Miscellaneous May

One day, while Catherine and I were walking laps on our property, we found this little guy making his way down to the pond:

A tiny turtle!

After admiring it, Catherine carried it to the pond, where it quickly slid into the water.

After the end of studying The King of the Golden City, Catherine made this lovely cake:

She decorated it herself.

Luscious strawberries began to appear:

Their new location near the house helped greatly.

Oh, that looks yummy!

At the end of a semester of art class, we celebrated with doughnuts:

They were enjoying this immensely.

Anne and Catherine showed off their final art project.

We saw some cool storm clouds while driving one day:

We stopped on the side of the country road to take the picture.

All of the kids got to do Lego Club:

Anthony, Catherine, Joseph, and Dominic showed off their creations.

Anne

This was Anthony's first time participating and he was so proud to put his creation in the display case at the library!

We met friends at the playground one day:

It was a game of chase!

Full-speed ahead.

Dominic took a break with a friend.

We go to the playground and what do the boys do?  Climb trees!

Girl hug!

We had two little cousins over for a couple days:

They checked out the chickens.

They climbed the hay bales.

They went for a ride in the big, yellow wagon.

Courtesy of Anne and Anthony.

Balthaser and Anthony had a sword fight.

They did each other in.

One day, we used another set of Braum's Book Buddies rewards:

Ice cream is good, very, very good.

Legos, Art, and Butterflies

At the end of March, we went to Lego Club at the library.  This month the theme was Castles!

Dominic and Joseph built one together.

Anne and Catherine each made their own.

Anthony was too young to join in, but he liked to watch the others at work.

Catherine with her "castle in ruins."

They had a great time.

One morning, Anthony spent a long time turning an empty cereal box into his own little creation.

"Cheeeeese!"

Kept him occupied for a long time.

One Saturday, Catherine and I went shopping for an Easter dress for her.  While we were there, Catherine picked out a tie for Daddy and we sent him a picture of it.

Silly tie!

The Christmas before last, we got the kids a live butterfly garden kit.  Included in the kit were a netted enclosure and a coupon to send off for the caterpillars.  I finally remembered to send off for the caterpillars at the right time of year and in March we got a container with 5 caterpillars.  Inside the container was all the food they would need as caterpillars.  The kids were fascinated, watching the caterpillars get bigger every day and frequently shedding their skins as they grew.  When the caterpillars were big enough, they attached themselves to a paper at the top of their container and each one formed itself into a chrysalis. 

We moved the paper with the chrysalides to the netted habitat.

Thus began the waiting game for butterflies!

Miscellaneous November

In early November, Dan started building a greenhouse between the big shed and the garden.

The boys watched Daddy dig the holes.

These posts used to be crossbars on telephone poles!

The kids practiced archery.

Dominic can shoot those arrows a long way!

Joseph agrees.

Also in early November, I took my oldest three and two of their cousins to the Young People's Concert at Century II.  We first listened to Vivaldi, then Peter and The Wolf, the story of which was acted out by a small dance troupe while the orchestra played.  The kids really liked it.  I did too!

They enjoyed the concert.

Dominic, Anne, Isabella, Catherine, and Seth.

One day I snapped a couple of pictures of Anne reading to Anthony:

I love it when the older kids read to the younger ones.

He had to get a closer look at the pictures.

Joseph with a cornucopia creation.

One day when it was really cold outside, we had painting time.

Art, art, art!

Art Class!

This semester, the three oldest kids have been taking an art class.  A real art class, where you learn about different art techniques by trying them out.  They have been enjoying it.  These pictures are from early February, when we had a St. Valentine's party after class.  We had it early to avoid Lent.

Busy working in art class.

The age range is 6 to about 16!  The teacher handles them all with ease.

Okay, Mom, when does this party start?

Anthony kept wanting me to take his picture, so I did.

One way to amuse a toddler while waiting on big brother and sisters.

Joseph drew some pictures.

Finally it was time for the party!

Each kid had decorated a sack or box to hold their valentines.  Siblings got to participate as well.

Oh, they had so much fun putting in valentines and then opening up their sacks to see what they got!

Can't have a St. Valentine's party without treats!

Eating the good stuff!