Going Green

First of all, a HUGE Thank You to all of you who helped out with Clay's Odyssey of the Mind fundraising efforts!  Monetary donations, yard sale donations, and kind words were all valued and the team now nearly has all the money!!  We have a couple more hot lunches to serve at co-op and we should be all set.  THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And here is another little Spring catch-up for ya!
Clay finally got that splint off his arm... and then they put a full-length cast on :(  The doc said 3 weeks and then they'll re-evaluate.





Blossom entertained herself quite well during the visit, finding her own cot to lie on, looking at cast color samples, and helping her doll, Mrs. Beasley become comfortable.



At home, we were quite glad to find our first asparagus shoots of the season coming up!  We've waited 3 years to harvest these afterall!

FIRST PLACE!! And my desperate plea for help!

These fabulous Odyssey of the Mind middle school kids won FIRST PLACE for their problem and age division in the North Carolina OM State Competition!!! This means that they can advance to the World Competition of Odyssey of the Mind - this is in Lansing, Michigan at the end May.

They are such rock stars!  I can't post a video of their performance until after the World Competition, but I can post photos of this amazing group of homeschoolers.  Here are the kids in their "Zombies in Candyland" costumes. 

Here's what they had to do:  This team had a "vehicle" problem.  They had to design 3 different vehicles, each with a different propulsion system.  These vehicles have to run through simple obstacle courses a few times, and each time carry a piece of an animal.  The vehicles have to travel a certain distance to deliver the pieces to the same spot.  The animal then has to be assembled and *then* the animal has to do a trick.
The kids have to make up a skit to build a story around vehicles, putting an animal together, etc. and the skit can't be over 8 minutes long.
Do you think you could do that?  Do you think you could have done that when you were 12 years old??  These kids aren't allowed to have any outside assistance.  The role of coaches is not to give them ideas or help make anything, but to help them stay focused and to make (seemingly neverending) trips to the hardware store for more supplies!  They are limited to a $100-ish budget.
These kids couldn't decide between a Candyland theme or a Zombie theme, so they combined the two - setting a zombie attack on Candyland.
No wonder they won first place - they combined the construction and creative propulsion of 3 vehicles, fabulous kid-made costumes and props, an original (and hilarious) song that actually had judges wiping laughter tears from their faces, and a magical zombie-fighting dog named Tootsie.  Those other teams didn't really have a chance ;)

Of course the kids are so thrilled and the parents are excited for them!  The reality of this, though is that nearly all OM teams are from schools.  They have funding!  Since we are homeschoolers, we do not have a school to back us up on getting these kids to Michigan.  WE NEED HELP!!

We have to raise $5,000 in 19 days!  That's right - Five Thousand Dollars, People!!!  We are having bake sales, selling hot lunches at our homeschool co-op, doing 2 yard sales, the kids are being hired out to do yard work & fence staining, but that is not nearly enough.  We need donations and business sponsors.

It's so easy to donate any amount, just by clicking here:
http://ahcom.weebly.com/index.html

Are you an Asheville business that would like to sponsor these amazing kids in their journey to the World Odyssey of the Mind competition?  You can find that information here:
http://ahcom.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/1/2/4812269/world2013omsponsorsheet2.pdf

You can also follow the team's progress by "liking" them on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/AshevilleHomeschoolOM

Read even more about them in our recent press release:
http://www.mountainx.com/article/49399/Asheville-Homestead-Co-Op-will-send-kids-team-to-Odyssey-of-the-Mind-World-Finals

Thank you so much for any support and helping get the word out about these great kids!

- Julie

The Girl Who is 2!

Rise and shine, Birthday Girl - you've turned two!
You get to play with your new toys

 New favorite game is yelling "Jimma Time" and making someone sit down her for pretend-food dinner time with chef ZB.

