HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOONER

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOONER

Tanner turns 14 today and what a year it has been. School, sports, family, friends and critters, it has been a big year for Tanner. Last summer it was wrestling camp, baseball, 1 time to the lake (boats fixed now, so should be a few more times this year) paint balling and growing. The fall took us into school, football season and hunting season. Tanner was part of the JH Knowledge bowl team, a wide receiver/running back/corner on the football team and shot a couple of pheasant and a nice doe. Winter brings us to wrestling, where Tanner wrestled very well at 103 and 112. he had several wins at 103, but a very memorable wrestling match at 112 during sectionals against a sophomore from Sibley East, where Tanner was out sized, but not out wrestled. The amount of heart and determination Tanner showed had the whole gym screaming and after the upset win, had opposing coaches shaking his hand. Then there was the addition to the family for 6 months when Rodolfo Gonzalez came from Paraguay as part of a exchange program. The Holidays were a blast and Tanner received his new snowmobile helmet, which got plenty of use and a Sooner jersey which he has wore at least once a week since. Spring had gotten Tanner back outside on the baseball diamond and he also was elected class president for next years freshman class. During the spring awards night, Tanner received his 2nd varsity letter in wrestling and also lettered in baseball. For his birthday, Tanner asked for and received a new puppy, which he has named Pete. One can only imagine what Tanner and he new pal Pete will get into this year, but you can bet Tamara will capture some of it on the blog for you.

Good Morning!!!!!

This is what Logan says every morning. This morning his variation was "Say 'good morning' mama... Say 'good morn-ing'." while sitting 2 inches from my sleeping face. LOL! This morning I was tired. I have had a kick your butt week and weekend and I was just tired. So that little trick didn't work at 6:55am. So he came in with cats. First Bo, then Samson... and then he pushed Taio down the hall to 'seep' with us. Bo and Samson, being the kittens that they are, decided that chasing each other around the bed sounded better, but by 7:15 Bo was sleeping on one side of me, and Taio was on the other side of Don. Samson was nowhere in sight. When Logan realised that his cat trick had failed, he moved on to stomping as loudly as he could in Cyan's riding boots saying "Good Morning!!!!!" around our bedroom. When Don asked him to go out and shut the door he said "But I need pet kitty!" and dashed to pet Taio... who started purring and lifted his tail in delight... right in Don's face. lol! When Don was insistent about him leaving and shutting the door he said "I Iron Man!!!" and ran out, SLAMMING the door behind him.... only to come back maybe 3 minutes later with a stocking cap pulled down over his face, one glove, Cyan's riding boots still on his feet and a very large, plastic harmonica.

I am up now. See me up?

Kitten Education

The kittens have started climbing trees out back. Usually I would say to leave them alone and just let them, but I don't feel like getting a kitten out of a 100 ft oak tree, so my kids have been trying to give them practice in how to climb down:

I only let the kids put them up there twice, but the kitties were tired after that. Apparently, the kids put them up farther than they had gone by themselves before.

Tuckered out kitties:

So far the education is going well.

A running education...

We are done with the school year. Not necessarily done with the grade levels but done until at least we move. It is too stressful to try and pack away things and trying to stay organized for school. So I have given myself a bit of grace and said that we can do a couple weeks of school sometime this summer (...because we do. We don't actually stop... who actually STOPS homeschooling??? Once you are actually a homeschooler every piece of carrion on the side of the road is a possible unit study. No one just stops. You spend WAY too much of your time explaining things to get out of the habit for just three months a year.) So today, I told my kids that their 'school' assignment was to go outside and play in the cool, sunny weather while I organized the garage. And this is what my daughter came up with:

What happens to a leaf, stuck in a jar of water, flipped upside down. (Notice there is no lid on this jar... and it looked like this for the next 6 hours.)

What happens when you mix Insta-snow with floral sand. (I bet that would make the BEST sand castles ever!)

What happens when you try to grow a tomato plant upside down (hint: it's still growing up).

What happens when toddler baby brother decides to mangle the 'control' tomato plant. (I think this one is self explanatory...)

