Monday, September 28, 2009

Where did September go?

September has been a busy month. We're settled into our routine and everything is going great. In fact, I was surprised to find we're already at the END of September. This month absolutely flew by for us.

Princess Peach started working on a new song for her violin. Greensleeves! I remember playing that when I was a little musician.. ahh, the memories. Anyway, we started studying it today and hope to play for Daddy soon.

So what have we been doing? We've been spending a LOT of time in the kitchen and having fun with new foods. We decided as a family to move away from the traditional American fare and search for healthier options. They picked out a recipe for granola bars, which we made into bite size treats! Super yummy!


Oh, and we did NOT have Luigi mash the lentils for his peanut butter balls and sneak them in the recipe right in front of him. Really.. *coughcough*

Princess Peach read an article today about President Barack Obama addressing children and we set our very own goals for this year. Princess Peach will study for her spelling tests and work on her listening skills.

She has developed an amazing interest in all things science and we are planning to sign up for the Science Olympiad this year!

-Princess Peach's Mommy

Friday, September 11, 2009

Kool-Aid Play-Doh

Homemade play-doh is sooo easy to make. We are trying out different recipes for it and found a neat one that calls for Kool-Aid for coloring!

Princess Peach helped measure the ingredients for the recipe. We doubled the recipe, added the ingredients to the pan, gave it a little heat and a few quick stirs to get it all together...



Spoon it from the pan onto wax paper, knead it a little, let the kiddos give it a few good squishes...

Then put it in an airtight container to cool for a little bit in the fridge...

And finally when done, it's time to mold the dough! Whee!

Here is today's recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup flour

1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup salt
3 TBS oil
1 package of Koolaid (use the color of your choice)

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together and cook over medium heat for a few minutes until dough forms the consistency you want. Remove from heat and cool. Keep in airtight container, refrigerate until used.


-Princess Peach's Mommy

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Our milk still goes MOO

I took Princess Peach, Mario and Luigi to a chicken and dairy farm today. We had beautiful weather, unlike our clothed shower as we ran into the museum for Princess Peach's science class. THAT is a different blog altogether.

We drove from our home in the Mushroom Kingdom to the countryside and found the cute, little farm. There is a shop, some animals and the cows are in the back. The farm is the same farm we buy our milk from at the Farmer's Market, so the kids were familiar with the milk.

Say cheese! The kiddos started off at the cheese squishing station. Princess Peach was given a small bag full of crumbly cheese, then a pinch of sugar was added in and the -squishing- began. Luigi did not say a single word until his entire bag of cheese had been devoured. I'll assume it was yummy because not one of them shared with Mommy.


Then it was off to the milk station. They decorated labels for their very own pint of milk, then we watched through a glass window while she put the milk in each one. Mario downed his within a minute, Luigi took a little longer and Princess Peach saved hers to take home.



"Shake, Shake, Shake, SHAKE YOUR BUTTER!" The kiddos were given little jars filled with cream and told to shake (and shake and shake and shake and shake) for five minutes until the cream separated into butter! Princess Peach shook hers up like a pro and we ended up with three little baggies of fresh, soft butter. We put it in the fridge to harden up and will sample it with dinner tonight.



And before we left for our home in the Mushroom Kingdom, we stopped to say hi to the cows. Do you know the cows your milk comes from? We do!


-Princess Peach's Mommy

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

The end of summer

We've been busy since school started last month. Too busy to even BLOG.. criminal, I know. Leaving the camera in the car a few weeks didn't help much, either.

Princess Peach is doing great with schoolwork. We start the day with violin theory, then we practice (and practice and practice) on violin and for choir. Princess Peach has been playing violin for two years now and still misses her Romanian teacher we had in Germany. Now that she has the basics down, I'm teaching her here at home. We love to go to the local symphony, too!




We study English next and are still finishing up with a review. Reading is one of Princess Peach's favorite hobbies and she has many books. She finished reading My Teacher Is An Alien by Bruce Coville last week.

Then we are on to Math! This is Princess Peach's least favorite subject, but she does well with it. We're finishing multiplication this week and beginning a study in division soon. She loves math games and likes to play Sudoku, too.

Social Studies this year is going to be packed with exciting studies! Princess Peach is taking a class on Medieval Histories and we're studying early U.S. History here at home. She is also working through maps and geography and will do U.S. States and Presidents next semester. She loves history.

We're beginning Spanish and thankfully we know a little ourselves! We've learned numbers through 100, colors, shapes, etc. Next we're going over the basic parts of speech. Princess Peach has a passion for languages and has learned some sign language and German, too.

Art. Princess Peach would happily sit at the table all day and do artwork. We are learning about famous artists and will be replicating "Van Gogh's Bedroom" this week. We'll be studying Vincent Van Gogh with help from library books and the Metropolitan Museum of Art site.

Princess Peach and the kitchen. The kitchen and Princess Peach. They are like Peanut Butter & Jelly. Milk & Cookies. You get the idea. We do so much together in the kitchen, so our study on Home Economics has been an absolute joy for both of us. She is learning kitchen basics, preparing meals, planning menus, and will learn about other aspects of running a household. She is taking up a sewing class, too, and already has plans to make her first pillow.



P.E. we are very sneaky at. We go to the park a lot, swimming, bowling, for long walks with Koko (our little terrier mix), to the soccer field. We get it in where we can. We have a Wii that Princess Peach looooves to play. She does really well at yoga and likes to do a lot of the balance games. She also has been doing a lot of jump rope this past week, too.

We are using a nice little Bible curriculum called Studying God's Word and are starting on Book E. This is an in depth study on each book of the Old Testament (excluding a few). We hope to finish Book E and F this semester and start up on Book G for 5th grade. Princess Peach also has a fun devotional book God & Me for Girls 6-9. It is a short lesson followed by an activity. We also are in an AWANA club and Princess Peach is working through her T&T Girls book and doing AMAZING at memorizing her verses. We are so proud of her!

Science is another favorite of Princess Peach. We finished up dinosaurs and are studying animals, life cycles, etc. She is also taking an astronomy class! She especially loves doing experiments.

Princess Peach does technology and should be blogging again soon. She's also having fun playing JumpStart for 4th-6th grade. We'll be learning how to compose e-mail later this week.

Girl Scouts started up a few weeks back and Princess Peach is in an awesome troop with five other scouts. We went bowling this week and are back to learning all about Girl Scouts next week so we can have an Investiture and Rededication ceremony in a few weeks. Time flies by SO fast with Girl Scouts!


Princess Peach's little brothers Mario and Luigi started preschool this month and LOVE their curriculum. They are doing a unit study on apples. Princess Peach has a lot of fun helping out with them and gets to be crafty with me as we cut, color, and paste projects with the boys! She is a wonderful helper.


-Princess Peach's Mommy