Saturday, October 31, 2015

Fall 2015 Violin Recital


Changes to program - 
Jessica performed after the group violin songs.
Jacob was determined to perform and got his chance right after Graham's solo.

I am a Child of God

Jingle Bells


Blast Off

Oink Oink

A Screaming Good Parade

Jessica 

McKay

Will

Bella

Eva

Tess

Byrnn

Scotty

Graham

Jacob

Graham and Scotty

Award Ceremony

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Presentation Night!

Of course we had to blast off our space exploration adventure (Midnight on the Moon) with a rocket launch!! Super fun! Thanks to Uncle Lee for launching this idea! We were so excited that Papa and Mimi and Amy and Jonny came down to visit and be our audience!










Theme Song

Group Violin- beware of bloopers...all over the place. Will and Bella, our comic relief!
Violin Solos

Piano Solos

Planet Presentations and Awards









We loved these painted balloon planets! Notice that the rocky planets are small and filled with flour, whereas the gas planets are inflated...hah! The kids did great on this project. They each painted the planets corresponding to their projects and I think they turned out pretty cool!! (I admit, I did the land formations on Earth, but Bella did the clouds!) to celebrate, we ate Planet Pies and arepas with pulled pork! Mmmmm!!
Blue Jello and green sugar cookie Earth! We later put on some whipped cream clouds. Pretty good if I say so myself!

Estee's masterpiece! Jupiter had an alien spaceship arrive before I could take this picture.
Arepas! They look like moons, right? Steve made these! Sooo good. Okay, so I was busy eating and forgot to take pics, but this is what they looked like! The picture below was what they looked like with the pork...mmmm!
And this is what they looked like when Papa made them 😉 hahaha! It was good pork!

Friday, October 23, 2015

Grandpa Lovin'

When these girl weren't presenting, they were on Grandpa Ragsdale's lap!




Wednesday, October 14, 2015

A few more ice picks ;)

Yes I totally intended that pun in the title. 


Scotty seems a little too happy with a knife in his hands...boys. 
This is also evidence that we at least started this activity indoors and fully clothed. 


Oh my. Wills eyebrows just get me! 


First extracted shell! 


Second shell! 


Inside and shirts abandoned...much better. We also drizzled ice with salt and food coloring for a fun effect. 



Wills poor octopus lost a limb during excavation. 



Thanks to uncle Steve for this awesome activity!!

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Sunset of the Sabertooth and Recital Prep!

Our Adventurous Bike Brigade!






These past two weeks we've been studying along the theme of Magic Tree House book #7, "Sunset of the Sabertooth," the Ice Age. We've also been preparing for our upcoming Ragsdale Adventure Days Presentation Night (Oct 23) and violin recital (Oct 31)! Here are my lovelies getting ready to bow and do "Monster's Midnight March" (Faber) in honor of woolly mammoths and sabertooth tigers!
We started off with a little Ice Dig for sea shells and a hidden creature "fossilized" inside...thanks Steve for preparing this for the kids! 
We turned on "Frozen Heart" from Frozen and they loved it!


It took a while to get those first shells!
Yes, they got really into this!
We added some food coloring and then realized this was going to get messy, so we took it outside. In true caveman fashion, the children stripped down to their loincloths. Or pants.
Jacob had a different method of melting the ice...
Graham was very focused on getting his turtle out! At this point, even though Eva's creature was still well-lodged in there, she asked me, "when can we do this again?" I think it was a hit.
Finally everyone freed their creatures! Then there was all of this ice-cold water sitting in bowls that ended up splashed on hot, sweaty, children...and a lot of squealing...muahahaha!


Our next Adventure Day, we got together to read, practice violin...
...and then we went on a bike ride adventure! This park nearby was recently paved, so we had to try it out on our bikes! We then found a secluded spot on a dirt trail where we sat down and read our Magic Treehouse book, "Sunset of the Sabertooth." The kids loved that, especially since we were sitting in front of a sign that said "Dangerous- Do Not Cross" because of some steep drop-offs in the dirt trail which they called "cliffs." Days later, they were still talking about how Bella fell down a cliff and scraped her knee. That was an embellishment. 
I love Eva's smile, and Jacob's look is hilarious- "oh, yeah, I'm a big kid."

And here are the boys practicing!! They've already gotten better just a week later- so COOL! (Heh, heh...Ice Age)
Our next Adventure Day we read, practiced, played and painted Cave Art on rocks that we picked up on our previous bike adventure in the woods. 
I don't know who took this picture, but I thought it was fitting with all of the preparing and practicing we've been doing!
Then Graham made himself a cool Ice Age T-shirt! It has different Ice Age animals all over it- pretty COOL! 
And...our finished products of our Cave Art rock paintings! Jacob only wanted to throw his, so his is currently unavailable. Eva did her flower all by herself! Bella's is a Litoptern under the moon, apparently (I didn't know this existed until she pointed it out in the Ice Age Tracker's book we got from the library). Graham did a Woolly Rhino and a horse, Will did a Woolly Rhino and Scotty did a Woolly Mammoth. I had fun carving into some of the rocks to give some outlines. I'd say these look pretty authentic. Eva is also starting to get a little self-conscious of her smile (lost teeth and wiggly ones)...
...so here's a pretty smile from Eva!