Harry – I mean Nathan’s birthday party.

Nathan loves Harry Potter.  He has watched most of the movies and we have read some of the books.  He wanted a Harry Potter birthday and so we had one.  It was busy but fun.

Gathering for the party.  We had a mix of family and friends.  Kathie’s older kids, Shelly’s 3 in the middle, and three church friends.   We were sorted into houses.  I made each kid a badge with the house on it.  After we sorted into houses then we either had our picture taken or went out to start the Wizard’s Shoot out.

We took pictures of everyone as Harry/Hermione and it was fun to dress up.

 

Sammy being Harry – side note we had three Sammy’s at the party.  Sammy A, Sammy Ricks, Sammi Turpin!

 

I think Caleb’s pose was the best.

 

 

 

 

Potions class – it was great fun.  We had Technicolor foam and bubbles and a concoction you could drink after you mixed it up!

Drink it, if you dare! Jessi, Lizzy, Nathan, Hannah and Thomas at the end of the table.

 

The mixture started out purple and then changed to blue and then foam up.

 

Katie blowing her bubbles.

 

 

 

Bubbles, bubbles everywhere!

Sammy getting ready to shoot in the Wizards Shootout!

We had them shooting at a hula hoop that was hung from a tree and then swung around.  It was fun.  Katie was the winner of the Tri Wizard shoot out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not the greatest picture but his expression is priceless.  The cake was Harry, Hermione and Ron on broomsticks with a bright moon behind them and clouds.    Afterwards, we had cake and ice cream and presents.  It was a  great party and everyone  had a good time.

Happy Birthday, Nathan – you are officially in double digits!

Fall of 2011 (catch up)

First, I wanted to thank everyone that responded with help for my teaching questions.  They did help but I have a feeling that this will be one of “those” years.  For some reason 8 years old seems to be a hard year – not the child and the parents!

Like the title said this is a catch up with several things put in at once.  First there is Mandy’s birthday party.  She wanted an art party and it took some drama for me to pull out what that actually meant.  As it ended up we had a fun party tie dying t-shirts – splatter painting on the drive way and decorating very colorful cupcakes.  Everyone left paint spattered and happy! Now for the pictures – I guess we were too busy to take pictures of the tie dying (Kathie if you have some would you send them my way).  The paint spattering was fun - Lizzie and her picture

Mandy preparing to paint!

Katie  her and her painting.

Lydia and her masterpiece.

On to the cupcake decorating -

Jason looking over all of the icing.  At one point, we thought all of the icing was going to blue.

The finished masterpieces.  Everyone loved the white flower cupcake that Ms. Chloe gave to Mandy.

 

 

Mandy’s cupcake.

 

 

Opening presents.  How fun!

 

Happy 8th birthday, Mandy, We love you!

On to football – Nathan has been practicing football since the first part of August.  He has practiced through the 100* + temperatures and now we are playing football.  After yesterday, we are 5 and 3.  I think they must have a fairly good team as there wins have been knock outs like 33 to 0 and 28 to 0.  The first game they lost by 6 points in the last few seconds and the second one they also lost by a touchdown.  The third loss was bad and the only game Nathan didn’t play.  It was a make up game because of the wildfire and they played it on a Sunday.

Here is Nathan in all his glory - There team is called the Magnolia Mustangs.  The coach even went to the extra yard and had their helmets painted gold and a mustang painted on them.  It is hard to get a picture of just Nathan playing as he is on the line and usually in the middle of whatever play is happening.

Waiting for the play to start.

I got sidetracked and took a picture of the sunset.  It actually was prettier in person.

 

The boy walking toward Nathan is named Colton and he is 5” 4” and weighs around 150.  They have faced opponents that top over 230 and they are 10 years old.

After the game pep talk.  One thing I can say for the coaches is that they are sincere about trying to help the players.  Nathan has learned a lot about football this season but also about good sportsmanship.  One of the coaches lost his temper with one of the opponents coaches and they had a yelling match on the sidelines.  The coach apologized to the team and say it was not something he should do.

