons trains. My youngest loves to get these out now that we have unearthed them and play with them. Her brother sometimes joins in just to show her how it is done of course. :)
Another picture of how beautiful the snow is on our trees. Here it is covering our apple trees in my back yard.
Here is our poor Miss Hen who has not enjoyed the winter much and comes to the house on occasion to hang out on the step. She gets fed here as my children love to feed her whenever they see her so she is a wise little hen. I will be glad when she is a laying little hen. :)
Here is my old snoopy dog pull toy from when I was little. This may have been my sisters too. I saved it and each of my children have enjoyed pulling him around the house. My youngest now has that pleasure. He is made so well that I think he will be pulled by my grand kids one day! I loved my snoopy dog!
Here is my 3yr old helping me bake cookies. They were yummy lemon sugar cookies and they were MMMMMMMmmmmmmmm so good! The sifter she is using was my Grandma's and it is a favorite among the kids. They love to use it. I remember feeling the same way and I love knowing that I am using something that was once used by my mother and grandmother!


Here are the official cookies that my little ones baked. The blue sugar was an addition my son tried and it was a yummy idea. He can probably bake these by himself as he basically does everything and I just watch him now. He loves to cook. I remember his daddy loved to cook and used to cook for me all the time. He still cooks on occasion, but not so much as he is gone all the time. I did so love it when he cooked though, he is a great cook and what he makes is so yummy. (hint hint darling!)

Finally, SUN!

The sun finally came out today. As I said in my last post I was bound and determined to get OUT in the sun for a bit. So, even though it was 20 degrees, we all bundled up and went outside for some much needed SUN! The snow was ice crusted with just a few inches of powder on top which made it excellent for sledding. My 3 yr old decided to take her swim tube and slide down the little hill with it. She tried various hills until she found the one that was just p e r f e c t. Here she is scoping out the lay of the land.

She found her hill! Look at her go! She loved this new found sled.
Meanwhile my other two decided to dig a tunnel. My 6yr old was so into it she knocked her hat off and did not even stop to put it back on. Cold? Nah. Not when you are 6 and sweating from straining to dig this massive tunnel her brother started.
Here they both are in front of their tunnel. My son is completely blocking it.
Below you can see my son in the tunnel. This was such fun for them. I remember doing the same when I was little. (Actually I was much much worse and would scope out the terrain to see if their were any roofs that I could climb up on and slide down. Yes, I was crazy, but in my defense I only had male cousins who were always coming up with one crazy thing or another.)

Below is a picture of my driveway. It is a lane really in which my house is all the way at the top of. My car will NOT make it up this hill and I have went through 2 sets of cables trying to make it to the house. Now I have officially given up and we walk from the bottom. You cannot see the bottom of the lane where my car is in this picture but the general area is if you look at the yellowish house and see those tree's beyond it at the bottom of the hill , that is where the end of our lane is. My car is just up from those tree's. That means I am definitely getting my exercise hiking up and down this lovely lane with all my children in tow. Now you know why I rarely leave the house when we have a bunch of snow. For my friend Melissa, this is the hill my oldest hikes up and down to get to the bus. Show it to your kids when they start to complain. :) I can just hear my kids now when they are older telling their children, "I used to have to walk half a mile to get to the bus and it was all uphill both ways!" :)

My 3yr old's reaction to winter doldrums

I woke up this morning to another blizzard. (My camera is about dead so I could not change the date reading without the batteries dying so pay no mind to the date).

Blustery winds, tons of snow, cold, all the joys of a snowstorm.


This did not cause me to jump for joy as I have been experiencing the winter blah's lately. I am so ready for warmer weather and SUNSHINE! The sun so rarely shines anymore and I really miss it. The grayness of the days seems to seep into my very being. The next sunny day, no matter how cold I am going to go outside and soak up all the sun I can! This, however, is NOT how my 3yr old responds to winter. She woke up and saw the snow and became very excited. She ran around the house looking out every window screaming, "SNOW!" She then found tons of mischief to get in. This post is dedicated to all the fun things I found her doing both today and other days this winter. But, mostly today.

Here she is holding a marker. She may look innocent enough, but I know by that devilish look that she has been up to something. Upon further inspection I discovered what it was.



Notice how she is carefully coloring her foot. How she is taking care to get even between her toes. She did not know I was taking her pic at this time.



Below is the end result of her coloring that she proudly displayed for me. I think she was going for a measles/chicken pox look with multiple colored nails to comple it. The big red toe looks a bit overdone if you ask me. That one looks like it came in contact with a hammer. :)
Below.
This is what I caught her doing this morning. Yes, that is my sugar canister. She apparently got up on the counter and I accidentally left it down this morning where as I usually have to put it up high in the cupboards because I know of her sugar addiction.
Later this morning I heard a weird noise coming from my kitchen. I walked in to find this.



I guess now you know the outcome of sugar shot and my 3yr old! Needless to say it is impossible to stay down when you have a goofy 3yr old running around the house. She delights my heart!



This is how our day ended. With my 9yr old son and his sister playing outside in the blustery cold. They loved sliding down hill in this crazy weather. They also pretended to be ice breakers since the snow has an ice crust below all this lovely new fallen snow due to ice rain/sleet that we had yesterday. They are looking forward to a day of sledding tomorrow. Oh the joys of youth!

Time with dad

My hubby arrived home amidst another winter storm. This has been the worst winter up here. Usually we get snow, but it lasts for a week then goes away. This winter we have had snow all of the winter except for 1 week. This would not be too bad except our 4-wheel drive truck will not start and my car will NOT make it up the hill to our house. This causes a lot of grumbling amongst the children because we have to walk down the drive to the bottom to get to the car. This is quite a walk. Unfortunately this lovely winter storm caused my hubby and I to miss out on some much needed alone time that we had planned. Instead we were snow bound for the whole time he was here. We did have one day of sunshine in which my son got to go out and have some daddy -son time bonding over his new BB gun that he got for Christmas. He also had lots of snuggle time with the girls. It was so nice having him home. I thought of holding him hostage and not letting him go back out, but I guess that was not an option. I keep hoping he will find something close to home where we could see him every weekend. That would be great. I guess we will have to keep looking. Below are some pics of his time here.


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Above is my 3yr old snuggling with daddy. They had lots of snuggle time this trip home.

Above is my son with his dad target practicing with the new BB gun my son got for Christmas.

Here is my son coming in for more BB's. He sooo enjoyed this time with his dad.