Sweet 16 ~

My Dear House Cat,

 

You are such a blessing to us and all who know you.  We are so proud of you and you are the perfect big sister.  You love God most of all and are such a good example to your siblings and friends.  Thank you for all of your help around the house and with anything I ask of you.  God has given you special talents and I pray you will always use them to bring Him glory! 

 

Dad took the day off and we all went to Mass together. He had bought you a Purity Ring and gave it to you right after Mass in front of The Blessed Sacrament. He asked you to wear it and give it back to him on your wedding day. 

 It has the inscription  Love Waits ~

 

 

I gave you a couple of movies to add to the Jane Austen and Bronte collection. 

Note:  There are some scenes we fast forward through on Jane Eyre.

 

Snuggle Bug gave you Switchfoot live in San Diego and Buck and Honeybee followed that with the first two Brotherband books.

 

 

SB made the Blueberry Cobbler you requested,

 

 

which was served warm with vanilla ice cream.  Yum! 

 

I opted for Bananas and Cool Whip (gluten and dairy free since I've been having so much tummy trouble).

 

 

We all enjoyed our day together although we missed Nae Nae and hope she feels better really soon!

 

How It's Made ~

Buck has been watching lots of episodes of How It's Made this week.

I picked up all of the DVDs our little library had.

He continues to amaze me with his inventions. 
 

His latest is an assembly line in a car factory.

 

First up ~

 The workers are putting on the oil filter.

 Next ~ 

 

They weld the oil pan

 

 Last but not least ~

They weld the axle.

 

You can see more of his inventions by clicking the tab at the top labeled Buck's blog.

 

I'm so proud of our little engineer :)

A Blueberry Day ~

Our blueberry day begin with beautiful blue flowers from our friends.

Then we headed out back for lots of blueberry pickin'.

This little guy was so precious filling his box. 

There were more than enough to go around!

Sisters, Sisters there were never such devoted sisters :)

Once inside we made yummy blueberry muffins.

We must have got busy playing and eating cause I don't see where I made a picture of the finished muffins :)

They were so yummy!

We had a banner crop this year and have lots frozen for further use.  Actually, Snuggle Bug will be making her bluberry cobbler for The House Cat's birthday next week!

2012 Summer Olympic Inspiration ~

We've all been enjoying watching the Summer Olympics from London, England.  These athletes are all so amazing.  The hard work and discipline they've put into training is admirable and inspiring.  There has been no short of inspiration around here! 

Honeybee has been dancing around twirling this homemade rhythmic gymnastics apparatus :)

We also had a floor routine exhibition. 

 Buck's been busy building lots of Olympic events with Legos  ~

Canoeing

Swimming

Pole Vault

Pommel Horse

Vault

It's been a fun couple of weeks of learning!

A Trip to the Art Museum ~

Buck has been asking begging me for weeks to take him back to the art museum.  He just had to go and see the display of Japanese weaponry.  So, Friday afternoon we loaded up, popped in a Switchfoot CD and took a drive downtown. 

First stop: Japanese Art Gallery ~

Buck and Honeybee took along notebooks and drew a few of their favorite things.

This is one of my favorite pieces.  It's too bad it came out blurry :(

SB learned the sensors are extra sensitive and you can't point too closely to your favorite parts :)

2nd Stop: Scavenger Hunt in the Indian Gallery

Learned a bit about the importance of animals in the Hindu religion.

3rd Stop:  New Family Hands On Art Center

I love the new picture collage I now have hanging in our library!

It was a fun trip enjoyed by all!

A Peek into July 2012 ~

We've been so busy living and learning that I haven't made much time for blogging lately.  The kids and I are enjoying this more relaxed style of learning.  God has given them all such beautiful gifts, some similar, some not.  I am learning so much more about them as I step back and observe.  More times than not, I am pleasantly surprised with how they are occupying themselves.  Sure we still have discipline issues and behavior checks.  Just because we are now official "unschoolers" doesn't mean we've stopped parenting.  If anything, we seem to be more involved! 

