Some Nature Pictures for Aunt Christy's Birthday

Our Fun with Lentil

We had a wonderful time with Lentil. I wanted to share what we learned about at the Robert McCloskey Museum. Robert McCloskey was born and raised in Hamilton, Ohio. We learned that he taught a soap whittling class in Hamilton. I wonder why Old Sneep was whittling?:) He was then asked if he thought he could whittle a totem pole. He gave it a try and as a result won the rights to do the ornamental designs on the building in my photos(in post below) and on the link above.

There is a photo of a harmonica in the slides. This was Robert McCloskey's, we were told that he was in a harmonica band. I guess that's why Lentil played the Harmonica.

We got to see his Caldecott medals, his paintings (which were beautiful), his paint brushes. We also enjoyed seeing drawings of Lentil that were not in the book. We learned that Lentil's first name was actually Frederich. There were drawings of Lentil actually whistling (which he cannot do in the book). We also enjoyed seeing drawings of Lentil's parents. The museum was very small, but oh so worth going to. We were told that McCloskey's daughters donated the items and one of his daughter's lives in Maine on an island that McCloskey bought there. Very interesting.

Right across the street is a Soldier and Sailor's Monument. You can visit on the inside, but each time we went they were already closed. Right down the street, actually on the same block as the museum was a statue of Lentil and a dog (which Gracie asserts was Lentil's dog). Gracie named the dog Candy Cane :) This was very fun to see. From there we headed to Flubb's an ice cream shop to enjoy some ice cream.

Our Fun with Lentil

A Picture Challenge

Mary over at Owlhaven posted this challenge on her blog and I thought I'd play along. Go to the picture files in my computer, find the 6th file folder, select the 6th picture, and post it! This is what I found. Gracie is busy cutting a page from her Kumon workbook. She loves those workbooks. I wish I my sixth picture would have been more of her cute face, but I had to be honest:) It was fun to play along. What's your 6th file's, 6th photo? To play along, simply post the photo on your blog and post the link in the comments below. Have Fun!

One Thousand Gifts cont.

26. Five in a Row
27. My best girl friend, Christy
28. Pumpkin pie
29. Cursive First
30. Seeing John write his first cursive word, "dad"
31. Hearing my children say they want to take pretty flowers to Grandma Joy's gravesite
32. Cool weather
33. Our new to us used furniture
34. Finding osage oranges
35. Squirrels playing
36. Trees praising the Lord
37. My children laughing
38. My husband working hard for us
39. Homeschooling blogs (for encouragment)
40. Memories of my grandma
41. Love of my husband
42. God's safety
43. Good health
44. Mums
45. Beautiful colored leaves on the trees.
46. Wind chimes
47. Bird feeders
48. Old hymns of the faith that encourage my soul
49. My children playing with Play Doh
50. Snuggling with my hubby


Psalm 100
1Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
2Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
3Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
5For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

More photos of our time with Ping

We had a few loose strings to tie up with our FIAR book, Ping. The next photos are of John and Gracie learning about bouyancy. We had lots of items that we wanted to see whether they would float or not. After all ducks float right and Ping is a duck.
We would make a guess as to whether the item would float or sink before they would drop them in the sink full of water. Most of the time John was correct.

I love the picture below of the big splash. I don't think it shows up as well here on the blog.
We tested pencils, rubber bands, scissors, cans of food, paper clips, really all kinds of things. They've asked to do this experiment again and again.

We then headed out for a lunch of Chinese food at our favorite Chinese restaurant. John definitely eats more of the authentic Chinese food than Gracie does. John asked our waitress if she had ever been to China and obviously she had because she barely spoke English. He also asked her if she had ever seen the Yangtze River, but she could not understand what we were talking about.

John loves fountains, and this has always been one of his favorites. It is at the Chinese Restaurant. They got to throw a couple pennies in. Why do we love to do this?

We then headed to the Krohn Conservatory because I remembered that they had bonsai trees. The one below is called the Crown of Thorns. I love it. It's one of the most pretty bonsai trees that they have.

This is one of my favorites as it looks like a miniature forest. I had to add the picture even though Gracie looks a bit goofy. We went at the right time and the right day, because there was a man there "training" one of the bonsai trees. We got to see the wire wrapped around the trees limbs. They direct the trees in the way they grow. He told us that bonsai means "tree in a pot". I guess that would make sense. He then told us how four thousand years ago the emporer declared that no one was to have a tree bigger or more beautiful than his or else their heads would be cut off. That's why the Chinese began planting trees in a pot.

This led to the discussion of how we have so many freedoms here in the U.S. for which we should be thankful. Thank you, Lord.

