Winter birds- Cardinals

Cardinals lined up on our artwork cloth line in the dining room.

Falcon use water color pencils to create his.

Robin use oil  pastels for her bird then did a watercolor back ground.

Duck used just water colors. After he drew his bird I outlined his and Owl's so it would be easier to have them paint. Ducks added a tree with a bird nest in it.

 I gave Owl his paints and instructed him to paint his bird RED like a Cardinal and when I came back in the room it was multi colored. I said "NO, Cardinals are red what are you doing?"

He replies, " I wanted it to be a rainbow Cardinal though"

Sigh, he got me at rainbow, I just love rainbows and I guess art is subjective. I was a tad bit frustrated at first because I wanted 4 RED Cardinals on my wall but I will live with 3 RED cardinals and 1 rainbow one.

 Not about Cardinals but winter themed and it had red birds.

Gosh, I just love Gail Gibbons books - educational and all about winter and snow

 We went bird watching and spotted a male Cardinal, we saw a few females but none of us could get a picture of those shy girls.

We did end up seeing a fox squirrel, those suckers are fast!

Friendship lost...

How do you deal with an ended friendship of a 7 year old girl? When your 7 year old feels unworthy of having friends or inadequate in some way to have lost a friend to another little girl.

A life lesson we all learn for sure, just a very hard one to explain to a very sensitive 7 year old.

My daughter has had a best friend, basically her first close friend since she was 3.5. For 4 years they have been very close, then one day last fall this other little girl started ignoring Robin and  hanging out with a new friend. Robin would save her a seat at events and this other little girl would ignore her and go sit on the opposite side of the room with  her new friend. Robin did not want to give up on this friendship she kept trying  only to be shut down by these 2 girls over and over. She would call her on skype to play video games together only to be ignored yet again because her friend would invite her new friend to join them (3 is a crowd) and she would be cast off and ignored once again. Many tears have been shed. It is very hard to explain to 7 year old why her friend has been cold, and unfriendly toward her.

It can be very hard for Robin at times because we see this other girl at many homeschool events we do, which is just a sad reminder to her that she is no longer her friend. 

We have worked  very hard at establishing  new friendships and discussing the many ways you should and should not treat your friends. 

Yesterday when cleaning out her room Robin made the choice to get rid of some things  that this friend had given her and take down and throw away pictures. I was very proud of her for making this final step in letting go ( a very hard thing to do.)

The newest issue of  American Girl magazine has a short article about what Robin is going through. The Friendship Fade is what it article is called,  Robin said that this helped her not be so sad about losing her friend.

There is light at the end of the tunnel.....
Robin has new friends now, she is sad about friendships lost but happy for the new friends she has  made.

The final countdown ..... 38 weeks and 2 days.

I find homeschooling in the last weeks of pregnancy extremely difficult. I am just so big, tired and uncomfortable. I have been trying to get as much done as possible but doing that along with keeping up housework, feeding my children and the extra added items that need to be done before the new baby arrives is exhausting.

The older kids have been keeping up on their math. I have been even more  relaxed with the 2 younger kids. I have always found it easier to homeschool with a newborn that being in your last trimester.

So here are a few things we  have done lately.

Went to  zoo classes and checked out the butterfly greenhouse.

Started an art project  that I came up with themed earth, air, fire and water. It is a 6 or more step art project so not quite sure when we will finish that one. We are on step one: earth.

Robin and I are working on a project that we are going to use in the state fair this summer. It is about trees we have used this great book to draw quite a few nature items, this would be a great addition to nature studies.

I plan to see if the library has more items on this series.

This book is the backbone of our state fair project. It's a great nonfiction read about how Kate Sessions overcame many obstacles to reach her goal  "making the world a better place." We are also researching  what life was like in the 1860's when Kate Sessions and Juliette Gordon Low were born.

A tree Robin drew

The weather allowed us to make it to math class this week. A friend of mine is teaching a class for 4-6 year olds using:

It is a story based math program that Duck seems to enjoy. ( sort of)

Some documentaries we have watched this week are:

Falcon is working on an easy novel right now taking a break from our harder highschool literature  course we have been using. He is reading  Holes, I am using the teacher guide to go with it making life a bit easier on me right now.

This probably has a bunch of typos but I am just glad I got something posted since I have been a slacker since being pregnant.

Surprise baby shower!

I love my homeschool friends they are always in my thoughts. I am always feeling so blessed to know them all. I love that they are always willing to help, share advice, curriculum and so much more.

A few of us had made plans to meet at a coffee shop for some mom time and adult conversation without the constant interruption of kids. What I did not know is that they had planned a surprise baby shower for me. I was so SHOCKED, they totally got me! I kept saying "I don't like surprises" but that is really not true. I do like surprises but they just don't ever happen to me and I  never know how to react because I am such a I  control freak.The idea of not being in control of a situation is very scary to me. I would rather be the one doing the surprising than  the one being surprised because I can control the surprise and am not caught off guard. I did feel so loved by this awesome outpouring of generosity from my friends. I hope they know how much I appreciate them.

I feel so blessed to have these great friends who went through all this trouble for me.

I am always early to stuff so all my friends showed up 30 min before they told me to be there AND then I even showed up late because 2 of the moms who said they are going to be there are always late. They were actually starting to worry that I wasn't  going to show.

My poor friend Amanda who actually did a lot of planning never came because I basically dis invited her! Not knowing there was a surprise I called her asking that if she was going I was not going to go. You see,  her 4 kids have had a stomach virus for about  2 weeks and I told her I did not want to risk being around her and get a stomach bug 37 weeks pregnant with 4 kids. I sure felt bad when I realized what had happened I wanted to cry!

I want to say a big

To all my friends who helped make this such a great day and surprise I am truly blessed to know all of you.

Now some pics

I love the soft pastel colors of this blanket

 from my friend Holly, she is so talented.

A tiny cloth diaper set I am not sure if my baby will ever fit into since I grow my babies  HUGE!

Wool owl soaker and hat and socks Holly made.

Some onesies washcloths and assorted baby items.

I also received an assortment of gift cards to baby stores and a massage.

I had 3 balloons; a boy, girl and unisex balloon as was putting them in the car I noticed I only had  I looked up and the blue one flew away and was already over the coffee house! I am going go take that as a sign that maybe I am having a girl!

And a funny belly picture my oldest took this morning , my kids find it hilarious that around the house I wear regular clothes that my belly sticks out of!

THANK YOU! THANK YOU !THANK YOU!