Time to get on your party dress (sorry for the smudge on the lens/blurry photo - I didn't realize until it was too late to take another, and this is the best one of the dress, so this is what you get people!) :

And now you get to party! *** Thank you Erin & Todd & my mom for hooking me up with these party photos  - I was pretty lame and got hardly any photos of my own.
Bounce-housing:

Finding bowls full of favorite snacks like nori, strawberries and pickles:

Cake time!

Clay News

Nobody knows how to jazz up a Tuesday night quite like Clay, it turns out.  As I was in the middle of fixing dinner last night, Clay ran into the house yelling that he broke his wrist.  Now, I'll admit, my kids can sometimes have a flair for the dramatic, especially when they are hurt, so I was thinking, okay, maybe it's sprained or something.  He pulled up his coat sleeve to show me and YIKES!  There was definite bone damage!  B popped Ibuprofin in him, while I dashed to gather insurance cards and purse.

We have never actually been to the emergency room before.  I had heard stories that we'd have to wait for hours, but man those nurses were on the case right when we walked in the door!  Unfortunately, to add insult to injury, they had to cut apart his favorite sweatshirt to be able to stabalize the arm and get IV's and monitors on him.  Maybe I can take the logo and sew it onto something else.

Once they had him on morphine, he could calm down a bit and tell everyone what happened.  Turns out he was simply running through the yard and slipped on the wet grass.  He broke his fall with his hands, which in turn broke his wrist (pretty good, too, we saw the x-rays and they were gnarly!)

The doctors and nurses quickly set him right again.  They sedated him, straightened everything back out and put a splint on him. In a week, he'll have to have a cast put on (once the swelling goes down) and he'll get to wear that for about 6 weeks.

He's pretty bummed out right now about all the things he won't be able to do (PE class in co-op, the bounce house at ZB's birthday party, parkour classes, etc).  Send him good wishes please!

Harry Potter Class

I am teaching two classes at our Monday Homeschool Co-op this semester. One of them is "Harry Potter" (aka "Hogwarts Correspondence School") for 8-11 year olds.  This class filled up rather quickly and I am the teacher only because Reed BEGGED me to make this class happen.  Yikes!  I love Harry Potter and all, but 9 weeks might be hard to fill.  Here's what we've done so far:

Week 1: Make wands out of newspaper, hot glue and spray paint (loosely following the directions *here*).  While the spray paint dried, we played a creative thinking game.  I wrote down some Harry Potter spells on pieces of paper and turned them face-down on the floor in the middle of our circle of kids.  When it's your turn, you choose a spell from the pile and you have to use the wand to cast it on someone else.  The creative thinking part is that you have to tell what creative reason you have for doing it.  There were no spells that would hurt someone.  For example, they might choose "Ferula" (creates a bandage or splint).  The child who is 'it' has to say the spell at someone else and tell why that person would need a bandage or splint.  Were they accidentally trampled by an out-of-sorts hippogriff?  Did they fall off their broomstick during a game of Quidditch?

Week 2:  Care of Magical Creatures class, part I.  Hagrid (the Hogwarts grounds keeper and Care of Magical Creatures teacher) sent us a letter (by owl post of course) describing our lesson.  The kids had to use the materials provided (books and magazines from the thrift shop) to create their own magical creature.  They had to name the creature and tell what powers it possessed.  There were some really awesome creations... half-monkey, half-dolphin for example!  One girl even wrote a poem about her creation.  Great creative writing exercise!

Week 3:  That is next week!  I was at a yard sale recently and saw a book called How to Raise and Keep Your Dragon for 50 cents.  Sold!  This sounded like the perfect thing for class ideas.  Sure enough, once I saw all the detailed drawings and description of dragons, including their various eggs, and I realized the next class is the day after Easter, I knew we had to go on a Dragon Egg Hunt.

This will be a totally fun day, maybe some geography will be discussed.  This hunt will take place in our own Forbidden Forest (we really do have a wooded area at co-op that is usually off-limits to the kids).  I've had a blast making dragon eggs.  First we had to decide what to fill the eggs with.  Candy in a dragon egg?  I think not.  How about slime?  Clay had fun helping me make this simple slime from borax, glue and water.

