September Picnic

We were feeling a little housebound today and decided that a picnic dinner at the park would be just the thing to cheer everyone up. It did!

Indian Cave State Park

On Thursday we took a day trip down to Indian Cave State Park as a family. It took a couple of hours to get there, but we were listening to Redwall by Brian Jaques on CD and no one minded the drive.

The scenery was beautiful! The weather was perfect! Not too hot, not too cold.

The boys found the perfect location for a lightsaber battle.

 

 

 Hiking the bluffs along the Missouri River.

 

A beautiful, scenic view of the Missouri River. Lewis and Clark camped here on their journey upriver in 1804.



Toga Party!!!

This summer the kids have been learning Latin. We've met weekly with our friends the Larsons to watch the video and work on the exercises in the Prima Latina workbook. Since the dads of both families had the day off today, we decided to celebrate what we've learned so far with a toga party! As with all proper Ancient Roman parties, we made sure there was plenty of food for all. Since it was important to the Ancients Romans that everything look impressive we made sure to have a nice setup.

We made sure everything we ate was something the Ancient Romans would have eaten. On the menu were artichokes, a delicious bean salad, fruit salad made of apples, pears, dates (replacing figs which I couldn't find!), prunes and walnuts, and garlic bread made with olive oil. Corrine and I made an excellent dip for the bread out of olive oil, chopped Spanish olives, feta cheese and minced garlic. MMMM, I could eat it everyday!

Instead of songbirds, we ate grilled turkey breasts. For dessert we ate honey flavored yogurt topped with walnuts and cinnamon rolls. The adults drank wine, but the kiddos were content with grape juice. Since we had no slaves to send to the mountains for snow, we had to forgo the slushies.
We forgot to bring our own forks, as is only proper when one is a guest at another Ancient Roman's feast, but our hosts kindly overlooked our faux pas and let us use some of theirs. Everyone enjoyed the meal!

After a dip in the Romans baths,

everyone put their togas on and prepared for a game of Latin Pictionary!

The competition was hot as everyone guessed, "Regina?" "Laudo?" "Nauto?" "Stella?" "Caelum?"

So yes, we are doing a bit of school in the summer, but I think everyone agrees: Latin is fun! Valete! Goodbye!

A Snowy Day

This is not a hill. It is a snow pile from clearing the driveway. Yep, we have lots of snow.

Poor Emanuel always ended up on the bottom. He didn't mind too much, though.

A close-up of their sled loading technique.

They stayed outside for hours sledding down that "hill". They also asked for bedtime at 6pm. Big day.

Even Grandma Pat gave it a try. I'm sure she went back to sled some more after we left.

Isabel and I gave it a try too. We learned that Isabel does not like snow... or sledding. Maybe next year.

Thanks, Grandpa Bob for taking all these great pictures!

A New Year

Wondering what we've been up to? Here's a hint: snow. It has been snowing and snowing and snowing. While the adults may be getting a bit tired of it, the kids are SO happy!

This picture was taken mid-December, when there wasn't much snow yet!

A new "semester" has started here at our little homeschool. Ben is making such great progress! He can count to 100, and also write and recognize numbers up to 100. This week we've started on addition. He's got the concept down so it's just a matter of memorizing the facts and playing fun addition games. We like games.
In reading Ben has learned the sounds of all the vowels and consenants and we are moving on to blends like ss, ll, and ck. He's excited that he'll be able to read more words- stories made up entirely of 3 letter words aren't very exciting. We've been playing a fun game in which I write subjects on one set of index cards and predicates on another set, then he mixes and matches them to make silly sentences to read. We all have fun with that one!
Handwriting is definitely his least favorite subject, but he's awesome at it. He's also very good at drawing which I think has something to do with his perfect handwriting.
In religion we've been alternately doing the Who Am I Kindergarten workbook (and the preschool one for Emanuel) and reading out of their children's Bible and saints books. Both boys really enjoy the St. Joseph Picture Books.
These are the subjects we do every day (Mon-Thurs). I am still working on a more regular schedule for science and history/geography. Luckily we have plenty of time for that!

Isabel has been busy terrorizing Ben while he tries to get his work done. She loves to climb on the table and knock all his supplies to the ground. Nothing makes her laugh harder than her brothers' reactions to her destruction. She's lucky they love her so much and are always kind and gentle with her no matter what she does. Her second favortie thing to do is play in the pantry. Who needs block when you have cans to stack, right?!
Tax season has started but I am working one day a week preparing returns. I enjoy it because it's a great way to get out and interact with adults for a few hours each week, but it still leaves plenty of time for family.  
Tito is still busy selling cars in spite of all the snow. We found out that he has never played in the snow before, so the boys have been lobbying to remedy that. Hopefully, they'll be successful in getting him outside and there will be pictures coming soon!
We're all looking forward to 2010. I'm sure it will be a great year. Happy New Year! 

Merry Christmas!

More Pictures from our Budding Photographer

I may be partial, but I always enjoy Ben's photographs. Whether it's one of his many self-portraits or other random things, I love seeing our life from his point of view. He's quite good at landscapes as well. The last few days he's been on another photography streak, clicking away at himself and his siblings in a series of lovely portraits.  

 

 

Thanksgiving Crafts

The Saturday before Thanksgiving we spent doing crafts. Julie and Abuela Georgina came over to help us. It was a lot of fun!

Isabel's first time finger painting.

Emanuel, Benedict, and Julie have fun finger painting, too.

Abuela and Benedict working on their tepees. Since Emanuel can't let a holiday go by without making some sort of cookie house, we used sugar cones, frosting and candy to make these tepees. (I got the idea here from Family Fun.) The kids thought they were quite delicious.






We used toilet paper rolls to make these Pilgrims and Native Americans.

Emanuel traced his hands and feet (with a little help) to make this colorful turkey. Cute!



We had a lot of fun making our Thanksgiving crafts. Can't wait for Christmas craft day!

An Addition to the Ranks

The knights of Castle Nunez were in the middle of a serious battle when a new recruit joined the fray. Turns out she's a master and so impressed her comrades-in-arms that she was given some armor of her own.

Halloween

Aaaargh! He be a tough lookin' pirate.

What a cute puppy! This costume brings back memories of baby Em.

It be a sad business, this pirating.

Enjoying a beautiful Halloween day with Abuelita.