Questions about teaching

This is sent out by a rather confused homeschooling Mom.  I home school – two children.  One is 9, almost 10 and a boy and he is in 4th grade.  My second one is 8, last week and she is in the 2nd grade.  It sounds rather odd for me to be blogging about this but I wanted to get input from any homeschoolers out in blogging land.

The kids are absolutely opposites when it comes to teaching them.  My dilemma (right now anyway) is with my youngest, Mandy.  Mandy is very intelligent and quite complicated.  She is just going in to the area of writing in a small way.  She is an absolute perfectionist.  I have a book I write in for notes and to keep up with what we are doing – my teacher’s lesson plan, if you will.  School has been in session for 4 weeks now, although we lost a week to evacuation.  My notes in the last several weeks are as follows:

Wednesday, Aug 31st – Mandy will sit and stare at a paper forever if she doesn’t understand.  I can explain it 5 different ways and she just glazes over.  How do I get to her?  It is like I have to get mad at her and then she will actually hear me.

Tuesday, Sept 13th – She took most of her time (over an hour) puzzling over a sentence she was supposed to write and then she wrote a very complicated 3 sentences.  Her mind doesn’t work simply – If you ask her a question and give her enough time she will give you a synopsis of the subject.  Is this good or bad?

Today, Thursday – Mandy is still having problems with writing.  She either writes a long paragraph or doesn’t write anything.  Today, given a time limit (she had been looking at this page for 30 minutes), on a page she accepted a “0” on the paper rather than try and write it in the 15 minutes.  It was a series of topics and she was just supposed to make them specific rather than general.

This last one blew my mind because Mandy is a straight 100+ student.  She doesn't’ get one wrong or 1/2 wrong she gets everything right and her grades are very important to her.  But she accepted a 0 without comment.

Does anyone have a suggestion on how to make this easier for both of us?  I know writing is hard for her – she is so deep thinking that it takes forever and then she gives me masterpieces and she just turned 8.

Help!

Priorities

This week we have encountered something new.  Wildfires!  I have never even been close to one, other than on vacation and we were kept very far away, but this week there was one that came within a mile of us.  It was called the Dyer Mill fire (don’t know why) in Grimes Co.  At one point, we decided to pack the car and then if we were evacuated we could just jump in the car and go.

  I am really surprised in that people on the news kept saying we had 5 minutes to go – what about the full day before?

This post is about the things that we chose to take.  Nathan – Nintendo!, his radio, next, oh, I have to have my baseball bag and a small blue teddy bear he received while he was in the hospital a while back.  Oh, and then we had the hysteria about the frogs. Nathan is my emotional one.  He falls apart during the emergency.

Mandy – very calm, her black penguin pillow pet, her blanket. Later she also asked for the Jenny doll she got for Christmas and her clothes.

Me – practical.  Clothes, tooth brushes and paste, hair things for Mandy, Scriptures, camera, important papers.  I was good.

Glenn – he wasn’t with us (being in Canada) but he wanted some clothes, his Mother’s painted plates, his stamp collection, and pictures.

Luckily, we didn’t have to evacuate.  We had some nice rain yesterday, although it didn’t put all of the fire out.  It is now 50% controlled.  We so needed the rain that even though it didn’t put the fire out it was welcome anyway.  We are now in a bad drought.  We have received 7” of rain since January and by this time of the year we usually have received 23”.

PS – from the last post Nathan’s team came in 3rd out of 9 teams.  I have never been so ready for a baseball season to be over!  Yeah for Nathan and his team mates.

Congrats to Nathan and his team

the 9 year old Tomball Allstars! They won their first tournament game tonight 10-0.  They have come together well as a team after an exhausting two weeks – almost every day- practice.

The game was at 5 but we had to be there at 3:30.  We actually arrived at 3 because it was our first time driving and was told it took an hour.

It was HOT and the bleachers are metal so we felt like we were in an oven!

After the game, listening to the coaches and getting a pep talk.

