Elmo - An Unschooler??

Today Marley wanted to watch Sesame Street and we hung out a bit before I had to finish packing for Girl Scout Camp. Elmo, Big Bird, and Snuffy were starting up a Y School to learn more about the letter Y. Elmo went out to find a teacher. Each person he asked said they were too busy to be the teacher but told him a little more about the letter Y. He taught what he learned to Big Bird and Snuffy but he couldn't come up with a teacher. Then suddenly they realized that he WAS the teacher. Hmmmm.

Vacuquin

My unschooler, when she didn't have a manequin to dress up, she used the vaccuum cleaner instead. All in all, they have become good friends.

Brenda's Discovery

At a party for her friend the other day, Brenda made an astounding discovery. While trying to lick icing off her body, she figured out that her tongue cannot not touch her elbow.

The Big Welcome Home

Marley had a harder time being dropped off for camp by the day. She loved being there when she was there. And the first two or three days were ok. But by the end of the week she was panicking when I left. She was getting exhausted by the end of the day and not getting enough sleep, perhaps. Today was her last day and we cleaned up her playroom and had a picnic with her when she came home!!

**Art Classes**

Actually, I sat with Brenda and Bret to work on making faces. I told them if they get nothing else from this but one thing, I would like it to be the realization that the eyes are not on the top of the head, but rather approx in the middle. We made a face graph of sorts to show where all the parts are in proximity to the other facial parts. I thought Bret's portrait was worthy of showing up on the blog. I was extrememly impressed.

Lily at Camp

When I came to pick Lily up from camp today, she gave me a frown and turned away from me. "I don't want to go home". She helped collect eggs from the hens, fed the rabbit (lettuce), made and painted a tree house, cooked bread in the outdoor dutch oven, then ate the bread with butter and honey, climbed a tree, and much much more. Mostly there was a boy who wanted to marry her that followed her around and sat by her. She wasn't amused.

Crafts at the Park

We made decorative cups today at the grand reopening of Crafts at the Park. Glad it is on again. They even let me take the craft home for Lily because of course SHE IS AT CAMP ALL WEEK... :-)

Neusole Glassworks Flowers

Our flowers from the Neusole Glassworks tour last week. One of the best field study tours of the year, we all agree!! Brenda's is blue and green, Bret's is red and green, mine is blue with a clear flower.

Two Down, Four To Go

Brenda and I took a picture of us getting ready for the big night.



Here are Josh and Brittany after the graduation for a couple photo ops.




And the three generations of Coshnitkze's all together for the big moment. Josh and Brittany are off to college soon. Yay for them moving on to new things :-)

Kids Workshop at Home Depot

Home Depot Kids Workshop. The first Saturday of each month from 9am-noon. Each month a new project. Always a cool project for the kids to learn how to build.

This month we made mini-foosball sets. Next month - Periscopes. August - School Bus Pencil Organizer. There is always something cool going on at Home Depot...

Out on Field Work

We went on a tour of a glass blowing company here in town. Ten minutes away. Never heard of it until the tour was set up.



We watched a demonstration of them making a really cool vase from beginning to end. How they add colors to the glass, how they blow the glass, how they get the glass off the big metal pole it is on while it is being worked, the cooling process, etc.



Then we all took turns making our own glass flowers.



Quiet possibly my favorite field work ever!!



I texted Lisa to tell her we HAVE to set this up for the Girl Scouts. And she said no. That we should set it up for us adults instead. Evidentally there are classes, community outreach programs, tours, all kinds of different activities available through these amazing people!!

A Sad Anniversary

If you know me from around, or if you keep up with us in other ways such as reading our blog, you might remember our painful summer last year. We will be at Girl Scout camp this year on the one year anniversary of Marley's assault.

Not trying to dredge up the past. Marley mentions the boy in passing seldom anymore. The boy is still under house arrest, for whatever that is worth.

But I would like to take this moment to remind you to appreciate the police, fire department, detectives, etc. in your area. You never know when you will need them. Hopefully you will be so lucky then for them to be as amazing as Detective Matheson was and no doubt still is.

Since last summer, I know of another family that is going through something similar, only it is with their older daughter and dad. The mother said she is so thankful for the detective in charge. He was amazing. I asked her, was it Detective Matheson? She said it was and we smiled a sad smile together. We both agree. Detective Matheson, you are great!!

Lemonade Anyone?

Brenda bugged me about having a lemonade stand for weeks now. Then she finally got tired of hearing me say no I guess so she set it up with a friend. I was beat. She went over my head to do what she felt compelled to do, so if you can't beat em join em. Her goal is $30.00 so she can buy a pillow pet. "It's a pillow, it's a pet, it's a pillow pet..." In 3 days she has earned $16.00 already and that doesn't include what her friends and Bret have earned too. Or what she has had to pay me for supplies.