Here is her picture of Alice in Wonderland, which is the theme for her birthday party we are planning for July (Notice the card men paiting the roses red. We just finished the book last week.):

The beauty of homeschooling for me is that it can be a fluid education. A running conversation that happens between Marley and Me, the Hawk we saw dive for a catch on the side of the road, and the blessing of our garden by bringing beans in for dinner. You don't have to sit at the table to learn. You don't have to have the perfectly structured day to make sure they are learning the things they need to know. Sometimes the best 'educational jumps' they get come from happenstance watching the cat eat bugs and Bill Nye the Science Guy videos on the same day. The running tally of the things I HAVE to teach my kids gets shorter and shorter as I realise, all they really need to know is how to read and that learning is fun as all heck... and whatever they need to catch up with in between... well I am sure they will be alright.

Early Ed ~ Sand box

This box was intended for Cyan's handwriting skills lessons... and she used it... for a day. Then Logan got ahold of it and hasn't given it back since. When they sit and do their schoolwork at the table, he is right there, either drawing, or playing in the sand handwriting box I made out of a sheet protector box and a handful of floral sand.

He has been more and more interested in 'doing school' in the last few weeks. So much so that I have started to make a list of very early ed activities and I think I will add him into the homeschool schedule so he has his own time for 'writing' and doing his school work.

He is very intent on his work too... pulling all the sand to one side of the box here.

Right in with the big kids:

Happy Memorial Day Everyone!

We took the boat out to Madison Lake for the day. We enjoyed some fishing (no keepers we used Grandpa Elliott's rule). And the boys needed to try out some of our new tube toys. Yes, the water was a very cold 50* but that didn't stop anyone from getting in. Tanner & Rodolfo were the only ones who tipped the bowl. It was the foreigner's 1st time and didn't know which way to lean. But we all had a great time and made plans to head back out to the lake next Sunday. Hopefully the water will warm up a bit!

Grand time at the Grand Canyon

We took an impromptu trip to the Grand Canyon this past weekend. The kids got out of school, we had a long weekend...why not??? The kids had never been to see it.....we were reminded that it truly is one of the 7 wonders of the world!! Here are a few pics.



Believe it or not, it was quite nippy in this part of AZ at the end of May. We even got some rain.

You have NO idea what a feat it was to get Kevin to even step foot off the trail. He was so paranoid of falling:)

truly grand isn't it

Shay's practicing her camera skills.

The Hopi house. One of the historic buildings there.

A funny for Sunday

I found this image looking on Google Images for a wool felted alphabet of all things! lol!

I just thought it too funny not to share.

Oh the Elliott Boyz now have pigs E-I-E-I-O! The boys spent the weekend building a pig shed and putting up a fence. Side-pork & Tripod are all happy with their new home. We give names to all of our food here at the Elliott Ranch. The 3rd one, Pork Chop comes tomorrow. As soon as school is out they will also be getting some bottle calves from a dairy up the road from our house. If anyone is keeping track that is 1- foreigner,1-dog, 2 cats, 30 chickens and 3 pigs. No, Darin will not be getting the buffalo he has been talking about!

Impromptu picnic ala Cyan

Cyan decided we were going to have a picnic dinner today. She was completely convinced. So when she asked to make tea and sandwiches, I told her of course... thinking it would dwindle and the sandwiches would be eaten and tea forgotten minutes later. Oh no. I should know better with this girl by now.

This picnic basket is complete with mugs of hot tea covered with plastic bags. Fully 7 yr old style.

Of course, after all that work was put into it, how could I say no? So we headed out to the park and abandoned the regular menu for tonight, eating PB&J sandwiches, carrots and humus, Tim's potato chips, chocolate cookies, and hot tea.

She was pretty darned excited that she had made this all happen. We played for a while, put everything into the car, and took a nice long walk.


Cyan stepped in a puddle with no shoes on, she is not happy in this picture. Alex took the pic though and I thought it was a good one aside from the sad look Cyan has on.

And this picture is strait out of the camera. Can you believe his eyes? I just get lost in them.

Photo Friday

Bee Farm Tour

Today we went to the Trees N Bees farm. They sell Christmas trees in the winter and honey and related products in the summer. We got a guided tour of the place, along with a slide show of a bees live and how the bee keeper keeps safe and does her job.