 

 

 

 

Coaches, Daddy and Nathan after the first game of the tournament.  We now have a game on Wednesday night and if we win that one, we will play a last game on Friday night.  If we lose Wednesday, we will play a game on Thursday and then I don’t know.

Baseball, baseball and more baseball

 

Nathan’s team, the  Rangers won their division last week.  It is a 9-10 year old division.  Then they went to the tournament and won all 3 games to be the tournament winners.  I was really hoping that we would end the season there.  I am tired of practices and games, etc. 

No such luck – I really should be pleased.  Of all the 9 year olds in the league, the coaches and who ever else picks 12 9-year olds to play in the All Star team.  After the final game last night, which they won 8 to 3 they received their trophies.  The Rangers received two trophies – one for the season and one for the tournament.  After all the pictures were taken (sorry, my camera just died, right before the trophy presentation) they then announced the All Stars.  Glenn and I had known for a couple of days as they wanted to make sure all of the kids chosen would be there.  We didn’t tell Nathan and as he left the field before the announcement, he looked at me and said “I don’t think I made it”.  I just told him to wait and see.  When his name was called he ran out into the field with arms pumping the air, circled the coach and then started crying.  He won everyone’s heart – no matter who they were.  So, we get to start practicing again – this time 3 hour practices as there is only around 2 weeks before the tournament begins and these kids (chosen from 6 teams) haven’t played together yet.  Glenn is so excited and as you can tell – me not so much!

Go, Nathan, go!

Our little farm

We don’t really live on a farm, in that we don’t pay the bills with what we make.  We are trying to be a little more self sufficient and in that we seem to be doing ok. 

We have a garden that we have already been able to harvest some produce: tomatoes, beans, peas, lettuce and some squash and onions.  Hopefully, it will continue but it is already hot and very, very dry.   We are in a long drought.  It hasn't rained in a long while.  Unfortunately, we haven’t even had any drizzles, nothing.

Yesterday, we butchered 19 X-cross white chickens that we have raised since they were a day old.  Kathie took pictures, I was kind of busy.  We got home from Nathan’s last regular season game and then started the processing.  The men folk – Rob, Daddy, Caleb and Nathan were outside doing the killing,  de-heading,  and blood draining.  Kathie, Katie, Mandy and I were inside doing the washing, dunking in hot water, plucking, and eviscerating.  That means taking out the “innards” as my Grandmother would have said.  Sammy watched the girls so that we could do the above.

Now we have 19 chickens in two freezers.  We also have two new calves, certainly late coming this year.  We usually have calves starting in late February/early March.  We had two new ones Saturday.  I admit, I am not a specialist in cow genetics but we have a solid black part-Angus cow that has never given birth to a cow that looks like her.  This new calf is no exception.  Brown with splotches of white.

                                              Ebony with her new calf.  One or two days old. 

Then we have another calf whose Mother is Daisy.  This is Daisy’s first calf.

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t know if they are female or male yet.

Our fruit trees are not doing very well, I think because it is too dry except for the figs bushes,which are covered with figs.  We put in 9 berry bushes this year.  They have had there challenges – the bull stepping on them, dry, dry weather and bugs but we have gotten a few blue berries and we have some raspberries that are growing.

It has been a busy week, next week Mandy gets her cast off which will probably make things easier.  Mandy has a spika cast and it is from her waist, down one leg and is bent at the knee.  Which means she can sit but it is so high she can’t get under certain things like the piano.  She has a recital May 21st so, we are practicing with Kathie key board right now.

Ebony and calf (two days old)

I am not a screamer

I now am sure!  Today while heading home from piano lessons, I felt something against my leg.  I looked down and there was a snake!!!!! resting against my leg.  I moved my leg quickly and startled the snake that went back up into the steering column or under the dash.  I drove to the nearest auto place and we quickly got out of the car.  I told the guys there and they tried to find it.  They took apart everything they could take apart and couldn’t find it.

