It's Outta Here!

Edible Noah's Ark

Lately we have a snack around the same time as our Bible lesson, so this edible craft served two purposes :)

Peanut butter "glue", a graham cracker, a sugar wafer cut into a triangle, half a pancake, and some animal crackers.  And then I just let them go at it.

Annalise's

Caleb's

Plaque Art

This was a very easy project, and a lot of fun because we have never used real clay before and messy fun seems to be the best kind of fun around. I learned a good lesson in this - if you want to buy clay, JoAnn's sells a nice big bucket of it and it's not too expensive if you bring your 40% off coupon, but if you have a baby who can walk, but isn't really saavy on the store rules yet (don't touch,don't ask, and stay close), the clay is too heavy to carry both her and it, so get a cart. Just take my word for it.

We lined the table with wax paper...I think parchment or freezer paper would have been a better choice.

Also the base of the plaque needs to be kind of thin, it gets really heavy when it dries.



They have to dry overnight.



Caleb's plaque.  I helped him make some of the letters and the S is falling off and pulling the paint with it.

Annalise's plaque.  She really did most of this herself. 

I got into a homeschool conversation with someone recently and she asked me what subject I felt was my strongest.  I have a degree in English, so I started to say language, but reading has been an uphill journey for us (although Caleb is starting to make real progress and he likes it more now too), so I hesitated and said, "I guess it's Arts and Crafts!"  And I mean that in a teaching kids way, not in a "I am good at art" way.  Kid art is fun and forgiving, grown up art is just beyond my ability level.

Mangrove Snappers

The catch

No wonder they call them snappers!

A cute little girl in a princess nightgown...joyfully examining a fish carcass.





Four and a Half

Half a cake = half a princess

The proof!



  I have had a hard time with icing the last few cakes I've made, I finally realized I'd been trying to make it with an all butter recipe, which is ok for just basic icing, but for decorating...falls flat.  I added margarine and it helped a lot.  I've been trying to avoid margarine and shortening, but I guess every now and then you have to use a few unnatural tricks.

A Few Pretty Much Unrelated Pictures

Alligator by Annalise

Alligator that inspired the above picture - this was along the side of the road.

Sometimes I am so happy with my bread that I just can't help but take a picture. 
This is French bread - it's soooo good!

Everything Bread Braid

Half grown grasshopper - they are already huge, but fortunately we don't usually get them
at our house.  A friend of mine who lives a little to the west does though.

Ladybug...or Ladybird beetle...or whatever!  They are cute and not a nuisance!

Three Three-Eyed Aliens by Caleb

She just likes to pose for pictures :)

As Advertised

The seed package said to expect plants 7-12 feet tall...

Big Boy is 7 feet 3 inches tall

The Eastern Sister before her bloom

Our first sunflower!

The Western Sister (of the Two Tall Sisters) is also very tall.  She is taller than me, but probably a foot shorter than Big Boy. 

Balloon Festival

Technically Balloons Over Paradise Festival - it was in Immokalee, which I wouldn't really call paradise, but it was pretty nice. The weather was still on the ground, but too windy up high to fly.

14...and this was not all.

Repeat

I think he's sitting next to the same kid!

2012

2010

Sugar Festival 2012

Tractor Wheel Pose

Carousel addict - she kept coming back.

He got 3/4 of the way up.

Beans, mommy!

The vendor next to us was selling snow cones.  When she was breaking things down, she gave the kids the jumbo $4 cones for free :)

I like cucumbers, but a whole cucumber on a stick?  Not for me.