Pastels with Degas

The kids have all been up and down with how they've felt this week.  They have each taken their temperature several times a day.  Henry woke up Monday morning saying he still didn't feel well and he tried to get out of school for the day.  I told him that he had already missed a week of school so if he didn't feel well, then we could do all his work slow and steady throughout the day.  No rush, but it had to get done.  And slow and steady was how he worked.  For three days straight.  Doing school til 4:30 in the afternoon isn't exactly why we homeschool.  So our school week was really long and there wasn't time left to do much else.

Going to CC was a reprieve from the long days at home.  This week we learned about Degas and how he liked pictures that depicted movement.  He also used pastels a lot.  The kids were able to chose a ballerina picture, a still of two men talking, or they could create their own picture.  Three options, and our kids each chose a different one.  I had never thought of doing it this way before, but we sprayed our canvas down with water before using the pastels which made them much more vibrant (and a lot less dusty).  We loved how they turned out.  I wished I could have done one myself.

Josiah chose the two men talking:

Henry made his own.  It says, "Pick you're weapon" and has something to do with video games. (We're working on contractions still....)

Caroline chose the ballerina.  She had a rainbow up top with very distinct colors, but then when she was shown how she could blend the colors with her fingers, she went to town with that.

Awana this week was crazy hair day.  Josiah and Caroline used pony-tail holders as their method of crazy.  Josiah's crazy hair was short lived, however.  He checked himself in at the desk, walked through the door to his group's room, and promptly took his hair things out.  He just wanted the points it earned him.  Henry didn't want anything done to his hair, so he used his good friend static electricity and rubbed his hoodie over his hair as he was waiting in line to check in.  He did a good job.  It was standing up all over his head.    

Caroline and I went to a special baby naming ceremony this weekend.  It was for a friend from church  - I know the mom and Caroline is friend's with one of their daughters.  It was our first such ceremony.  The other children in the family have very long names, so we had no idea what to expect for the ceremony.  Caroline kept asking me all week long what it would be like and I kept telling her, I have no idea.  The ceremony was very interesting and unique and special.  We sang, we prayed, and then they introduced the new baby girl.  They shared all her names and what each of them meant.  I didn't count, but she had about eight names.  The first seven all ended in 'oluwa' which means 'God,' so all her names meant God's blessing, God's joy, God's peace, etc.  It was really special to hear what each name meant and how they prayed that name would be made apparent in her life.  The funny part was after they went through seven very long names, the baby's eighth name was simply, "Joy."  Caroline didn't know what to think about the whole ceremony, but afterwards they had food for everyone.  It was a spicy rice, some sort of meat, and these cake/bread balls which Caroline thought were amazing.

There were two cameras and apparently I looked at the wrong one...

This weekend we had our chefs in the kitchen again.  Henry chose beef stew for Saturday.  He made sure he cooked on the 1st of the month to "get it over with."  Then today Josiah cooked nachos - tortillas, taco meat, cheese, and beans.  His original plan was tortilla chips with melted cheese on top.  For dinner.  For a family of five.  I told him that they rest of us have more than 5% body fat and we needed a bit more in a meal. Hence the cooking of the taco meat.
We enjoyed his nachos while watching the Super Bowl.  The kids' attention span for the Super Bowl waned about the time the coin toss was finished.  Caroline spent her time making cup towers.  Josiah drew Scooby Doo.  Henry did his usual running around tossing his football in the air.


And so we begin another week.  This week we have a field trip to NASA.  We've always wanted to go so we're excited to finally make it.  We are also all healthy, so ideally no school day should go til 4:30 p.m. (please!).