And of course, because Brenda and I had to look it up, there is a Girl Scout badge for this. LOL.

Bridging Pics

This first picture is Lisa Bridging Bret into Juniors. "Do you promise to do a good turn daily and live by the Girl Scout Law?" Lisa is the talker. I do much of the work with the girls, but when it comes to speaking in the crowds, I am thankful for Lisa. That is her department.



Next is Bret helping a Daisy become a Brownie. "Twist me and Turn me and show me the Elf. I looked in the water and saw..." My Brownies one at a time took the Daisies over the bridge and twisted and turned them so they could see "themselves". lol. It was sweet!



This is Brenda earning her first Junior Star. Lisa stuck me in front of the crowd for this one, because she was announcing the girls as they came down the aisle.

Those girls just keep getting older and older. What will next year bring??

Yum Yum

There is an issue being put on the ballot about the treatment of farm animals in Ohio. It is gruesome and sad. I am not about "saving" the animals, but what I see makes me physically sick. That said, here is our dinner tonight...

Yesterday afternoon, I had lunch with a good friend. We went to Aquarius Star, yum yum, and chatted for something like 4-1/2 hours. We had Cucumber Gazpacho soup and black bean taco salad. I haven't tried to recreate the gazpacho yet (not because it wasn't amazingly delicious, I assure you.) However, this is my recreation of the taco salad, except my Goddess dressing isn't near as fabulous as theirs was, so I just added a dollop of vegan sour cream. And notice our fresh home grown bed of lettuce that the chili sits upon. Brenda and Bret cleaned their plates! Bret even grilled us some corn and veggie kabobs while he was making his barbq ribs and steak. lol.

Memorial Day Parade

So here we are, those of us that showed up to march in the Memorial Day Parade. And throw candy (we are still having issues with what Gently Toss means, evidentally lol.) and recognize our military forces that have in the past and still do support our country with their lives and commitment.



And wasn't this town nice enough to "fit the Girl Scouts in" to the ceremony after the parade. Rachel got to put up the flag with a boy scout. Those weren't my words and that is why they are in quotes. Can you hear my sarcasm? Not really offended, but why an all boyscout color guard? And why do the Girl Scouts sit in the grass while the boy scouts participate fully in the ceremony? And to our 30 or so Girl Scouts, there were 5 boys for the scouts. I don't get it. But I will try to change it. lol. It was a good time. Donuts and Juice afterward.

Upcoming Fun

(This is Bret and Eva last year at Me and My Gal Camp for Girl Scouts)

Monday, May 31 - we march in the Memorial Day Parade
Monday, Jun 7 - Lily starts day camp for the week
Monday, Jun 7 - Swim Team continues
Monday, Jun 7 - MWF craft day at the park begins
Sunday, Jun 13 - TACamp for the Girl Scouts
Tuesday, Jun 15 - Lily's dance classes start
Sunday, Jun 27 - begin Residence Girl Scout camp for Brenda and Bret

Kick-Off at the Library

The kickoff to the library summer reading program was today. We showed up to decorate blank journals. The girls were so excited to participate in this. And do you know who showed up to do this?? NOBODY. We were the only ones there. Was there something going on this weekend that I wasn't invited to??

and the POOL opens again!!!

When Marley found me this morning, she was already bugging me that today is the day the pool opens. We went in the morning, then again in the evening. I don't like to get them in the sun for too many hours in a row in the first few weeks of the pool. They will almost definitely burn. We even convinced Big Bret to come to the pool with us in the evening. He just sat out and read a magazine, but still it was nice to have him there with us. And I sat with him and worked on my new sweater while the kids wore themselves out. And so for that, the day was a success.

Though, for the first day of the pool being opened, there was not even a full crowd at the pool! I don't get this town sometimes. What kid wouldn't want to spend their summer at the pool??

Feild Day

Yeah, I know I spelled it wrong. We homeschoolers don't know how to splel. We typically don't socialize our kids. We generally don't have good educational tools. And further more, we think we are better than everyone else, so we keep our kids away from public educated kids...

Just kidding of course. Anyway we had field day last Friday. I asked Laura, who sets field day up every year, how many years we have been doing this. This is the 6th annual homeschool field day. Brenda and Bret were so small the first year that they didn't participate. It was just the boys. The girls played at the park.

The kids always have a blast. Even Gaige showed up so he could hang with his old homeschool friends. He didn't get the red shirt memo evidentally. lol.

So there was dizzy t-ball, skateboard racing, an obstacle course (this was new this year), and the soccer kick. After lunch were the relays: there was the potato sack relay, the relay where the kids all take off their shoes and put them in a pile then race one at a time to put their shoes on and run back to their group, and the relay where they crawl under eachother's knees. Then the ever-favorite waterballoon toss and fight to cool everyone down.

