Wonderful Ideas! M+
(M=meets grade level work)

That is what the art teacher wrote on the back of Megan's "Magical Miro" masterpiece. Megan was really into this art project she added a lot of details and put a lot of her creative personality into it. I love the colors and the characters it makes me smile. Megan's favorite charcter is the little blue snail guy with the red eye near the top right side. I love the red bird like creature just below that with the pink swirls on it's head. Which one is your favorite?
(click photo for a close up)

Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

In 5th grade they are being tested on the names & location of the 50 states and capitols. So far Paige has received 100% on each test. They started out with about 8 states in the N.E. and they add to them each week. The 5th graders are also doing a "Road Trip Across the U.S.A." project. They are in groups of 5 and Paige's group is planning a trip from Portland, OR to New York City. They have to make postcards, welcome billboards, and they have to research 8 different points of interest along the route. This weekend Paige worked on their first point of interest, Crater Lake National Park, in Southern Oregon. I was lucky enough to camp at this park with my Dad and Uncle Bud on a road trip home from Oregon after they returned from a deer hunting trip one fall. I think I was about Paige's age at the time. Paige learned some interesting facts about Crater Lake. Did you know that Crater Lake is the 7th deepest lake in the world? It is the deepest lake in the United States at 1,943 feet deep. Have you heard about "The Old Man" of Crater Lake? Well it's not really a man, it is a hemlock log that has been floating upright in the lake for more than 100 years. It is carried around the lake by the winds and current. The lake is so cold that the log has stayed preserved.
So there you go a little information to remember just in case you every find yourself competing against a 5th grader.

Today is a very special day!
Today my sweet niece
Chelsea Lynne turns 21!
Happy Birthday dear Chelsea we love you and miss you with all our hearts! We hope you are having a fantastic birthday with lots of sprinkles! XOXO, Auntie Brandi, Mike, Paige, Megan, Rowdy and Rebel

My post for Saturday 9-27-08

Welcome Fall/Autumn
We are 5 days into fall and it's starting to get that feeling. Crisp mornings and chilly evenings, weather just right for a fire in the fire pit. I was hoping to have a fire tonight so the girls could pop their Jiffy pop. But Mike is out doing haunted house stuff. Megan is pretty tired from being at a sleepover last night and Paige is working on a report about Crater Lake, so maybe tomorrow night we will get to have a fire.

My post for Friday 9-26-08

Today is picture day at school!

Paige and Megan being "tortured". That is what Paige calls it when I ask them to pose for a picture. This was the best out of the two shots I managed to get of them together. Do you think they are going to thank me someday for all this torture I put them through?

Paige is pretty in pink for her 5th grade photo and Megan is a vision in purple with sparkles of course!

My post for Thursday 9-25-08
Autumn Colors from Ohio....
Although we are still having warm weather in the upper seventies and low eighties we are starting to notice some fall colors in our trees. We have had cool nights and clear crisp mornings. These are from the trees in our yard (Autumn Blaze Maples). I love the way the trees look against the cloud streaked blue of the sky.

Hey Shann, it's not to late to come out and enjoy the fall colors and to visit the haunted house in the Cul de sac!

Week 3 of riding lessons.
Paige and C.C.

Miss. Ginette thought it would be a good idea for the girls to switch horses today. It's good to learn on more than one horse since each horse has it's unique personality. Kinda like learning to drive manual and automatic transmission, or going from a truck to a sedan it's the same thing but different.
Paige said that getting on C.C. is a little harder (he's taller than Calliope) but she said he responds better and he's is easier to get into a trot.

My post for Tuesday 9-23-08

Paige's tap class shared their dance of the month with us last night. It was a pretty fast song, but they stepped up to the challenge. Miss. Rachel has been teaching this group of kids for the past couple of years and she does not cut them any slack, and because of that they push themselves and feel pleased with the results.

Megan had her first beginning Jazz class with Miss. Erin tonight. She had been on the waiting list since the class was full. One of the girls switched to an earlier time so Megan got in. She had been watching the class from the doorway for the past few weeks. When she danced with them tonight is was like she had been there the entire time. It is a 1st - 2nd grade begining Jazz class so Megan is one of the older girls in the class. She has also been dancing since she was 3 so this was a piece of cake for her. As Miss. Erin said "like a duck to water". Megan was thrilled to get a class with Miss. Erin, she had been Megan's teacher when she was 3, 4 and 5, and she is really sweet. Now that Megan is in two dance classes she qualifies to be in the holiday show ("The Nutty Nutcracker") so both the girls are signed up for that. More details will follow.

My post for Monday, September 22, 2008Paige must have taken this picture of Rowdy dog. He is looking pretty good for being a 12 year old pup. Did you know that Rowdy IS the SWEETEST DOG EVER!?

My post for Sunday 9-21-08

Thank goodness for digital cameras! Paige and Megan were playing upstairs while I was cleaning the floors downstaris. I knew Paige had her camera because she came and asked for fresh batteries. I did not see the pictures until this morning when I put them on the computer. All I can say is thank goodness for digital cameras, and the fact that we don't have to pay to print them out. As you can see the girls were dressing their Webkinz animals with the clothes from their "Friends 2 B Made Dolls". Whatever? it kept them quiet and entertainded for a few hours and they cleaned up their mess when they were done.

