Thursday, October 24th - Passport Club: Russia! and Karate Belt Testing

After a night of virtually no sleep thanks to a very unhappy and uncomfortable baby, and a middle-of-the-night bed visitor named Lincoln, it was time to delve deep into my rapidly depleting energy reserves and host our Passport Club: Russia gathering!  It went really, really well and I was impressed with how attentive the kids were and how willingly (okay, minor bribery was involved...) they sampled the Russian snacks I provided.  Everyone did a very good job on their presentations as well and enjoyed the Russian children's game we played outdoors after lunch.  Another successful Passport Club in the books!  To finish the full day off, the kids had belt testing at karate in the evening and now we have three Orange Belts!  Congratulations you guys!!

Sometimes he wakes us up, pillow and blanket in hand, other times I simply wake up to find him already wedged between us. 

The baby was up from about 11:30 p.m to 9:20 a.m. - fun times!  I just stuck her in my wrap and got busy laying everything out for arrival.  To start,  I had coloring sheets and cups of crayons for the kids to design their own matryoshka dolls (otherwise known as Russian Nesting Dolls).

I had a "little kids" table set up for the smaller kids (Lincoln, Judd, Charlotte).

My Russia board, with presentations, craft supplies and the little set of nesting dolls the kids had painted the day before.

Friends began arriving and coloring.

I presented on the Russia Board, and I feel the kids did their best job yet of listening!  It's really neat to see their growth, month-to-month, with listening, presenting, and Q&A skills.  Afterward, it was snack time - I decided to do Russian food at snack time and simply provide pizza for lunch.  This worked out well, and the kids were pretty brave in trying the various foods, including caviar!

Judd and Lincoln both tried the caviar and both summarily spat it back onto their plates, lol.

There were also strawberry-filled blintzes, chunks of karavai bread, special chocolate treats, Russian pear soda and more. 

I'd had a difficult time choosing a craft because there were just so many options!  As I scoured Hobby Lobby one afternoon I came across these paper mache eggs and thought it would be really fun for the kids to create their own faberge egg masterpieces.  They turned out well - the kids painted the eggs, then let them dry during presentation time and went back later to finish them with jewel stickers.

Kids (and moms) seated for presentation time - they were actually seated facing the sofa, but turned around for Lincoln's presentation which utilized the TV for pictures (because daddy helped, and he's fancy like that~).

The moms had taken turns holding Waverly for me during most of the goings-on, and I was finally able to take her back in hand for presentation time.  Because I think it's fun and the kids always like it, I always try to dress natively for whatever country I'm hosting.  Bright and flowery dress for Brazil, borrowed a sari for India and this time I wore a long, flowing white skirt, black peasant blouse and a black & white platok on my head.  Waverly thought this was most unusual ;-)  The girls also dressed Russian-peasant-girl-esque with long flowing skirts and loose tops.

Lincoln presenting on Snow Leopards and AK-47s (because awesomeness).

LOTS of questions from the audience, haha.

Victoria did a great job presenting on the Karakurt Spider, and didn't even giggle one time on the last portion; it noted the rare bite side effect of spontaneous dancing that has been recorded throughout history.  Earlier in the week, she would bust out laughing every time she tried to say it! hehe

Scarlett also did very well, nailing all of the difficult Russian names!

Snagged a shot of the picnic lunch we had in the living room, although I don't know what prompted the Very Serious faces :-o

The cats had quite the gourmet lunch as we bequeathed the caviar and sprats to them.

After a fun game of Karavai Bread in the front yard, the gathering was officially over, but our friends stayed to play out back for quite a while which was the perfect way to unwind.  N decided to make herself into a faberge egg, which I thought was hilarious and creative :-)

Our friend Julia loves Salty... this is amazing because she used to be terrified of dogs - especially Salty! Now they're best buds and he sticks to her side like glue when she's over for a visit :-)

Ms. Amanda succeeded in taming the no-sleeping-baby and had her snoozing quite nicely.  It only lasted for an hour but it was still a welcome break for my tired arms!

When everyone left, I had the chance to take a couple of pictures, both of Victoria's work (since it was all I could find).  Here is her colorful matryoshka doll page!

And her designer faberge egg :-)

After demonstrating their skill and knowledge, the kids were awarded their orange belts.  First, Victoria~

Then Lincoln~

Finally, Scarlett~

Terrific! :-)  So proud for them of their accomplishment.

Monday, October 21st

Monday was a relaxed-paced day, with school and karate but otherwise lots of time for the important stuff (for kids) - playing!

Scarlett woke up and right away went to get her notebook and sketched out a design for a fort and how everything would be set up on the interior.  I helped her move chairs out from the dining room to behind the sofa and she worked on making her drawing a reality!

Meanwhile, Lincoln and Victoria were playing some sort of store game in the playroom - Victoria had swindled a couple of handfuls of change from Grammie and had a sack she carried it around in all day.

