Weekly Wrap Up 10/30/15

It is one week till Halloween and I still haven't had time to put out the decorations, at this rate it probably won't happen:(.   I do have pumpkins but they haven't been carved, maybe there is time this week!  School wise, we are keeping busy and getting lots done.  We took one field trip this week and got some volunteer hours in!    I am trying to do more activities with the children that involve helping others, while our family donate every year to a cause, we haven't been good about volunteering our time for those in need.  I wanted to change that for the kids and for myself. While we haven't picked anything as a permanent volunteer job we are trying out lots of different things.  I am hoping one thing strikes their heart and it becomes their passion!

MarioFan completed his presentation on Costa Rica and did a great job.  Public speaking will not be a problem for my kids in the future.

My husband and I each took a child out for dinner one night this week to have some one on one time.  MarioFan chose to go to Cracker barrel with me and while waiting for our meal we played a Pokemon card game.  I think he made up most of the rules  because the game made no sense at all to me and I always seemed to lose;).  My husband and Daughter chose to go to a Mexican restaurant and can you believe they didn't take a picture, seriously how long have I been doing this blog and my family know I take pictures of everything!!!  oh well just trust me they went and had a great time bonding together!

This week the kids volunteered for 2 hours at "Feed my Children"  This was the first time we have participated and it was so well organized.  I am told this event has been happening in the area for 9 years!

Since FireDrake has a broken foot and is unable to stand she was assigned the labeling job for the entire two hours.  She did great but next time wants to go into the other room where her brother and I spent our time.

There had to be over 50 volunteers and there are several 2 hour shifts over a three day period .  The goal is to make 5 million meals by the end of the 3 day period. These meals are sent all over the world to help feed children.

the mix included dehydrated veggies, rice, soy, each bag was weighed and had at minimum of 380 g of food inside which makes approx. 6 servings

Every volunteer had a job!  The filling bag station and the weighing station

Packaging station

Since MarioFan had a cold he was assigned the sealing and packaging team, making sure he wasn't passing any germs to the food.

sealing the bags with MOM

boxes packed and ready to ship.  Our table alone packed up 19 boxes with each box containing 36 bags of food mix

At the end of our visit they totaled up the amount of meals 

And showed us a video on how this food is helping children in need around the world.  It is a tear jerker !

My husband and I went out on a date--two weeks in a row that has to be a record for us!  We found another cake celebrating 250th birthday of St. Louis.  

We tired out a German Restaurant that was recommended to us and it was so good!!!!

MarioFan is still learning about electricity and working on a new snap circuit kit.  He is also reading about Thomas  Edison.

I have signed us both up for an electricity course through Coursera which begins in Nov, while it high school level I thought we might be able to get something out of it cause honestly, I have gone as far as I can with teaching this topic!

FireDrake is still hobbling about on her crutches but the complaining has decreased!  We are looking forward to this afternoon and finding out if she can be in a walking boot which will be so much easier on everyone!   While she did get a halloween costume this year it depends on the Doctor if she can actually go out trick or treating...so keep your fingers crossed for us all:)

Weekly Wrap Up 10-23-15

Here is the scarecrow we found this week in town!

found at the local post office:)  We enjoy going through town finding these awesome scarecrows!

Firedrake had her Spanish country presentation this week and did awesome!  Since Firedrake was unable to stand and move about easily I came to her class to help pass out the Tres Leche cake and help her with her country props.  Once I wasn't needed anymore I took a quick picture and snuck out of class!

Next week is MarioFan's presentation so he has been working hard at home putting together his presentation.  Since he is younger the requirements are slightly different.  MarioFan's country is Costa Rico and he decided to make a decorative Ox cart which is the national symbol of Costa Rico!

MarioFan starting working on in-between classes at the coop.  Instead of paint we used scrapbook paper to decorate our ox cart.  MarioFan also learned the fascinating history of this unique custom and craft

We found some patterns of ox cart wheel and learned they used spokeless wheels.  Each cart has its own unique design painted on the cart.  A children's story that we found to help explain this custom can be found here .

His finished Ox Cart which he will show during his presentation next week

Next we made Suspiros which is an Costa Rico dessert.  we used this recipe Here MarioFan is learning how to separate egg whites.  Can you tell by his face he is not a fan of this process.  

