Cool Sunday

We are all finally starting to feel back to normal.  Everyone slept well last night and some even got to sleep in.  I started the day off in the typical fashion with making pancakes but Andrew decided he wanted blueberries in them.  So we made blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes.

After breakfast and everyone finally getting dressed the girls and I headed to the library at noon.  We had some books on hold and I wanted to see if I could find a video on Jane Goodall.

After the library we walked up to the farmer's market that finally opened today.  We tried some gourmet peanut butters, smelled some handmade soaps, ate popcorn and talked to lots of people.  In the end, we bought some soap, some bread, a new dessert and tater on a stick.

We walked back to the car but we had to stop at the park and play for a bit.  We headed home for a quick bite of lunch before we headed to our 4 H meeting.  The girls decided it was the best one yet.  Why?

Because they had llamas there.  Both girls got to walk a llama through the obstacle course and work on some showmanship skills.

The woman who owned the llamas loved Skylar and said she was a natural.  Skylar has decided she wants to do a llama project.  I told her I would look into it and we would talk about it.  The woman offered to train Skylar and let her borrow her llamas.  We will see.

We got home late, had dinner, baths and everyone into bed.  Now, I just have to get back into my routine of getting school ready for the week on Sunday.

Goat Farm

This morning, I worked on my menu planning and shopping list for the week.  I hoped to get to the store this morning but it just didn't work out in my favor.  I didn't have anything to cook so I was behind and ahead at the same time.

After lunch, the girls and I drove North to go to a goat farm as part of Cairn's 4H Vet Science project.  Skylar wanted to see the goats too.  Andrew wanted to stay home and ride his bike and scooter.

The baby goats (kids) come right up to you to get some attention.

 Except this guy, he was in heaven laying in his feed, soaking up the sun and getting some pets.  He didn't move from this spot the entire time we were at the farm.

 These were the youngest babies.  I wanted to hold one of them but they were inside a pen that I was not about to walk into - too much poop for me.

 This guy decided he wanted his picture taken instead of the guy I was aiming for.  Okay, you win.

 Skylar liked this rooster because some of his feathers looked green in the sunlight.

 This is how the babies got out of the pens.  They just put their heads and bodies through the holes.  It was super cute.

 The babies loved being on this hill so Skylar decided to join them.

 A while back, Aunt Dianne, sent us a picture of a guinea fowl on her porch.  We did a little research and heard they distinctive call.  It was very strange to hear that same distinctive call today and then my friend said, "the guineas are over there with the chickens."  Sure enough, there they were.  There was both white, like Aunt Dianne's and the grey ones.

 Goats love to jump up on things.  This poor guy tried three times and then he gave up - it was too sloped.

 Each pen had a dog inside that protected the goats at night from the coyotes.  I wonder how they keep the babies inside at night?

We were at the goat farm for about an hour.  Skylar and I got cold and sat in the car while Cairn played some more and did some 4H work with her 2 friends and the leader.  

When we walked in at home, we immediately stripped our clothes off and put them in the wash - they smelled horrible.  Yuck!!

Catch up

Friday was a gorgeous day.  We went to a rally in the afternoon.  Then we headed out to lunch at our new favorite restaurant, India Oven.  We love their buffet because we can try lots of different things and the kids have many favorites - saag paneer, bindi masala, sweet potato masala, banana pakora and mango chutney.  Grandma and Aunt Trish liked it too.  Skylar and Andrew have already decided that that this the restaurant they want to go to for their birthday dinners.

We had a few minutes to spare so we could stop at home to get Cairn's piano bag before class.  The weather was so nice that the kids and I walked around the little strip mall and checked out all the stores.

Saturday was chilly with snow in the forecast at 2 PM but first the girls had to do a Girl Scout cookie booth sale.  Cairn and I did a shift together and we were super cold but I had dressed for the cold.  Skylar did a shift with a couple other moms but she did not dress for the weather.  She was super cold.  The girls ended up selling 123 boxes over 3 hours.  Cairn had gone home with Dad when he dropped off Skylar and I had stayed to help break down the sale when we were finished.  Then I sat in the car with another mom to chat.  By the time, we got home Skylar and I were both frozen and I just never seemed to get warm again.  It started snowing at 2 PM on the dot but we only got a sprinkling.

Sunday we were out the door early to head south.  First the girls had a card making class to go to run by one of their friends.  The moms and I just sat around and chatted.  Andrew hung out with me.  Then we headed to lunch and found a park to play at for a few minutes.  We were trying to find things to do in town because I didn't want to head home again since we had to be back by 3 PM for 4H.  After the park, we hit the library and finally 4H.

It became quite clear today that 4H is not for us.  I knew that 4H had a lot to do with raising animals and I know that farm animals are eaten but I thought I could avoid most activities about the killing/eating of animals.  NOT so.  Many of the things we talked about today seemed to do with animals being eaten/raised for meat.  Then afterwards another mom was talking about killing a chicken.  It was just too much for me.  Plus, the club we were joining wasn't quite as organized as I would like it to be.  So I am going to call the office tomorrow and withdrawal from 4H.

Cairn was pretty upset about the chickens being killed so she was all for leaving 4H.  The only thing she worried about was learning cake decorating.  I told her we would still do that.  We also talked about that we would rather do more things with Girl Scouts.

Full week coming up.  First thing Monday, I am withdrawing the kids from COVA.  It isn't working for us and there isn't really any reason to stay - I won't be using any of their curriculum so we are moving on.

4H and Colorado History

Today was a beautiful day to take a drive south to attend a 4 H Discovery Days.  This was the first time Douglas County 4 H was doing a Discovery Days which just meant that a variety of clubs were coming to show the different projects they had worked on.  It was a great way for newbies to come ask questions and see actual end results.  We took N because there was something there I knew he would love.

We walked in and immediately saw the Rockets. So everyone made one.

 These were made with straws, clay and paper.  They put it on a rocket launcher and they all hit the ceiling.  Andrew would have stayed all day but then we found the chickens.

The girl who brought the chickens won the Champion ribbon/belt buckle last year for showmanship.  That means that she knows her chickens.  She has hand raised these chickens and they have been handled a lot.  These guys would let you pet them, pick them up and feed them.  They were super sweet and so so soft.  I enjoyed petting them too.

 Andrew liked feeding the chickens.  Later in the day we saw the chickens roosting on her leg.  They were very happy and comfortable.

 While the girls were enthralled with the chickens, the boys found the robots.  N asked lots and lots of questions.  The robot could shoot baskets (I was asked not to take any pictures of it).

Then we found the cake decorating table.

First, Cairn decorated her graham cracker.

 Then Skylar.

 I had to get a picture quick of Skylar because she was ready to eat it.

 Cairn really wants to do the cake decorating project.  We found out that the first unit is edible decorations where you learn to create people and animals.  Eventually in other units you learn how to make flowers and more elaborate shaped cakes.  I would love to do more cake decorating since I have all the tools and I have taken a couple classes.

 After seeing all the tables inside (there were more - these were just the ones we were interested in - we walked by tables about photography, woodworking, sewing and rabbits) - we went outside to see the llamas.
Cairn was brave and walked right up to them.

Skylar on the other hand was a little nervous.  I don't think she ever touched them.

 We also saw some cows.  We were able to feed them - well after I saw how they were fed I didn't do it but Skylar and N did.  They had these little biscuit things, you held it in front of the cow's mouth and his tongue would come out and slobber all over you and take the biscuit.  It was really gross.  I tried to pet them but they didn't like that too much.

The final table was the shooting club.  Here is where Andrew and N about fell out of their shoes.  Andrew was so excited to hold and shoot the air rifles.  He would have stayed all day.  The guns were a little big but the big boys helped him a lot.

 Andrew didn't care where the shot landed, he just wanted to pull that trigger.

Eventually, all the kids will do at least one unit in the shooting club but they have to have their Hunter license which the state won't let them have until they are 9.  Cairn can do it next summer but it will be awhile before Skylar and Andrew can.  It will be a good way for the kids to learn about gun safety and learn how to shoot.

We will be joining a 4 H club.  The club we are joining has some homeschooled kids involved and they are doing a lot of the units we want to do - vet science, cake decorating and cloverbuds.  Cloverbuds is for the 5 to 7 year olds.  You have to be 8 to actually do a 4H project.

After 4 H we headed home to grab a quick bite and then head to the library for Colorado History in song.  We learned about Clara Brown who was a slave and eventually was given her freedom.  She was able to travel west by cooking on a wagon train.  She may have been the first Black women to go west during the Gold Rush.  She had 4 children while she was a slave and after saving $10,000 with her laundry business in Central City she went looking for her children.  2 of her children had died, she lost contact with her son but she was eventually reunited with her daughter Liza Jane.  She brought many freed men and women out west.

We also learned about Rattlesnake Kate.  She had to fight off 140 snakes one day to save herself and her 3 year old son.  She shot a couple of them but then used a No Hunting sign to kill the rest.  After killing them, she collected the snakes, dried out the skins and made a rattlesnake dress.  Skylar wanted to know what she did with the rattles.  We soon learned that she made necklaces with them.

The kids loved the stories and all the different instruments.  She learned about the mountain dulcimer, the banjo, the spoons and how people used all the parts of animals to make things they needed.  Nothing was ever wasted.

After the library we went home to relax and let mom put up her foot.

4H and a puppet show

As I am always looking for interesting ways to teach the kids, I recently saw a posting on my homeschool group site about a 4H club.  Since I didn't know much about it we decided to go check it out.

Today, we went to a community service project where the club was putting together holiday poppers for the firemen.  We went to help, meet some kids and find out more.  We took our friend N with us because he always likes to go.

The kids made the poppers by wrapping toilet paper rolls filled with candy with colored tissue paper, decorated them with stickers and tied the ends.

Yep a picture would be nice right here (forgot the camera).

While the kids worked, I talked to some of the moms - one of them I already knew from another group - funny how often we run into people we know at different things.

Anyway, I learned a lot and I got really excited about the different opportunities.  As we were driving home, I told the kids what I had learned.  They got excited too.

The girls are interested in doing some projects on Cake decorating, Outdoor Adventures, Visual Arts, Heritage projects, Geospatial, Global Citizenship, Horseless Horse and Vet Science.  We won't do all those projects in one year but it is interesting how many the girls are already interested in.  Cairn can join the regular 4H club and get going on a project.  Skylar has to join the Cloverbuds until she is 8 so she will do different activities and Andrew can't do anything but learn along with us until he turns 5.

I am going to call the office tomorrow and get even more information as I have a lot more questions tonight.

After 4H, we went to a library puppet show.  I had told the kids that it was a holiday storytime and they all groaned because none of them like storytime but they went anyway.  When we walked into the library, the librarian asked if we were there for the puppet show and the kids were suddenly very interested.  The puppet show included the stories "Three Billy Goats Gruff", "Rapunzel" and "Little Red Riding Hood".  Cairn, Andrew and N all got on stage at one time or another.

We went home after the puppet show and the kids took off for N's house to play until dinner.  They came back hungry and exhausted.  Cairn told me tonight that she needs some more quiet time on the weekend.  She can't handle the go all week and the go all weekend.  I told her I would try to slow the schedule down.