A Fall Garden

I guess it's time to say goodbye to summer.

A Picture Thought....

Botany Continued~

Year two and we are still

captivated with Botany.

There is so much to do!

We are using this amazing book for our journey and I wanted to share it~

Shanleya's Quest.

We read about a plant family, today we did the Mustard family, then she draws in her Botany notebook, (sort of a main lesson book)

about the plant.

here is a snipet from the book~

In a mythical world where time is a liquid that falls as rain upon the land, young Shanleya paddles her canoe out to the tree islands to learn the plant traditions of her people. Each island is home to a separate family of plants and an unforgettable Guardian with lessons to teach about the identification and uses of those plants. Shanleya's Quest is a truly unique educational book that presents botanical concepts and plant identification skills in an easy and fun metaphorical format for children as well as for adults who are young at heart. The book begins with a creation myth that parallels evolutionary concepts, where life begins as bubbles in a puddle of soup under the radiance of Father Sun and the gentle glow of Mother Moon. The evolutionary tree of life becomes a literal part of the story, buried up to its branch-tips (the "islands") in an ocean of Time that just keeps getting deeper and deeper. This is the world that Shanleya explores by canoe, learning the essential characteristics of closely related plants on each island she visits. Readers young and old can join Shanleya's Quest, learning the patterns to correctly identify more than 45,000 species of plants to their proper families.

Home Tour

Here is a photo of Sophia's performance at the Eureka Historical Society's Home Tour. She did a magnificent job.

Ok, here is the Albondigas soup, and the link for the recipe.

Muy Sabroso~

http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/000042albondigas_soup.php

CALACAS!

Well today I finally mixed up the icing for our sugar skull project.

Big day in the kitchen, I also whipped up some Albondigas, a traditional Mexican meatball soup. The sugar skulls are decorations for our

Dia De Los Muertos altar.

It was great fun, it is one of my favorite times of the year.

Our family really enjoys decorating our altar, and making it beautiful with fall flowers and candles. Of course it is a wonderful way to remember loved ones lost with photos and remembrances of their favorite things.

If you would like info on ordering the sugar skull molds you can visit http://www.mexicansugarskull.com/

Here are some photos, as well as the "official" definition from wikipedia.

The Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos in Spanish) is a holiday celebrated mainly in Mexico and by people of Mexican heritage (and others) living in the United States and Canada. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and relatives who have died. The celebration occurs on the 1st and 2nd of November, in connection with the Catholic holy days of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day which take place on those days. Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts. Observance of the holiday in Mexican-American communities in the United States has become more important and widespread as the community grows numerically and economically.
Scholars trace the origins of the modern holiday to indigenous observances dating back thousands of years, and to an Aztec festival dedicated to a goddess called Mictecacihuatl (known in English as "The Lady of the Dead").
Similar holidays are celebrated in many parts of the world; for example, it is a public holiday in Brazil, where many Brazilians celebrate by visiting cemeteries and churches. In Spain, there are festivals and parades, and at the end of the day, people gather at cemeteries and pray to their loved ones who have died. Similar observances occur elsewhere in Europe and in the Philippines, and similarly-themed celebrations appear in many Asian and African cultures.

Pumpkin Day

Friday we attended a wonderful field trip

to one of our local pumpkin patches.

It was a lovely day as always.

A beautiful Humboldt County fall day as you

can see in the background.

First Day of "School"

Here are some photos of our first day of school. There was a lot of anxiety leading up to the day, (I was not really ready for summer to end), but it really turned out to be a wonderful day. It was almost magical the way the praying mantis egg sac choose to erupt on that particular day for us. Nature Study in action. There must have been over 100 of them! The girls were enchanted.

The photo of Lucy's arm, and the little specks......, that is them~

Plugged Back In

Well I finally got around to buying a uploader for my camera. Wow, that was not that hard. So here are a couple of photos from our beautiful trip to Southern CA. We stayed with my dad, and had lots of beach/swimming fun, and went to see my mom in the desert, where it was like 110 degrees. The kids did not mind the heat a bit!

Fall Ramblings

Well, I have been going crazy around here trying to find the plug to my camera and upload photos, looks like all that organization I did in the summer went a little too far. Will look into securing a new one.

Lots to report around here, The school year went off with an explosion. That is how it felt to me anyway. Thrown back into the world of activity & enrichment classes.

Sophia will be participating in her first harp "Home Tour" where she will play 30 minutes this weekend!! We are all looking forward to that.

We just got back from a trip to San Francisco to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit a the SF Museum of Modern Art. It was an amazing exhibit, felt great to be close to her work again. The only negative, or was it a positive, were the crowds of people. A little challenging when you are trying to show the work to a 7 year old.

We spent the rest of that day perusing the Mission District for Dia de Los Muertos Goodies.