Ginger

We have a new addition to our family.
We have added a one year old Dachshund to our mix.  That goes perfectly with an 11 year old Greyhound and a 10 year old Jack Russell, right?
She is adorable, mischievous, funny and smart and has had us all giggling at her antics.

People of Sparks

We finished People of Sparks in Moving Beyond the Page last week, one literature unit down, 11 to go! The kids really enjoyed this story.
The final project they were asked to consider what would have happened if the citizens of Ember had emerged from under the earth in a different location.
They were supposed to make a flag, do a Venn diagram, make a map and write an essay. Somehow, NONE of them wrote the essay. They kept making more pieces and avoiding the writing. :p Joseph ended up with the first three components, a diagram of the government color coded to go with the flag and the map.  

 Joseph's Budthorn


Libby's Green Mountain (the "characters" are actually buildings. Apparently, the people emerged in a Disney World that was in Vermont. :p)


Caroline's Opportunity
(Her picture is of the beach and the ocean. There are doors all over both of them where the people can go to get everything they need to live. )

Rock Festival

The kids started a new unit on Friday and it is on The Changing Earth. By coincidence, Brookhaven College had a rock expo thing today and it was a great way to kick off our new unit.
Alex took some great pictures of our morning! (The kids got free arrowheads if they came in their scout uniforms.)

 

 



Looking at one of our free rocks with a fancy camera/microscope set-up










Showing the guys at the Trinity Audobon table where Dallas is on the map

McKinney Oktoberfest

What a difference from last week to this week!
Last weekend was extremely hot and muggy for Addison Oktoberfest. This week, we had McKinney Oktoberfest and it is about 25* cooler and very overcast (we were lucky that it rained when we were NOT supposed to dance).

The Almost Twins

Libby FINALLY lost her front tooth! It had been hanging there forever and today I just helped it out. ;)
So, we have two 8 year olds and 2 missing teeth...how close to being twins can you get?

Caroline is 8!

We had a little party for Caroline's birthday courtesy of House Party. It was so much fun! I applied for a Beyblade party, but didn't really have a clue what it would all be about. They sent 5 battle tops, an arena, cd's, posters, coupons...
We set up a tournament at the pool and invited some of our friends over to swim and battle. The kids had a blast and we may have created the new obsession at co-op. ;)

It's Oktoberfest time again!

Yes, it is that time again! It is still extremely hot here in North Texas, but the calendar says it is time for Addison Oktoberfest. The kids performed on Thursday night at 8:00 pm (we had a mandatory two hour rest period on Thursday afternoon and the performance went surprisingly well!). Then they performed twice each on Saturday and Sunday.
Libby has a plantar wart the size of a quarter on her big toe. That coupled with the extreme heat and a loose tooth was enough for her to refuse to perform on Saturday. So, no pictures of Libby yet. She did perform on Sunday and redeemed herself.






(yes, it is Alex!)


















And, here are the 2010 Alpine Dancers


We do it again next weekend in McKinney!

Arboretum

This school year is already flying by! The kids are finishing up their first unit on geography. Their project involved going to a park-like place, taking pictures, sketching, documenting some facts and drawing a map.
We took our outing to the Arboretum, which is always a popular destination for the gang.
The kids took their cameras...


Made sketches of "wildlife"


The wildlife ;)


Studied the map and looked for landforms


Posed...


More wildlife


And a few more










And it IS the arboretum, so here is a flower.

Zoo

We took advantage of our zoo membership last week and had a fun day at the Dallas Zoo. We finally go to check out the new section they finished earlier this year called Giants of the Savannah. It was really really awesome. I wish the entire zoo was like that.
The kids enjoyed feeding the giraffes huge leaves of lettuce. The giraffes obviously understood the drill. ;)