Goodbye, Little Guy

Pip, the cutest, sweetest Dumbo rat ever.

I never dreamed I'd love a little rat so much. You were truly a great pet and a sweet little companion. We're so glad we got to share two and a half years with you, Pip.

We will miss you, little guy.


Pip and Monique. Pip taught us that fancy rats are intelligent, curious, affectionate, and fun.

Did someone hit the fast forward button?

Whew! I haven't had time to post or even see what my blog buds are up to lately! Here's a quick summary of what we've been doing...

Enjoying the sunshine...



Planting stuff...





Watching the local wildlife...



And some not-so-local wildlife...





Meeting a REAL wolf...



Baking (and eating!) cakes...



Working on bird art projects...







Watching our seedlings grow...



Taking a bow in drama class...



Applauding for Super in her play, cheering for Dude at his Cub Scout crossover, reading lots of great books, playing with puppy dogs, shoveling snow (hopefully for the last time this season!) Going to riding lessons, book club, a sleepover playdate, and How to Train Your Dragon...



And LOVING spring!

Birds of Prey Nature Walk

Our local nature center offers great classes for all ages. We learned all about birds of prey and then took a walk along the nature trail to look for nests.



I had never seen a real great horned owl, in spite of the one that likes to land on our roof and wake us up in the middle of the night. He looks a little annoyed, doesn't he?



We learned that hawks and owls don't build their own nests, but just move into abandoned magpie nests.



I love the clouds in this picture.



This is an oriole nest. As you can see, there are FINALLY some buds on the branches here.



Magpies build new nests every year, so there are plenty of extra nests for the birds of prey.



We didn't see anything in this one, but we did spy a mama owl in a different tree. She was really far away, so our guide set up a scope. We each got a chance to see the mother owl and her fuzzy white chick.



What a wonderful spring day!

Easter at Nana and Papa's

Just a quick link...

to a cute food web game.

And more cool food web sites here. And here.

We're going to do a unit on biomes after Easter. I found these while planning our lessons. Have a great day!

Miniscule

We are completely hooked on these after seeing them on 5orangepotatoes! They are all so good, it was hard to choose, but here is one of our favorites...

The long MARCH to Spring

Our German friends taught us an expression that perfectly describes this month: "Mr. March does what Mr. March wants."

Remember my crocus bed?



That's OK, my mom sent me some pictures of spring in the south...












I know green leaves and spring blossoms are just around the corner here. In the meantime, I'm really enjoying the birds. The snow has finally melted off all of our feeders and we have juncos, house finches, chickadees, a pair of flickers, an occasional woodpecker, and those crazy magpies, who would fly away with the entire dog food dish if they could. I'll put out the hummingbird feeders as soon as I see buds on the trees. (It seems like they always arrive before the flowers bloom, so I like to have the feeders ready for them.)

Today we'll get into a "springy" mood by starting our lettuce and tomato seeds indoors, making some colorful spring art, and watching the birds. And in another month or so, I'll probably be whining about mowing the lawn!

Science Fair Projects

Super's topic? Oh, just the entire universe...



She included a Solar System Fact File and a paragraph about Encedalus, the weird moon in Saturn's rings that has geyser fields. Of course there was information about her favorite space topics: black holes, pulsars, and quasars. She made a comet out of Model Magic "ice," gravel and rock "space debris" from our yard, pipe cleaner "dust tail," and a plastic wrap "ion tail."



We used lots of books for our research, too many to list here. But one of our favorites is Bill Bryson's A Really Short History of Everything (a kid's version of his original book.) And this video was really helpful.



She made watercolor-and-glitter portraits of the star cycle: from stellar nebula to star to red giant to planetary nebula to white dwarf. At one point she said, "I should probably include something about the Drake Equation, don't you think, Mom?" Uh, yeah. If you think so, Sweetie...



Dude chose chemistry for his topic. I wish this photo were better--he used chemistry symbols and pictures for all the letters in his title.