The finished Suspiroes which is basically meringues. This is the first time we have ever made these and they turned out great!  While we sample a few we plan on saving them for MarioFan to take into class for his presentation.

Another thing he is going to discuss during his presentation is how Male folk dancers dress in Costa Rica according to our research.  barefoot, jeans, long sleeve white shirt with a colorful sash and a straw hat.  At home we watched a few folk dancers on Youtube.

My sweet Husband and I had a date night with some visiting relatives this past weekend.  We tried out a new East European restaurant and it was excellent.

I loved the food presentation...this was a scrumptious apple strudel dessert

We also took a drive thru Lone Elk Park which is local to us and some the elk on a cool autumn day.  So beautiful

That is our busy week in a nutshell, lots of school and fun things happening:)

Weekly Wrap Up 10/16/15

This has been a rough week all around.  Firedrake is very unhappy about being non weight bearing on her left foot and having to use crutches, her attitude is the pits:( right now making life in general pretty miserable.  We only have two more weeks of this before our next Doctor appt where we both hope she will be able to move to a walking boot!  This is the first time she has ever been really injured or sick and I can honestly say she make for a horrible patient:(.  I caught her walking around the house without her crutches over the weekend and she reported that her foot feels better.  I called the doctor to see if she could move to a walking boot sooner and both of us were told that she is doing damage to her foot and she is to remain non weight bearing until Oct 30 or risk surgery.  When we got off the phone Firedrake told me she was very angry with me.  When I ask why this wasn't my decision but the doctors, she said "I have to be angry at someone and you're it."  Ugh Teenagers and their reasoning:) and luckily my husband and I have a good sense of humor:)!

You would have thought riding around in a scooter would improve her mood, but nope she hung on to her surly attitude!  Oh and I fear for the day when she earns her driving license because she has no depth perception apparently:(

We discovered a new restaurant in the area.  The kids are studying Spanish countries for their Spanish class, Nicaragua for Firedrake and Costa Rico for Mario Fan.  

We had what the restaurant called a traditional Nicaraguan meal: Gallo Pinta (also a costo rican dish), carne asda,  and fried plantains! So both kids got to taste a food that is from their country!  

The whole family loved it! Every one wants to go back again! 

We stopped at the halloween store so the kids could pick out their outfits.  What they chose is a surprise for a later post:) I swear every year costumes get more expensive!

Firedrake is working on her Nicaraguan presentation that she needs to perform in class next week!  This week she worked on making a Las Chapas game, which is a popular Spanish game played in many Spanish countries.  Las Chapas is a bottle cap game and players often decorate their bottle caps before playing.  People young and old play this game and their are several videos on you tube of kids and adults playing the game.

While the game looks easy it is actually quite challenging as the course can be changed to be more challenging.

We also made a Tres Leche cake at home which is a very sweet and moist cake made in many Spanish countries including Nicaragua.   This is the recipe we used
We were trying it out ahead of time to see if we could make it and bring it in for her class presentation.  It turned out awesome so she will be making it again and taking it into class to share

While out and about we found another scarecrow in town.  There are over 50 scarecrows at local business and it is fun driving around town to see them. 

That is our week in a nutshell...linking up with weird unsocialized homeschool for the weekly wrap up:)  

Weekly update 10-9-15

It has been an interesting week!  Firedrake fell down while walking the dog and manage to break her foot and severely strained her left foot ligaments:(.  She is now non-weight bearing for the next several weeks and she is not happy about that at all.  It has not gone unnoticed to her that this will severely affect halloween activities.

She is wearing a boot for the next 3 weeks and then we go back to the Doctor to see if we can begin PT and walking. 

Speaking of Halloween,  Luna has her costume all ready!  She was not thrilled with the whole idea as you can see by her expression:) lol

This week was also my Husband and my 16th wedding anniversary!!!  My parents sent us a bottle of wine from the winery where were married!  So sweet!  My husband and I were very touched by the gestured!

I bought my husband two boxes of his favorite cereal as a gift as it only comes out this time of year!  I am such a big spender:)

We had two volunteer activities scheduled this week but only went to one because of the unexpected  foot injury.

