A Quiet Tuesday...

Hello Friends!!

Today is a blissfully grey day filled with quiet thus far.  Ari and I went on a dark and cold walk this morning and it was beautiful!  I will continue to walk with him until it's too cold for him to be out with me and then I will leave him home with Ian and I will walk solo. 

not 'quite' sunrise

Bright pink and orange is easy to see in the dark morning light!

Katie was awake (a rare occurrence first thing in the am) so she traveled along with us!  And yes, her pink coat makes me giggle, too!  On the dark mornings I like to have Kate with us...just in case.  

I got back and we hit the ground running!  We had a busy day planned!

our planned day!

We were able to move through most of it but not all.  Some days move smoother than others.  Today we used Eric Carle as our inspiration and used our water colored papers that we made yesterday to create a picture.  Eric Carle paints tissue paper and then cuts out small pieces, collage-style, to create his beautiful illustrations.  Tyler got right to work cutting and fitting together some pieces from his papers to create this amazing movable snake!

When he gets an idea he literally jumps in wholeheartedly and flies through until his idea has come to fruition...think Edward Scissorhands!

Ty's papers 

Ty's awesome, watercolored, hinged snake!

Kendall on the other hand, is making something for Grandma Sue's upcoming birthday and was extremely frustrated with how her vision was turning out.  I offered help and she became even grumpier as she was really mad and frustrated.  I know it sounds strange but the more I tried to help, the worse it became.  I completely understand what was happening to her as it's happened so many times to me in the past.  Something looks a certain way in your head and when it comes out onto paper it looks NOTHING like it did in your head.  No matter what you do it does not look as you hoped it would.  It's a crushing feeling.  

take note of the box of tissues...ya...it was THAT kind of frustration...

So I backed off completely until she was ready to accept help, which she did eventually.  It was very reminiscent of a toddler having a tantrum - only 10 year old girl style.  I just kept carrying on with what I was doing and ignored her until she was ready to rejoin us.  It's amazing how the same techniques still work sometimes.  So, moving on....the re-do of her project came out AMAZING.  I will show it here after Grandma Sue's birthday - no spoilers here!  (wink!)  As they were creating, I was reading to them about the American Flag.

Super fabulous information, easy to read and easy for the children to understand.  In about 20 minutes we touched upon 9/11, WWII, and Arlington National Cemetery.  

Due to all of the above, our morning took MUCH longer than it usually does so we moved rather swiftly today through spelling and grammar and onto math.  After math the children had DEAR time and then we ran through the Spanish alphabet about 6 or 7 times.  

He corrected 'organism' after I took this photo...

Having left over Nutella from her 'Nutella and apples' snack while working with the Learning Palettes.

Cranking through double digit subtraction with borrowing.

Apparently I need to turn up the heat!

Kendall very proudly finished Little House in the Big Woods today!!  She was super excited!!  Tyler then asked her to join him in the tee pee for his DEAR time.  Although I was tempted to move her onto the next item on our list, I encouraged her to go and let her brother read to her.  It's this flexibility that I'm still getting used to!  But they are thriving on it so onward we move!

They were ready for a break now so we headed out on a family walk, (I must say that selfishly I love a 2 walk day!!) complete with two new "members' of our family!!  Kendall brought out her American Girl Doll Bitty Baby Stroller along with her two Bitty Babies.  It was the CUTEST thing ever.  Every car that drove by us smiled as they saw Kendall walking her two babies.  We came home and had lunch and then headed out for a couple of quick errands. 

Big Ben, Parliment!!  (anyone a Chevy Chase or Vacation movie fan?)

Her smile says it all!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Stopping for a quick water break!

cute and knows it!!

For REAL!?!?!?  This was waiting for us as we came into the entrance to our basement!!  Talk about CREEP FACTOR!!  The kids thought he was cool and immediately noticed that he only has 7 legs!!!  Darwin??

NOM, NOM, NOM!!  Scraping off the delicious, sugary sprinkles off of a White's Bakery Cookie!!  Thank you Grandma Sue and Popeye!!!

YUM!

Reading Nat Geo during lunch!  My dream!

He's obsessed with showing us his eye lately and saying "eyeeeeeeeeeeeee" over and over!  lol!!  It's the cutest thing ever...

"eyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"  And yes, his hands and mouth were black for the rest of the day until tubby time!

I brought Tyler to archery and Kendall had an art history class focusing on Pointillism.  It's honestly one of my very favorite techniques and periods in art history.  

Tye-dyed roses at our local market!  I wonder what Darwin would think of these!?!  

He ADORES playing in the children's section at the library!!

Finished with art history class!!

Hippos in Pointillism!

Looking forward to another fun filled day tomorrow!!