I wish I could say that I was able to sit with my children and listen attentively.... but for Logan, today was an off day, so for much of the presentation I was outside with him, trying to help the others inside hear more than just his whining.

What I did hear though, was fascinating! A worker bee only makes 1 lg drop of honey in her lifetime? Did you know that? 1/10 of a TEASPOON. A queen bee can lay up to 2000 eggs A DAY. That is labor for you! The drones (boys) get kicked out of the hive in the winter and they all die. Wow. The whole trip was incredible...

This is my favorite picture from today. The bee up to the left has a HUGE load of pollen on his legs for the hive. It is the only shot I got of the bees actually getting pollen. So impressive!

Tonight we had the awards banquet at school and Tabor & Tanner received letter's in many activities. The High School Baseball season is now over and summer ball practice started today. Could summer be here already with two 95* degree days ?

Recycled Crayons and Testing Day

Today we had our yearly testing for homeschoolers in the state. I never make a big deal of it, because their scores really don't matter. In fact, we don't technically have to do it. But I like making the school system happy... the happier they are, the less you have to deal with them. ;) Anyhow, I don't make a big deal of testing at all. In fact, between the two kids tests, we decided to make recycled crayons for Logan out of crayons I found in the garage while decluttering for our move.

Cyan was the official peeler and breaker. With the help of a shovel (don't ask) she got all of them chopped into tiny pieces and ready to melt.

Then we set the oven to 175* and put them in it. We used tiny muffin tins I found at Goodwill for this project. We also use these for paint cups with tempera paint.

When you let these cool, they will start to pull away from the sides of the pan all by themselves. When they were completely cool I just turned the tin over and all but one fell out instantly. The other was a bit more stuck, so I stuck the tin in the freezer and it popped out in less than 20 minutes.

Logan was pretty thrilled and he and Cyan decided to color while Alex was taking his test. It was a great way to use the old crayons, and a fun activity to offset the drab testing day stuff.

Fathers & Sons FEAR FACTOR

This past weekend was our ward Fathers and Sons outing. My boys sure did come home with some fun stories. The ward put together a Father/Son Fear Factor game that was a HUGE hit. Here are some pics...I will try to explain the events as much as possible.

BECAUSE OF THE WAY I POSTED THE PICS...THE FIRST THREE ARE ACTUALLY THE LAST 3...SO SKIP TO # 1 -5 AND THEN COME BACK TO 6-8 FOR THE FULL EFFECT:)
#6-One member of each team had 1 minute to get out as many marbles from this icy water filled chest as they could. Derek was able to get out 27 with his talented toes...brrrrr

#7 This was the challenge that won Derek the respect/admiration of the whole ward. Steve had originally designated himself to do this challenge...it was to eat a small can of wet dog food. After one bite he couldn't do it and left to heave...thinking that their team would be disqualified. He began to hear people shouting for Derek and turned around to see that Derek (who can't eat his vegetables without heaving) had stepped up to the plate for the team and was shoveling in spoonfuls of the "so called" dog food. He would plug his nose, shovel it in, and then gag it down. This picture is in the midst of a full on heave! He completed the task! He later learned that it was really goose liver pate...I think dog food may have tasted better.

# 8 Here is the picture of the 2nd place team! The prize...a couple of really cool buck knives!!

#1 First event was to have 1 member from the team run a blind-folded race. The teams runner that was in last place would be eliminated from the game. Derek did this challenge and came in 3rd.

#2 This challenge was to clean out the inside of these dirty diapers. If you enlarge this pic you'll see how much Steve really got into this one.

#3 I still can't believe Steve did this! Derek is putting a live cricket into Steve's mouth. Steve then had to run 100 yards before he could spit it out. He complained that Derek smooshed some of the guts out as he put the cricket into his mouth. What a Dad!

#4 Each team was given 5 minutes to come up with a skit only using Duct tape a paper plate and string as props. Apparantly these guys had the best skit. They sang a sesame street song about letters...their assignment was to be hiccuping robots.

#5 One member of each team had to down this delicious bowl of 2 sardines and 3 oysters. Steve couldn't quite make it go down....but they weren't eliminated because one team wouldn't even attempt it.

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