We made cat toys and blankets for the local humane society at a local homeschoolers house.  The kids worked so hard and beat the previous record set by another group, which they were thrilled about.  Here MarioFan is making a cat toy using fleece

While Firedrake worked on making cat blankets.  The kids made a total of 21 cat blankets in just 2 hours!

and 100 cat toys in 2 hours.  They all worked hard

Firedrake has been working very hard on her country study on Nicaragua and completed her presentation board which she will use during her scheduled presentation next week

MarioFan has brought out the Scratch book I bought ages ago and is beginning to learn some programming.  When he tried this before he got frustrated and gave up, but he is managing very well this time around and making progress. Once again showing me that kids will learn things in their own time if I just give them a little space:) 

This past weekend was the town's Scarecrow festival.  We were not able to attend but the scarecrows are up all month and when we find one while out and about we take a picture.  This one is at the local grocery store:)

That is our week in a nut shell, it is always interesting around here:)

weekly wrap up 10-2

This week things did not run quite as smoothly but we still got a lot accomplished!

For my daughters  Spanish coop class they were to go to a local Spanish festival in the city to earn extra credit.  Since my daughter is working on a country study (Nicaragua) we went to see if we could find any items from that country.  I have to say I was so disappointed in the festival, so much so I don't have a single picture from the time we spent there:(!  We struggled to find anything for Firedrake's Spanish speaking country and finally settled on a Nicaragua soccer jersey.  She is going to be doing a presentation so we thought she could wear that shirt.  We also bought two very small string bracelets that she can show although neither were made in her country but we know this type of bracelets are often made by school girls there.  Considering the large Chinese and Japanese festival we recently went too this festival was a dude in our eyes:( .  But the kids went and earned their extra credit so that is good.

Our other field trip for this week, a visit to Jefferson Barracks, was cancelled.  I was disappointed as it was to enhance our Civil War studies that we are hoping to wrap up next week.  It is to be rescheduled for next month, hopefully it will fit into our schedule.

So did you get to see the Lunar eclipse?  We were so excited as the weather the whole week had been clear skies and beautiful.  This is what rolled in on that day...

Yep clouds and they stayed the whole evening...again we were all disappointed to miss the big event.  Watching on the computer is just not quite the same

I still brought out the Moon pies that my Husband bought as a surprise for the kids to nibble on while we were suppose to be outside watching the eclipse...that sort of made the kids ok with the nasty clouds rolling in:)

My daughter and I took another painting class together.  I love when I can find these classes for half off!

Firedrake working with her Dad on biology Lab trying to figure out how malaria and sickle cell traits are passed on in each generation...I think my husband is taking over the biology labs from now on as it is easier for him to explain since I am not really keeping up with the reading instead concentrating on MarioFan's science

MarioFan is continuing to work on electricity and we pulled out a new snap circuit where he built a walking insect.  This was much more successful than last weeks activity!

He also pulled out his new circuit boards and did a couple more  products

For history we are watching the last few episodes of Ken Burns Civil War documentary and reading Rifles for Watie which is a book on the civil war.  Firedrake is getting quite a bit out of the Ken Burns series but MarioFan is really struggling with it as finds it very dry.  I also want to have them watch the movie Lincoln and possibly the movie Gettysburg but I am not sure the kids will want to sit thru a 5 hour war movie and we did recently watch the movie Glory and Gods and Generals.  I may have to watch it with my husband at a later date:)

Coop classes are going well, although Firedrake had a minor melt down at the amount of homework her Spanish and Literature class requires.  After a few tears we sat down and stream lined her work at home and again talked about time management skills.  Unfortunately this is still an ongoing process and we are still working on it.  These two classes need to be worked on daily and if she chooses to miss a day's assignment she can quickly get overwhelmed.  She is still learning how to break down assignments to make them more manageable each day.  She just looks at the list of what needs to be done that week and panics.  Once we sit down and break it down into more manageable sizes she has no problems getting the work done.  While the minor crisis is over I do expect to have a few more this year until her time management skills are up to parr.  It is hard for her to not have as much time to do what she wants to do this semester but as my husband and I keep telling her school is her job at the moment and if she wants to go to college these skills must be learned now in order to have a better college experience.  I don't want her to be the type to procrastinate on her assignments.   

That is our week in a nutshell, next week we have two volunteer activities scheduled!  My husband and I are celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary!