Luck ~ Saint Patrick's Day

The whole week was devoted to the old emerald isle.  We read stories of wee folk and leprechauns.  Stories of lore and legend.  Favorites include the story of Finn McCool and the great fish and King Puck.  The legend says Finn becomes wise by eating a beautiful salmon.  So, for cooking day we read this story and prepared salmon for our dinner.

We talked about rainbows too.  

On painting day we made stained glass rainbow windows.

This turned out better than it looks here.  It was a fun and easy decoration.  Use thin paper and watercolor your design.  Then when dry, paint the back with oil until transparent.  The oil will make it stick in your window.  I think we needed a sunnier window, but it still is really pretty.

On coloring day we colored a leprechaun trap.  Everyone knows that when you catch a leprechaun they must tell you where their gold is.  Your only chance to see one is on Saint Patrick's day.  So, we tried to trick our little wee man by coloring a box with rainbows and jewels to make him believe it was his lost treasure.

Then, we tied  a rope to a jewel inside.  Pull the rope shut down on unsuspecting leprechaun!  Fool proof plan.  Well, when we looked in the morning all that was there was this shamrock plant and rainbow star cookies...and 

This leprechaun shoe left in the box.  

Foiled again!  

Maybe we will get him next year.

We did a lot of little crafts this week too.  

One I got from Family Fun. 

Thank you Great-grandma Char!!

Finally, we went to Saint Paul to celebrate with the rest of the Irish folk!!

Happy Saint Patty's everyone :)

Until next week...

~Blessings

Music

We touched on music this week.  I wanted to show the kids all the different kinds of music.  This is such a huge and important topic that's why we only did a little bit about it.  I try to incorporate music in our daily life as much as possible.  We read cute stories about listening and echos.

On Monday(aka baking day) we made our family's very favorite cookies.  We planned to give up our sweets for Lent so, we needed to get them in as soon as we could before Ash Wednesday :)


Tuesday is painting day.  We painted to music!  We painted to all different kinds of music.


Tribal african sounds

Beethoven

Folk Music

Little boy dancing under the sun

and many other kinds of songs.
We really all agreed that we enjoyed Elizabeth Mitchell's the best.



On coloring day we decorated construction paper with our crayons.

Then, used it to cover oatmeal containers.
We then poured rice into the containers to make a shaker!


We went to church this week also to listen to beautiful signing.
The boys really enjoyed the music.

We read a lot of good music books.  One they really liked was Little Rat Makes Music.  My brother is good friends with very creative people one of whom the children know from a family vacation.  He is a talented musician so, I let the kids watch him play music.  They were so surprised!!  And impressed  that they know him!!  Being self taught was also inspiring for the kids.  I would love to take the kids to see him, but they are always late and in bars! 




We crafted mini tambourines too.
we used jingle bells and wired them onto hoops and circular caps.

We thoroughly enjoyed the warmer weather, thank you Ms. Thaw!!

PUDDLES

Matthew's hockey season has ended and he is very dissappointed.  We still practice with his uncle every week and it really makes a difference.  He loves it so much.  I can not thank you enough for always being generous with your time Uncle Chad!!  We are lucky to have you.  What a great coach and mentor.

We are happy to be well again. 
 Looking forward to warmer weather


Next week it is Saint Patricks day

Until then...
~blessings

Flu

This week we learned about getting sick! 

For a very long time.

We had the throw-ups last weekend.  

This week has been devoted to the worst cough and lungs.  

We have not really left the house too much and we have tried to stay really quiet.

We did a couple of things this week but for the most part we skipped.

painting day 

playing trains

When my kids are sick it is hard to get them to eat.  The only thing they really love is butter bread.

So, we made a little butter.  We poured heavy cream into a small mason jar, then shake, shake and shake it until....

It was butter!  

We had lots of tea and butter bread.

And buttered popcorn!!

I also, shared this nice story I got from Suzanne Down's newsletter again.

Grandmother Winter sat high above the earth on her snow cloud home.  She was busy knitting.

clickety click, clickety click, clickety clickety click,
Grandmother Winter sits and knits with her sticks,
Sits and knits with her sticks,
Knitting blankets of snow for the earth below.
clickety click, clickety click, clickety clickety click.

Down on the earth, snowdrops were already blooming under the snow, and the little
bulbs were just starting to wake up and peek their little heads above ground.

But as she sat knitting, she heard a loud roar, and looked down at the earth.
There she saw Old Man Winter stomping through the land bringing cold
everywhere he went.

"Oh dear," said Grandmother Winter, "this will never do.  It will be too cold for the
little bulbs.  I must hurry and finish my snow blanket!"

And she set to work faster....clickety click, clickety click clickety click, she sits and knits,
sits and knits, blankets of snow for the earth below!  When at last she finished her
blanket she called out to her friend Brother Wind....

"Brother Wind, Brother Wind
Breeze and Blow,
Carry this blanket to the earth below."

Brother Wind heard her call and came whooosh, whooooosh, and he picked up the
snow blanket and carried it down down, down to the earth where he nestled each and
every little waking bulb in the blanket.

"Thank you Brother Wind," called out Grandmother Winter.  "Now the bulb children will
keep warm until the warm spring sun wakes them up again.

As she looked down and saw that all was well in the earth kingdom she said, my work is
now done.  My last blanket is finished and now it is time for me to rest.....until next winter.

And Grandmoter Winter put down her knitting needles and lay down for a long long sleep.

On earth, the little brown bulbs with their wee green caps lay cozy and warm in her snow
blanket.  Soon enough they would begin to grow and grow into Spring.

The End.

I thought this was a nice story to explain why there is still so much snow falling!!

rare smiles!!

We had a hard week this week and this weekend is going to be very busy.  It is the end of Matthew's hockey season.  We still have him in some lessons to ease it a little.  It still will be hard for him.  He so much enjoyed every moment of hockey.  

Next week is about Music and the start of the Lenten season

~until then...

Blessings