A full day!

Good grief we had a full day today! ;D Started out with Yoga and then bread making ( bread sticks again today! ) I then paid the bills and got some work sorted out. I had Jessie try a Kakuro puzzle based on the wonderful blog of my buddy Risa. I helped Jessie out to start with and then she swiftly got the hang of it and finished it off in no time!! Yeahy!! Math!!! ;D

I'd been reading the Fabulous Alicia's Blog and saw her idea for painting snow balls. Now, this always, ALWAYS happens to me. I hear of a great idea for something to do in the frozen depths of winter....and you know when I finally think of doing it??? Spring. Without fail. tsk. Anyway, this time I thought QUICK let's just DO it...!! So Jessie ran out and grabbed balls of snow and I went to fetch the paints! Sadly, at 47 degrees any remaining snow is more like ice, but still, we had a go anyway!! ;D







It turned out very pretty and the kiddoes enjoyed themselves! :D After our painting I thought we'd try another of Alicia's ideas.... Elephant Toothpaste!












Wow!! That was TONS of fun!!! The children REALLY enjoyed that one and they had a great time adding drops of food coloring to the expanding foam to see what pretty patterns they'd come up with ! It was a great experiment and really interesting! Thanks, Alicia!

Our next project was based on this idea from the Rhythm of the Home website.... We decided to try another way and use a cloth to sprout the seeds on in the bottom of a bowl. We'll see if it works! We decided to try Chia seeds and Jessie didn't know what would happen with Flax seeds, so, since we ARE homeschoolers after all, we thought we'd put some of those in and see!!! ;D






When the seeds have sprouted I want to put some painted eggs into the "grass" so I'd blown some eggs the other day and decided to try painting a couple this afternoon.




I'd bought white eggs as they are a) cheap ( cheep cheep ) and b) I can paint all sorts of colors on them if I wanted to! :D Closer to Easter I'll get lovely organic brown eggs and we'll use natural methods to dye them....they come out so wonderfully muted and beautiful! ANYWAY....!! I painted one egg brown




and will probably add a few more "speckles" when it's good and dry and another one blue.



I'll add some spots to that one later too! They're going to be really pretty! ; D

It was beautiful outdoors so Jessie insisted we get going for our nature walk. I offered the dogs a walk too and strangely Brecon, our old lady lab / retriever mix did not show her usual boundless enthusiasm for the idea. You usually can't even SAY the word walk or she'll be at the door squeaking and squealing with delight. She did muster up enthusiasm as we were just getting ready to go but looking back I realise her heart wasn't really in it. We went for a lovely walk, the children ran ahead, playing on the frozen puddles, marveling at the rivers of melting snow coursing down the sidewalks and thrilling at the almost raging waters of our tiny little stream that is often all but dried out in the summer time. Melt waters will do that to a tiny little stream! Of course this proved the perfect opportunity for Pooh Sticks!! The kiddies dropped sticks or leaves on one side of the bridge and raced to the other side to watch them float back out!!!



Brecon began to limp very dramatically so we cut our walk short and headed slowly back home.



I had thoughts of baking some cookies but a) the children suddenly and quietly occupied themselves and b) I'd only flaming well eat them, wouldn't I ?!! : D Instead I yapped on the phone for a little while and cuddled my cat then went upstairs to tackle the laundry baskets which seemed to be breeding in my bedroom!! I got the majority of it folded up without any interruption but then Jackster came to join me and he had a wild time playing with the kitten. Soon Jessie came along to keep us company and she spent her time sitting on my rocking chair looking through the photos albums. Once the laundry was folded we decided a little more Yoga was in order so we got down and stretched out! Before long Daddy came home and the evening began to wind down. We were none of us hungry so we had cereal and apples for dinner! Jack and Daddy played catch whilst I checked my mail and Jessie wrote a blog post in her new blog! I took Jack up to bed and relaxed him right to sleep! It's like a magic trick!! Now, once again, night is upon us. Rex has just brought me a beer and some popcorn and wants me to watch Zombieland!!! He's the Yin to my Yang I'll tell ya! ; D Couldn't live without him!

G'night!