what weve been up to:
mandy found a little clam thingie in the river (the shenandoah river to be exact
) a few weeks back. she brought it home and put it in our aquarium. daddy wasnt so sure the thing was gonna live in a fish tank, but in the fish tank he went. like i said, that was a few weeks ago & hes still alive and kicking. i saw him moving around today and tried with all my might to capture it on video but the glass on the tank and the lighting was off so i couldnt get a decent video. i did however, get a pretty decent still shot of it. it doesnt even look like youre seeing it through glass. so heres mandys pet:
after the clam came the fall festival we attended. one of the activities they did was to put some dirt in a cup, add some punkin (i know thats spelled wrong) seed, add a bit more dirt, add some water, and bring it home. joey was off doing all the games but mandy wanted to do this activity. so she did.
she brought it home and it sprouted! then it sprouted some more. and it got bigger. so her and her daddy re-potted it last night. and SHE took this picture of it:
of course, after joey saw mandys cup of dirt turn into a real plant, he decided he wanted one, too. so, last night joey took some fresh out of the pumpkin pumpkin seeds and planted them in a cup with some dirt. i dont know how that will work out cuz they were still wet and all. itll sad for him if it doesnt grow but itll also be something he learns. anyway, not to be out-done by his sister, joey also took his own pic of his cup of dirt (with seeds in it)
and where did he get fresh from the pumpkin seeds? right from the pumpkins of course! last night they (with the help of daddy) got the tops cut off of their pumpkins and scraped the innards out so they will (hopefully) carve their faces tonight. but this is where they came from:
and what did we do with the rest of the seeds you ask? we salted 'em, baked 'em, and ate 'em, of course!
while the seeds were baking, mandy made a plastic cup with string telephone. she didnt tell me or ask me and i had no idea she was doing it, as i was in the other room. all the sudden she popped into my room carrying 2 plastic cups attached by strings. she handed me one end and told me how to use them and to make sure to keep the string taut. i asked her how she knew to do it and she told me her friend kaitlyn, who is also a homeschooler, told her about it. from a childs instruction to following of those instructions to reality. all on her own!
a bit later we went to get the seeds out of the oven and sitting on my stove top was a 'little man' as mandy called it. she apparently got into some other crafts as well. goofy girl!
last but not least, for this post anyway, julie and her family, friends of ours, have started an art journal. they posted pics of their start and the painting they did was so pretty. mandy LOVES to doodle and draw and paint and all that so we decided to give it a try.
i couldnt find a book to use as a art journal cuz none of the pages were thick enough to accomodate paints, etc. we did buy a sample set of acrylic paints, a bag of various size brushes, a palette to mix colors on, a pad of acrylic paper. they all sat in a abg for a few days. there was football, cheerleading, my friends 100th birthday, etc. we didnt really have time. but in all honesty, i was glad to not have the time. we didnt have anything they showed step by step directions and im like a deer caught in the headlights unless you take me by the hand and walk me through each step. but to see all our new supplies all layed out on the table is quite intimidating to me,
but mandy had been waiting and asking and waiting and asking and i knew i was gonna have to face the demon eventually so i sucked it up and pulled all the stuff out and on sunday we created art. if thats what you call it.. just before we started, as we sat looking at all the supplies, i explained to mandy my hesitation at getting all the supplies out. how i feel like im in foreign territory and that it makes me very anxious because i just dont know what im doing. she was sympathetic and i asked her to pray with me before we started.
anyway, without further adieu, here are our first attempts:
- the lower right is mandys. she started making a sun and a flower and do a scenic painting. then she saw how i was blending colors and doing swirly Qs and liked mine better so she tried to do it over her scene. she didnt like it and kind of sad that it wasnt as easy as she thought.
i couldnt find a book to use as a art journal cuz none of the pages were thick enough to accomodate paints, etc. we did buy a sample set of acrylic paints, a bag of various size brushes, a palette to mix colors on, a pad of acrylic paper. they all sat in a abg for a few days. there was football, cheerleading, my friends 100th birthday, etc. we didnt really have time. but in all honesty, i was glad to not have the time. we didnt have anything they showed step by step directions and im like a deer caught in the headlights unless you take me by the hand and walk me through each step. but to see all our new supplies all layed out on the table is quite intimidating to me,
but mandy had been waiting and asking and waiting and asking and i knew i was gonna have to face the demon eventually so i sucked it up and pulled all the stuff out and on sunday we created art. if thats what you call it.. just before we started, as we sat looking at all the supplies, i explained to mandy my hesitation at getting all the supplies out. how i feel like im in foreign territory and that it makes me very anxious because i just dont know what im doing. she was sympathetic and i asked her to pray with me before we started.
anyway, without further adieu, here are our first attempts:
- the lower right is mandys. she started making a sun and a flower and do a scenic painting. then she saw how i was blending colors and doing swirly Qs and liked mine better so she tried to do it over her scene. she didnt like it and kind of sad that it wasnt as easy as she thought.
- the upper left is joeys. he had been watching football with his dad but he walked by us and saw what we were doing and said he wanted to do one, too. i handed him a sheet and a palette and he just went at it. i think he finished i like 3 minutes. the blue on the bottom is the water. the black is a whale. on the top of the whale on the left side where the yellow kind of juts down into the black, thats the blow hole. he has the sun in the upper left and the mustard color in the middle are clouds.
- the lower left is mandys 2nd attempt. she tried to do one like mine on a blank page this time. but she doesnt like it either cuz its dark and not light and pretty and her lines are too thick (her words, not mine). i think it turned out to be the best. but i dont know... that whal rates way up there, too.
- anyway, last but not least is mine. i started with a sweet light blue background intermixed with a soft cloud pink. i had some light easter teal swirls going across the page one way and bight sunny yellow swirling the other way. it was peppered with night white polka dots and a page size sweet spring purple swirly Q. it was SO pretty.
after that i added another color. then i tried giving it a rubbed effect, then i added some more color. more rubbing using a different techniqueand what you see in the upper right hand corner is the green blob i ended up with. i just didnt know when to stop! i wouldve keep going but, there were so many layers of paint by this point that the top layer of the paper was starting to peel up.
anyway, eyes of the beholder and all that.
and THAT's it for now..... its amazing to me how it seems like we never do anything.....
he has the sun in the upper left and the mustard color in the middle are clouds. - the lower left is mandys 2nd attempt. she tried to do one like mine on a blank page this time. but she doesnt like it either cuz its dark and not light and pretty and her lines are too thick (her words, not mine). i think it turned out to be the best. but i dont know... that whal rates way up there, too.
- anyway, last but not least is mine. i started with a sweet light blue background intermixed with a soft cloud pink. i had some light easter teal swirls going across the page one way and bight sunny yellow swirling the other way. it was peppered with night white polka dots and a page size sweet spring purple swirly Q. it was SO pretty.
after that i added another color. then i tried giving it a rubbed effect, then i added some more color. more rubbing using a different techniqueand what you see in the upper right hand corner is the green blob i ended up with. i just didnt know when to stop! i wouldve keep going but, there were so many layers of paint by this point that the top layer of the paper was starting to peel up.
anyway, eyes of the beholder and all that.
and THAT's it for now..... its amazing to me how it seems like we never do anything.....
