Field Trips

Tim set up a fascinating field trip for the kids this month. We went out to Foothills Taxidermy and learned all about the process of hunting an animal, to having it mounted on your wall. Who knew that it takes almost a year and a half from start to finish! The kids had some super good questions, which means they must have been as interested as I was.

 The taxidermist gave us some owl eyeballs as a souvenir. Pretty awesome.

 The following weekend Tim got to see the real deal. The night before he went, I was seriously worried. I didn't like thinking about him in the dark, cold snow, with a gun and bears possibly sneaking up on him... but he had a good experience and they ended up shooting 3 white tails.

 Yes, that is Timmy's hand!

Lapbook Factory

 Ancient Egypt history lesson.

The kids wrote hieroglyph and cuneiform words in plasticine.

 Saturday morning Spanish Class in action.

My friend Amber told me about Lapbooks. My kids really like them. We work on them at the end of our school day if we have time left over.

 Charlie chose to do his first Lapbook on Peregrine Falcons.

On the inside he traced a map of where Peregrines live in the world. He filled an envelope with cards explaining what Peregrines look like, he wrote about Peregrine eggs and chicks, what they eat, etc. My favorite part is his drawing on the back of his folder. He drew the inside of Sam Gribley's Hemlock tree  and included his pet Falcon "Frightful"on the bed post. 

 Jacob wanted to study whales. He was very diligent about his work and was even the first one to finish his Lapbook. He poured over his books and re-read them over and over.

 Jane chose to study Horses and Ponies.

Jane worked hard on this collage on the back.

Farewell Waterton

Look at these kids. They love wildlife. I even caught Scarlet with her face in binoculars... looking at the roof of the car? They obviously get it from their dad. I just sit in the front seat with my face in a book- they can scarcely get me to look up to see any of it. I figure I'll get my reading done while everyone is occupied for once.

Bunnies Round 2

We picked up two of these guys tonight. Its a Lion/Lop variety. So cute that even I wanted to hold them!

The final votes for names aren't in yet but as of tonight we named them, 

Beaver and Genius.

                                  

 "The Noon of Love"

By J.A. Blaikie

Westward each nightfall

When white lies the dew,

Where the stream makes a bright fall

Of moon-rays for you,

While the night wind goes sighing

Over crag, over hollow,

Like a ghostly replying

To the snow owl's crying,

I the white waters follow,

With lips still sweet from sweet lips kist,

Like a spirit i pass

O'er the gleaming grass

Into the moon and the mist.

Siblings are Forever

“Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.”

~ Mozart

When this gets started, the whole world disappears around them. I love these times- not a worry in the world. This picture reminds me of my siblings- how much love I love them and how well we get along in our old age :0) 

Quoting all the time

We went to Waterton this week for our annual Elk Bugling evening (I can't believe how into it Tim gets). We went down our favorite bear sighting road and within half an hour, we saw 11 bears!! They were out slurping up all the saskatoon berries (or should I say Zaskatoon berries like Jane says). It was incredible. Most of them we had totally to ourselves to watch and the crazy thing was that we saw them all just from the road. I've never seen Tim so excited. He was saying things like, "I LOVE this place!" (yes, I just quoted Tim admitting to love Canada). He also said, "Everything is becoming a bear to me right now." I heard Jane say this about a bear we saw, "That one will rip you to shred." (Yes, she said shred, singular). Charlie's description came out like this, "That bear is petrified, and punctual." Don't ask me wear in tarnation he heard those words, or why they came to him while bear watching. 

They really do hop!

Meet Theodore. He belongs to Charlie. Charlie likes to hold him tucked into his coat.

Meet The Lady of Shalott. She is Jane's bunny. Jane's been making all kinds of cardboard homes and tunnels for this Lady.

Never thought Jane would be using this apron Grammy made her for Christmas for this!

This is my new favorite picture.

We turned our treehouse into a bunny hutch. It works great since its waterproof and spacious.

Scarlet held a bunny on her lap in the car all the was to the "faraway mailbox" which is a half hour drive. I saw her twisting the bunny's ears the same way she plays with her own curls when's she's sleepy and sucking her thumb.

The best part has been sharing the fun with our friends.

Jane watched them hop around the yard and exclaimed, "Mom, they really do hop!"

Notice the blue grapes Scarlet is eating. They were sooooooooo good!

Chicky Chick Chick

Jane is Fern and Chirp is Wilbur. Basically these two are bonded for life.

This is Jane making her chick peep in the window like a puppet. We were all laughing.