The Traditional Fall Pics

It's that time of year again...time to take the annual fall pictures of the kids. I've been doing this for many years. It started out with punk one at 5 months old sitting in the front yard with some pumpkins. I continued that tradition for the next 3 years. Then punk two came along and I did the same thing with her. Unfortunately I did not continue this tradition due to the fact that when punk two's second year rolled around I was pregnant with punk three and well, the tradition fell to the wayside.

Anyhoo, here's first born's first 3 years of fall pics. It's true, she was 5 months old in the first picture and sitting up very well. The character was walking at 9 months.


Here she is at 190 months, or 15 years and 5 months if you're getting technical and she still sits up and walks pretty well.


Poor second born, I only have one fall picture of her. Actually I believe I have more, but unlike first born who has a baby book completed through her first 4 years, second born's are in a box somewhere. Sheesh, I'm a second born and I vowed I'd never repeat the photographic black holes of my parents. Ah, history repeats itself.


Here's second born at 152 months, or 12 years and 8 months. She doesn't look too psychologically damaged by the shortage of completed baby book pages.


And then came the surprise, the third born and a boy at that. A wonderful surprise to be sure, but a price is paid with even less completed baby book pictures. Frankly, (I realize that may not be your name, but bear with me) I don't believe I ever even took a picture of third born sitting in the front yard with pumpkins. Hopefully third born will overlook this act of negligence and appreciate the fact that I have taken approximately a bazillion pictures of him playing soccer.

He's a nut, a ham really and the combination of the two is why we sometimes call him "Hammy". That and the fact that he does a fantastic imitation of Hammy the squirrel in "Over the Hedge".


I love my punks at all stages of their lives, but I miss those days of littleness; the smell of baby shampoo in their hair, fuzzy sleepers, snuggling them on my lap, bedtime stories, kissing boo-boos, and 7:30 bedtime. And of all the fall pictures that have been taken over the past few years, this one is my all time favorite.


Excuse me while I go get a tissue.


STOP THE PRESSES!

Whilst writing this blog entry the girls got the picture bug and began sorting through old pictures and thank the Lord, I have been redeemed. Here are fall photos from third born's first two years of life. Of course, he's with his sisters, but hey, it's better than nothing.

The Farside of the Apple Orchard

Do you remember when you were a kid, or maybe last week, how you'd sneak silly notes on the back of your unsuspecting friends, or perhaps and more likely, your enemies? Notes that said things like, "Kick me", or "Punch me" or "Stay away from me...I'm a total psycho and just a thread away from completely losing it"? Well yesterday the punks and I were meeting up with another home school family and we were all going out to the nearby apple orchard where we could frolic and play and discover the wonders of the apple orchard world. Upon exiting the car, I noticed something unusual on the back of punk #2. I asked her to come over and turn around so I could see what it was. When she turned around there was a little sticky note attached to her sweatshirt and this is what it said:



I immediately burst out laughing. Knowing it was punk #3's writing and also noticing that he had a very guilty look on his face, I asked him where he had the idea to write that particular statement. His reply, "From a Farside comic book." That made sense. Punk #3 has a unique sense of humor and totally gets the Farside. I love him for that.


Now on to the rest of the story. Here is the infamous apple orchard not far from our little town.


Hmmm...Bakery or Apple Barn, which should we choose first? Why the bakery, of course.


Any good country store and bakery will have a deliciously inviting sucker tree.


And of course, any good country store/bakery will also have silly photo ops. This is my friend Linda sneaking into punk #2's picture.


Poor punk #2 is trying so hard to be serious but those other two characters just keep goofing off.


The girls look so cute and then there's the silly "farside" brother trying to imitate the spooky "scream" guy.


These animals decided to sit down to a game of chess before tackling the daunting task of choosing their donut.


This cutie is Gillian, or Gilly-Bean as she has become known to those who love her. She's scoping out the donuts and is particularly torn between the sprinkled kind and well, the sprinkled kind.


Some serious donut eating and discussion going on here.


No apple orchard visit is complete without a stop to pet the farm animals and get all germie.




Always a race to the top with these two.




You knew there'd be a picture of a kid eating an apple on our apple orchard field trip.


And no fall field trip would be complete without the token pumpkin picture.


And to top it all off, the ride home included a stop at the local ice cream shop for the flavor of the week...peanut butter. What more could a kid ask for?

Somewhere a dog barks in a pumpkin patch.....

Schoolin' at Home

Have you ever been totally blindsided? Of course you have, and just recently, I have too. I've been blindsided by how totally awesome educating the punks at home has been. Who-da thunk? Well, all of you who already home school your kids for sure. You already know what I have just figured out. Home schooling is pretty cool. For starters, we aren't nearly as grouchy in the morning because at 7:05 a.m. when the bus rumbles past our house, we're all still in bed. I've heard it on many occasions and, although just last spring that sound brought about wailing and gnashing of teeth, now it is a most glorious sound indeed. On these brisk fall mornings when my bedroom window is cracked and the cool fall air is seeping in, I listen for the rumbling of that bus and when I hear it, I smile and hunker down further beneath my blankets and thank God for the blessing of home schooling.

The punks are enjoying the freedom of their new schedule, but they are also thriving in their new learning environment. Light bulbs are going on daily in boy wonder's head as we work through math. I am amazed at how quickly he is catching on and excelling. Girl #2 has always excelled in math, well in any subject, and is learning new ways of doing math that makes much more sense than some of the "new" math with all of it's lengthy lattice work. And the oldest girl is totally blooming in her new soil, where she determines her own schedule and tackles the work all on her own. She has discovered that she actually likes learning AND can be self-motivated. Who are these children?!