Finally, they put everything back together and we decided to head for home.  We had decided we would put the fake eggs in the car when we got home ,if it was still there, it would eat one and die.  As we were talking about this, I said the snake had to be in the dash somewhere in front of Mandy or I.  At this point, Mandy’s response was “Oh, how lovely!”.

Unfortunately, we didn’t make it home.  We were headed down 1774 and Nathan began screaming and I looked down and the snake was slithering beside my chair and headed for the back seat.  At that point, if Nathan could have, he would have crawled out of the car.  I pulled over as soon as I could and Nathan bailed out of his door like mad dogs were after him.  I got out and got Mandy out and we called 911.  We sat down to wait and then I found an actual address and called back (after 30 minutes) and was told that our call had be sent to Grimes Co. and then they forwarded me to them.  She told me, she knew where I was but she didn’t have anyone to send me and it would be, in her words “quite a while”.  I called Kathie and got some telephone numbers and a friend came to get me and we are home but I don’t know what to do with the car.  At least, the snake didn’t bite me.  Very thankful for that.

It has been a no good, very bad day.

Here we go again!

Sunday night we had a wonderful Passover meal with Kathie and her family.  Thanks again for all the prep Kathie and Rob. 

Monday started out with a dirty house and plenty of laundry and starting back to school.  At lunch time, Mandy and Nathan went outside to play and I fixed lunch.  I yelled for the kids to come in  and they both walked into the kitchen and I handed Mandy her sandwich.  She turned around to go into the game room and wham! she went down hard on the tile floor.  Just like that, she had broken her left femur. 

So, several days later and another surgery to place two surgical “nails”, we are back home from the hospital.  Yesterday, we tried to take it easy and get back into the swing of walkers and wheelchairs, etc.  

Today they are schooling back downstairs and Mandy is sleeping in the game room.  This time she has a bright pink spika cast – the cast encircles her waist and then down her left leg.  It makes it a little harder to fit her under things because the cast is bent at the knee so that she can sit.  We are praying that this is a fairly short duration.  The surgeon said we will have the cast for 4 weeks and then we will see.  With her bones healing slowly, I doubt if the 4 weeks is accurate but we will see.

Whew! We survived this week

This has been a scary, hard week and I am so thankful that we are watched over and protected.

Last weekend we enjoyed General Conference.  Sunday morning we had primary music on and I enjoyed listening to Mandy and Nathan singing the songs and preparing to listen to our Prophet and the other General Authorities.

That night I woke up smelling something.  I checked the kitchen to see if I had left anything on and then went around the house but couldn’t find anything that was burning.  The next morning the smell was still there and I still couldn’t find anything.  I went outside the feed the chicks and the smell was much stronger – my thoughts- someone is burning something and the burn ban is still on!  I walked into the work shop and it was stronger.  One of the lamps that we used to keep the chicks warm had fallen onto the floor (wood) and had smoldered all night.  It burned through these huge planks of wood.  It was still sparking when I walked in.  I threw the chicks water on it and then we ran and poured three more gallons onto the hot wood.  If the wood had actually caught it would have gone through the wall and into the next room that borders where we keep the gasoline for the tractor and lawn mower.  We would have lost the whole building as well as it could have spread to the house.  Like I said, I am very thankful to be watched over and cared for.

Tuesday, Nathan had a baseball game and they lost their first one: 8 to 3.  Nathan had a good game and it was a hard loss. 

On Wednesday, Mandy had horse back riding and that went well.  Nathan didn’t have Scouts as the church carpet is being replaced.

A week ago, Kena had her kittens.  She had 5 little ones: one white, one black, three look a lot like Kena, who is gray with black stripes.  They seem to be doing well.  Still eyes closed and making little mewing sounds.

 

 

 

 

Saturday, we finished enclosing the chicken yard with poultry netting above it, to keep out the chicken hawks and whatever else will try to kill out baby chicks.  They actually are not small anymore.  The white ones (meat chickens) have grown really big.  They will be ready to slaughter in around 3 weeks.  We moved the chicks out to the chicken yard and enclosed Fred, the rooster into the small area.

Later, Mandy and I went to the Woodlands Art Festival.  The art was amazing.  Mandy soaked in the atmosphere and the different types of art.  She was very quiet for the most part because she was looking.  We talked to many of the artists and they were very good about explaining the type of medium they used. 

This was copper and no paints were used on it.  The decoration was burned on it.  Mandy really liked it.  I didn’t get too many pictures as the artists didn’t want their work photographed.

We had lunch there – not too impressed.  Their posters said they would have restaurants out among the art but the extent  of that was pulled pork sandwiches, sausage on a stick, hamburgers and hot dogs.  Oh, well.

Mandy really liked these.  The background was Humpty Dumpty in all different poses and costumes.  There were also jesters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

While Mandy and I enjoyed talking about and walking through this wonderful art covered walkway which was miles long – Nathan and Daddy went to yet another baseball game.  This time his team, the Rangers, won 9 – 3.  They are in first place in their division.

While Mandy and I finished up, Kathie called and said one of the kittens had died.  So, we lost our solid black kitten and Nathan was sad. 

To finish the week,  this morning we went out to take care of the chickens and Fred, the Rooster was dead.  No blood, no feathers laying around, just dead on the ground????

Oh well, like I said we survived this week and I am most anxious to start another one.

Our busy week

This week was busy but routine – we had school, of course and piano lessons, art lessons, Nathan went over to the Meyers while Mandy and I did our weekly chiropractic appt.   Mandy had a horseback riding lesson ( she has finally lopped (not sure of spelling but it is between a trot and a gallop). On  Thursday, we did school and then visiting teaching, drove to Tomball and went to Wal-Mart and then had dinner.  Nathan had a baseball game at 8:00 ( I hate late games – we didn’t get home until after 10) and so Glenn was able to see the game, having arrived at 6 in Houston. 

Friday morning, Nathan had a doctor’s appt (foot doctor – nothing new to add) and then we came home and worked on planting some bushes and then we got ready to go to Pack meeting.  Nathan was trying to finish off a achievement called “farm animals” and he had to go to his den/pack meeting and talk about a book and his knowledge of an animal.  Here are some pictures of pack meeting.  They are doing a group race to show how we have to work together.

My picture of Nathan and his presentation -  evidently didn’t come out.  No trace of it but what Nathan did was:

1) made a poster of the baby chicks new and now – identified them,  (2) also posted his science notes about incubating Fred (the only egg we incubated before we lost our flock) and posted pictures of him as well as bringing four baby chicks and Fred for everyone to look at and touch.  He did a presentation in front of the pack about this.  Finished off the farm animals achievement, check!

On Saturday, we had a mixed day of culture and sport.  Mandy and Nathan were in a Spring Festival.  Mandy and Nathan had worked on 3 songs each and they presented them in front of judges.  They each received a ribbon and a write up on their performance. 

Waiting to be called in to the judging.  We were in a group of around 10 children and each of them played 2 to 3 songs a piece.              Mandy playing her pieces.  I have found it is very hard to get a good picture when they are playing.  Nathan waiting for the judge to  tell him to continue between his pieces.

 

 

 

 

After the performance with their music and their ribbons.

Next,  we hurried home and everyone changed clothes and then rushed to Tomball and played Nathan’s 4th game of the year.  Sorry, I didn’t get any pictures of the game.  I find it hard to take pictures through the wire fencing anyway, they are 4-0 and won this game 8 to 5.  They are in 1st place and more important Nathan was able to get out of his batting slump.  At the beginning of the season, his coach decided it would be better for Nathan in the future, if he batted left handed.  It has to do with balance, etc but he has had to switch his body stance and it has not been easy.  Lately, he has had the batting stance and swing down but he has been so frustrated that he hasn’t hit anything.  He had two hits on Saturday and I think he will be ok from now on.

This isn’t in order but Mandy had refreshments for FHE and wanted to make cupcakes and so here is Mandy and her cupcakes. Looking forward to next weekend and General Conference.