As you can tell by Bret's and Sophia's cheering, their team the "Purple Beave-Coons" (don't ask) won. A fun filled day, to say the least.

Baby Doll

Lily and I playing with our babies together. They are a family.

Filling Up

Brittany, wanting to start eating healthier, picked up a book that a friend loaned to me called Vegan with a Vengeance. She flipped through recipes telling me how good some of them looked. That got me on a cooking spree again.




So far my Tempeh Bacon was tasty! Except it called for fresh garlic. I know better than to cook with fresh garlic. It doesn't agree with me. I should have switched to powder. That and it looks more like sausage, doesn't it??



And my Asparagus and "Not So" Sun-Dried Tomato Frittata was fabulous. (It is "not so" Sun-dried tomatoes because I couldn't find sun-dried tomatoes and opted for cherry tomatoes as a replacement.) Yum yum.

The kids had chicken rice stir-fry that Josh and Brittany cooked up for everyone else. I didn't even miss it. :-)

Poor Lily

I always say "Poor Lily" because the girls always have their activities and friends over. They have their schoolish work they like to do. And Lily sits around waiting to be part of anything. The girls are always pushing her away, complaining about how she is getting into their things. And she just wants to be part of everything.

Well is finally old enough to do some big kid things too.

She is going to day camp for a week in a couple weeks at a farm where she will care for plants, make food the old fashioned way, do crafts and games out in the wide open air with the new friends she will make.

Then, I just found out that our PTA Dance Company is doing 6 weeks of dance in the summer so I signed her up for tap and Ballet for $35.00. That's right, 6 weeks of lessons for both Tap and Ballet for $35.00. Brenda and Bret will be gone too much to be signed up, so this is Just For Lily.

Plus she is on swim team now. She has been swimming since she was 2 and can swim the length of the pool so she will be swimming with the team MWF and swimming meets TTh through July.

Hopefully she will start to gain some of what the girls have that she yearns for so badly. Hopefully.

Tie Dying Week

So I decided to tie dye bandanas with Bret's troop for their last meeting. Blue and red and we would wear the bandanas at the Memorial Day parade so everyone could tell our troop apart from the rest. (Brenda was not amused.) But afterwards I had the rest of the dye left over. I decided to tie dye a shirt of my own so I could match with the troop, and I set up shirts for my girls to dye as well. We are finally out of dye from THIS kit. And we each have a shirt to wear that we dyed ourselves. The red looks a little pink, but otherwise the dye seems to keep a lot better than other tie dying experiences we have had in the past.

Girl Scouts is officially over for the summer. Well, except we have Troop Adventure camp in three weeks, Brenda and Bret are going to resident camp (they call it away camp since they will be away from me at camp which doesn't happen often) at the end of June. Brenda to Adventure Camp and Bret to You Can't Do That At Camp Camp. We will run the Girl Scout booth at the 4th of July festival. And there is that pool party in August. But other than that Girl Scouts is over for the summer. Tehehehe.

Girls At Church

This was kids recognition day at church. The girls each got up on stage to be recognized. I stayed in the nursery to hang out with the kiddos. Afterwards there was the Family Fun day. Games, face painting, food (they have a special grill for non meat foods :-), and just all around fun. Elenor came to eat with me and talk for a bit. I just think she is the sweetest little thing I have ever met! Here are the girls together looking joyous when it was time to leave.

Bret Made Me Kabobs! :-)

As you probably know, I seldom eat meat or meat products. I switched my eating habits a few years ago when I told a vegan person I met that it is too expensive to buy all those vegan products to replace the animal products we eat in the home. He outlined for me how I could just eliminate the meat and meat products and continue eating everything else I eat and still be healthy. I had never heard it put that way or thought of it like that. Suddenly I had a new way of looking at things.

Well as you probably know, I cook for 8 in my house and so my food is often sitting next to plates of meat and cheese and milk based dressings, etc. It was sweet the other day when Bret made Kababs and came up with a whole plate filled with vegetable kabobs. Everyone else got deer kabobs from his kill this last fall.

Lily on Swim Team??

Lily has joined swim team with her sisters. She has been swimming since she was 2. She has been able to swim across the pool since she was 3. Now she is 4 and she will swim with the team. Pretty cool. Pictures to follow.

I Can Do This

Lisa, my exercise buddy, my Girl Scout leader at my side, my friend that is happily glutton to any of my ideas, got me this new knitting book for my birthday. I can make socks, hand mitts, sweaters, surely I can make these beautiful dolls for me and Lily to play with. Certainly I can... right? Getting right on it. Her birthday is only 6 months away. And I need every minute!