I don’t think any Groundhog in his right mind would be poking his head out around here yet. There must be at least 15 inches of snow on the ground… probably more. (I’m guessing Phil sees his shadow next week.)
The above photo was taken in late September. We had a groundhog who loved foraging in our compost pile. He made a daily appearance for a couple weeks before settling in for the winter. We loved watching him from the window but he was very skittish and took off the minute we tried to get a closer peek.
Today we watched the You-Tube videos Barb had posted on Handbook of Nature Study, colored one of the Groundhog coloring pages she also had listed and then read our Rookie Read-About Holidays: Groundhog’s Day book. The kids really liked the video with the wrestling Marmots… of course my TaeKwonDo kiddos argued that they were sparing not wrestling.
We made some basic pine cone bird feeders this week. We took several of the pine cones we gathered and cleaned this fall, spread peanut butter on each of their scales and then rolled them in shelled sunflower seeds.
The older two kiddos each made a couple but as most of these types of projects go, Pixie was the one who insisted on finishing every pine cone I brought to the table. Hehe, I’m glad I didn’t bring in the entire bag full… but rather just a couple hand fulls.
We hung several on the tree outside the kitchen window not far from our other feeder and plan to take the rest to Gammy’s house. The birds don’t seem to have discovered them yet… but I’m sure they will enjoy them once they do.
Whenever anyone asked Fairy Girl what she wanted for Christmas the answer was always… A Marm-o-set. "A Marmoset?" everyone was puzzled… except me. LOL. No she did not want a pet monkey, thank goodness, she wanted a MARBLE SET.
She was of course delighted when Santa brought her one. It has become a family favorite… although marbles in a house with a 2 year old is a bit of a challenge. Fortunately Pixie seems to be a bit beyond her age in terms of her play. Survival skills of a third child I guess… ’cause once Legos are brought into the house there is no such thing as a baby safe room. Those little pieces get everywhere!
I thought I would share one of Fairy’s Marble Runs (yes I helped) for this week’s Unplugged Challenge theme Ball.
Pixie reading in the Dino Cave.
Bug working on a journal page about T-Rex.
One of the Dino puzzles I keep tripping on.
Bug making Play-Dough Dinos.
Bug learning about how lizards get energy from food.
Bug playing with some Dino models that belonged to his uncle.
Fairy really getting into painting the Boxasaurus (and herself).
Bug is totally getting into the whole "My Project" thing. We have recently moved into the world of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals. While pouring over some prehistoric ZooBook Magazines my mom lent him… Bug came up to me with a activity guide (which I didn’t know was in the set) saying "this is what I’M doing next for my project." He wanted to make a Boxasaurus. Sure, sounds like fun!
We spent several days collecting boxes of various sizes. We raided the garage, basement, recycling bin, etc. Once we had a decent collection it was time to start designing the dinosaur. Bug spent some time just stacking and sorting until he decided to make a T-Rex (not surprising).
I helped him assemble the boxes. He did the glue and I taped the pieces in place to help hold them until the glue set. At this point his Boxasaurus project serendipitously tied in with this week’s Unplugged Challenge theme Balance. The T-Rex was very front heavy and had to lean against the wall until we got the tail in place. What a great lesson in balance and a perfect hands on lesson as to one of the reasons why many animals have tails! He wanted a longer tail on his Boxasuarus but that in turn made him back heavy. In the end we found the perfect balance of tail length to support the head and arms.
Next came the whole family production (and I do mean PRODUCTION) of painting the Boxasaurus. Since painting outside was out of the question (neg 10 not factoring wind chill), we cleared the furniture from the kitchen, set down some plastic bags (lol) and set up shop to paint. Good fun was had by all. AND Thank goodness it was a weekend and Daddy was home to carry the kids directly up to the tub while I cleaned up. The floor was a showcase that would have done Pollock proud. Fortunately Bamaboo cleans up so well!
Once dry, eyes, teeth and glitter (hehe, a well dressed Boxasaurus) were added.
BRRRR! It is so cold outside right now that basically all of our Nature Studies are being done at the kitchen window. Fortunately the bird feeders really provide a lot of Nature Entertainment. When we have gotten outside over the last few weeks, we have been collecting snow track photos.
I believe the above photo shows tracks from our neighbor’s cat who likes to hunt our birds (devastated a nest this past spring) and uses our sand box (insert snarl on my part here). I tend to send the dog out when I see said cat.
One of our dog’s prints. Four toes front and back indicate canine or feline family.
The above two photos show squirrel prints from under the bird feeder. Four toes in front, five in the back indicates rodent family.
Bird prints across our deck.
The deer, rabbit and raccoons that are normally found in our yard in the warmer months… move on in the winter. I am assuming this is due mainly to the water source (pond across the street) freezing. They will definitely be back when I fruitlessly try to plant our garden this spring 😉 .
For this week’s Unplugged Theme ‘square’ each of the kids made their own memory game. I printed out a sheet with 20 2″ wide squares (click here to download a template) on a piece of card stock.
The kids colored a picture in each square. I then photo copied the page onto another sheet of card stock and we cut out all the squares.
The girls have really enjoyed playing Memory lately and playing with their own cards has been extra fun!
We are enjoying a very snowy Saturday. Stay warm everybody!
I am not in the mood for any more baking… especially considering we still have tins of Christmas cookies left. So instead of the Snowballs I had thought about making this week… we instead made stuffed apples/apple dippers.
I do not have an exact recipe for this. It is more of a ‘to taste’ sorta deal but super easy and I highly recommend it! This was a childhood favorite of mine.
Apple Dipper Filling: Mix approximately 1/2 a stick of cream cheese, 1/2 cup of peanut butter and 1/4 cup of honey.
Core an apple (if you do not have a corer – just slice the apples and serve with dip on the side).
Stuff the apples with the filling.
Slice the stuffed apples in thick slices.
Serve with extra dip.
Enjoy!
We had a wonderful break. I loved all those glorious, lazy days. I was a little sad last night when we decided not to light a fire because we had to go to bed early. But boy oh boy does it feel good to get back to our routine today. I won’t lie… it wasn’t our easiest of mornings but there was a lot of excitement as we started up some new activities/projects.
Fairy was eager to get out the paints, play math games and listen to our story of the week (3x).
Bug has started a new project on dinosaurs and dug through many a dino book. (Lucky us… who needs a library when you can ransack Gammy’s basement. My mom ran a preschool for 10 years and kept everything!) He drew several Tyrannosaurus illustrations.
The Pixie girl was just thrilled to have the gnome house back down at her level, which had been moved to make way for the Christmas tree.
I hope everyone else is making a nice transition back into routine.
