Ezra's Cute Scoot

Before Ezra could walk, he scooted. (yes, we know this is old but we just got ahold of the footage. ;) ) None of our other children ever did this, but Ezra clearly found it to be an very efficient way to move about without putting down something he was carrying. :)

South American Adventure

Our homeschool curriculum took us to South America, specifically Brazil. Olivia really loves identifying places on the map and "traveling" different ways to these countries--air, land, sea. As she enters the country, we put a flag sticker with the date in her passport.

Olivia and I tired to learn some samba dancing. Daddy taught her some about soccer. And, again we use you tube to listen to Portuguese language and attempt to learn some. There are all kinds of good resources there (just don't try to search for them with your child standing right with you. ;) )

Here is some of her art projects as we spent time in Brazil:

carnival dancer hat

dancer

drinking straw flutes

chimes (we were discussing how silver is mined in South America)

rain stick (postal tube, about 150 nails, beans and paint)

We spent a lot of time reading and learning about the tropical rain forest and the Amazon river. This involved tons of library books. Olivia loved reading about all the different animals and plants. At the end of our 3 weeks, she made a lapbook to remember some of what was learned. It came from homeschool share.

this is her front and back (i guess you call that a deconstructed rain forest of sorts... :) )

this is a little hard to see but it is like a diorama but in minibook form

We also had a food day. We had rainforest sandwiches, that involved mixing banana, coconut, cinnamon and raisins into a normal peanut butter sandwich. We had rain forest "icecream". It was avocado mixed with frozen cool whip and a bit of powder sugar, making it very green. And then of course, we are all grateful for the chocolate we have from the rain forest right? So we made these Brazilian chocolate caramel balls rolled in chocolate sprinkles. :)

Our read alouds were the biography of Nate Saint. He was an Ecuadorian jungle pilot. His story is just amazing and inspiring. I highly encourage you to read it. We also read Erth's Birthday. This was a story of a very grumpy porcupine (yes, they live in forests but not so much tropical rainforests, i know) who ends up taking care of some fox kits after their mother is killed. It is a funny and good story overall. It teaches a lot about animal behavior, for instance a porcupine is an herbivore, loving salt and tree bark, while the foxes are carnivores. This creates some interesting challenges for this porcupine. As I said, he is very grumpy and there is also a "bad guy" animal (a fisher) so I would suggest that you preview the book before reading it aloud. Nonetheless, we did enjoy it.

And now we are packing up to head home and then to Europe for a while. See ya soon!

Boys will Be Boys

So our two goofballs thought it was funny to make silly faces in their beds...

aahhh, Fall

Wind, cool air, falling leaves, pumpkins, etc. I love this time of year and I love my family.

Skirts and the Belly "Bump"

I am taking a sewing class. Here are the results of level 1 (the skirts). Oh and these give you a shot of my belly bump turned mountain. 28 weeks along now. :)

Animal Adventure at Lazy 5 Ranch

Aren't you excited to go on this tour with us?

The Lazy 5 Ranch is in Mooresville, NC. We rode on a large wagon, drawn by 3 draft horses, through the animal park. We got to feed most of the animals we saw. They had a variety of animals, including camels, water buffalo, ostriches, bison, giraffes, a rhino, different species of deer and elk.

A Walk in the Park

We went to the Bog Garden after doctor's appointments one day. It was a lovely day. There were ducks and many beautiful flowers. Olivia and Gabe decided they wanted to draw the ducks. It was a fun leisurely nature walk right in the midst of our town.