He explained the classic states of matter, using a water bottle to represent liquid and a helium balloon to represent gas.

(I didn't take a picture of the balloon, but you can see the string hanging down. We had to hide the balloon after taking pictures, because one of our dogs kept barking at it!)

He used cotton balls in a jar to illustrate density. One jar has 18 cotton balls, and the other has 35 cotton balls. The jars have the same volume but different density.




Here are some common elements from around the house. Our "gold" chain came from the craft store, but the other stuff is real. Aluminum foil, a silver bracelet, an old iron railroad nail, copper wire, and lead fishing weights. Oh, and the helium in the balloon is an element, too!




He drew several atoms, including this aluminum atom. He also included information about the Periodic Table of Elements, physical and chemical changes, and ions and isotopes.

The science fair was lots of fun, and I was really proud of the kids' hard work!

So cute!

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Why I Joined the Coffee Party

My mother's conservative "Christian" friend sent her an email entitled "Prayer Request." Here is what it said:

Dear Lord, this past year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick
Swayze, my favorite actress, Farah Fawcett, My favorite musician, Michael
Jackson and my favorite sales man, Billy Mayes.

I just wanted to let you know that my favorite president is Obama....

And my favorite congressman is Pelosi...... Amen

This is beyond offensive. Is it really acceptable to pray for the death of another person, just because you disagree with his or her political opinions? I understand that this is meant as a joke, but should Christians even joke about asking God to harm another human being?

Tonight the health care bill was passed. I can't say whether it will actually improve the lives of Americans, but I am appalled that the political discourse has devolved into joking about the death of our President.

Shakespeare Playbills

I wasn't thrilled to see a foot of fresh snow on our doorstep, but the box of new books nestled in the snow cheered me up! I had ordered some fiction for the kids, including How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell and Five Children and It by Edith Nesbitt. We are two chapters into Five Children and It, and we love it so far!

Super and Dude had expressed some curiosity about Shakespeare, so I ordered Tales from Shakespeare by Tina Packer, and Who Was William Shakespeare? by Celeste Mannis. We looked up some info about the Globe Theater online, and found some great pictures of historic playbills from different eras.

The kids created their own playbills to advertise Twelfth Night.



Super put a dove and a red rose on her playbill.



Dude put a traditional fancy border around his and drew an envelope with a heart-shaped seal.

We're looking forward to reading the stories together. I don't think I've read any Shakespeare play other than Romeo and Juliette, and that was back in high school, so this will be an educational experience for all of us!

To Our Faraway Friend

Happy Birthday!

Spring Flowers

A sunny day! And we didn't need our jackets! So we headed outside to enjoy the first bit of color in our flower bed. I spread a towel on our front sidewalk and we sketched, snacked, and soaked up the sun.



We didn't plant the crocuses in this bed--they were a pleasant surprise the first spring after we moved in. It's always so nice to see them appear in March, even when they are pushing through a layer of snow. They are a cheerful purple reminder that winter is waning and spring is on the way...



Look! A bee!



Super really liked the pale crocus with dark purple stripes. For some reason, we only had one this year.



She drew a single blossom and used watercolor pencils to make a soft yellow background.



Dude drew a crocus and last year's dried coneflower pods. He mixed watercolor pencils to match the pink rock perfectly.



I sketched this group of crocuses.



Spring arrives later here than in many parts of the country. These are daffodil leaves--no blossoms yet!



Our grape hyacinth is just beginning to bud; it's still green with a slight purple blush. (And a dandelion! Already?)



We rarely get to see our tulips bloom because the deer enjoy them so much. Apparently something already munched on this one.



These are columbine leaves. And a bit of vinca vine. It tries to take over this bed every year--looks like it's getting a head start already.



We looked up crocuses on Wikipedia and were impressed by the many beautiful varieties. I've decided to add some yellow ones to our flower bed in the fall.



Happy Spring!