Thursday, October 17th

Scarlett had been asking for a few months to try rock climbing, after seeing the rock wall at a mall we visited and more recently at the Atlanta Zoo.  Jim had done some searching and found a place not far from us that was running a Homeschool Day promotion with half-price climbing!  It's only once-a-month, so we had the date marked on our calendar and the kids were thrilled on Thursday morning as they would finally get to try their hand at rock climbing.  The promotional pricing was from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., so we were able to get all of our schoolwork done in the morning before heading out.  What a great place!!  The kids had a blast and although a touch nervous at first, they eventually found their pace and were scaling the walls in no time. 

Sissy was reading to Lincoln from one of the baby's books, and Cupcake was curled up on the chair with them.

Scarlett is doing such an excellent job of reading!  I'm so proud of her hard work and fluid read aloud style.

Finally, with math, reading, Timeline card review, memory verse work and more over and accomplished, it was time to hit the road.  We were so glad that daddy was able to take a long lunch and take us!  It was the perfect weather to head to an indoor event - the weather was chilly and rainy; also perfect for Waverly to use her new Columbia jacket :-)  She looked sooo cute!

The facility's website had been very clear that only 5+ year olds were allowed to climb, but they were supposed to have a great play area.  But when we arrived, they let Linc get geared up after all!  Truthfully though, he wasn't too keen on climbing and spent almost all of his time in the awesome play space.

These two girls, though, were awesome climbers!

Bottom of one wall. The girls spent at least an hour working this wall - going again and again and again until they could do it fluidly.  We met the Phillips crew there and the kids all enjoyed the challenge, and I was proud that no one got frustrated or discouraged but instead just kept working at it until they mastered it (or close).  Victoria never made it *quite* to the top to ring the bell, but she just kept at it and was really close - at the end on our way home she told me, "I think next time I will get to the top!" :-)

Fun rope swing area~

Lincoln did take a few tries to climb the wall - it was strange, because he was such a smooth, confident climber, but he would get up only three or four feet and say, "I'm done."  That was it.  He would just climb beautifully and stop cold and no amount of cheering him on or persuading him to go a bit higher would convince him :-p

Scarlett was climbing pretty well but would get 25 feet up or so and start looking down and freeze up.  Olivia was the first to make it to the top and ring the bell, and I think it inspired Scarlett to keep working and pretty soon she was scaling all the way to the top also and was so proud of herself :-)  I loved that the kids cheered each other on!  Such sweet friends! (Judd was a funny one, too! First time climbing and he just zoomed right to the top like a mountain goat, lol. Then I don't think he ever did it again - it was like "okay, I did it, now I'm done.")

Fear has been vanquished!

Sis climbing with such focus.  Even though she never made it to the top, she LOVED climbing and asked when we could come back :-)

All smiles~

Back at home, Scarlett asked me to take this picture and send it to Ms. Amanda for showing to Olivia - she had told her friend about the new kitten, but much like her daddy the day before I think she got an "uh-huh, sure" in response and wanted to send proof ;-)

The stare-off :-o

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 :-)

Tuesday, October 15th

The weather was so wonderfully fall-like on Tuesday, and after school the kids played outside for a long, long time.

Continuing in our Russian studies, I read aloud "Celebrating Birthdays in Russia" and we also learned about the national flag and colored one.

In the book they note a popular game played at children's birthday parties or really any celebration where kids are present.  I was able to bring up a video and we watched the motions and then of course we had to practice :-)  I did it with the kids for the first 173 rounds, then let them do it by themselves.  They were in fits of laughter!

It's always interesting to me how the kids react to story books.  Often I will reserve several from the library, so sure of which ones I think they will like best, and am usually completely wrong.  In this instance, I had gotten "Hurry, Hurry, Mary Dear" and was not anticipating that it would really strike their fancy... and was totally wrong!  They had me read it four times back to back, and I still don't know why, lol.  But they loved it!

Next we had a new SQUILT lesson - Vivaldi's Four Seasons: Spring.  The kids listened/watched the video of the piece.

Their Draw What You Hear worksheets - Lincoln on top left, Victoria on top right, and Scarlett on the bottom.  Lincoln told me he drew "flowers and trumpets" on his page, while Victoria drew happy people with floating flowers and hearts, and Scarlett drew one huge psychedelic flower.

After one-on-one time for math, reading and Bible verse memory work, the kids were outside in a flash!  They were busy trying to climb as high as they could in this little tree outside our front window.

Waverly and I had to head outside to see for ourselves - by her expression, I'm not so sure she approved ;-)

They were pretty much all up in there, with a little boost from Grammie.

I was going to put Waverly in her stroller for a little ride around the cul-de-sac, but I spied the red push car and thought, "I wonder..."  Soon enough she was strapped in and quite intrigued by this new contraption.

I just thought it was hilarious, because hello! she's only four months old and was sitting up in there like a pro.  Not only that but she was full-on inspecting the buttons, trying to fiddle with this thing and that.

She loved sitting in there, however she was not actually a huge fan of riding in it - the thing makes an insane amount of noise rolling along on the cement, so I got her out after she voiced her dismay.

My favorite picture of her in the car - she was holding onto the steering wheel like she was really going places :-)

Soon the kids were onto bigger trees - namely the one in our neighbor's yard.  She is the most patient, kind hearted neighbor.  For having no children, she is beyond tolerant of the kids climbing in her trees, leaving their bikes in/on/near her yard, etc. 

Grammie helping/supervising the girls climbing.

Soon Waverly was ready to go back inside and roll around.  I sat and played with the baby for a while and then Victoria came in and offered to sing to her while I did a few things in the kitchen.  The baby loves when Victoria sings to her!  Sis just makes up little songs as she goes and the baby smiles and smiles :-)  Victoria told me, "I just have a really great gift for singing." haha

As the baby rolled here and there, Victoria was determined to teach her how to crawl via demonstration.

Later, I gave this little love a bath, where she did her best to completely soak me!

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

Sunday, October 13th

We had plans to go on a hike Sunday morning - however, we had two strikes against us: 1) Jim woke up feeling less than outstanding, and 2) all of the trails we had thought to trek were closed due to the government shutdown.  However, after a relaxed morning with multiple rounds of breakfast for the kiddos, Jim mentioned really regretting his decision not to snag a couple more shirts from one outlet store we'd visited the day previously.  They were really a great fit plus a really great price... so we decided to head up there and pick up those couple of things and let the kids play in the food court again :-)

After we were finished, we headed home for some quick down time before getting the kiddos changed and taking them to AWANA.  They were really excited to go and thanks to Grammie and Nana playing with Waverly at home (she was very tired from all of our running around!), Jim and I managed to have dinner together!

I had made the kids breakfast, then an hour later they had second breakfast.  When I finally made breakfast for Jim and I they were majorly pilfering for some bacon... it was thick cut, which they usually don't care for but this time they went crazy for it and I had to cook up the other half of the package :-p  When it was ready they swarmed the plate and there was a bacon frenzy in full effect.

Back at the outlets - they got one ride again, and this time chose the four wheeler :-)

At the very end of our shopping excursion, Jim let them pick a treat at the Ghiardelli chocolate shop - they opted to get a small bag of mix and match items.  They spent ten minutes choosing their various goodies (most were saved for savoring throughout the week) to fit into the smallest mixed bag we could get, and then another five or ten minutes sorting them out at a table and choosing a couple to have right then.  Serious work, as you can see from their expressions ;-)

Kids were at AWANA, baby was home with Grammie, and THIS was happening at dinner for me and Jim :-)  It was great to have a few minutes to sit and chat together!