China

We finished our China study today. I went a little outside the box and found a few extra fun things to do.... We painted our names in Chinese....

We made Chinese lanterns and ate sweet and sour chicken and fried rice with chopsticks...

which was interesting....

I think China has been one of the most interesting countries that we have studied. I wish I could come up with more creative ideas on a regular basis since that sure made it more memorable and less "school". Now on to Japan.....!

The Day the Zoo Hit Record Numbers

Yes, we were crazy enough to go into the zoo when we had to park so far away you could call it hiking and the lines to get in stretched into the parking lot! These are all the pictures I got between all the people and before my camera died. This guy was in the Asian forest and since we are studying Asia, figured we needed his picture!
Beautiful, isn't he?

I'm not sure if it was the crowds or what but this guy was quite active and continuously was showing us his teeth..or throat! Little kids were throwing things into his mouth!

He would sit like that for a minute or more at a time!

Maybe he was threatening us!

We were wearing our green for St Patricks Day! So was everyone else at the zoo!!

We were only there for two hours before we had enough! We will wait until everyone is back in school and go again with our membership!

School projects

We made stamps out of erasers to show how the people in China used them to show a scroll was officially from that person. We each dug our initials in the eraser, painted a picture and then dipped the eraser in paint to show who the artist was.

We made fortune cookies also for our tour of China. Zachary is writing down fortunes that he is making up.

The cookies don't look exactly like they do from the restaurants but they were so good! We all made up different things to put in them.

I put verses from Proverbs in them and Hannah typed hers up to look more authentic!

China has been fun! We are going to get some chopsticks and try to eat a whole meal with them. Not sure you would want to see those pictures!

Spring has sprung!

The seeds we planted...
Hopefully will become food for my family...

My amazing husband created cinder block gardens for me with a covering against the frost

Evaluating our hard work...

We got the whole family in on the work! Here's Hannah smoothing out the dirt...

and Jacob shoveling dirt to go into the cinder block gardens..

Dad and Zachary rototilling the garden

Hannah and Dad rototilling

Dad was left to do most of it alone...

Admiring the blooms in the backyard....

I love spring!

The roses that need trimmed badly are turning green again!

I love when in the midst of the gray, the green just pops up with promises of new life

The trees are budding

I wanted to share my excitement that spring has finally arrived! It is my favorite time of the year and I'm always hopeful that the garden will produce and everything will be beautiful again! Of course this is before all the weeds begin to populate the garden and the temperatures soar to 100...! To everything there is a season...

Romeow and Drooliet

The kids have been practicing to be in a play that was put together by several homeschooled 13 years old girls. It was a different take on Romeo and Juliet that changed the story to be about cats and dogs. The play went pretty well! All the kids had a really good time and learned alot about the work that goes into producing a play. Enjoy the show!