When it was finally time to get around to school, the kids did Bible, practiced reciting their memory verses, had individual math and reading, and of course we had tea & story time!  One of their favorite school-related activities for the day was in our History time - we had already discussed the development of written language, and now they were going to try their hand at writing in both hieroglyphics and cuneiform.

First I had them roll out modeling clay - they thought it was way tougher to do than play dough and I had to help a bit.  They were already seeing that this was not as easy as they'd assumed!  Then they used a worksheet from the Story of the World book and tried to write their translated name in hieroglyphs.

It's hard to see!  Scarlett did pretty well not tearing her clay and making the symbols as clearly as she could - Victoria did well, too and Lincoln ended up just carving his up into many pieces ;-)

We rolled his pieces back up and tried again and he was pretty pleased with himself once he'd copied the a few of the symbols.

Next I had my home made scrolls (three pieces of computer paper taped together with a wooden dowel at each end - fancy!) and they worked together to copy a message down in cuneiform.

Our two stories for the day - "Cranberry Thanksgiving" which was a huge, huge hit and we read it twice, and "Always Room for One More."  This book is done with Scottish vocabulary thrown in and Scarlett really enjoyed it, although it didn't hold Lincoln's attention at all.  Victoria listened politely but I could tell she wasn't feeling it either!  I'm sure my amazing take on a Scottish accent (always end up sounding Indian + low-class British) didn't help the story along! lol

Wednesday, October 16th

Wednesday was an ordinary school, library and karate day... with the exception of a feline visitor setting up shop in our house!  A sweet kitten, probably 5 or 6 months old, followed Grammie on her usual morning walk.  At first she assumed it was Pixie, who often accompanies her on walks because she doesn't realize she's a cat and not a dog ;-p  However, she eventually realized it was too small but by then the cat was traipsing after her in earnest, following her all the way back home.  When she picked it up it seemed, if not completely malnourished, as though it had definitely missed a few meals.  So she brought it inside onto the back porch to give it some food (it ate almost two full cups of cat food over the course of the day - that is an incredible amount for a kitten!) and as soon as Scarlett saw it, she was in full cat-care mode.  The kids begged and begged if we could keep it, and I told them it was welcome to stay... this was careful wording, as I realized there was a very excellent chance that it would simply let itself out of the back screened-in porch door and take off.  I also told them they'd need to talk with Jim about it.

The funny thing is that the kids play imagination games all of the time and Jim has become very accustomed to just rolling with whatever bizarre scenario they throw his way on his comings and goings ("I'm an orphan with no family because they died in the war...Can I live here now?" or "This is a baby tiger with no mama, so we have to tend to it," etc.).  So as they walked past with a black cat in tow and Scarlett and Victoria rapidly said, "Hey daddy, this is our new cat. Isn't it cute? It's lost and needs a home and we're going to take care of it and it will live with us," Jim smiled and nodded and said, "Uh-huh, okay."  He never gave it another thought because he thought they were holding Pixie and just playing make believe.  However, the kids took this as a binding verbal agreement. LOL

Two black cats!  They're nearly identical upon first glance, although the new kitten "Cupcake Sprinkle Moonlight Wright" is a good 30% smaller than Pixie and has orange eyes where Pixie has yellow/green eyes.  Cucpake's fur is also much softer and sleeker.

The kids flew through their schoolwork in order to get back to taking care of Cupcake and monitoring her every movement to ensure she wouldn't leave ;-)  Fortunately the cat has taken right to life here at the Wright Menagerie, uses the litter box like a pro and eats like a trucker. It pretty much thinks it owns the place.  We did get our new stack of library books for the week that we'll be working through:

"And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street"

"Very Last First Time"

"The Storm"

"Always Room for One More"

"Andy and the Lion"

"Cranberry Thanksgiving"

"Katy and the Big Snow"

"The Church Mouse"

"How to Make an Apple Pie"

I had put out a request to friends via Facebook, asking for reading recommendations and received a ton of great lists, personal favorites and other resource ideas.  It was great!  We'll enjoy working through all of the terrific titles :-)

Monday, October 14th

We had a full day of school, play and karate on Monday~

Nana correctly labeled Waverly as "a quiet storm" from the time she was one month old.  She was so sweet (still is!) and snuggly, but there were glimpses here and there that if only she had the physical prowess she would be busy.  Sure enough, over the past few weeks she has really come into her own and is a bundle of bouncing, rolling, grabbing, talking energy!  With all of her new achievements has also come a desire not to miss out on anything... translated: she fights sleep.  Now, she doesn't yell about it often the way Scarlett did as a baby, but she uses every trick in her baby book to force herself to stay awake.  When she finally succumbs to the fatigue, she looks almost resentful, haha :-)

Working on our history, we read a chapter on how the written language of the ancients came into existence.  It was very interesting and the kids had lots of theories, hypotheses and comments on how and why people would want/need to write things down.  

The kids highlighted Mesopotamia on their maps and colored a picture of an ancient Egyptian carving hieroglyphics onto a stone tablet (Victoria on top, Scarlett in the middle, Lincoln on the bottom - interestingly, they all colored "dust" onto their guy without discussing it; I thought it was a great detail).

