Happy Birthday, Em!

Some great action shots from the birthday party...the kids are shooting rockets up into the air.



Heading off into the forest with his new wheelbarrow. It matches daddy's John Deere.

New Bikes

Not only is this my 200th blog post but my kids got new bikes to celebrate....We have so many hills in our neighborhood we figured they needed hand brakes and better fitting bikes...They are thrilled and so are we...now we can turn biking into a family event....Veloway here we come!

Sherwood Forest Faire

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,

from Geoffrey Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales

A new Ren Fest debuted this year near Austin. Very impressive for their first year. We will surely turn this into an annual event. The Sherwood Forest Faire was much more family friendly than any of the other Renaissance Festivals we've been to. We saw Jousting, a funny Puppet Show, participated in the Children's School of Sword, and attended a Fairy Tea Party!
Forsooth we had a splendid time.

Sir Emerson (in the back) participating in the Children's School of Sword.

Sir Emerson was thrilled when he was chosen to be the volunteer in a magic trick.

Princess Annie taking her leisure

We are wel frended!

Cautionary Tale

Sometimes my little guy likes to snuggle a stuffed animal when he sleeps. Last night he asked for something to snuggle and I handed him his clown. His clown was hand made in the 70's and used to be my little bro's. The clown is about 2 feet tall and so well stuffed that he has some weight behind him. As I handed it to Emerson I noticed there was a 2 foot piece of yarn around the clown's neck.

Flashback....A few days earlier the kids were playing "santa's sleigh" and their stuffed animals were the reindeer pulling the stroller sleigh.

I noticed the yarn and consciously thought to myself...nothing will happen...it will be ok. (anyone who knows me knows that I am VERY safety aware...so that thought was a BIG step for me).

At 6:24 this morning I woke up to the rattled and muffled scream, "Mommy!.........Mommy!......the clown is choking me!"

The string must have wrapped around his neck as he spent the night tossing and turning like 4 year olds do....

When I got to him it wasn't super tight and I was able to easily grab the yarn and break it.

Invisible Emerson

Here's Emer's video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REXOzHhRhgg

Special Effects

What my sweet hubby and the kids like to do in their spare time...

Click here to see Annie's Special Effects movie

Pioneer Farms

Here we are with some of our homeschool co-op friends. This morning we went to Pioneer Farms. We saw a demonstration of the tools used to build a log cabin, cotton combing , blacksmithing, pioneer cooking, spent time practicing our stilt walking skills, and petting and feeding lots of farm animals. We ate lunch under Pioneer Oak, a 450 year old Live Oak tree in the Tonkawa Encampment. The Tonkawa were native nomadic people of central Texas in the 1700 and 1800's until they were removed to a reservation in Oklahoma.

The highlight for the kids was "Buck" this longhorn mama who they all fell in love with. She was so very gentle and loved the kids back. She was also a mama and she let us watch her nurse her calf.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The Leprechaun left us his pot o' gold once again...this year it was hidden among the Kidney Wood trees. Here they are wearin' the green with the pot full of gold....

Gramma Jan and Great Gram Dorothy came over for lunch. They made Irish Soda Bread with the kids and we all had a green, white and orange lunch.

Lucky Me!

The other night I went out for some socializing with two of my girlfriends... We were discussing our career choices and career changes.

My one friend looked at me and said something like," I want to be as sure of my choice as you are. You seem so confident in your choices."

My other friend, referring to me, interjected with a smile, "She's found her passion and she knows it!!"

You know, I am so very lucky. For now I have found something that I am very passionate about and I love the career path I have chosen. I love spending the days with my kids teaching them in an against - the - main - stream - holistic - way. I love spending my evenings learning about holistic education and planning our lessons and days. One other thing that I love....I love sharing my enthusiasm and passion for holistic education and homeschooling with others.

In this present moment I am lucky and confident!

Copper Rods

Here are some copper rod activities that we do at home. My daughter learned these from her amazing Eurythmy teacher, Barbara Bresette-Mills. I will post more as time allows.... Enjoy....

Copper Rod activities are great for midline crossing and over time can develop new pathways in the brain... They are fun and the copper is just amazing to touch and it is cool to watch the copper change over time too...

Here is a link that I found with some more copper rod activities...
http://www.movementforchildhood.com/copperrods.pdf

I will post more as time allows.... Enjoy....