Art students optical illusion artwork :)

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/lancashire/8030766.stm

So clever :)

Looking for frogs.....

We went hunting for frogs down at the pond today, but they were too good at hiding. We didn't catch any but we saw plenty of other pond life! We DID hear the frogs and we certainly saw signs of them - check out the frogspawn in the picture!!! Once the grass grows a little down by the pond, we will have frogs EVERYWHERE again, and they will be hopping through the grass and up by the house again...soooooo easy to catch THEN!!!! The children had fun trying though!!

Visitors to the pond.....

A pair of Mallards were visiting our pond today, but we were heading down there to look for frogs, and they didn't hang around to 'chat' with us, lol......I guess they thought Sam and Abby were just a tad too noisy ;)

Fresh coat of paint.....

This afternoon I used some spray paint to give some furniture a fresh coat of white paint. the porch furniture I bought with the money my Grandad left me, was looking very tired and shabby, so I sprayed it white, and I've also bought some new black and white cushions to go on it.

I also FINALLY fixed and painted the miniature rocking chair that I bought at a yard sale about 3 years ago!!! In Summer it will go on the porch and in Winter it will go inside with a doll or Teddy on it! I need some more paint as a I have a wicker sofa to spray still!

Doesn't the white paint make a big difference though???? You can see I took a picture of one chair painted and one NOT painted......

What is Abigail up to?

Buzz on over to the Bee Tales blog to check it out ;)

Drama Club Plays....

Laurence has been in his Junior High Drama Club this year and last night was their end of year performance. They put on a day time show on Thursday morning, an evening show last night and then will be showing it to a number of schools in the area.

It was a series of short plays where each one has a moral about being yourself. It was wonderful - the plays were so funny and enjoyable! Well acted and interesting and the moral of each story worth thinking about! Laurence played a poor fisherman who wanted to keep his wife happy. She even slapped him at one point - she REALLY slapped him too :) He caught a mermaid who granted him three wishes and his wife chose bigger and bigger houses.....the poor fisherman just wanted his wife to be happy but she never was!

Well done everyone!!!

After the plays they served free dessert and coffee in the cafeteria and had free plants to give to each school volunteer as a thank you for all their help through the school year. :)

We can craft!!

Yay - as soon as Sam was awake this morning, he shot out of bed and and yelled that he had to get dressed! He was so thrilled that we finally had counters and this meant that he could paint and do crafts and all those things we haven't been able to do for AGES!!!! First things first - he wanted to paint his plaster of paris Bob the Builder kit!!!

Head dresses...

We decided to make Native Indian Head dresses after seeing Stabbed-By-Mistake's Head Dress at the Royal Alberta Museum.

More acrylics painting...

Abigail worked on some more acrylics painting - this time at home!!! She remembered exactly what she was taught at the class and she ONLY bought acrylics in the primary colours as well as in black and white - she then set about mixing all the other colours herself and got the shades and tones she wanted by mixing with black and white. She refused to use any of the paints I had but ONLY the paints she bought and by mixing them :)

She spent most of the time mixing paint colours and I think this is the part she liked the most :)

Art class work

Acrylics colour wheel and canvas, and charcoals self portrait and horse.....

(work from the first two art classes Abigail has been to. She has really enjoyed these classes.

My Gracie.....

Enjoying the new window sills in the sunroom part of the kitchen.....I made sure they were all wide enough to take my widest plant pots - trays of plants in Springtime and strong enough to sit on!!! The ones in the basement are the same :)

Oh and yes, thats a pumpkin growing ;)

Time for a Pow-wow.....

We've been meaning to make head-dresses since we were at the museum the last time - every time we go and we see 'Stabbed by Mistake's amazing Head dress we always say we will go home and make some just the same....

Today with the kitchen so nicely finished and all the space and the counters all done, we were able to get the paints out and make lots of mess - most of the crafts and activities are more applicable to the homeschool blog and will be put on there (just ask if you want access to that blog) but here are a couple of pictures of the Head dresses.

June 27th!!!

The Muttart reopens!!!

I can't wait :) I've missed going there! I love going there and often go there either at Easter or Mothers Day, but it has been closed for so long during their renovations!

I can't wait to go back and see the changes! Yay!

home reno blog...

After nagging from all directions, I finally updated the home reno blog!

home-renos.blogspot.com/

End of year Facilitator meeting

Yesterday we had our end-of-year meeting with Abigails homeschool facilitator. It went really well and I am really pleased with our school board. I have to say our Facilitator is the best one we have EVER had!! She just put me completely at ease, was so relaxed about everything.....so easy-going. Telling me that she doesn't expect any child to be at a certain grade level at any age and she just expects them to be going at their own pace - so long as they are progressing in the right direction...

She told me not to push writing (which is COMPLETELY the opposite of her teacher at school and is EXACTLY what I NEEDED to hear and is absolutely just the best news EVER)!!

...trust me as a homeschooler meeting a new facilitator you just NEVER know what to expect and you don't know what they will expect or how 'schooly' they will be or anything...

She told me she thought I'd done an amazing job of homeschooling through renovations and doing so many activities and crafts in my bedroom with no kitchen or place for studying or crafts etc....that changing our original education plan was completely fine and we had done plenty!!!

It went fine - we are all set to finish the year NOW if we want :) Yep - school is DONE :)

Or we can continue the year until school is out......

Or we can school all year round....

But like I said to her, the kitchen has been out of use for so long, I am just excited to be able to use it at last, for science experiments, crafts, baking, writing, painting etc etc etc......so I just plan to do all kinds of things with the kids there and less 'book work' anyway!!!

We will be outside so much more now the weather is better and many more field trips so there would be less book work anyway and now the pressure is off to do less writing I am much happier. We read more in Summer as we all take part in reading programs at the library.

I don't think 'homeschooling' ever stops :)

I'm looking in to horseriding lessons. I want to get easels for painting so we can go and paint around the acreage and out by the lakes etc around here.

I registered Abigail for next year, so thats done! Funding will be $715. I have no clue how to spend it! I've spent a little already but not much! I'll take Abby to Education Station and Michaels and go crazy :)