The Investigation studio at our school (the one Eli is in), earned a pizza party by completing all their "unlock" missions at the school. They had a lot of fun watching a movie, having a dance party, playing Kahoots, eating lots of snacks, etc. Eli is really blessed to have such a good group of friends!
Sahara had another litter of kittens today! We really needed her to have a girl, because the Sultan in Malaysia let us give away the other girl to another family while they waited for their permit to come through. They said they would take a girl from the next litter. So we were crossing our fingers, hoping we had at least one girl. It turns out we got 3 girls!! They are so precious - there is nothing quite like serval babies to melt your heart!
While my studio was out doing their P.E. today, I was hanging out on the patio when something caught my eye. I realized it was a snake, and when I got closer I realized it was a coral snake!! We gathered all our heroes up to show them so they could identify what a coral snake looks like, and to learn that it is very venomous - the most venomous snake in Texas! Then we boxed it up, and someone from the Facebook snake identification group came and picked it up and relocated it for us. That was quite an excitement!
Update: The following week, the neighbor behind our back fence came over and told us that they had killed 2 coral snakes within the last week, so they were coming to warn us. Nice neighbors, but crazy that there have been so many coral snakes close by!
Easter this year was the same weekend as General Conference, so it was nice to watch that and bring in a great spirit for Easter! The boys had fun dying Easter eggs. We did an Easter egg hunt at my parents' house and had a yummy dinner. Happy Easter!!
When we first moved in, the people before us had built up a burn pile out in the pasture. We kept adding to it, and for over 3 years we never burned it. It became so overgrown that we couldn't mow around it very well. When we finally burned it, we borrowed our neighbor's tractor to help gather everything into a pile, but the ground was soft and muddy and the tractor got stuck and made big ruts around the burn pile. So now we couldn't mow around that area either. So we ended up with a gigantic overgrown mess in our pasture. James finally asked Brother Shannon from our ward to come help us with his tractor. He came out with his brush hog and cut all the overgrown stuff down, and then he tilled it up. He also tilled up our garden for us. Last year I tilled up the garden by hand, and that took about a week - this took a few minutes!! So now our burn pile area is under control, our garden is tilled and ready to go!! And it was all done by 10:30 in the morning - woohoo!!
While tilling up the burn pile, they found a mole. Jacob and Eli were enthralled!!
Jacob, James and Eli all got new bikes for Christmas, so we decided we really need to get out and use them! The weather here is absolutely amazing, and the Spring Creek trail is just gorgeous! Being out in nature is therapeutic to my soul!! I could hike, jog, bike ride, walk, etc. all day out in this beauty!!
We always try to do fun things on April Fool's Day, but it's hard to keep coming up with new ideas. This year was awesome because we had a whole school to work with, so we had a lot of fun! First, the guide for Jacob's studio and I randomly switched studios for a few minutes. While she was in Eli's studio, she had them randomly read through our car manual about the stereo system. They each took turns reading a section, and didn't think anything was out of the ordinary!! That still cracks me up whenever I think about it!! Later I was asking Eli about it, and he said he just thought it had to do with writing instructions - which is what we are focusing on in their writer's workshops, and that he didn't know until I was laughing about it just then that it was supposed to be a joke. Jacob said that is what we get with having a unique school like this where lots of crazy things happen all the time. Too funny!! While I was in Jacob's studio, I had them read about and discuss a philosophy about death (which is a theme they are focusing on this session). I wrote this awesome philosophy called, Loof Lirpa, and projected it on their screen for them to read and discuss.
Loof Lirpa is a far eastern philosophical understanding of the
impracticality of the termination that is at times and in seasons
referred to as death. It could be inferred, from a metaphysical
perspective, that as a being is once animate and organic, at the
time when it no longer shows the vitality and ebullience it once
portrayed, and in fact displays the signs of complete cessation of
gesticulation, it could in all reality be concluded to be incorporeal.
However, in considering the more transcendental aspect of this
philosophy, it can be extrapolated that, using eversion, it is
chockablock with fallacies that cannot be disregarded. The
existence we call life is a eurythmy that allows retroflection,
circumduction and flexion, causing reciprocation of the rapture in
the quintessence. Therefore, at the culmination of the affair in this
existence, there must be a protraction of this eurythmy, in order for
the essence of the soul to perpetuate itself beyond just this mere
quiddity.
They took turns reading a sentence each, and then I asked them what they thought about it. They all were very confused and said they needed to read it again. Then I asked if they agreed with it. I told them to put thumbs up if they agreed and thumbs down if they disagreed. They still looked at me blankly. So I told them that at times when they encounter something that is difficult or confusing, they should try to look at it from a different perspective, to look at it differently, like maybe read it backwards. When they read the title, "Loof Lirpa" backwards, they finally caught on!!
For the rest of the school, we told them at lunch time that we were going to go on a Loof Lirpa hunt. A Loof Lirpa is an exotic bird that has been spotted in the neighborhood. You can find them by using a carrot and calling out to them, "Loof, loof, ahh, loof, loof whee!" So the kids all ran around the yard calling out and trying to find a loof lirpa - but no luck!
After their hunt, we told them they all got to have brownies - so they all excitedly ran in to get their special treat. Some were rather disappointed to get brown E's!! Lol!! We had a fun day!
Since I am the guide for Eli's studio, I get to be involved in a lot of activities with him. This session we are doing a detective quest, and have had a lot of fun solving a crime (with a crime scene I set up for them), finding clues, doing fingerprinting, footprint analysis, etc. They have also been learning about writing clear instructions, and they got to test out other people's instructions to see what works well and what doesn't as far as instructions go. Lots of fun experiences!
This is our Spring Break week from school, so we decided to go on a road trip. I've always wanted to go to South Padre Island, so off we went - from Tuesday through Friday. This was a very quiet week, and the rooms were really cheap, so we got a really cool hotel right on the beach, and the best part was that it was called "La Copa Inn!" We didn't do a lot of activities - just hung out at the beach mostly. It was a very cloudy, cool week, but that didn't stop us from getting in the water, body surfing and boogie boarding. The boys loved playing in the sand as well. I liked jogging and walking along the beach. On a walk with Eli, once, we found a Man-of-War! It was so beautiful! We did go to a turtle rescue center and had fun seeing their turtles that were really friendly! The hotel provided a really yummy breakfast, and just outside the hotel was a smoothie cafe that had really yummy food we all loved! It was nice to get out, explore, and have some time off of school!
Cloudy, foggy weather...
