I don't have a clue what's going on here

We are never at a loss for pictures with this kid.

School projects and pollen

Phase 1 of the Great Wall of  China is being designed and constructed by Grandma Deane with the help of Cameron and Jackie.

 Big Fat Fatty has got some serious legs!

 And the pollen has arrived. LOTS of pollen.

The world is her canvas

or rather the kids on the street.

Julie and I wish the black paint wasn’t so hard to get off the face. Sorta looks like a bruise the next day.

Lessons from Frog and Toad

Amy, (the other mom I homeschool with) forwarded me an excerpt from the Charlotte Mason homeschooling blog and it couldn’t come at a more appropriate time. We read the Frog and Toad series last year with Jackie and I totally forgot about this one!


Lessons from Frog and Toad: A Growing Time, Part 1

Have you read their story about the garden? Frog sees Toad’s beautiful garden and decides he wants one. So Frog gives him some seeds.

Toad plants them and impatiently watches for them to grow. He paces beside the garden; he shouts at the seeds, “Start growing!”

Frog reassures him: “Leave them alone for a few days. Let the sun shine on them, let the rain fall on them. Soon your seeds will start to grow.”

But Toad wears himself out trying to do everything he can think of to make those seeds grow. Finally he falls asleep, exhausted; and while he is not looking, the seeds sprout.

“And now you will have a nice garden too,” says Frog.

Toad agrees, but adds, “It was very hard work.”

Keep reminding me of this story, Amy!


Favorite pic of the week: Miss Karen and Baby Caleb enjoying the good life.
 

Namaste

Happy has had some back problems lately, not uncommon to doxies, especially overweight ones. Before we start her on an NSAID, we're going to try a holistic approach. I've returned to regular yoga and have been teaching the kids. Who knows what they really learn, but Happy was clearly paying attention. She picked it right up!

Hopefully weekly yoga practice will alleviate her back pain. We'll start twisting asanas next month to see if we can wring out her toxins. Namaste, my fellow yogi's.

Serpil's Legacy

Miss Serpil would be proud that Jackie has taken over the role of Resident Face Painter Extroidinaire.

Be forewarned: if you come near the studio, you will get painted. An artist needs subjects.

 Tribal boys looking tough. True to character, they were chasing each other around the house, grunting.

Never a dull moment!

They are here!!!

After 6 days of travel, Grandad and Grandma Holly are here! We met them last night at the RV park and celebrated with Texas-style barbeque in NC.

 They will spend the next few weeks finding a permanent residence (or building one).

In the interim, there's likely to be some golf.

Tracking their travel

Grandad and Grandma Holly will be here in TWO DAYS! Permanently!

Since they're driving an RV and a car, they can only go so far each day. We mapped out their route and check off the days. They're halfway here!

They said what?

It’s time for the next installment of Conversations with Kids.


Overheard in the car the other day:

CamO: I saw a really bad car accident today.

Jackie: You did?

C: Yeah. Lots of cars got in an accident and one fell out of the sky!

J: That was on Spongebob, Cameron.

C: Oh yeah.




While trying to get Lucy to stop talking and go to sleep:

Me: Lucy, go to sleep!

Lu: I am asleep, Mama!



Lately, Lucy says some funny stuff:

Lucy: Dad, I love you so important.



...and

Lucy: I like my boogers in my nose, Mom! Leave ‘em there!



...my favorite in the morning

Lucy: Mom, can I get out of bed now?




CamO has his own words for common items, like tennis rocket, golf pucker and barth (barf). They are too funny to correct.




On the way to science class one day, Jackie brought her baby doll, Hannah, in the car. Hannah has a bald head, one working eye, crayon marks, dirty body- the same doll as in Toy Story 3 (Big Baby).

Jonah: Can I hold your baby doll, Jackie?

Jackie: You can hold her if you wear gloves.

Jonah: (Grabs his backpack, pulls out a tub of Wet Ones and scrubs down). Ok, I’m germ-free now. I’ve only got the good germs on me. I can hold her now.

Jackie: No. You still can’t hold her because you’ll be mean.

Jonah: (laughing) How did you know?

 

It's official!

Grandad and Grandma Holly are moving to North Cackilacky! They closed on their house today. The moving trucks come tomorrow and and they will be here NEXT WEEK! The kids were ecstatic when Grandad and Grandma Holly broke the news.

 We’ve got a place for you two at the Uno table! Safe travels and see you next week! XOXO

P.S. http://apaulogysr.blogspot.com/ has all the moving details

Tadpole Update

Since y'all want to know the progress of our tadpoles, here they are!

While Big Fat Fatty now has knees, Swimmy has yet to develop leg bugs. Like my children, they appear to be developing at their own rate.

 Seriously, Cameron can not keep his hands off the tadpoles.

Too many candles!

The firetrucks had to come and put out the extra candle.

Happy Birthday, DaddyO!

P.S. There are 46, not 47 candles on your cake this year. I'll remind you tomorrow you're only 46.

SNOW!

We had snow for all of 35 minutes today before it melted away.

 Nevertheless, the kids were out before 7am stomping in the slush and eating the snow.

 Being the great big sister that she is, Jackie reminded CamO and Lucy not to eat the yellow snow.

We Love Valentine's Day!

Daddy scored some major points this year. He got his girls each a bouquet of flowers. And CamO got a few new monster trucks.

 

Then the kids had fun dipping strawberries in chocolate. Good times!

Butterfly Release

A few weeks ago, Deane and Amy released our Pink Lady butterflies at the Museum of Life and Sciences. Thankfully, Deane had her camera!

Cammoflage!

After much anticipation, we went back to the Great Wolf Lodge, or Cammoflage, as CamO calls it.

The kids wasted no time in getting down to business at the water park.

 It took Lucy Lu a little coaxing to get in the water. But once she did, she had a blast!

Cameron wanted to be sure to have pretzels with him, in case of an emergency.

Despite growing a few inches this year, CamO was still too short to ride the cool rides. He sadly watched 42" 4-yr-olds with much less agility, speed and daredevilry enjoy the big rides. He loved the wave pool like nobody's business.

The Great Wolf Lodge has many, many ways to take our money, including a rocking arcade, Dunkin' Donuts & various other sugar-filled venues.

There were so many activities for the kids, it was awesome! And they slept like babies.

We'll be back! (When Cameron and Lucy are 42" tall!)