Victoria had one page to complete in her handwriting book, however she asked if she could do as many pages as she wanted since she was really enjoying it and I think she probably did close to seven pages.  It doesn't happen often, but I love those rare instances when they get into a groove and can take the opportunity to do extra in whatever subject they're on.

During tea & story time, I read three of the stories in this book "Favorite Fairy Tales Told in Russia."  The kids loved "Vasilisa the Beautiful," and were quick to point out all of the other fairy tale elements that they are familiar with that the story contains.  There are bits of Cinderella, Hansel & Gretel, Rapunzel, etc.  Later when we were having one-on-one school time, Scarlett brought over this book and asked me to read the rest of the stories (2) to her.

During the kids rest time, Waverly was relishing a bottle and striking her cute pose that I love - it's half "I won't fall asleep if I hold my arm straight up" and half "it feels so good to reach over and fiddle with the burp cloth."  So adorable!

The kids were working extra hard at karate in the evening.  They were really hoping to be invited to test for their next belt.  Victoria was lined up, reading to do a side kick...

Perfect!

At the end of class, the teacher takes 5-10 minutes and goes through any homework, crafts, etc. that the kids have brought in to discuss with him/her.  I love this part - not only is it great for the kids to be able to articulate their school work to another adult outside of the family, but often they will work with extra diligence on karate day when they know their teacher will be reviewing it ;-)  Here it was Scarlett's turn.  If the work is good, they receive a Good Job ticket - every 5 tickets, they earn a special blue star to place on their class patch located on the front of their uniform.

Scarlett is very much a leader/organizer personality, but she is also a rules follower.  I understand - I was very similar as a young child in this capacity.  If there were rules given by an authority figure, then you followed them... end of story.  I was often frustrated by same-aged peers who wouldn't just do what they were told in class.  Wouldn't we all just have more fun if we followed the rules?? lol  So whenever there are kids in her karate class who don't do as they're instructed in karate, they earn the Scarlett Death Glare.  I really think she believes she can stare them into obedience.  During teacher review time at the end, this new little boy in the class just would not sit in his spot (which as that moment was actually in a time-out area reserved for those misbehaving while working out).  He was up in her face trying to get a reaction.

She staunchly refused to move a muscle or look at him in any way until he went away.  Then she turned and gave him the epic glare!  hahaha

Wednesday, October 9th

For some reason, the kids are always after me to let them switch up their bed arrangements.  I agreed that they could swap beds occasionally, and that is always fun for them, however Wednesday morning first thing Scarlett and Victoria asked me if they could set up their blankets and pillows on the floor and sleep on the floor. Um... okay?  I really wanted to say No, but I couldn't actually think of a good reason, haha.  So in the end, they spent over an hour setting everything up before we started our school day.  We had tea & story time, map work and folk tales on Russia, plus one-on-one time for math and reading.  In the afternoon, Jim took took the kids to karate and then out for a special surprise afterward - to Hobby Lobby to pick out a new Boo!  However, only Scarlett actually picked a Boo - the other two opted for different items at the same price point.  A fun day!

Waverly barely slept at all on Tuesday night - we have no idea why!  She was sweet as could be all through the night, but would only sleep in 30-45 minute bursts and then be up-up-up.  Naturally, she was a little crankier than her usual joyful self come Wednesday morning.  The girls offered to play with her in their room for a while as they set up their floor area for sleeping.

For tea & story time we read "The Lonely Scarecrow" and "Ox-Cart Man."

Working on locating and highlighting Russia on the globe-style map. 

Scarlett's map~

I read them snippets from the book "Food in Russia," which is actually quite outdated in it's terminology.  The kids really loved the story/folk tale "That Apple is Mine!" and "The Language of Birds," but we were all a little baffled by "The Sea King," lol.  I don't know if it's a poor translation or we all just collectively missed an element, but it seemed like three stories stitched together oddly.  I was just like, "Well, kids... Russia." haha

Waverly has always been very orally fixated, but now that she can grab at stuff she is more mouthy than ever!  She had been dilligently studying my tea cup as I took sips and set it back down.  So when it was empty, I moved it closer to her and sure enough she had it snatched up in no time.

Nom nom nom! :-)

Jim's crazy crew on the way to karate.

Warm ups~

I'm pretty sure he's completely unaware of the fact that he's the youngest and smallest in his class... by a lot! In his mind he's huge, and at least ten years old ;-)

After their karate class, Jim took them out for their surprise - to get new Boos!  Here's Jim's awesome "stand and stare directly at the sun and smile" shot, lol.

At first they were all going to pick a Boo...

... and Scarlett did - a new monkey named Coconut.  But the other two had their sights on other items.  Lincoln found this cool (foam) shield at the same price point, while Victoria found an awesome create your own storybook craft project.  It was almost double the price of the other kids' items, but Jim was savvy and remembered that Hobby Lobby often has a 40% coupon on regularly priced items.  So he was able to pull it up on his phone and get it for nearly the same price as a Boo. These were three happy kiddos! :-)