O W L S

We are heading to the theatre today to see Legend of the Guardians.  We have been eagerly awaiting this film.  It looks great!  We are very fond of owls around here.

I found this fun project to get us into the spirit of the movie.

Gail, that artist woman, has even more fun owl projects if you are in the mood.  Perfect for this time of year, I think.  We'll have a movie review for you tomorrow!

autumn corn necklace

Goose loves autumn corn.  She loves to grind up the kernels in her mortar and pestle. 

She loves to make potions with her magic corn.

I thougtht we could do something a little more decorative with it.

So we soaked the kernels overnight.

Then we used a needle and embroidery floss to string our "beads" into a necklace.

Can you see the garnet, carnelian and amber?

This is definitely an adult supervised project.  And I recomment using a thimble!

I love these necklaces!

autumn afternoon

the afternoon was spent at the dining room table.

i with my tea

and the kids with their brushes,

paint brushes, that is.

while they were creating their masterpieces

i was crocheting!
yep, i'm slowly but surely getting
the hang of it.
what i love more than anything is the relaxed state i fall into while doing it.
sipping tea and listening to goose and binky chat
about friends, snowboarding, and autumn projects was heaven.
there was a peaceful calm in the room that i did not want to end.
it was a blissful afternoon filled with art and love!

S e p t e m b e r

September

by

Helen Hunt Jackson

The golden rod is yellow;

The corn is turning brown;

The trees in apple orchards

With fruit are bending down.

The gentian's bluest fringes

Are curling in the sun;

In dusty pods the milkweed

Its hidden silk has spun.

The sedges flaunt their harvest

In every meadow-nook;

And asters by the brookside

Make asters in the brook.

From dewy lanes at morning

The grapes' sweet odors rise;

At noon the roads all flutter

With yellow butterflies.

By all these lovely tokens

September days are here,

With summer's best of weather,

And autumn's best of cheer.

Happy Autumn!

scarecrows and pumpkins

Yesterday was a scarecrow kind of day.

Binky reminded me how much he loves making these every year

so I printed some more copies from

Nini Makes.

This year Binky articulated his scarecrow and added a sword.

He looks quite scary, don't you think?

I love the top hat on Goose's scarecrow.

We've also had fun decorating paper mache pumpkins.

I laid out all the materials, tissue paper, glitter, paint, fabric, and let the kids

go at it.  I love how they turned out!

We are in full autumn decorating mode.  I will show more

when I get home.

We are off to the SF Opera house today to see a dress rehearsal of

The Marriage of Figaro!

I cannot wait!

september in the garden

Our favorite garden, where we spend a lot of time watching the seasons change,

was filled with the smells and colors of the season.

The sunlight is so clear and the shadows so long in September.

We know each nook and cranny of this garden.

It's a wonderful place to witness Mother Earth's seasonal bounties!

Renaissance Faire

Bon jour!

My little knight

Ladies of the court

Sir Jeffrey and Sir Thomas

Sir Thomas ready for jousting

a Noble snack

tavern tail

beautiful drums for sale

my little archers

Goose on the rock wall

We had such a wonderful time at the faire yesterday with Grandma and cousin.

Even though it was in the 90s!

I've never been to this particular faire before, but it was better than I expected.

It takes place on a local farm called Ardenwood.

We watched some jousting and sword fighting. Sir Thomas was defeated!

The kids played darts, watched a fire-eater, practiced archery and enjoyed the sights.

There was even a rock wall to climb.

I'm not sure how this fits into the renaissance theme, but my kids LOVED it!

We had such a good time, that when we got home I searched for another local faire to attend in the coming weeks.  This time we can bring Daddy along.

Atoms and Molecules with VanCleave

We spent most of Friday studying atoms and molecules.

And Janice VanCleave is the perfect person to lend a hand!

Goose added carbon and helium to her atom model collection.

Daddy makes the wire shells and the kids add the string, protons, neutrons and electrons.

Then we moved onto molecules with clay and toothpicks.

I glued the molecules to the cardstock so I can hang them up.

We studied water molecules, their constant motion and cohesion.

Finally we denatured egg white proteins.

We love this book!

We've done the first 6 experiments so far.

If you haven't looked at these books before, I highly recommend that you do!

You won't be sorry!!

w e d n e s d a y

Since Goose is seriously into the Warriors series right now and there just happens to be a clan of ferrel cats living next door, I thought I would turn her daily feeding and observing into a writing exercise!

So she started a journal.

I took photos of each kit to add to it.

There's Barkkit, Shadowkit, and Birchkit.

They are just too cute!

Binky made a drawing of his latest lego creation.

He took it apart, piece by piece, to do it.

I love how the clone figure turned out!

Last night we celebrated Rosh Hashanah, in a relaxed setting, complete with a shirtless boy!

We stuffed ourselves with amazing challah bread, sweet apples and delicious

clover honey.

And no celebration would be complete without funny faces!