The New Favorite.

This is my kids new favorite game. It has been in the game closet for years and years. I have been pulling out games to take with us to play during piano lessons.  Since each kid has a half hour lesson we are there for two hours. I sit and play games with the other kids while they wait for their turn with the piano teacher.  So for two hours straight yesterday I played Authors. I had brought along a few other card games.

 Go fish for Art was played once but they quickly asked to go back to Authors.

and Phase 10 were not big enough draws. We had played 2 hours of phase 10 the week before so I thought surely they would want to play that again. We never did make it through all 10 phases.

Nothing else but Authors would do.

I love it that my kids are at least acquainted with these authors. They may not have read many of the books listed on these cards but we have discussions about which ones I have read (unfortunately I have haven't read all that many). They ask questions about what the books are about. I wish I was more help here too. I guess if my kids continue to love this game I will have to start finding copies of these books by authors I haven't read yet so I can answer questions as they come up. Mostly we are just getting to know Authors names and what they wrote but hopefully it will lead to some more reading in all our futures.

French Hood

 Sophie had a project due this week that required a bit of sewing. She is studying the Renaissance and needed to research some fashion from the era.  After doing a bit of study on the subject we decided to make a French Hood.

We went to the store and bought some supplies and got to work.

Here is Soph sewing on some of the beads to decorate.  Molly of course was very interested and luckily we had fabric and such enough to make her one as well.

 They turned out rather cute.

 Sophie loved it. Her cap is a bit larger/taller than the one we made Molly.

 Here is Molly all ready to go to a Princess Birthday party wearing her green princess dress and her new French Hood.

I think Sophie now desires a Renaissance dress to go along with her French Hood.  But the girls all think these are a great addition to the dress up clothes

Pi Day

 I am not the most crafty mom and certainly don't get too cute or creative with holidays. But for Pi Day this year (Yes I know it was two weeks ago. I just finally got around to posting pictures. I forgot about it until I saw them in my iphoto library) I made 3 pies and had enough chocolate pudding left over to make the bit extra to make it a complete 3.14.

I asked the kids what kind of pie I should make. Henry wanted Pumpkin. But it just didn't sound good in the Spring. I figured he would get his favorite pie when Autumn comes around again. Sophie and Ian both wanted Lemon Meringue.  That sounded yummy so I made one of those. My husband wanted chocolate and since I had never made one before I decided that would be one to try. I tried Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Pie Recipe. It was fabulous!

We had enough pie to share so enjoyed pie with friends that night.  Having a somewhat good reason to roll out pie crust is about the only way I ever get myself motivated enough to do it. So I will celebrate Pi day each March if for no other reason but to try out some new pie recipes and enjoy a dessert I rarely make.

First day of Spring

 Just in time for Spring Sophie finally went and picked out her new bike. Way back in November she won a bike from a raffle at her Orthodontists. We don't make it into the city very often and things have been busy so we never got around to going to pick up the bike. There was also the problem of getting it home. But we borrowed a bike rack from family and finally headed out to the city.

Henry trying out the bike rack to make sure it would hold the weight of a bike.

 Sophie picked out a purple bike. She also got a new helmet to go with it.

Today we headed out on a bike ride to give a good trial run.

Molly has to ride the boys old bike because her pink bike's tires are acting funny.  She didn't seem to mind as long as the training wheels were attached.

We cycled around the park for awhile enjoying the lovely Spring Weather. It may be the first day of Spring but we have been having Spring bursting out all around us for weeks.

 We spent a good part of our day outside today. After our bike ride we were invited meet a few other families at the park for a "park day".  Hours of climbing, running, shooting, scooting, and fooling around with friends.

It was a great way to start off Spring and a fun way to pass a Friday afternoon.

We did squeeze in some school too. The kids all did an assignment of Math too.

A Cultural Experience

It is midterms this week for Sophia and her midterm for her Humanities class was to attend a cultural event.  It just so happens that the Celtic Fair fell on midterms week so we decided that would be the cultural event/experience she would use for her assignment.

 The girls decided to wear their Merida gowns. Sophie and her cousin have beautiful "dress-up" gowns that their Grandma made for them.  Molly and her cousin have matching green princess dresses so they too had to wear them for this event.

 The fire breathing dragon was remembered from past years when we have attended this event and the kids all had to have a picture taken with it.

 The Joust was the first show we made our way too. Everyone enjoys seeing the knights ride around on horses in full suits of armor and try to knock each other. They also did other feats of skill like lance rings dangling from a pole and slice cabbages with their swords that are tossed up for them. Not an easy thing to do while riding at full speed across the area.

 Sophie was given a red carnation from the blue knight. He was handing out flowers to a few lucky ladies and Sophie ran down to get one. She was so excited to be singled out for a flower.

 These two girls had a great time watching the joust.

 So much fun to cheer on the knights.

 Hurray! the blue knight won.  (I think he cheated a little but how can you really cheat when the whole thing is staged!?)

 We walked through the different tents of the villiage.

 This man claims to have slain Mordu.

 Fired a few beans with catapults.

 Built castles with blocks.

 Tried on some chainmail armor.

 Lots of different types of helmets.

 Even some gauntlets for Henry to try on.

 They all tried out the bow.

 Carded some wool

 Watched a fire eatting juggler.

 There girls each picked out a pink butterfly barrett to take home.

 Sophie picked out a beautiful purple head dress that looked perfect with her purple gown.

 The boys were put into the stocks.

 And we finished off our day visiting the queen and her court.

This was supposed to be a Celtic Fair but it felt more like a Medieval fair. Most of the exhibits had nothing to do with scotland or Ireland. There were even some vikings there showing off their culture. And there was one group of people dressed up as fairys showing off exotic bugs. A bit of a mishmash of different things.  I guess they are all related to the celts. I was just expecting a bit more Bagpipes and scottish dancing.  

We did catch the end of one dance performance where they showed off a few scottish dances to the sounds of bagpipes but that was about the only 10 minutes of this event that really felt celtic.  The kids all seemed to agree that this year was fun but not quite as good as when we came the year before.

It was an experience for me because I was the only adult that went with this group of kids. I had to keep track of all 8 and sometimes 9 of them (a friend tagged along with our group too). 

Fun day, lots of sunshine and fresh air. Those are always good thing!