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!

Happy Independence Day!

More self portraits

These were just too funny not to post.

Foreign Language Comes Naturally to Ben

Ben: I know that "wee-wee" is French for "I have to go to the bathroom."

Me: How do you know that?

Ben: Oh, I just know these things.

They are growing up so fast!

Hair!

Isabel’s hair is finally growing! She has enough for a couple of cute pigtails, so the boys distracted her with books while I styled. Then we chased her around the house until we finally got a sort of decent shot of her new hairdo. Right before she rebelled and pulled them out.

Our Secrets Are No Longer Safe...

I have reason to believe that my home has recently been infiltrated by spies...

What they've been saying...

Ben: Mom, how did you get a husband?

Emanuel: Isabel needs to get her own room because all her girl stuff is making my room look bad!