Saturday, January 31, 2009

Joseph's Superbowl Menu

Joseph wants to make the superbowl a "special football game for dad". He brought me our menu for tomorrow night before I went grocery shopping this morning.
Here is our awesome party fare menu:
Nachos
Grilled Cheese
Apple Dipper PB+C (peanut butter and caramel)
Pop Corn
Beer

Friday, January 30, 2009

Nasher Homeschool Workshop

The Nasher is always a fun trip. Always. The kids love the sculpture gardens and I am always amazed at the comments they make and the works that appeal to them.
Today, we had signed up for a Homeschool Workshop about the process of making a sculpture.
Here is Caroline paying very close attention to different types of sculptures being described while wearing her glasses from her Recycled Art class. ;)
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The guard made me put my camera up after that and I didn't get any more pictures. I don't know what the deal was with that. The Nasher USUALLY allows cameras and I wasn't using a flash. :(
There is a special exhibit there right now of George Segal's Street Scenes.
The workshop was fabulous. I am always amazed at what the Nasher can do for families but not ask for any payment!
After hearing about how Segal went about making his sculptures, the kids made plaster casts of faces (using plastic faces). They were able to bring home the extra plaster casting, the plastic faces, their works of art and they also did some modeling in clay that they got to take with them.
Once home, Joseph was convinced that he was going to do a plaster cast of Caroline. After I convinced him that we probably did not have enough casting material left to do that, he opted to do one of a toy Triceratops. ;)
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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The Asia Quilt

Joseph's end of unit project was SUPPOSED to be several different activities, but he REALLY wanted to take the "quilt squares" that he did in the student book and make a REAL quilt out of it.
We found fabric for the printer at JoAnn's. Well, HE found it and latched onto it.
So I got to figure out how to make a quilt. Here is our effort. Joseph really likes it because there is a minky fleece backing on it....very very soft and fuzzy.
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Here are close-ups of the four countries that he did:
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We hand knotted the quilt because I wanted him to be able to help with it and I didn't want this project to go on indefinitely. I am sure I broke all kinds of quilt etiquette rules...I had no clue what I was doing.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Mochitsuki

I am finally getting around to uploading these pictures. I am really missing having my own computer. Did I mention that it has been in the shop for three weeks?!
Last Sunday, all six of us went to the Japanese New Year's Celebration. The kids really enjoyed it last year and they are doing an Asia unit right now, so it fit right in. ;)

They went straight to the First Calligraphy of the Year table...
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Caroline is writing her name in Japanese next to "Heart".

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Joseph is writing "Dream"

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Then it was over to the Origami table. Libby made a paper balloon.
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Caroline made a bunny's head
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Joseph made a dog
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We stood in line to get Mochi...which Joseph STILL loves and asked again this year where you can buy it.
Then we went out to see the Mochi pounding demonstration and get a taste of some "fresh" mochi.

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Watching the demonstration

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mmmm!

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They gave Caroline a HUGE blob of Mochi. It was very difficult to wash off. :p
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Playing a game
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Joseph and entourage ;) We know the other two boys from Dallas Area Moms.
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The pictures of the girls

Here is a link to the website with the pictures that the girls took yesterday. They are SO amazing! Libby and Caroline start at picture #23.
Mazy Photography

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Friends Forever

Caroline brought me a picture today. It had "Friends Forever" and fireworks at the top and three stick people holding hands at the bottom. She told me that it was her, Joseph and Libby.
How cool is it when your best friends are always within shoving distance?!

Joseph-ism

Today the girls had their pictures taken by a fabulous local photographer. She is redoing her website and we are helping her. ;)
I keep tic tacs in my purse for emergency situations....ok, for bribery. I had to pull them out today to keep continued cooperation going from half of my girls.
Joseph told the photographer, "It's like feeding your kids patience."
hehe

Friday, January 9, 2009

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Who says you can't teach an old greyhound new tricks?


This is Toby doing "dead dog". His version of "dead dog" is dropping his head and shoulders down to the floor and leaving his butt up in the air. Lucy (the little Jack Russell Terrier) is desperately trying to show us how you really do a Dead Dog move.

African diorama

Joseph is finishing up a partial unit on Africa. He and Caroline were not really thrilled with the whole Africa thing but that may be because Asia is the other half of the unit and they REALLY like China and Japan.
Here is the diorama, which they did love doing.
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Thursday, January 1, 2009

The Singin' Machine

The kids got assorted gift cards for Christmas and a good chunk of them were from Target. They decided to pool their cards together and get this:



They are having a blast with it. Joseph has been especially surprising. He LOVES the microphone!And yes, the disco lights DO rotate and there are differnt patterns to choose from. Thank you Aunt Jackie and Uncle Eric and Leti!