Alex’s Research Paper

Alligator Snapping Turtles are mostly found in muddy waters. They like to eat fish and small animals. They have unique skills for hunting and can hide in the mud from predators. They have a very powerful jaw, almost the most powerful in the world.

Muddy water is the perfect habitat for the Alligator Snapping Turtle. The muddy water keeps them cool. Also, it hides them from prey and predators. Their shell looks like the bottom of the river, because it is lumpy and brown. That makes the mud great camouflage.

Small fish are the prey of the Alligator Snappers. They hide in the mud on the bottom of the freshwater rivers and wiggle their tongue, which looks like an earthworm. Then they snap down their magnificent jaws, which are the second strongest in the world, second only to the Tasmanian devil. The turtles use their claws to slash the prey they catch into small pieces for eating. It uses its beak like a spear to stab the prey.

After eggs are laid, Snapping Turtle babies are on their own. The mother turtle trudges 160 yards from the river to the nest to lay her eggs. In 80-90 days the babies come out of their eggs to face the dangers of the 160 yards to the river. Birds, big fish, alligators and other predators are likely to eat the hatchlings on their way. In fact, only 1 in 20 hatchlings live to their second year.

There is only one predator of an adult Snapper, humans. We eat them and use their shells in exotic animal trade. The hatchlings are defenseless and have many predators. This is why only 1/20 of the hatchlings live.

Alligator Snapping Turtles have excellent camouflage. They also have great jaw strength. They are protected in specific ways. Their jaw, claws, and shell make them difficult prey. Their habitat, the muddy water, makes them hard to see and capture. Those are some of the many reasons Alligator Snapping Turtles are so awesome.

Some updates

Alex:
We have taken this last week to truly write a research paper. He chose Alligator Snapping Turtles as his subject. We have gone through the whole process... choosing a topic, research, breaking down your subjects into topics, limited topics, and topic sentences, how to build a research paper, correct grammer, and even a bit on sentence structure. We have not done anything else for a week. But honestly, it has been a great experience. At first it kind of felt like pulling teeth, but now that he is nearly done, he is very proud of his work, and his paper isn't half bad. :) I am pretty darn proud of him about it actually. Alligator Snapping Turtles are interesting critters... look them up. They are super cool.

Cyan:
She started dance last weekend. She is thrilled to be doing dance finally after 8 months of asking me for it. She has been practicing her dance moves for the last two days bouncing around the greatroom with her ballet outfit on. It is adorable and I am so glad to be able to do that with/for her.

She also finished her 20 books this last week. We had been filling out a chart that started back in mid Oct. Every time she read a book (no matter how simple) she would get a sticker on her chart. Well she made it to 20 books and her prize was her very own library card and a banana split. I am oh so proud of her! 20 books since Oct 19th. It was quite the celebration. She was bouncing around the library, making no noise, just positively vibrating with excitement. It was adorable. :)

"Oh honey, your eyes are so pretty" says the librarian as she is filling out paperwork.

"Thank you." says Cyan, "I've had them since I was a baby."

Logan:
He is talking up a storm. People don't believe me now when I say that he is 'almost' two. Cyan's dance teacher talked with him for a few minutes and then asked when he would turn three for the "itty bitty creative movements" class and I said "next Jan 22nd." She laughed. Thought I was joking. lol! He is a big guy. I am guessing he is over 30lbs now and tall as I knew he would be. (I am 6ft... I don't spawn small children. ;) ) His new language is a mix of signs, words, and sound effects.

Logan also has some interesting ideas about the world in his new found language skills. Anything that is his favorite is 'blue'. Not sure where he got that except that his favorite binkies are blue and we have called them 'blue binky' since he started talking. So now everything he loves is 'blue'. If you have three match box airplanes on the counter and try to hand him one, he will say 'No! Da blue one.'... even though they are red, grey, and black. But one of them is the 'blue' one... which is the right one to hand him. lol... It has been interesting... Luckily, he has such good comunication skills that it isn't terribly hard to talk him down if you really don't understand what he is asking. Usually I just pick him up and let him pick the 'blue' ones himself.

Overall:
All the kids are starting to get a bit stir crazy. Me too. The winter is dark and depressing. At least we have some space in this house. That has been great! Honestly... the space in this house is so nice. Cyan can do her dance moves in the greatroom without hurting anything... Alex can have space for his lego creations without Logan getting into them all the time, and there has been no time yet that Logan and I have not been able to find a quiet corner to read his 'blue' books. When I think of how it could have been in the tiny house, I am grateful for this house more than you know.

Logan's birthday invities!!

Can you believe it? Logan is going to be two years old in two weeks.

You pull the ribbon to open it and here is where the information for the party will be. Cute huh?

What we've been up to...

trying to hit this
with this...amazingly Kevin did the best
hanging out with these guys
learning some new tricks
Bid D's 11th birthday!!!
opening much anticipated presents....
yes, he actually asked for an exercise ball
the loot
the poser
We've been having fun and making memories!!
Hope you have to!

We celebrated 2009 on Lake Sheitke ice fishing with Grandpa and Uncle Paul and our cousins. We had to test out Grandpa's new underwater camera. Dad missed a big one but later on Keagan got it. Mom and our Gramin (GPS) "Samantha" freaked out driving on the lake.

Khloe is not ready yet for the Elliott "test" and lets just say Auntie Cherrie isn't ready for it either. But the DeSmet boyz all lived it so can this big baby girl!

Anne of Green Gables tea party

Cyan invited her friend Hannah over for a tea party the other day. Cyan wanted to be just like Anne in Anne of Green Gables so she decided that we needed to get 'raspberry cordial'. I found this beautiful little crystal carafe at Goodwill for $1.99 that worked perfectly to hold her 'cordial'.

The girls ate the chocolate/cherry cupcakes that Cyan made the night before, with raspberry cordial (organic Razlberry juice) and had veggies and dip while watching the movie "Enchanted" (a gift from Grandpa and Margret for Christmas).

Even the dolls had a wonderful time. :)

I think someone needs to tell Logan that the paper comes off the cupcakes. lol...