Ancients
Core G
Week 10 "C"
April 13-19, 2015
33rd week on Core G
Half Vacation!
This week wasn't as educational as I had planned, but we did have a whole lotta fun! It was time to go down to Indiana see our friends, have a birthday party (or two), and do some spring cleaning on our house there. I'm going to over-share this week, but I really will want to remember everything we did to celebrate Dd's special birthday and I know I'll forget a lot of the details unless I jot them down.
I'll give our weekly snapshot of what we did, then go over things that are 'educational' afterwards, in the "our lessons this week" section.
Monday and Tuesday we got ready for our trip; grocery shopping and packing. The drive from Michigan to Indiana, for our destination is over 5 hours of driving. Luckily, it wasn't too bad this time.
Wednesday we left here and drove to Gabbie G's house---I chatted with Heather G., the mom, for an hour and then we took Gabbie home with us. They did a little of everything --playing, made pizza from scratch, basketball, walked the loop around the ponds by the tennis court, did their nails....talked and talked. Then we drove her home by 10pm. Meanwhile, I worked hard--mowed the front and back yards, weeded a LOT, and other yard work. I had painted yard stakes white, and took a black Sharpie and wrote each plant's name on it and hammered the stakes beside many plants.
Thursday, our down day---we went to the store, Dd made the birthday cake for the party with the "L family" (for Friday), I putted around the yard and did more weeding...L made more pizza dough for the "L" family--Gluten free dough.
Friday, we got up early to chop the veggies and prepare the table with lots and lots of food!
Dd put down a long line of "feet" for the L family to follow, so they could find the birthday girl...she was hiding on top of her play house!
Then the "L" family arrived and the kids went with L and Heather L. and I chatted and had tea. Then we had our feast, the kids had already played their "Jeopardy" game--where the categories were LOTR, The Hobbit, Star Wars, Ranger's Apprentice....,
then they opened presents (we always give them each some little fun gifts and candy),
Nerf War,
Basketball... Someone requested a showing of our house, and it was when we were planning on going to a park, so we accepted the showing request.
Then we went to Eagle Creek Park for a lovely hike and we saw two Pileated Woodpeckers! a couple! and they exchanged being on the nest--we saw one come out of the hole in the tree top, and the other go in...SO cool! Plus they were really vocal; which was super great to hear! Then we went back to our house for a Nerf Battle! SO funny! Then we tried to get them to eat more, since I totally over-bought way too much food! Had to send some home with them! and then they had to go....
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| Salami sandwiches, GF pizza from scratch, German cookies from Aldi, apples, cucumbers, GF rice crackers, peppers, cheddar cheece, carrots, veg dip, apricots, "Pirate's Booty"- a GF snack, fancy cookies, and she made a special fizzy drink with apple juice and spritzer. The "L" family brought a GF cake too. A few of the "L" family can't have gluten, so we needed to have food for that contingent as well! |
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| This is the only picture of Dd's cake that she made---we've decided we will no longer buy Aldi cake mixes...it was a bit dry. This is a chocolate cake with chocolate (brown) icing, with green mint (peppermint) icing on top of that. She printed out an oak leaf template at home to use here. It is suppose to be a "Rangers Apprentice" oak leaf (a book series she and the "L" family read.). |
Dd put down a long line of "feet" for the L family to follow, so they could find the birthday girl...she was hiding on top of her play house!
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| The "L" family found Dd -- no problem! |
Then the "L" family arrived and the kids went with L and Heather L. and I chatted and had tea. Then we had our feast, the kids had already played their "Jeopardy" game--where the categories were LOTR, The Hobbit, Star Wars, Ranger's Apprentice....,
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| Dd spent 2 weeks making this game board, sort of like Jeopardy. She used a lot of her books and internet searches to get the best questions. |
then they opened presents (we always give them each some little fun gifts and candy),
Nerf War,
Basketball... Someone requested a showing of our house, and it was when we were planning on going to a park, so we accepted the showing request.
 |
| One of the "L" family just got a "Gladius" sword, and Dd brought three of her different swords, so they could all play together. Each child, but the littlest, has a sword here. |
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| Two 'boats' were made during our stop by the lake. D used a leaf for a sale, while J used a piece of foil he found on the ground. J's boat took off and sailed far away very quickly. |
Then we went to Eagle Creek Park for a lovely hike and we saw two Pileated Woodpeckers! a couple! and they exchanged being on the nest--we saw one come out of the hole in the tree top, and the other go in...SO cool! Plus they were really vocal; which was super great to hear! Then we went back to our house for a Nerf Battle! SO funny! Then we tried to get them to eat more, since I totally over-bought way too much food! Had to send some home with them! and then they had to go....
Friday night, Pappa arrived! We played with glow sticks, and played basketball!
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| Dd and I are spinning glow sticks while Pappa took pictures! It was a lot of fun, and we played at it for a LONG time! |
Saturday, Giz and Grampy arrived bright and early!
Someone requested a showing so we went to Arbuckle Park for a lovely picnic. We enjoyed lunch meat sandwiches at the park and caught up on the news while the house was shown. When we got back home we all got to work. I mowed all the yard again (the grass grew that quickly!), Grampy weed-wacked everything, including the weeds growing in the garden (I mowed some of that too), lots and lots of weeding. L worked the Blower--and blew dried leaves out of the gardens and then I'd mow up the leaves...E got the grill up and running and grilled chicken and pork chops! and he made a bunch of other things for the dinner---potatoes, baked beans, and carrots...so good! Then L opened her presents from G&G.