This bonsai trees says it was 350 years old. It's amazing. We then headed down to Eden Park to feed the ducks. John and Gracie had so much fun. There were a ton of ducks and they were agressive. They were not mean at all, but they were determined to get something to eat. They even ate our 100% whole wheat bread, unlike some human beings :) We talked about how God put oil on the ducks feathers so they could float. Without this they would sink.

Check out Gracie's smile in the photo below.

The ducks personally made me a little nervous, but I did not let John and Gracie know this. They had no fear at all for which I'm thankful.
This duck was doing exactly what Ping was doing, searching for food when his master was calling. We talked about how ducks eat insects, plants, and snails. Wonder what this guy found?
We then headed to the playground and let them swing and slide for a little while. We had a great time.

One Thousand Gifts

I've seen this on a few blogs that I read. I've decided to join in. The Lord is so good and lately I find myself dwelling on the negative too much with losing my grandma and all the drama that surrounded that.

I want to dwell on the Lord's goodness after all the Bible does say in Psalm 100:5, "For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations." Now for my list, that I'll come back on add to on several occasions.

1. God's free salvation

2. My husband (who I don't deserve)

3. My son, John, who is a thinker and marches to his own drum

4. My daughter, Gracie, who loves to sing and has a hug for everyone

5. Our humble home with all it's mismatched furniture :)

6. God's Word that comforts me

7. God's grace that amazes me

8. God's goodness that leads me to repentance

9. My mom, my friend

10. Music to lift my soul in praise to God

11. Sunshine, that reminds me of the true Sonshine

12. Crisp fall mornings

13. Beautiful fall leaves

14. My children's sweet laughter

15. Homegrown tomatoes

16. My home church

17. The privilege to homeschool

18. A good children's book

19. Coupons

20. A new recipe

21. Making banana chocolate chips muffins with my kiddos

22. Watching my children play dress up

23. Writing titles for John's made up games

24. Reading aloud to my children

25. Making dinner for my hubby

Political Conversation between a 30, 6, and 4 year old

Today we had the pleasure of going on a walk. On our way back to the house we were seeing political signs. The following is our conversation.
John:"What does that sign say, Momma?"
Me: "It says Driehaus, John"
John:"Are we going to vote for Driehaus?"
Me: "I don't know, John."
Gracie:"I want to vote for daddy"
Gracie again:"No, I don't want to vote for daddy, because I love him."
John:"I don't want to vote for daddy to be the president, because then I wouldn't get to see him all day. Would I, Momma?"
Me:"Well, you probably wouldn't get to see him very much."

Oh, to be a child and to love your daddy that you'd vote for him, but then not be willing to sacrifice your time with your daddy. My children make me smile.

First Day of School

Today was our first official day back to school. For kindergarten we schooled through July and then took off the whole month of August. The break was good, but now we're on to first grade.
John and Gracie started their morning with homemade banana bread and some organic yogurt, oh, and of course their vitamins. John quickly asked if we could have a picnic. This is something I started about a month ago. We usually have a picnic atleast one time a day. We eat our food on a blanket spread on the living room floor, and after I'm finished eating I read aloud to them as they are the slowest eaters in the world. My mom says I'm just reaping what I sowed.

We then headed outside for some "First Day of School" pictures. In the background are all of John's new plants this year. He has become a plant fanatic.

Below John and Gracie are hard at work. I built a problem for John with our Math U See blocks and he's writing down what the number is. The number pictures is 124.

Gracie is busy sorting her beads. These are from our Preschool Activities in a bag swap. She uses her tripod grasp when picking them up.

This is our chart as we are counting how many days of school and after we reach 100 days of school we will have a celebration where we do lots of things with the number 100. Gracie put the fish on this year first as John did it last year. I told her it looks like he's trying to jump out of the bowl and she said the fish was just waiting for his food. The tape looks terrible, but it's the only thing that will keep it up on our basement walls. John is busy writing in the salt box. He already knows how to write his numbers, but we are gearing up for him to wrote them proportionally on primary lines. He's done this a few times on our dry erase board. They love the salt box.
John is placing our story disk on China. We are reading the Story of Ping this week for FIAR. We were discussing the Yangtze River and the Chinese culture. We watched a very interesting video called Families of China. It was really good. It was sad though how much the one little girl talked about the government and how they only "allow" them to have one child per family. John of course said that was not right. Amen, little guy!
Even though Gracie is looking a little whacky here, they are showing off their little booklets they made. One is of China's flag and the other is of a map of China. We took time to look at pictures of the Yangtze River online.

Now I just need to find some chopsticks for them to eat with. Not so bad for our first day of school.
P.S. I don't know why the date turned out wrong on these photos. It's suppose to be 09/02/2008. I checked my camera and my camera says it's 09/02/2008. I finally figure out how to post these pictures and now the date is wrong :)