It's Joy the Penguin Princess with her little doggie friends.

I think that is Paige's chocolate lab Cocoa sporting a blue satin frock.
Oopps looks like Cocoa can't stand up in her heels!

Oh that's better dashing Daisey has come to lend a paw.

My post for Saturday 9-20-08

According to the calendar Autumn starts on Monday. It is still warm here in the Midwest. I think we will be having an Indian Summer. Why is it that my flowers always seem to really put on a show at the end of summer? Do they know that they don't have much time left to flourish? We have been selling mum's like crazy at Anderson's, we really do have the best prices on them. I have not purchased any yet, because my fl0wers are at their peak and I would rather enjoy them a bit longer than make room for mums.

Paige is putting another iron in the fire.

She came home a few weeks ago and said that she wants to try play an instrument in the 5th grade band. She was between a flute and a clarinet. The kids were given the chance in music class to try out the mouth pieces of each instrument. It turns out that the clarinet is the winner.

We are renting it month to month with a 2 month minimum so she can decide if she likes it or wants to switch to another instrument. If so the money towards this rental can go towards another.

I know nothing about music! So if she has any questions I told her to call her cousin Chelsea. Chelsea played the clarinet, saxophone and oboe while in middle school and high school. So I am sure she could answer any questions. If she lived closer I am sure she would be Paige's private instructor.

Do you want to know how to make Megan smile?

J E L L O

She's a pretty happy child, but when you give her an after school snack of red berry Jello she just glows. Watch out Bill Cosby you have some competition!

My post for Wednesday 9-17-08

Week 2 of riding lessons. It was a beautiful sunny day. Mike and Megan came to the stables to watch Paige ride this week. Now Megan is saying "maybe I can take lessons when I am 10". Paige did great, even when Calliope tried to veer off course Paige would get her to turn around and go back to where she veered. Paige also got to try galloping, with a bit of heel work. Paige was very pleased with her lesson, she worked hard and her confidence has grown just in one week.
Darn! I wish I would have had the red eye on, next week!

Have you ever seen a Chihuahua barn dog? Well this is Indigo, he's about 3 years old although as Paige says "I thought he was older because he acts like Rowdy". He follows Miss. G out to the pen and begs to be picked up. So she's out there with him in her arms while giving riding lessons. Paige thinks it's funny.

My post for Tuesday 9-16-08

Our electric came back on around 9 p.m. Monday night....yeah hot water! click on photos for a better look!

I made this little tri-fold picture tag display last weekend (the weekend before the "BIG wind storm). I just never had a chance to post it until today. The pictures are from our mini trip to "The Avenue of the Giant's" to see the redwoods while we were in California.
The main pieces (chipboard tags) were from a kit but I used some paper from my stockpile that I liked better than the paper in the kit. I like the way it turned out, and so do Mike and the girls. I was afraid that Mike would not like the picture I used with him and the girls acting silly with the bear carving. But that picture just makes me smile every time I see it.

My Post for Monday 9-15-08
We tried to give Mother Nature a helping hand.

During the BIG wind storm (remnants of Hurricane Ike) we found four little baby birds on the grass under our street tree that we were staking (to save it from an untimely demise). I ran to the house and got an old shoe box and lined it with tissues, put on some rubber gloves and scooped the little birdies into the box. We kept them in the quiet of the laundry room. My plan was to return them to their nest or a replacement nest when the storm passed.
I talked to my sister about 2 hours after rescuing the birds. She suggested feeding them cornmeal mixed with warm water. They gobbled it up from a serenge (leftover from dog medicine). I fed them again before I went to bed. Then I checked on them around 3 a.m. they were all huddled together sleeping.
In the morning the storm had passed and we were still without electric. I fed the baby birds once more. I tried to locate the nest but had no luck. I got the empty nest that the Cardinal's had made in one of the shrubs on the side of our house. I placed the babies in it and climbed a ladder and placed the nest in the tree.

Paige determined from her "Backyard Bird" book that the babies belonged to a pair of Gold Finches that we had seen in our yard the past few weeks. We had seen them with nesting materials, right at our back window. Paige read that they nest in late summer when thistle and sunflower seeds are abundant. They also like yards with zinnia's, cosmos and sunflowers, we have all of them in our yard.
We watched for the parents to return all day Monday, with the electric out and no school we had nothing better to do. We checked on the babies at lunch time and they were poking their heads up, beaks wide open wanting their food. I took them down and gave them a quick cornmeal-water meal then returned them to their tree. I fed them once more before it got dark.
I decided it was their last meal from us, I was afraid that I was just keeping them alive and I knew they would not thrive on cornmeal mush.
I told Paige "we did all we could and now it was up to Mother Nature".
I looked up at the nest when I got home from work Tuesday afternoon. I was hoping that the momma bird had returned but all I saw was bees buzzing around the nest so I'm pretty sure they babies did not make it. I did not have the heart to get the ladder out and check for sure. I think this has been harder on me than my kids. I keep wondering if that momma is still out their searching for her babies, did she get blown in the storm and she can't find her way back. It just makes me sad, but we did our best. If we had not scooped them up they would have died in the grass or worse my dogs would have found them.
P.S. Sorry this story does not have a happy ending...sometimes life is like that, I guess.