G&G gave her a little money (and some fun gifts) so on the way home on Sunday we went to the Lego Store in Castleton Mall and she bought a few little things (three mini-figures that she got to create on her own, a Princess Leia key chain, and a little tub of pieces that she got to pick each one out from their wall of brick pieces---which was super cool.) After our grilled dinner, it was time for G&G to head home.
Someone requested a showing so we went to Arbuckle Park for a lovely picnic. We enjoyed lunch meat sandwiches at the park and caught up on the news while the house was shown. When we got back home we all got to work. I mowed all the yard again (the grass grew that quickly!), Grampy weed-wacked everything, including the weeds growing in the garden (I mowed some of that too), lots and lots of weeding. L worked the Blower--and blew dried leaves out of the gardens and then I'd mow up the leaves...E got the grill up and running and grilled chicken and pork chops! and he made a bunch of other things for the dinner---potatoes, baked beans, and carrots...so good! Then L opened her presents from G&G.
G&G gave her a little money (and some fun gifts) so on the way home on Sunday we went to the Lego Store in Castleton Mall and she bought a few little things (three mini-figures that she got to create on her own, a Princess Leia key chain, and a little tub of pieces that she got to pick each one out from their wall of brick pieces---which was super cool.) After our grilled dinner, it was time for G&G to head home.
Sunday, we cleaned the house some more (lots of window washing and vacuuming) and packed the cars really early since rain and thunderstorms were headed our way. We actually got on the road fairly early! So we went to the mall and found the Lego store. After the Lego store we drove to a nearby Trader Joe's for some food to take home with us, and some healthy snacks for the drive. It poured the whole 5 plus hours of driving! Ugh! But, we made it home and started the process of unpacking.
Lego Store: We *finally* made it to the Lego Store! It opened up over a year before we moved, but it is quite a drive away from our home. After driving around Castleton Mall for a while we decided to just park and go inside and look for it, since there were no signs for the store on the outside. When we went in, it wasn't nearly as big as I'd hoped. I was also a bit disappointed at the 'Wall of Bricks'--there is suppose to be lots of bricks that you can buy yourself so you can make your own designs, but there were so few options of bricks! I wanted to buy those little round caps in clear and blue so Dd could make her "water" look more like water (like Chelle's son's piece that he entered and won a price for in his area). The only round, circle cap pieces they had were green, purple, and pink! The prices were the same as Amazon, but if you join their club then you get $5 off for every $100 you spend...so we signed up for that. Dd found this one stand that you can make your own figures--lots of heads to pick from, then lots of hats or hair to put on the head, then pick the top and then pick the bottom, and finally they get one accessory in one of their hands--like a sword, shield, microphone, or scalpel. You can create your own THREE mini-figures for $9.99. So she did that, then got their biggest cup and filled it up with bricks/pieces she picked from the wall of bricks, and she got a Princess Leia key chain (has a mini-figure of Princess Leia on it). She did NOT want to leave, but after an hour there we finally got her to leave! under duress!
Our lessons this week:
Bible: Ezekiel continues on! I have to say, I can sort of understand why Veritas Press wanted us to skip reading Ezekiel---it really is a bit monotonous describing how the Lord God is going to punish the Israelites for all their wrong doings; but there are some really interesting passages that I am glad we found. The valley of bones that will be brought back to life is very strong.
Then in Ezekiel 36, it describes Israel's spiritual regeneration--how God would cleanse them, give them a NEW HEART and a NEW SPIRIT --how that section is brought up between Jesus and Nicodemus in their late night discussion, when Jesus is surprised that Nicodemus doesn't seem to know or understand about needing to be born again because it was in the bible that he had supposedly studied. Well, that conversation is talking about this passage in Ezekiel! So interesting!
This week we read our passages in our bible, and then immediately followed up with our Believer's Bible Commentary--Ezekiel 20, 22, 24, 25, 33. We should wrap up Ezekiel next week, and be able to get back to our Veritas Press schedule.
Audio 1:
Emma by Jane Austin
discs 3-6
Audio 2:
Mystery of History: Creation through Resurrection
discs 8-9
which means we have finished this book/audio!
Nature Hikes/Science:
Monday: 1 hour hike/stream visit (beautiful day!)
Wednesday: 1 hour walk (Dd and GG) around our Indiana neighborhood and ponds
Friday: Hike at Eagle Creek Park (I saw a mating couple of Pileated Woodpeckers! totally awesome!)
Saturday: Picnic at Arbuckle Park
Current Events:
CNN Student News -Mon & Tues
Busy Hands:
Made regular Pizza (scratch)
Made Gluten-Free Pizza (scratch)
Made another birthday cake (chocolate with green mint frosting in the shape of a Ranger's Apprentice Oak Leaf on top).
Made Veggie Dip
Movies:
Nat'l Wildlife Federation: Birding For Kids
Winnie the Pooh -- okay, so she watched this one for me! I just love watching this favorite! And now it also reminds me of Chelle!
Reading/Books:
100 Year Old Secret--she has read this at least one time prior to this reading. She has been "comfort reading" a lot lately--reading books for fun and to help during this rough time.
Wisdom's Kiss--this is the sequel to the book she read to me last, called Princess Ben. In the new book Princess Ben is a grandmother, and her granddaughter is one of the main characters.
Reading/Books:
