Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Lupine Comes Home

When we brought our first ferret home, we scoured names online.  I read lists over and over to the kids so they could agree on a name.  They decided it needed to be a flower name, and though it took a LONG time, they eventually agreed upon "Lavender."

Our ferret seemed listless and bored.  We figured she needed a friend, since ferrets are social animals.  So we eventually brought her a friend.  The kids now decided she needed a flower name that started with "L" to match Lavender.  But Daddy had never named one of our pets, so we handed him the list of "L" names and he dubbed her "Laurel."

Many of you may remember that last November Stephen made a deal with Clyde.  Clyde had been persistently begging for a ferret, but never wanted to help care for the ones we had (our other two weren't any better about this, but weren't begging for new ones).  Clyde and his Daddy agreed that if he would clean the cages and empty the litter box for A YEAR, then he could have a new ferret of HIS OWN!  Clyde was PUMPED.

His enthusiasm quickly died.  During a weak moment, he wanted to take the deal back.  But Stephen didn't let him.  A few weeks later, he was glad Daddy had made him stick to it, but he still had months to go.

When the day came, he had any that were boys, large, or any that bit hard.  He didn't want his new ferret to be mean to the ones we already had at home.  He settled on a cream-colored, baby girl with a gray triangle on her forehead with a very sweet disposition. 

He had me print a list of "L" flower names and meticulously whittled it down.  He finally chose "Lupine" pronounced /LOO pin/.

Unfortunately, I didn't get many early pictures of her while she was still pretty small, she's already grown a good bit just in a few weeks.  She moves so fast, my pictures are blurry.

Here are the first two clearish ones I got...

A more recent one

 Lavender, Laurel, and Lupine

A boy and his ferret.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Tellus Science Museum

Last Thursday, my Mom took me and the kids to the Tellus Science Museum.  Clyde was pretty pumped, as he is my science buff.  The girls weren't really sure how they felt about going.  Turned out, no worry was needed, they loved it!

When you first enter,  there's a large Foucalt's pendulum demonstrating the Earth's rotation.  They have these little blocks standing up around the compass, and the bob knocks one down every ten minutes.

The kids and I in front of one of the world's largest geodes, found in Brazil.  They all loved this, but Clyde is my rock man...he was pretty pumped. They all took pics of it with their cameras.

Mom & kids in front of a replica in front of the Wright brothers' plane.

They had many models of early cars.  They each had a flawless  mirror upon which they sat so you could see the undercarriage clearly.  Lucy was actually interested in these, since they were built/used during the Victorian era, which she is studying right now.

Iris in a space suit.

My dark-hooded son walking around taking pictures.  This is what he looked like most of the time.

Mom and Lucy playing with light and color.

Iris studying a small biosphere containing miniscule lobsters and plants.

Iris manipulating electromagnets.

Clyde assembling electrical circuits.

Mom and kids panning for gemstones.  (I did this too...it was quite fun.)

Lucy and I dig for fossils.

Since she's studying Chemistry right now, she was pretty excited about this periodic table!

Clyde decided to snap a picture of EVERY rock in the Mineral exhibit.  Because Mom and I would have gone nuts, he was not able to do this, but he sure tried!

Iris finding out she just touched fossilized dinosaur poop.

Kids and I in front of T-rex.  Clyde appears to be throwing gang signs, but he looked confused when we asked him where he learned this one.

Lu in front of a protostega, because she loves sea turtles ;)

The kids on a rock outside in the pretty fall weather.

Iris decided to treat herself and her sibings to rock candy from the giftshop.

The digital planetarium was quite impressive too, but you can't take pics...sorry.
It was a very nice museum!  I highly recommend it!!
Thanks, Mom, it was fun!!!

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Fall Festival

Mom & Paul's church had a Fall Festival that fell on Halloween night.  We went and had a blast!  This church has always been so gracious.  They've let a group of us homeschoolers have a party there, free of charge.  Apparently, they host a Hispanic congregation.  And, most dear to my heart, they have been quite allergy friendly!  The people at the many different booths all seemed to be immediately aware which candies had what allergens, and they had multiple choices at each booth, in addition to a non-candy prize.  It was SO COOL!  So....here are the pics....















Costume Party!

I decided if we could get the house picked up we'd throw a last minute costume party. 

I didn't get pics of most of it, and we completely forgot to do the cake walk, but here's a few...













Thank you, lovelies who came!!  You're what made it jolly :)