A Beautiful Queen, A Courageous Knight and A Cute Little Cowboy

Ribbon Tag Blanket Directions

http://melissasews.blogspot.com

New Page Template

This is a new page template-click on the button in the corner to see more. They have some great templates. Both of the kids liked this one...what do you think? Too busy, hurt your eyes?

Eggshells- Stronger than you think

We did an experiment about the strength of eggshells. We cracked two eggs and placed them upside down on the counter. Then we added books to see how many the eggshells would hold up before cracking. We got up to 9 normal sized books. (Tera had a lot of faith because the first one she brought in was the Merriam Children's Dictionary.) We had her take that one back and we started with a few paperbacks then added hard back readers. Finally they cracked. We talked about how the dome shape gave it the strength because it equally distributes the weight. We talked about how architects also use the dome shape in buildings because of that very reason.

(I'm manic blogging right now so hopefully I'm not overwhelming the few people who follow my blog)

The Great Egg Drop

The assignment: Drop an egg from the two story window without breaking it.

The recycling bin is the first stop.
Using some padding in the egg carton "armor"

Extra "armor" from an old drink carrier.Cushioning with felt and paper

Our protected egg with "armor", a "seatbelt" using yarn to keep it in place

and cushion inside it's shoebox.

Heaving the egg from the upstairs window.

Our egg survived the two story drop

The egg surviving again

The fifth and final drop-without it's "seatbelt".

We changed our variables one at a time until all the egg had left was it's armor, apparently that wasn't enough.

This is our unit week. I did not feel as confident about this one because I changed our History to cover Explorers. I could not find very many activities for this unit without purchasing, so we are reading a lot about the different explorers and we are doing a lapbook (hopefully).

For science we are studying birds. Yesterday we only had time for an introduction into our subjects because of Monday Fun. Today we did some great bird experiments. We talked a lot about eggs and did 4 or 5 experiments. The great egg drop was their favorite by far.

Poetry and Book Report

These were our attempts at concrete poems- Tera picked the sun and Daniel -a dog! Poetry is a hard things for kids sometimes. They turned out great. I found an idea for a book report using a cereal box. I couldn't find the original link and I'm not sure where I found it right now. If you want it leave a comment and I'll try to find it. Anyway, she read The Tiger Rising then covered a cereal box with black paper. She then designed a front cover and used templates to fill the sides. On the back, I made her write a short review of the book.

Caramel Apples

This is not a tutorial just photos of our first time making caramel apples. I usually cannot bring myself to pay the outrageous price for something so unhealthy, but the price wasn't on the caramel. So, I didn't know the price and bought it anyway. This has always been on my list of things to do with my kids for some reason. Needless to say, they loved them. Me not so much, I'm not really into chewy candy. I took two bites and gave it to JP. He liked them too.

A little melancholy

As I have posted before just recently this is a very emotional time of year for me and my family. I just found out Friday, my oldest cousin was killed by his son. Such a tragedy for any family. It seems like so much has happened to our family-one cousin burned so badly at work he died, my brother murdered, my dad and his brother dying early deaths and now my cousin. So much tragedy, it is hard to make sense of it. It doesn't make sense. The only solace we can find is in Jesus, He is our comfort. My brother and I know what it is like to lose a brother by the hands of another so we understand to some extent, so we do what the Bible says, we comfort others with the comfort we have received from God Himself. When my brother died, I saw God move in circumstances that were impossible. But He was there taking care of us and His presence was felt by us immensely. I can't imagine my life without a relationship with the One who gave me life itself.

It's been so long since I've seen my cousin, probably at my dad's funeral. He was one of my favorite cousins, as a child we looked up to him. My aunt was talking to my brother and she was saying we were all as close as brothers and sisters. Growing up that was so true. He was 9 years older, so he was a teenager when I have my best memories. He would come and visit and stay with us for a week, eat us out of house and home. I cannot ever remember him not smiling, he reminded me a lot of his dad, my Uncle Charles. He was a Jr. but always had the nickname, Buckshot and that is the only way I ever knew him. His lifestyle and choices were a lot different from mine but I'll always remember him as that 15 year old kid who always smiled at me and ate all my ice cream. You felt special just being around him and it made you feel good to know you had something in common-you were family.

My New Favorite Picture

When the Tears Fall Like Rain

The past month or so has marked some very happy anniversaries that I like to enjoy and celebrate. My two oldest children celebrate their birthdays but between those times there are other anniversaries I'd rather not remember yet I can never forget. I've lost a great deal in the past 11 years of so. October 2, 1998, my brother, Terry was killed and that night my life changed forever. Our family is very closeknit, so this was devastating to us. My parents divorced when I was seven, so my two brothers and my mom became a very close group. We are still. It has been 11 years and sometimes my grieving periods last for weeks on end but some years it sneaks up on me. It has been a busy month for us with birthdays, family visits, our co-op, school and play dates. I can easily get lost in my schedule and push things out of my mind, until I am flooded with emotion. Some years the day itself has been an extremely hard time but since it is my daughter's birthday as well I manage very successfully now to focus only on her and not my own grief. Another anniversary is marked the day after my son's birthday, 10 years ago my father died only 11 months after my brother. That year was very hard. My father would have been 60 this year. He was a man that I loved dearly but struggled to get through his alcoholism and mental illness, yet he was my father and I truly miss him.

This morning I had to do early morning grocery shopping so I headed out, I get just a little bit down the road and turned on the Christian radio station. I heard a song new to me by the group MercyMe called Finally Home.(#17 on my playlist) The lyrics talked about talking to his father in heaven..."when I finally make it home". That was all my heart needed to break down, I was sobbing in the car hard just thinking about heaven. It started to rain harder as I sobbed, I felt as if heaven was crying with me as the rain poured down. I was reminded that this earth is not our home, we are created for a place so much better than this one. Heaven is our home, our hearts long for it but are easily distracted by the cares and worries of this world. Oh the wonderful promise that heaven will be a place with no more tears or grief.

Michael's First Word

Pics of Michael

He'll need a haircut soon with all that hair.

Smiley Baby!

His favorite place now- on the floor creeping around.

Michael and Pepper watching traffic go by.

Michael is almost 8 months old. He is saying his first word (da da, I got it on video but cannot get it to load on here tonight- if you are a close friend or relative, email me and I'll email you the video clip), creeping around, sitting up from a laying down position, suffering from separation anxiety at times and being just plain adorable. We love our babies that's for sure!

Let's Draw

A couple of weeks ago the kids were done with their work really early so they spent some time practicing drawing using this video. As you can see by the cover, I paid 50 cents for it at a library book sale. It is a step by step guide that teaches kids to draw basic pictures along with the video. You pause it and draw as you go. Very interesting concept. It's dated but is great art instruction.

Hey, Hey She's 9

Picnic at the Museum
Michael wadin' in the water!

Granny and her little birdies in the loft

Ridin' the rails

Down on the Farm

(I love this picture- they look so serious)

Tera is happy she got her requested Lego set!

Tera turned 9 on Oct. 2. She is truly a joy and wonderful daughter. Tera loves people so when she heard Granny was coming for her birthday she was so excited. We didn't tell her that her 4 yr. old cousin Nate was coming as a surprise. They all had a great time together. We had a great weekend together. We took all the kids to the Children's Museum in Oak Ridge, they all had a blast. She requested Lion Cupcakes which are pictured at the top.