Art Class

We are so blessed --- a local college has created a special art program just for our homeschool group. It is wonderful. I am the one the coordinates the classes - so when our family is studying a certain time period - I will sometimes ask for the art projects to tie into our history studies. We are currently studying ancient times. Our wonderful art teacher did a drawing class with an animal focus and a prehistoric art focus.

The art was created on brown boards that gave the resemblance of a cave wall. They first worked on a dog on a smaller piece --- to work on proportions.

This is my youngest, JJ's. The horizontal lines - were added to work on proportion.

This is JJ's final picture - he picked out another picture of a dog and re-created it on his larger board. He added some color. It turned our very cute. We purchased a frame and it is now hanging in our living room.

Here you can see (on the left) the picture that my middle son was using as inspiration. In the middle is his drawing - he isn't finished yet but ran out of time in class. On the left is JJ's picture. His is completed. They really turned out neat. It was a great concept. My middle son loves to draw. My husband was excited about this class (he loves drawing too!) that he took off work and came to visit the class. (He even joined in and drew an elephant. It is really a great drawing!)

New addition to the family

My oldest has been begging to get a kitten for along time. Our local animal shelter was running a special on kittens and so we thought we would 'take a look'. Well, looking turned into --- a new addition for the family! Meet Libby!

She is just a little love. She has a wonderful personality and loves to be held.

Class at Botanical Gardens

We split up into a younger kids class and an older kids class.

The older kids class was 'Wild about Wisconsin' and in it they learned about native plants. Plus they learned how the native plants provided food, medicine and homes for the Native Americans as well as the early settlers.

The younger kids class was Autumn Magician. They used all their senses to explore the smells, sights and sounds of nature. It was very interactive and fun.

After the classroom instruction, we walked out into the gardens. The gardens were still full of color. They were beautiful.

This is my middle child! Isn't he adorable!

We finished up back in the classrooms to make paper helicopters!

Painting Pottery - shhhhh it's a secret

Each year, we look for wonderful projects that can become meaningful Christmas presents for the Grandparents. We like them to be something made by the kids but still something that will be useful or decorative for their home. This year, I came upon a great idea (if you are one of the Grandparents - stop reading!). We went to Touch of Glaze. Each child picked out a piece that they felt was something the intended Grandparent would love. Then, they got to paint the piece. It was fired and we picked them up the following week - and they turned out just fabulous. I really think the Grandparents will love them.

The kids really loved doing this project and want to go back again.

Roman Centurion Re-enactment

Talk about a great event for boys! Wow! Did they love this one! A friend from church is really into history and does re-enactments. One of the best things is the fact he lets the kids TOUCH! How cool is that! All the swords, armor, shields - they loved it!

Doesn't he look just thrilled to be with all the armor and weapons!

He just loved the sword!

Yes, the sword was the thing!

What Faith Can Do by Kutless

Easy Sweet & Sour Chicken

1 Tbsp. oil

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces

2 cups frozen stir-fry vegetable

1 can (8 oz) pineapple chunks in juice, undrained

1/2 cup sweet n' sour sauce

1 cup water

2 cups Minute Brown Rice, uncooked

1. Heat oil in large skillet on medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook and stir 4 min. or until cooked through.

2. Add vegetables, pineapple with juice and sweet n' sour sauce; mix well. Stir in water. Bring to boil.

3. Stir in rice; cover. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer 5 min. Remove from heat. Let stand 5 min. or until almost all of the liquid is absorbed and rice is tender.

My husband and son said this was one of the best recipes I have made in a long time. They really loved it.

Tour of Quarry

Well here is a good one for you!!

First off, you have to know --- I organized this field trip to a quarry. (This piece of info has a huge bearing on what follows!)

When we got there, the plant manager came up to me and said, "so are you all ready? You will all follow me down into the quarry. I will take the lead and we will have one of our other guys bringing up the rear so none of you get lost."

EXCUSE ME!

We are following you INTO the quarry! Driving our cars, down into the quarry! Really. Who set this up?!

Then he said - we normally go all the way down but due to the size of the group we are going to stop about 100 feet before the bottom.

My heart fluttered all the way up to my throat and seemed like it was ready to leap out! I don't mind heights as long as they are solid. I simply don't like cliffs and straight downs with no edges. And taking my kids to edges just makes my knees weak! My first thought was 'drive down' into a quarry - seriously are you joking?! Who organized this? I was not told this. I am going to give that that that person! who organized this a piece of my mind for not giving better info!

Then I thought I suppose it would not look good for said organizer to keep her butt on high ground! Crap! Okay, how bad could it be? Big huge trucks go down --- it has to be a large, big road for them - I will just hug the side without the cliff! I do suppose shutting my eyes is not an option!

Yes all this flashed through my head!

Looking back on my conversations with them, I am sure that it was implied that we would be driving in because she asked about whether we had a bus or would be taking our cars. I just didn't get it (I assumed she meant how we were arriving not how we would be doing the tour) --- which is most likely good as I would clearly have opted out and not set up the field trip. And it turned out to be fantastic.

But I have to confess to white knuckling it all the way down. I prayed my brakes would not fail me! I think I even prayed not to pass out!

This is the group listening to instructions (up top in safety!)
This is the line of cars as we headed out! Doesn't look too bad yet! You won't get pictures of the real road because I had two hands on the wheel and was too busy praying (and maybe saying a few words about that that organizer of the event)

This is part of the road leading down - but you can't really 'see' the down part! I think the scary part was all the gravel that honestly caused some slipping and sliding. They do have a large water truck that wets down the road to keep it safer.

This is where we stopped (about 100 feet from the bottom). You can kind of see the cliff / edge but not how far down it is.
This picture shows trucks up on the road - that is the road we came down on.

At the end of the tour, we got to dig through a pile of the rocks. There were quite a few fossils found. It was very cool.

The information was wonderful. We learned alot and I am so glad we went. It was just a bit of a 'surprise' to know we were actually heading into the quarry. I thought we would be up in the main building and maybe looking at the quarry from a vantage point on top. I really never dreamed we would be so totally part of the action. It wasn't as bad as I thought the drive would be. The roads are large for the trucks and by law they have to have berms that are as high as some part - I think the top of the large wheels on the big, huge trucks. So you couldn't see over the berms to look straight down. You could look across and out and know --- wow that is so far down! So it turned out to not be as frightening as I thought it would be.

My sons loved it and would have been really disappointed to have missed this one. My middle son told me that it was heaven - he loves rocks and big trucks. To see all the rocks and trucks was a slice of heaven for him. Plus, he got to pick out rocks to take home - what could be better!

Palermo Pizza Factory Tour

This is the interior court area.

My husband and oldest son! It was fabulous that Dad took a vacation day and joined us for this tour.

Every one on the tour got a nice big piece of pizza after the tour. My oldest son was thrilled that our youngest is allergic to dairy --- and he got to eat an extra piece!

A fountain in the outside courtyard.

The entrance to the building. This building is very new - built (I believe) in 2006. They have already outgrown the facility and are adding on.