Refashion

There was a challenge on DAM to take something from your closet and make something new out of it.
We got two outgrown sweaters and two pairs of old jeans from the girls' closet and made shrugs and skirts.
My original plan was to have the whole outfit be made of the sweater, but the skirt was WAY too short for a 6 year old girl. ;)
It was really quick to make...well, it WOULD have been really quick to make if my sewing machine didn't have to be convinced that it really COULD do a zigzag stitch. :p

Season Opener for the Alpine Dancers

Last night, the adult half of the Alpine Dancers had a gig to play at a retirement center in McKinney (and it was only 5 minutes from home for us!) Alex was originally supposed to make his debut performance, but had to miss it because he was in North Carolina unexpectedly for his grandmother's funeral.
The kids still wanted to go and be dressed up just so they could look cute. So, here are our first pictures of the season. The girls are wearing their green skirts because they have outgrown the blue ones (although Libby's green skirt is short, I may have to have her trade with Caroline). The kids got to dance the last dance with the adults which they LOVE...can you tell?









Caroline and her absolute favorite partner, Eduardo!


A very happy Libby


Joseph, swinging his partner....

Rock hunt

More rocks. :D
I forgot to mention that when we made the sedimentary rocks, we also made metamorphic rocks by squishing together different colors of Starbursts. Best rocks I have ever eaten!

This morning, we took a walk down to the creek to find some more rocks. Toby and Lucy insisted on joining us.






The haul...


We did rock testing after we got home. We tested the hardness (with a series of scratch tests), magnetic qualities, the streak test (does it mark on a ceramic tile?), and the acid test (this one tests for Calcium Carbonate in the rock. Apparently, in North Texas, we have a LOT of rocks with Calcium Carbonate. All but 1 of our 10 rocks that we tested tested positive for this one).

Gourds

Remember this from a few weeks ago?


It now looks like this:

I have to go out daily to tuck it back into the trellis and make sure it is not invading the neighbors yard.

And, we have our first gourd!


The problem is, the gourd is over 6 ft off the ground and it is pretty heavy. I wonder if the vine will be able to support it. We have a ton of blooms too, so we could have quite a crop if they all start moving along! We may have a new medium for Nanny...she can go from painting rocks to painting Bird House Gourds. :D

Balloons, Bubbles and Jump rope

Back in May, I bought a few things to keep around for one of those days that was rainy or we were otherwise confined to the house. Today was that day. Joseph and Libby have been dealing with some kind of tummy thing and we have been just hanging around.
Joseph and the screaming rocket balloons....


Libby practicing her jump rope skills...


Caroline blowing bubbles....

Making Rocks

I bet you have never made a rock. On purpose. We made sedimentary rocks yesterday out of sand from the sandbox, pebbles from the fish tank of the dead fish, Epsom salts, leaves and twigs.
Here they are....sedimenting. :p

Mountain Creek Ranch

The post before this one has a photo album attached to it from the ranch. If you click on the picture, it will take you to the photobucket website, where you can see the rest of the pictures.

We went to the ranch with our friends from German dancing and got to go on a hayride and visit with baby horses. The ranch was absolutely gorgeous!

Mountain Creek Ranch

Photobucket Album

Chip Mining

(Late post for Saturday)
Today, while I was organizing all of our homeschool books for fall, Joseph asked if we could do school because we hadn't done it in a long time. We actually HAVE been doing school, but we have been doing different things, not our regular curriculum. He REALLY wanted to do the Rocks and Mineral unit, which is supposed to be the middle of the year. But what the heck...we homeschool, we can do it when we want, right? The first thing we did was talk about mining and how they remove things from the earth. Then the kids had to "mine" chocolate chips out of a cookie. The game was that they would get $500 for each whole chip that the successfully removed, but for pieces of cookie (earth) that were bigger than a pencil eraser, they would be fined $100.
Joseph and Libby removed the chips and left gaping holes in the cookie...no pieces lost. Daddy, who thought he would join the kids, had a pile of crumbs when he was done.

Rain Forest Cafe

This is a late post for Friday.
Today we met a fellow homeschooler at Grapevine Mills to get some pre-owned curriculum. ;) I got most of what I need for the girls for the fall...Yay!
She lived in Keller, so that is why we made the trek to Grapevine Mills. And you absolutely CANNOT go to Grapevine Mills and not stop at the Rain Forest Cafe. Wouldn't you know I would not bring either of my cameras with me? Thank goodness we don't have to endure pictures from the phone all of the time!

While we waited, the kids watched the robotic alligator in entrance area


Libby poses with Cha Cha the frog


The kids watching the talking tree


Joseph gives us his best fish impersonation


And here is what we ordered! (It's their Volcano Dessert.....ice cream with four pieces of chocolate cake, whipped cream and a sparkler)

Busy day on Thursday...

Alex had a doctor's appointment yesterday in Dallas, so we took advantage of having to go down there to use our Dallas World Aquarium membership. I left the camera in the car when we got there, so no pictures of the aquarium, but after we dropped Alex off at his doctor's appointment, I took the kids over to Lake Highland's Recreation Center to play at the splashpark.

Splashparks are so much fun on a hot day!























Joseph bonked his head on a pole and was a little upset.


The update on Alex's eyes is that the pressure in his left eye (29) is still elevated so the doctor won't do surgery until the pressure is down. So, Alex is looking at the second surgery probably not being until Christmas break. I was really hoping to get them both done before the fall semester started.

Butterflies and Dancing

Today was just a regular ol' Monday around here. We got up and decided to go to the pool before it got too hot out today, only to get to the pool and find out it was closed for repairs. So, we walked back home, jumped in the car and drove the extra five blocks to go to the OTHER pool. The kids went swimming for a couple of hours and then we headed home for lunch.
This afternoon, we went to the Heard to look at the snake exhibits (since they are inside and it is hot outside). When we arrived, Alex told us that the butterfly exhibit had opened that day, so we did walk outside for just a short bit to get to the butterfly house.
They were very pretty. They wouldn't let us "touch" the butterflies though, so I couldn't get any cool-on-the-nose kind of pictures.




We never did see the snakes. We went back into the building and the kids wanted to spend the rest of our time digging for dinosaur bones and being the "first children to uncover all of it".




You know....I can't recall ever seeing shoes lined up neatly like this at home.



From the Heard, we grabbed dinner and went to German Dancing. It's always nice to get there a bit early so the kids have time to play on the swingset.




Here are some of the kids dancing. I just love to watch them!




We were short some boys tonight...


And, here is Herr Kleinschmidt getting his Schuhplattler on (and wearing the largest hat ever ordered for a member of this dance group at 61cm)...


uhhh.....