Happy Birthday Rob and RE!

In March, we were invited to come up to Dallas for a big birthday soiree for my Uncle RE and cousin Rob.  It was a whirlwind trip, but worth it to see family that I haven't seen for years!  And it was my first road trip in the new Hyundai!  I packed up the kids and off we went.  When we arrived there was plenty of this...

Ian gave them a shot, but felt they were too much work for the end result, however, he was more than happy to down his weight in grilled oysters!

Ainsley spent most of her time talking and smiling and looking cute, trying to avoid eating anything.

I eventually talked her into a couple of grilled shrimp and a bite or two of pasta salad, but I'm pretty much thinking her dinner really consisted of a healthy portion of birthday cake!

I managed to get one good shot of the birthday boys.  I can't believe RE is 75 and Rob is 52, but I tell you what, they are couple of handsome dudes no matter what age they are!  Although I'm not quite sure when my uncle turned into a hippie!  ;)

Of course you HAVE to blow out the candles on your cake!

And the funny thing is that amidst all the good times and laughter and hoopla, my son spent the majority of the party like this...

Now many might say he was a bit of a party pooper, but this was his FIRST actual novel.  It was Book 1 of the Ranger's Apprentice series and he just couldn't put it down.  I was so proud and happy for him and if he wanted to spend his entire weekend with his nose in that book, I was OK with that.  Totally OK.

The next morning, we helped clean up the house, Ian put on a mini ukulele concert and the whole family went out for brunch.  After all the reminiscing and all the hugs, the kids and I headed out of town making a stop at the Dallas Zoo.

It was a great trip and it was so nice to see everyone.  We really need to figure out how to get together more often.  ALL of us.

First Annual Learning Without Limits Field Day

We have been members of the local homeschooling group, Learning Without Limits, for about 6 years now.  They have been my main support through thick and thin and most of my kiddo's activities revolve around people and organizations that stem off that group.  Normally we have weekly park days, Parent's Night Out, Halloween and Valentine's parties and all sorts of other good stuff.  This year, we held our First Annual Field Day at a local park.  WHAT.  A.  BLAST!  It was so much fun watching all of these kiddos, divided into age-appropriate groups having a terrific time!  It was all of those fun, old-school games that we enjoyed in elementary school.  Now, fair warning, I was stationed at Ainsley's age group area to help organize and run the games, so I have very few photos of Ian.  Some friends were supposed to shoot some, but so far I haven't seen any and that was 3 months ago!  Haha!  Anyway, here are a few pics that highlight that special day!

First of all, who says homeschoolers don't socialize?!?  We had close to 100 kids at this event!

Here's Ainsley competing in the sack race!  She didn't place, but she had fun!

Here she is in the egg-on-a-spoon race, she did a great job and managed to come in third place!

She was more than happy to pose with her ribbon.  :)

And let's just say, this next race, the DizzyLizzy, was NOT my idea!  Just watching them spin around in circles with those bats made me nauseous!  But I have a little girl that LOVES to spin and spin and spin, so of course she managed to easily take another 3rd Place ribbon.

She ran the  Crazy Relay with two of her best buds, Axel and Griffin and they DOMINATED, easily sailing into a First Place victory!  What a team!

So all in all, Ainsley walked away with 2-Third Place ribbons and 2-First Place Ribbons (she took the crab walk as well).  Not bad for her first ever Field Day!

Now like I said, Ian was in another part of the field with his age group, so I saw very little of what went on over there.  I did, however, manage to sneak over in between races and snap a pic of him attempting the "Egg in a Nest" race.  It was the funniest thing in the world to watch my skinny, knock-kneed boy try to steady an egg between his knees and walk down a field!!!

He didn't do so well his first time through, but managed to take home 3rd Place in another heat!  All in all, he came home with 3-Third Place ribbons for Crazy Relay, Egg in the Nest, and the Sack Race as well as a solid Second Place ribbon for Tug-o-war!  Ribbons and competition aside, I just enjoyed watching my kids having a blast on a beautiful spring day!  I am hoping our group makes this a permanent event!

Tiny Dancer

I'm pretty sure that most of you that follow along know that Ainsley has been enrolled in an Irish Step Dance class since September of 2011.  She has been working very hard and enjoying herself immensely.  This past St. Patrick's Day was her very first ceili.  She danced with other kiddos and during one point in the program was allowed to have some time to do a little solo.  She did a great job and we were all very proud!

Here she is in her beginner stance.  Hands to the side with her thumbs in her fist.  I made the skirt special for the occasion!  It was a blast to see her perform!

Spring is a "buggy" time of year!

Every year I order moth cocoons and butterfly chrysalids from Canada.  They spend the winter in our refrigerator crisper and in the spring I bring them out and they do their thing.  This year was no different, except for the fact that we got a new butterfly habitat and were able to send off for live caterpillars as well!  The painted lady caterpillars ate and ate and ate for about 10 days then they all started heading for the top of the container and began to hang upside down.

Terrible pic, I know, but bear with me.  It was freaky because within 30 minutes they went from above to this...

Our minds were blown!  Such a transformation and SO fast!  Once they all pupated, we removed them from the little food jar and transferred them into the butterfly enclosure with the rest of the moth cocoons.  Within about 10 days, we had our first painted lady butterfly!

Isn't she sweet?  The kids, of course, LOVE them!

I managed to get a pretty striking picture before she flew off for good.

Just wonderful!  Over the last few weeks, we have had many creatures make their transitions in our enclosure.  First the spicebush swallowtail...

Then came our lovely polyphemus!  Such a handsome chap!  He was mellow enough for the kids to handle him.

 

Ainsley wasn't scared of their little prickly feet this year!!!

He was quite the specimen with HUGE antennae!  I was lucky enough to get a most amazing shot before he flew away to find a girlie!

Next was our cecropia.  This one was HUGE with a wingspan of at least 6" if not more!

He wasn't that into being man-handled, so I took a pic or two and we let him fly off into the night.

Then came little io moth.  He was much smaller, but SO unbelievably pretty!

Wait for it.... POW!

I'm telling you folks, science at its finest!  We always enjoy the spring and the wonderful critters we get to experience!

Ian the Science Guy!

Starting in November, Ian joined the "Science Club" at the Austin Nature and Science Center.  He and Ainsley both take classes there once a month, but this was a club geared toward science experiments and the scientific method.  The ultimate goal was for them to choose and perform an experiment, document results and present to the class at the end of the term.  They set it up where the presentations were due about 2 weeks before the Austin Energy Regional Science Fair, so if the kids chose to, they could enter the science fair.

We started the actual experiments in early January.  He chose to explore reaction rates and how particle size and temperature affect those rates.  There was lots of fizzing and bubbling going on in my kitchen!

Once he obtained all of his data, we began working on his presentation board.  Although Brady and I had to help with photos, typing, and printing, Ian was in charge of presenting results and information and setting up the board.  He did a GREAT job!  His teacher was impressed and encouraged him to join the science fair.  At first he wasn't going to because there was a conflict with basketball, but that weekend freed up and Ian decided to go for it!

We arrived early the day before the fair to get everything set up.  Here he is with his finished project board.

I kind of thought he might be nervous the day of the judging, but he wasn't.  He was actually looking forward to talking to the judges so he could discuss his project.  My kid has more confidence at age 10 than I have at 41!!!  He makes me so proud!  After judging, we took him out to lunch and came back to see how he had done.  He got a 1st Place blue ribbon and we were so happy!

Now at this grade level (4th grade), they do not compete against each other, they are judged to standards.  So a 1st Place ribbon meant that he provided all the necessary information in proper format and performed the experiment properly and safely.  He was very proud of himself and has already been talking about what kind of experiment he wants to do next year!  What can I say, he's my little science guy!

Blanton Museum of Art

Many people think homeschoolers just stay at home and read books all day, and in all fairness, sometimes we do, but usually we're out exploring!  Field trips and impromptu museum or zoo visits abound.  In January, we met up with one of our homeschool groups for a tour of the Blanton Museum of Art down by the UT campus.  I love this museum, the displays are well-rounded and it's big, but not TOO big.  It's just perfect for school-aged kids to explore.  On this day, we split up into two groups, Bigs and Littles.  I was stationed with the Littles, so you won't be seeing very many pics of the boy in this post!

Ainsley and one of her best friends, Joaquin paired up for the tour.

 They really enjoyed the modern art room!  They were both quite sure this was a lemon!

Then it was time to check out a strange piece called "Missao/Missoes [How to Build Cathedrals]" by Cildo Meireles.  It is made up of over 600,000 pennies, 200 suspended cattle bones and a column of communion wafers through the middle.  Although the depth of the piece is pretty much lost on 5 y.o.'s, they were quite impressed with all the shiny coins and the black drapery around it.

While waiting for the Bigs to finish their tour, Ainsley and Joaquin decided to build a castle in the activity room.

They made a great team and the castle was MARVELOUS!  ;)

After the tour, I packed up the kids and headed over to P. Terry's for a burger.  We had planned on seeing the "Architects of Air" display at the Long Center, but as luck would have it, the line was 3 HOURS long!  There is NOTHING on the planet that is worth standing in line with a recalcitrant 5 y.o. for 3 hours!  There were a few tears shed, so I scrambled to salvage the day.  Peter Pan Putt Putt and life was good!  Then we made our way over to Zilker Park for a train ride and a sno-cone!  Hey, it's all about flexibility!

 And a nice view from the train of downtown Austin.

 A day in the life of a homeschooling family!  And can I just say, Texas winters RULE!

Mr. Ian turns the BIG 1-0!

It's official.  My baby boy turned 10!  How is that even possible?!?  I mean really.  How did we get from here...

to here...

so damn fast?!?!  I know it's cliche, but it really did happen in the blink of an eye.  He is such an amazing kid and I'm amazed on a daily basis that he's mine!

Since it was the BIG 10, he wanted something special for his party this year.  Unfortunately all of the cool outdoorsy stuff is out of the question in late January.  The weather is just too iffy at that time, so he settled on a safari party.  We hired the nice people at Wild Things Zoofari, out of Taylor, TX, to bring out some furry friends to help him celebrate his big day.  It was quite an adventure!

I made sure he had festive cupcakes!  Brady is the King of Tiger and Zebra Striping!

His first guest was a Brazilian short-tailed opossum.

Next was an African Pygmy Hedgehog.  Cute!

Next was Meiko the Mountain Coatimundi!

Then there was Lucy the Cotton-Topped Tamarin.  She was feisty!

And last but not least, Oliver, the Ring-Tailed Lemur!  He was, without a doubt, the star of the show!

We had so much fun visiting with these critters, eating cupcakes and spending a fantastic afternoon with our family and friends!  I don't think he could have asked for a better 10th birthday!!!

Another Year, Another Birthday

It seems that no matter how hard I try to ignore it, my birthday comes around every year!  What is up with that?  Oh well, even though I'm a year older, I like to think I'm a year happier too!  Each and every day brings a new experience and a new adventure and every day allows me to spend more time with my beautiful family and friends.  I have so many friends dealing with such hardships this year and it reminds me that every single day is a gift and I should do my best to make the most out of each one.  Even if we don't go out and do anything "exciting", I should at least make sure that I teach my children something new, or read something satisfying or take an amazing photo and most importantly, tell my husband and children that I love them.  EVERY.  SINGLE.  DAY.  I am now 41 and I wouldn't want it any other way!