rain rain go away

Boy have we ever been getting some rain. The girls went out to play in it and discovered we have ponds and ...
...waterfalls where they aren't normally.

Even mom went out to play. Sshhhh!

Molasses crisps

We made some molasses crisps for the horses recently. I'm not sure why I never thought of making them a treat before but we will certainly make them more.
There has been a bottle of molasses in the fridge for a while now and it is pretty foul. Georgia had to make this face to avoid the smell.

Em enjoyed watching it slowly slither into the bowl.

This is a picture after they were baked and cooled. The girls were on their way out to test them on the horses. What's the matter Josie, little sneak, did you taste one?!?

Homemade Planetarium

The unplugged theme for this week is dark so we made a homemade planetarium. First we learned about circumpolar constellations. Then we followed the direction to make a bedroom planetarium. It was really pretty easy. We used an oatmeal container and then used black construction paper and a thumb tack to poke holes where the stars are in certain constellations. The final step is to tape your construction paper constellations to one end a shine a flashlight through the other. Above Georgia is poking her stars.
I then gave the girls a star scatter and had them create their own constellation by connecting the dots.

Here is Jo making hers.

After poking through the black construction paper I had them connect the stars with a white crayon.

We went into the bathroom, the only room with no windows in the house, and had a star party. This is Josie's constellation that she created. We named it cuniculosus which means some form of rabbit in Latin.

This is Georgia's giraffe. We couldn't find the Latin translation for giraffe.

This is one of the circumpolar constellations called Draco (the dragon).

This is another circumpolar constellation called Cepheus (the king).

It was a fun afternoon in the dark bathroom. See Emmy's face! She liked playing with the flashlight.

horse farm open house

I just had to throw in another shot of Margie Sue.

** My Aunt Joann asked if that is a bruise on Margie's head, and no I don't know what it is. I guess a shadow which makes me wonder why she would have a shadow right there on her forehead. I'm investigating immediately!**

A horse farm in the area had an open house over the weekend so of course we couldn't miss it. I don't know why riding on the spring horse and mounting the saddle on a retired pommel horse was so much fun but it was!
The girls groomed this old man. He was 26 or 27 years old.
They made stick horses and ...

....did some pole bending with them.

There was a map that we had to follow and have different points checked off in order to get a goodie bag. These rolly polly puppies was one of the required stops. Later in the day we walked up the road to watch some 4-H kids demonstrate some different riding styles. It was a really fun day for the girls.

Our Memorial Day

Our Memorial Day was as busy as ever. Brad once again took part in the ceremonies at the various cemeteries in the area.

Here he is leading the way.

The girls got a surprise. Dad rode a bus around to the different places and as you can see above in the first picture they did too. (I accidentally erased it the first time and had to post it again and it ended up first.) You would have thought I had just told them we were going to Disney World. They were soooo excited to ride the bus. Man, they need to get out more!

Another surprise for the day was that the bigger girls marched as Little Legionnaires!

There they go - leading the parade right behind Dad.

Taps being played at the town cemetery. Brad is right in the middle of the pic.

Here are Georgia and Josie waiting for the ceremony to end to march back down the hill.

There they go.

After the parade we went to mom's for a cookout. Little Brendan was tuckered right out before the party began. SOOOOO CUTE!

Stacy giving Sam the giggles. What an angelic face.

Emmy and Elsie finishing off their cupcakes.

Grandma and Emmy. Emmy loves Grandma.

Here she is with a snake that Russell sewed in school. Yes I said Russell sewed!!

The WHOLE gang minus Anthony who took the picture.

Here he is with Theresa. It was once again GREAT to see you two.

The big kids on the swing set. It was a wonderful day - thanks mom!

Em and her homework

My little Emmy LOVES to do homework. Now I will admit that I did probably obsessively push Georgia the most to learn things as a toddler. I'm not pushing Emmy to do anything instead it's her. She pulls on me all morning long asking for her homework.
Here mommy helped her color her shapes according to the directions.

I've seen people use bingo daubers before and I thought Emeline would love to do this. I accidentally uploaded these in opposite order but here is Emeline on her birthday morning (below) right after she opened her "dobber". She didn't have a clue as to what it was but when she saw that she could make boops with it (That is what she says each time she fills in a circle on her paper.) she fell in love with it. More often than not when I ask her what she wants to do in the morning she asks for her dauber. She once said "I wanna use my dobber and make boops!"

Unplugged Project - Sun

OK, we are going to try to join in on the "unplugged" fun. I can't guarantee we will participate every week, but we'll try to as often as possible. This weeks unplugged theme was the sun so we made a sundial.

Here, the girls are figuring out the folds. It was really quite easy once we understood what was going to happen. The directions for this one can be found at "Sky and Telescope".
They were very proud of their work. They like this sort of thing that teaches them that all things in stores are not necessities when you have the means to make it yourself. It is a lesson in being self-sufficient (and thankful for what we do have). It also empowers them in a way.

I was surprised at how accurate our sundial was. It was right on the money. The girls too were surprised, they kept running in the house to compare and low and behold it was right!

An UNwelcomed visitory!

OK. Who can guess what these are? If you said porcupine quills you're right. NOW, who can guess which critter got into this porcupines personal space and ended up with a nose full of quills? No, not the dog. No, not Emeline, although I probably would be less surprised if it was her! If you guessed Zatty my curious gelding you would be right. These are some of the quills that I discovered in his nose! Now for those of you who know horses, they can become headshy pretty easily. I can't wait for the next time I go to put a bridle on him, he's sure to give me a hard time. I was able to pull most of them out by myself but soon had to call Brad out to do some distracting for the final few. Poor (stupid) boy.

Checking out the scene.

This is how Margie rides nowadays. Like I said earlier, she has to be in the know!
Awfully cute I must say!

I'm whispering to her to smile pretty.