Of course some pretty pebbles:

I made some fun magnets with Potter quotes:

I also used some temporary tattoos of snakes & spiders (Chamber of Secrets reference of course!), and well of course some money... every dragon has a good stash, I would assume.  Each kid is only getting 50 cents, so not really breaking the bank there :)  In fact, I think these ideas would be great for anyone who is trying to do a candy-free egg hunt this holiday.
Then I picked 6 of the easier-looking eggs from our book and got to work.  Spray paint, sharpies and a little hot glue made some awesome dragon eggs!

Let the hunt begin!

And in other news, I just have to share that even though my boys have their fair share of bickering, this is what I heard from my sewing table last night:
"Stop it!  It's my turn to put a diaper on her"
"No it's not, you did it last time!"
They aren't too keen on changing a wet diaper, but if she's already streaking naked around the house (happens more than I'd like to admit), they are proud that they can cover that bottom right back up.  And look at that patient look on her face:

Craft Time & List Making

Reed has been going to "Thursday School" this semester, which he loves!  It is a group of homeschoolers that meet for classes once a week with hired teachers.  He's taking a hands-on geometry class and a drama class and it's really one of his favorite things.  I'm happy just to see him do something new and without me there or any siblings - neat to watch him make his own friends that aren't in our regular circle of friends.  He came home very excited from this week's class because Mr. Ian had them make projects on his nail board.   Reed wanted one of his own, and immediately set to work sawing and nailing, even after the sun went down.

Then he quickly showed us how to make really neat geometric art on it:

He's a very proud guy about this!

I'm glad the boys are keeping busy (and helping keep ZB busy), because I'm in countdown mode to the little lady's 2nd birthday!
1. Finish making curtains for ZB's room ... check!  I finally had an idea of curtains to make and had been procrastinating getting more than half-way done for too long.  They look awesome though!  I found white curtains at Target that just needed shortening.  Then I simply appliqued dragonflies and bubbles on... I can't believe I put it off so long!

2. Make dragon eggs for the Harry Potter class I'm teaching at co-op.  This is tomorrow's work.  We're planning a dragon egg hunt for the class the day after Easter.  Must finish before the weekend birthday party.  Photos to follow, I'm sure :)
3. Make party favors for the birthday party
4. Figure out the party menu
5. Test some grain-free cupcake recipes
6. Have a cooking day with another grain-free family - I'm so excited for this!  Lots of cooking, mama-time and toddler play date time.
7. Help the boys build a birthday-gift sandbox

Let's hope for a productive week!

Spring?

Hello Spring!  Wait - snow?  We woke up to a good covering of snow this morning - not a very inviting welcome into Spring.  Fortunately the sun came out and melted away most of it by afternoon.  Our plants don't seem to know the difference.
The almond and plum trees and just flowering away:

The sunshine did lure me outside to do some yard work.  There was this row of daffodils along the fence in the very back of the yard.  It seemed pretty random to me, about 10' of daffodils way out in the back, and they've been annoying me for 2 years now!  Today, ZB and I dug them all up.  I'm going to replant them in the front, along the road.  That seems logical and all until I had this bucket full of blooms and was ready to go and realized - what the heck am I thinking??  I can't do planting with a toddler on the side of the road!  This project will have to be postponed until B can help out.

This pink-nosed child didn't seem to mind the cold at all.  She even got thrills from dipping her hands in half-frozen buckets of water and squealing, "COLD HANDS! COLD HANDS!"

 Finally, check out this sweet idea for plant markers... I cut pieces of bamboo about 18" long, and split the top few inches with a machete.  Then I put thin pieces of wood in and secured with jute.  Old paint stirrers worked great for the wood, since it's so thin, I could cut it to size with my kitchen scissors.  With the new Spring seeds and last Fall's garlic, our garden area is already 1/4 full!

Stay warm, everyone!