A Snow-Free Hike and Goblin Bandits

Warm weather was never very exciting when we lived in Southern California.  It was kind of like trying to get excited about oxygen.  Now that we live in New England, I'm thrilled that the forecast includes so many pleasant sunny days this month . . .

. . . and I'm determined to take the kids hiking at least once a week.  I plan to explore other trails in our town this spring and summer, but today we revisited the one near our home (which is now snow free!) . . .

. . . to enjoy lunch on good old Picnic Rock . . .

. . . while Spike basked in the sun.  He's loving the warm weather too.

Today was also the day we started a Dungeons and Dragons quest Daddy purchased.  The kids have all made up new characters: Daniel is an impulsive elf ranger, Anna is a practical gnome cleric, Todd is a dwarf fighter who is new to questing, and Joy is a half-elf bard who is secretly a spy (SHHH! DON'T TELL ANYONE!).  I'm still playing a human fighter named Nogadocia, because I like her and I didn't get to play her much while I was leading quests.  Plus, her name is really fun to say.  Try it: "No-guh-DOE-shuh!"

We played one session this morning before Daddy went to work, and another this evening.  The first session was pretty uneventful, but in the second one some of us nearly got killed by goblins.  We lived to tell the tale though, and hopefully learned some helpful lessons from it.  Next item on our to-do list: get out of the goblin bandits' lair alive!

Multipurpose Lessons

Today's ELA unit include a little geography lesson that required the kids to identify some states or countries on a map.

When someone correctly answered that the orange dot was on Cuba, somebody else asked, "Wasn't there some missile crisis there?"  Before I knew it, we had spent twenty minutes discussing the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Cold War nuclear arms race, and why communism might have seemed attractive to oppressed people.  At the end of the conversation, Daniel asked if that counted as our history lesson for the day.  I said, "Sure."

Daniel was pretty thrilled by that answer. . .

. . . and Anna did a celebratory dance . . .

. . . then we finished our ELA unit and the kids went out to play.

 Should we call that P.E., or recess?  How about both?

Happy Things

Ivy came over to visit again today. :)

It's fun to have a puppy to play with . . .

. . . and a family to hug.

(And also some Gruyere in the fridge.)

Daffodils and Shamrocks

When I bought the pussy willows (AKA magic wands) a few days ago, I also picked up . . .

. . . a little pot of shamrocks to get us in the spirit for St. Patrick's Day . . .

. . . and a couple of forcing jars with mini daffodil bulbs just getting ready to bloom.

I love seeing the cheery little daffodils blooming in our window against a showy backdrop, and I look forward to using the forcing jars with a variety of other bulbs in the future.  Crocus, anyone?

This paper shamrock I saw at the library isn't a real plant, but it still makes me happy.  Spring is just around the corner!  Hooray!

A Chilly Hike

 The forecast predicted decent weather today (read: 41 degrees and mostly sunny), so the kids and I headed to Whitetail Woods for a hike and a picnic.

I didn't expect there to be quite this much snow and ice on the ground.  Fortunately, the slush on the trail wasn't very slippery, so I figured we'd be OK.  We cautiously made our way up the hill . . .

. . . until we reached Picnic Rock . . .

. . . where we enjoyed a lunch of bread, cheese, apples, carrots . . .

. . . and shoo-fly muffins that Anna and I made this morning.  Our homeschool ELA lesson included this Amish muffin recipe in connection with a story we're reading.  The molasses, brown sugar, and cinnamon made these tender muffins taste like gingerbread.  They were so good!

Notice anything different as we're making our way back to the van?  Both boys left their coats home, and were chilled to the bone by the time we finished lunch.  Their kind sisters loaned them their coats for the hike down.

Take-home lesson: If there's snow on the ground, don't leave on a hike without your coat!

The Scientific Sock Kite

 It was very windy out today, and Anna wanted to fly a kite.  I recalled that the former owners of our house left a kite in the storage room . . .

. . . so we decided to take it for a test flight.  It was a flimsy little kite that twirled erratically . . .

. . . and crashed a lot.

As I tried to tame it during one of its short, chaotic flights, it wrapped its string around my glove and yanked it off!

Anna suggested that it might fly more steadily if we added a tail, so we pinned one of Joy's socks (which she thoughtfully leaves lying around the family room, for just such a time as this) to the bottom.  That helped a little, but the kit still wobbled a lot, and the big sock was obviously weighing it down too much.

Next, we tried pinning two of Anna's little socks to the kite wings.  We even got out a ruler, to make sure the weight was spaced evenly.

Success!  Our kite now flies longer and steadier, and it doesn't steal my gloves.  I told Anna that was our homeschool science lesson for the day, because we tested hypotheses until we found a solution.  Plus, we measured stuff.  That's totally sciencey.

Pussy Willow Wands

 I found something fun at Trader Joe's today:

Pussy willows!  I cut them in half to fit in a vase on our table . . . 

. . . and noticed that a few of the stems had only one or two cute little pussy willows on them.  They wouldn't look very good in the vase, but . . .

. . . the kids decided they would make great magic wands.

Soon they were casting Harry Potteresque spells at each other . . .

. . . striking dramatic poses . . .

. . . and levitating Globey.  Wingardium leviosa!