So here's what education at home looks like in the Chili house. First a good breakfast...and why not? We actually have time for it! We made crepes with fresh picked raspberries and of course, chocolate chips.


Next, boy wonder and mom begin with math which takes about 1 1/2 hours. We begin together, then he does the problems on his own and I check them later.


Boys need breaks and well, guns I guess.


Boy punk decided to use his homemade blow-nerfgun to take out a bothersome moth. Bullseye!


Here's punk #2 working on her Early American History assignment which was to write an essay on a topic of her choice. She chose to write about the history of the Star Spangled Banner. Both the younger two were required to write an essay and boy punk asked if they could also make a poster...did you get that? He asked for more work. So they are both also making a poster to go along with the essay. Way cool.


Here's punk #1 in her room where she spends about 4 hours each day working through assignments given through the local home school co-op. The best part is, she has the freedom to make her schedule and she has decided that 10a.m.-3:00p.m. suits her just fine.


And there you have it. A day in the life. Two weeks in and so far so good.

Somewhere a dog barks.....at a bus rumbling down the road at an unforgivably early hour.

Raspberry Pickin'

The big news of the day is that the two younger punks and I went raspberry pickin' this afternoon. It was a great day for it and there were many berries to be had. There were a few bees, but they weren't interested in us and we were certainly not interested in them so we all got along just fine. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take my camera on our little excursion so I won't bore you with the details...or maybe I will, but since it's my blog I'll keep writing and you can just stop reading if you want.

Probably the highlight for me was listening to boy punk shout out phrases like, "Woah, I hit the jackpot here!" or "Oh man, I just found the motherlode!" I must admit he surprised me with his enthusiasm. Girl punk was a bit sheepish due to the high volume of bees, but eventually she jumped in and we picked a total of 7 quarts.

The other highlight took place as we loaded the berries into the truck. That very morning boy punk was studying multiplication story problems. So I asked him how we would calculate the cost of 7 quarts of berries at $2.50 a quart. Sure enough, he knew how to find the answer and as he began to figure it out, big sister chimed in about how she would just multiply 7x2 to get 14 and then multiply 7x.50 to get 3.50 and then add 3.50 and 14 to get 17.50. And somehow that took her all of about 3 seconds. Show off.

So here's the only picture I took of our "berry" fun day.

A New Way to Do School

(This post was actually written a week ago, but for some reason beyond my control...well not beyond my control, it was totally my fault...I neglected to post it.)

Last week we officially began our home education program...sounds official doesn't it? We had a head start in science,what with the whole monarch menagerie and all; it really was quite educational. Although I must admit that I was more into the whole thing than the kids were. Don't get me wrong, they enjoyed it. The truth is, I am a lover of all things nature-like and of course, then there's the whole St. Jansis side of me...don't even get me started. Some of you know all about the baby duck rescue of 2009. Anywho, where was I? Oh right, the kids and school.

We eased into the first week by tackling math the first morning and then heading up to Lansing with our home educating sidekicks, the Barclay's. First we visited Lansing Gift and Bible where we looked over some curriculum and used books. Well, I looked it over while the boys educated themselves on the intricacies of sandtable games.



Next we visited the local farmer's market where we sampled the largest corn-on-the-cob ever grown...not really. We went to Hobby Lobby where they had these ridiculously large fake corn-on-the-cob decorations. Seriously, why would someone buy such a thing?


The Hobby Lobby can be dangerous, so watch your back.


Craftiness is her middle name.


No fieldtrip is complete without a stop at Cold Stone Creamery.


Jayme is doing her imitation of a squirrel eating ice cream and Jodie is just putting up with all of us.


Next we went to Preuss Pets. They have some very cool fish and reptiles.


"When life gets ya down, you know what you've gotta do? Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."










Pretty sure this little guy was a bit nervous in a pet shop filled with snakes.






Tarantula...not poisonous...who knew? You did? Well, don't be a know-it-all.




Overall it was a good first day of school....very different than what we're used to, but I think we could get used to this.

Somewhere a dog barked....probably ours 'cuz we were gone awhile and she needed to be let out.

The Finale

Just a few quick shots that tell the tales of our last 3 butterflies. First we'll begin with the release of Amarilla.

We took Amarilla to my folks house so she could begin her life in the real world on a beautiful, yet tasty, butterfly bush.








Looks like she may already have a friend.


My mom kept an eye on Amarilla for the rest of the day. The next morning I got a call from mom saying that she didn't think Amarilla was doing very well. She wasn't fluttering around the bush like other butterflies and had even fallen to the ground the day before. Mom put her back on the bush, but she hadn't moved at all and was just staying on a branch and not eating. So I came over with some honey water. She ate a bunch, but I decided to take her back home since it was going to be a cold and rainy day. I've watched her all day and I think she's doing much better.

Now on to the rest of the story. Two more butterflies emerged today and the poor things haven't had much attention...3rd and 4th kids really get the short end of the stick. I did witness the arrival of the final butterfly. Here's the pics.





As you look at these pictures, notice how the wings change. It's totally amazing how they are so wrinkled and small, but within a few minutes they unfold and straighten out.






Miraculous doesn't even begin to describe it!


I thought you might be interested in the crazy butterfly house we've created. As caterpillars, they started out in an aquarium that we had in the garage...left over from an attempt to raise hermit crabs. The hermit crabs didn't last, but thank goodness the aquarium did. Once the butterflies arrived we needed room for them to stretch their wings...how often can you use that phrase and mean it literally? So Jayme and Chase took apart their homemade nerf blowguns that they had made from pvc piping. We taped the piping to the 4 corners of the aquarium. I had some tulle tucked away from a previous project, so we just draped it over the posts. Wah-lah...butterfly house. They seem to enjoy it. I brought some flowers from mom's butterfly bush for them to eat. They love it!