Busy bees

I haven't posted anything about the kids in awhile...we've been busy bees getting back into the routine of things after the holidays. Seems it took all of January for us to get ourselves back into "normal." Now that we finally have our hive hummin' along nicely...co-op started again Friday...we go to the beach in another week...and the spring children's play auditions are the first of March. By the time the play is over, we'll be headed to the Farm for the summer...then maybe we'll feel normal...at least we won't be busy bees then!

Oh well...life passes too quickly so here's a few pictures of what we've been up to this past week or two...trying to slow down enough to remember to enjoy the moment!

We've been making lots of stops to visit the wild kitties behind the shopping center...raiding Clementine's food to take them a treat now and then.

Library visits & lots of reading! We've begun taking Brice to the Terrific Twos program on Thursday mornings. Embree's been requesting trips to the library almost daily for new books on rabbits. She's determined to have one and is reading every word she can find about the little critters.

Making Music & Magic

Peace out Ringo...

Making mashed potatoes...

...from Embree's original recipe

Playing keep away with Clementine

Vegas had dental surgery to clean her teeth and had 5 removed. 

We now affectionately refer to her as 

"The Bumble."

Spring session of co-op started yesterday. 

Embree & Reeves are taking 

Passport to Art (art & geography of six countries in Africa), 

Green Science (Ecology), 

Introduction to Japan, 

History of the Middle Ages, 

and KY History.

Reeves can hardly believe how much fun it is!!

Brice is taking 

Storytime Literature, 

Hooked on Art, 

and Animal Science 

Plus he gets a little one-on-one time with "Miss Nina." 

Because he's a lot younger than the others in his classes, our friend Juanita brings special things

for the two of them to do when he needs a diversion.

Over the break, all the kids in the first session of History of the Middle Ages were assigned a topic to research. On this first day back, they all gave presentations that covered life in that time/place, food, music & art, literature, and favorite past times or entertainment. Embree & Reeves both worked very hard on their projects; gathering information and props for their exhibits. I think they were proud of their work. I was proud!

Embree's project was the 

Medieval Yamato Dynasty of Japan

She gathered items common to an medieval Japanese feast...

learned origami...

learned about the undyed silks of Yamato kimono...

and made a carp kite after learning about Japanese use of kites in warfare and celebration.

Reeves' project was on the Knights of Medieval England

Of course, he was all about the food!

He found a listing of a typical feast of the knights or nobles and put together a tray of everything we could find from that list. He thought the beef stew was disgusting, but enjoyed the cider, cake, bread, butter, carrots & eggs very much. Embree shared all of her food with her classmates...Reeves dove right in and had his own feast after his presentation! That's my hungry boy!

Reeves' learned about stained glass, brushed up on his chess game, and compared peasant and noble clothing. I think his favorite part of the whole project was reading Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (the very, very, very sanitized version!). I had hoped he'd really like the Reeve's Tale and tell it for his project, but of course he fell for The Miller's Tale...lots more "cheeky" humor! Can't wait for him to read the original version some day!

And of course we are trying to take a moment now and then to remember just how lucky we are to have each other...and you, our loved ones! Happy Day Honey Bee!!