A mystery

Whose little hand could have made this???

Not this sweet little angel who *never* gets into mischief

Turned my back long enough for him 'peeent'

Finishing up Pioneer Week

I forgot to post about the rest of our Pioneer adventure. The pioneers had to grind their own corn on the Oregon Trail and I thought it would be fun for the kids to give it a try. We have a cast iron morter and pestle but we don't keep corn in the house. I also couldn't find any dried corn (but then I didn't go to a feed store).

Driving home I spotted a partial ear of feed corn on the side of the road across from our neighbor's house. The huge corn field across the street was harvested a while ago so I don't know where this ear came from or how old it was. So I deposited the kids with daddy and walked back to get the ear. My neighbor just nods and smiles now when she sees me. I like to think we provide a little entertainment to help break up the monotany of her day.

So here is Hank giving hand grinding a whirl. He declared it 'berry hard.'

Ella didn't care if it was hard to do as long as she looked cute doing it. Mission accomplished.

Venison stew in a cast iron dutch oven cooked on an electric stove

Dipping sliced apples in lemon juice so we can hang them up to dry. They're still drying so we haven't tasted them yet.

Running the string through the slices so we can hang them up

Another fun week of learning while playing. This week we're talking about Westerners in China and, if the weather cooperates, we're having a Chinese New Year party Friday.

Code Breakers

We went to the National Cryptologic Museum on Friday. The kids learned about some of the codes people would have used to help slaves on the Underground Railroad. They also learned a little about the flag codes and cipher wheels used during the Civil War and the Navajo Code Talkers from WWII. A lot of it was over their heads, but we think they came away thinking codes are pretty cool.

Making codes on magnetic boards. Ella made one that said "princesses live here"

I forget what Hank's said...it was really long and complicated.

The reason I didn't take very many pictures....so cute though :)

Max and Ruby....Ruby and Max

Shane is seriously addicted to that cute little bunny and his big sister. Max came to visit our local library and Shane was one happy camper.

Ella the movie star never passes up a photo op

He couldn't stop staring at Max. He would walk up and pet his arm and then back up and stare some more.

He stood in front of Max and pointed out all his parts to the librarian. Max's eyes. Max's feet and so on. Miss Caroline is quite possibly the most patient person on the planet and handled the chaos with such grace.

Will you autograph my book?

Brief stop for a computer game

Maaaxxx! Don't go! he was very sad to see Max go

Bye Friend!

Toothpaste anyone?

It was too quiet so I should have known something was going on. Thankfully it's 'toddler' toothpaste without fluoride. I think he ate half the tube. Yum

Head West Young Man!

This week is the Oregon Trail so we've watched a video about pioneer life on the trail and read A Frontier Fort on the Oregon Trail. I requested a stack of books at the library and then forgot Monday was a holiday so we're a little behind on our reading.

Anyhoo, we talked about what they took on the trail and I told the kids to pretend we were leaving our home to go on an adventure. I told them to think about what they'd take with them.

Hank's List:
1. a map
2. bow and arrow
3. an ax
4. pink medicine (amoxicillin, yea he's never had an ear infection...sigh...)
5. chocolate milk

and he'd carry his Bible in his pocket

Ella's list:
1. a Barbie
2. school work (my jaw is still on the floor...she's volunteering to take schoolwork??)
3. cereal (she and daddy have cereal together before he goes to work)
4. her baby with a suitcase
5. her Bible

Ella chose My Little Ponies to pull her wagon

Mulan is at the helm with Hank's 'best horse' (the black one, lower left) leading the whole wagon train. Hank volunteered to be the last wagon so he could keep an eye out for bad guys.
Other side. Hank's drawing is of Indians hunting buffalo

Who's peeking?

The very proud creaters

The bird

Jake, Hank and Ella are bird watchers in training and they're pretty good at spotting and identifying different birds.

Hank's favorite bird is the Cardinal. I suspect that is in part because they're pretty easy to spot.

We came home from church today to find a female cardinal lying dead on the table on the porch. The table is under a big window so the bird probably flew into the window and it killed her.

I didn't want to miss the opportunity for the kids to inspect her up close so I got a paper plate and brought her inside. I couldn't find any plastic gloves so we used baggies. Hank was pretty upset that there was a dad cardinal who didn't have a wife anymore. Ella was very interested in her and closely inspected her. We spread out her wings, looked at the downy feathers on her tummy and tried to open her beak (we couldn't budge it).

Then we had a bird funeral. She's buried near Mango the cat and Clark and Telly the rats.

Daddy and Jake were good sports, paused the football game, and came out to dig a hole for us.

And then Ella and Hank shared a few words about how beautiful she was and they thanked God that we have more Cardinals in our yard to look at. I was really pleased (amazed!) to capture all three of them with their heads bowed. They were very serious and somber about it.

Girlie got a new dress

Thank you Grammy and Grampy! She LOVES it and it matches her purple sparkly shoes. :)