Live Performances

Yesterday I was able to go in to Isabelle's ballet class to take some pictures of the girls practicing. I left my camera in Julie's car on Wednesday, so Mom loaned me hers for these shots. I didn't realize until after the fact that she has it set to compress, hence the low quality shots. sigh. Oh, well.
You can still see Isabelle's graceful little moves. She certainly has the right body for ballet.

Aren't the girls just darling??

Then Sherrill and I took the Artist with us to "God's Favorite" play. The content was a bit much for my darling, but she enjoyed watching our sweet friend Rochelle perform.
Below, some of the cast, after the play.

Rochelle, you were awesome!~!!! The accent especially just blew me away.

Soaring to new heights

It rained again yesterday. I could never live in Forks, I'm tellin' ya.
Sunshine is sustaining, like food. I need it. On beautiful days, we go outside after school (if we haven't been outside working already.) On the yucky nasty dreary days, I have to distract myself with fun things indoors. Yes, I said I'm distracting myself, not the kids. I think they handle the gloom better than I do.
So, we created a Greek mosaic using plaster of paris. Pictures soon.
And we did a mini photo shoot using a blue sheet, white cut-out clouds, and stars.

Nature Man soars through the air, determined to rescue the world yet again from the forces of darkness.

Dash zooms along, following his big brother. He is the ultimate sidekick.

The cloud fairy merely hovers, aiding airplanes through perilous weather.

Yes, these kids shower me with smiles and stars on the gloomiest of days.
The sun starts shining right from the house. :-)

Nature Man is quick to offer aid when the rain comes...

Fire Department Field Trip

Yeah, we're still quarantined, although we're feeling much better. Tomorrow we will be "released."

We cheated just a bit today, though, and drove over to see Papa at the fire department, so the kids could get out of the house, and take some energy out on the truck.

Posing for Mommy

In Papa's seat

Wearing Papa's clothes

Climbing on Papa's truck

Taking turns wearing Papa's helmet

What a sweet Papa, posing with four sweet kids and their amazingly sweet Daddy.

And one family shot to boot!

This "field trip" featured on About.com's Homeschool Links, here.

When I was sick and lay a-bed...

Our week started out like any other, except for the SUN's glorious reappearance.
Oh my, I do miss the sun on dreary days.

On Monday we worked by the windows, with light streaming in and,
when we couldn't handle our home-coop anymore,
our books were brought outside. What a beautiful day that was!
We even squeezed a park playdate in that afternoon.By that evening, though, sickness had set in. Nature Man and I went first, with stiff joints, sore throats, and fevers. On Tuesday we tested positive for the flu. :-(

On Wednesday morning Nature Man's fever spiked to 105.5 and he was doing his scare-mom-half-to-death-wheezing-episodes. So we rushed back in again, to be told that it sounded/ looked like Nature Man was coming down with pneumonia. Geesh. So more meds, more breathing treatments, and more rest.
Today was better. Nature Man has kept his fever down, although the Artist started running a fever last night that has carried on throughout the day. So far Dash and Little Lad seem to be escaping the dreaded swine flu.
School has slowed WAY down this week. We've been doing history (mostly reading and drawing pictures for the time line,) some phonics & grammar when they feel up to it. Math has slowed... I think we only managed to get about half of our scheduled stuff done. The beauty of homeschooling, though... they were able to continue with some things, and they'll be able to sail right back in, without heavy make-up assignments to burden the recovery.
The Artist and I even managed a simple easy craft yesterday. The full directions for this easy fringe fleece scarf are here at Make and Takes.

Cut strips and align them. Sew down the middle.

Cut 1 inch wide slits up both sides, making sure not to cut through the sewn line.

Fluff.
Viola, new scarf!

Rest well and stay well! (and please pray that my little people get/stay well, too!)

No risk of boredom here

This has been one of those super-busy, super-fun, super-hectic weeks. It's almost too much to share. But I'll try. :-)

My sister Julie's birthday was this week.
Happy Birthday again, Julie!!

Jules and Adam, out to breakfast, before the Razorback game they went to.

On her actual birthday, Amy and I went out with Jules to Kosmos and then to the Wine Cellar. I highly recommend both. I love real Greek gyros. Mmm.... It was a nice, casual little place. We were over-dressed in there.At the Wine Cellar we fit right in. Our "waiter" was obviously tipsy, but he was a nice enough guy and the atmosphere certainly made up for it. Wish we'd taken photos in there.

I've also been painting every night. The color is a bit off in some of the pictures. It's called Powder Blue 3, and reminds me of a calm sky over the sea.



You get the idea. I'll post a big full picture when my vacuum is out of the living room, and laundry is off the couch. ;-P
We've been doing "fun" stuff, too. Painting the house is only fun at first... hallway was great. Ceiling was fun. Living room wasn't bad, because I just watched movies while I painted. But the bathroom job started to wear me out. Luckily, I ran out of paint. Heh. Maybe I'll get more this week. Maybe not.

So, fun stuff...
drawing with fabric markers on the kids' socks.
Fun, artistic outlet.
(And I found out that my socks were "released" the same weekend as the movie.
Is that awesome or what?)

Little Lad did lots of block-building, shape-sorting on the gray and wet days.

The older kids and I were busy with projects, plans, and a paper for the Artist to finish up.
I worked for a bit on the Halloween Lapbook with Dash.

More pictures of the preschool Halloween one here.

Our Time lapbook
More pictures of this one here.

On Friday night we had Game Night at Amy's.
Fred was trying to pressure me to sing.
I didn't cave. Sorry, Babe, I'm a guitar gal.

Julie rocked on the drums, Vu mastered the guitar, and my honey can sing like nobody's business. Amy was chillin' after she rocked on vocals.
So much fun, as always!! Amy even treated us to my Mimi's enchilada recipe. It was sooo good. And guacamole, too. Mmmmm....

Next day. Saturday. I had my in-laws over all day (seven kids in the house- woot, woot, lots of energy.) At 4pm they took off and by 6pm I had ladies arriving for Firepit Night.

I. Can't. Believe. There. Are. NO. Pictures.

I was distracted by the table full of desserts. I think everyone brought either drinks or desserts!! YUM.

And then there's today. Worship, Julie's special time with The Artist Girl, and then our Family Firepit Night.

Does this Nature Man look like his Daddy or what?

(I think my boys all need haircuts. Or is the style long right now?)

Dash likes to cook his own marshmallows. More power to him.
They were...ummm...overcooked....

but apparently still very yummy!!

The Artist, so carefully, munching her smore, trying to guard against stickiness.

Even our big ladies got in on the feast.

Yes, we let them free-range every day. Watch where you step.

I don't know if I could take this many
parties, plans, projects, papers, people every week,
but it sure was a blast!!