With all that being said, we are starting a new chapter in our lives, one that actually began back in December when we gave this unschooling thing a try.  I can't tell you how often HC & SB have thanked me for this.  You may think, "Of course they are since you've taken the book work away from them!"  But, I must argue that after a time of depressurizing they have found plenty to keep themselves busy.  Busy with God- given gifts, with plenty of time to hear God's still small voice leading them towards Him.

So here's a peek into what July 2012 looked like around here.

The House Cat ~

• Has been devouring Outlining Your Novel by K.M. Weiland and has been following her steps in working on her novel.
• She was asked to sing for another wedding at our parish.  They kindly paid her a stipend with which she bought a Graphic Design Software package.  She is working on publishing an online magazine for high-schooled homeschoolers.  This will be by invitation only so let me know if you'd like to be invited.
• She continues to cantor, play guitar and piano, and write music with her sister.
• We visited her grandparents and learned to play Canasta with her grandmother.  We've played several times, with her and SB taking turns with the scoring.
• Had several game days with SB & friends.  Games played include Scrabble, Pictionary, Rummikub, Cranium, 10 Days in the USA, and Story Cubes.
• Books read ~ Tangled Skein (Bethelhem e-book), Beorn the Proud, Jedi Apprentice
• Sister Servants meeting.  St. Maria Goretti.
• Helping to deliver Meals on Wheels
• Helping to make fruit preserves with the ladies Altar Sodality.  These will be sold at our church's Oktoberfest fund raiser.
• Plenty of home economics including but not limited to cooking, cleaning, and caring for her younger siblings.  (no this doesn't include you SB:)

Snuggle Bug ~

• Helped to pick apples, pears and blueberries.  Made lots of Blueberry Cobbler for her daddy.
• Also learning to make fruit perserves for the church's fund raiser.
• Finished reading Life of Fred Apples book to Buck and Honeybee.
• Planned and led her Sister Servants of the Domestic Church meeting.  This month's saint was St. Maria Goretti.  She has about 12 girls in her group now and they have such fun when they meet.  We've found a great spot for her group and my Mom's Little Way group to meet now.  God is so good!
• She has really taken off with her guitar playing and is starting to teach Buck.  She also teaches me when I slow down for a moment and pick up my guitar.
• She is our go to girl always happy to play with Buck and Honeybee and fetch this or that for her mom and dad :)
• She is also working hard on her writing and plans to have an ongoing chapter book in HC's magazine.
• Of course, she and HC are best friends.  I am so thankful they are so close!  They enjoy sharing a room, listening to movie soundtrack music and both journal about their days before bed.

Buck ~

• Continues to constantly build with Legos.  He picked out The Lego Idea Book from the library.  I encourage him to make a pic of all of his creations and try to post the pictures on his blog.
• Watched a PBS special on repairing The Hubble Telescope and built a cardboard model of the Hubble.
• Reading books on Army Rangers, Green Berets, military
• Learning to play Rummy and keep score
• Computer games Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, Jump Start 1st, 2nd, 4th grades, Artist.  Reader Rabbit 2nd grade.
• Games - Checkers, Connect Four, Ciphers and Codes, Scrabble
• Life of Fred Apples
• Blue Knights meeting with his dad on the power of the Rosary.
• The Magic School Bus - The Solar System
•  Leap Pad games, The Human Body, 2nd grade, 4th grade
• Altar Serving at Mass, reading along with the Mass prayers

Honeybee ~

• IXL math
• Reader Rabbit 2nd Grade
• Playing House with her Bitty Baby, Amy
• Learning to play Rummy
• Solitaire, Spider Solitarie, Checkers, Connect Four, Scrabble
• Reading along with Mass prayers, Altar Serving
•  Helping with the fruit preserves for church.
• Leap Pad, The Human Body, Hit it Maestro, 2nd Grade
• Playing librarian, school teacher
• Irregular Plural Nouns Matching Card game with Buck
• Singing, singing, and more singing
• Finished Life of Fred Apples with SB and Buck
• Helping deliver Meals on Wheels

And these are the things that made it onto paper...  I am truly staying Busy With my Blessings!