Math for Superheroes 101

I thought Superhero was going to draw five simple circles and then cross out one to show that one was being subtracted, but when I looked a few minutes later, I found this:

There were five "objects" - one of them being Superman, one a bad guy, and 3 of them rocks. According to Superhero, Superman was using his x-ray vision to see the jewels inside one of the rocks and then was going to blast it open, thus subtracting one.

I don't remember math being so complicated when I was in 1st grade.

Friendly Competition

The Ping Pong Games of Winter 2010 are officially underway. So far, Daddy Duck has dominated, but Mama Duck has managed to put a few blemishes on his record. (heh, heh, heh...) Superhero's not too bad, either. Stay tuned for further updates on the Ping Pong Games standings...

Have a joyful Christmas!

:)

Marshmallow Shooters

What better way to celebrate the holidays than by building Marshmallow Shooters?!

More Christmas Traditions - Gingerbread!

Winter Wonderland

For the second year in a row, it has snowed before Christmas! This never used to happen in these parts. The kids spent the morning estimating how deep it was, because of a decree Mama Duck had issued several years earlier that if it snowed more than 2", we'd take the day off from school. Too bad they had already completed most of their work yesterday before it reached the 2" mark. :) Heh, heh, heh...

I finished Queenie & Mr. C's new hats just in time for the snow.
Monkey Man & Superhero sculpted a super snowman.

Christmas Traditions

Our tree is up! The kids managed to find a decent one in our woods yet again. They cut it down, set it up and decorated it all by themselves! It has the usual assortment of perler bead creations, paper snowflakes, candy canes and of course, popcorn scattered about its branches.

Another one of our Christmas traditions is to make & string up 25 stockings at the beginning of December. Each one is filled with a treat for everyone (like a hershey kiss) and we open one every morning until Christmas.

One of these years, I'm going to make it really cute by using children's Christmas socks. Maybe next year...

I love Christmas with kids - they make it so much fun!

Winter Wear for Chickens

Bootsie felt sorry for the turkens with their featherless necks and created a stylish way of keeping them warm.

Rascallion

Disney

We just got back from a trip to Disney World! My mother-in-law generously gave us a trip to see Mickey & company. I took almost 300 pictures, so it was kind of hard to narrow it down to 2 or 3 to post here:)


When we first arrived, there was a show going on in front of the castle.

We spent the first day in the Magic Kingdom, the second day in the Animal Kingdom, and the third in Epcot. I think the ducklings enjoyed the Animal Kingdom the most. Magic was really crowded (we were there on a Sunday). Epcot was pretty cool, too. We ended the day on a good note - Soarin' with a Fastpass!


The shows at all of the parks were incredible. Queenie especially was on the edge of her seat during them. (She has spent the afternoon today twirling and singing in the living room.) There were dancers, singers, acrobats, a 2-story pelican, huge jellyfish filling an auditorium, a man twirling a flaming baton, and so on. We even got stung in the back by a 3D wasp and sprayed by a humongus stinkbug!

Bootsie and I stood in line for over an hour to ride Space Mountain. It was worth it - she and I screamed our silly heads off. That is one fast roller coaster!

Daddy Duck took some of the crew to Splash Mountain while the rest of us headed for the calmer rides in Fantasy Land.




My mother-in-law stood in line with Queenie for about 20 minutes so Queenie could have her picture taken with Chip & Dale. Superhero joined them at the last minute and it was a good thing, because Queenie chickened out when it was her turn. (She did get a pic taken with Donald Duck, though.)I could go on and on. There was so much to see and do. I think we only got to a fraction of it!

Everything was decorated for Christmas, and it was so pretty. What a fun trip!

A Tale of Two Eggs

Superhero brought these eggs into the house the other day proclaiming that the one on the left must have a "double oak".

Turns out it had a TRIPLE oak, or yolk, that is.

How cats grow

Stretchy creatures, cats are.

I ran a marathon today.

It was sooo hard, but sooo special. After Daddy Duck dropped me off near the finish line and headed off to find the first spot along the route where he and the ducklings would cheer for me, I stood there, waiting. And shivering uncontrollably! (It was about 30-something degrees.) After standing in a sunny spot for a few minutes, I saw a familiar face in the crowd! (There were thousands of people there, so the likelihood of this happening was pretty slim.) The familiar face was my Bible study leader/mentor/friend from my freshman year of college. I hadn't seen her in years - she doesn't even live in this area.

It turned out that she had taken up running at about the same time as me, and this was the first marathon for both of us.

We lined up in our starting corral, and agreed that we wouldn't try to stay together so that we wouldn't mess up each others' paces. The race began, and off we went.

The first hour went by fairly easily. I kept a steady, easy pace, trying to conserve precious energy. While running on a bridge with a beautiful view of the James river, I heard someone call my name. It was my friend. Turns out, our pace was pretty much the same.

We ended up staying together for the rest of the race. It was such a blessing to have someone to run with. It would have been much harder to run it by myself. A race is a relatively trivial thing in the grand scheme of life and eternity, but this was such a sweet reminder to me of God's care for me, even in those little things. God is so good!

The race was fairly smooth and not too difficult until the last 6 miles. They were long and hard - my hips, legs and feet were complaining very loudly. But, we made it!

The finish was very emotional. It was an incredible feeling to have set such a huge goal and then reach it. And so was it to witness so many others - older people, a guy with a prosthetic leg, people with limps and painful gaits and all the others finishing their races. It was a great. All the cheering people were great. Daddy Duck and my gang were great, scurrying around, waiting, sitting in traffic, just to cheer for me!

Go runners!!

Something cool to make

I came across this idea on the web for wooden tea light holders. They are so simple and so pretty and would make neat Christmas gifts! I can't wait for the ducklings to make a long one for our kitchen table. Here is a link to the instructions. There are other cool ideas on that site, too.

A Love Story

Once upon a time, there were two love birds... Mama Duck and Daddy Duck.



They got married, had six ducklings and lived happily ever after.

The End.

Queenie

Boo!

17 days

Seventeen more days until Mama Duck's first marathon.

It has taken a lot of effort to train & stay motivated. It is not very appealing to step off the porch into the cold darkness for those long, early morning runs.

(Especially when the smell of skunk is very strong. I don't think my pepper spray would be much of a deterrent to them...)

I found a training schedule and posted it on my fridge. Crossing off all those little boxes helps with the motivation a little.For fun, I painted "Race Nails". Truthfully, they look weird and when I looked down at them this morning during my run, I still didn't go any faster. Oh well... My pace was probably similar to this guys':

Super good

Superhero's new uniform: He was able to climb out of the trenches long enough this afternoon to refuel with some field rations:

Back to the battlefield...

Dirt, boys and army men

Can you tell we've been watching WWII documentaries lately?

(Hmmm... that "tree" looks a lot like a piece of my dear hydrangea bush...)

Owl Day

The kids & I declared today a holiday - Owl Day. (Actually, I declared it. We needed to add a little fun to our homeschooling.)

We set out to learn as much about owls as we possibly could. We checked out books from the library, consulted our own animal encyclopedias and researched the internet.

The day officially began with owl pancakes. Actually, they looked more like piglets, foxes and bunnies. None of them really looked like owls...but that was okay. They had chocolate chips.After lunch, we (or they) dissected owl pellets. Owl pellets are interesting and smelly! Look at Superhero's face. That pretty much sums up Mama Duck's reaction. Queenie, who apparently has a stomach of steel, ate the rest of her ramen while watching the dissections going on around her.Each pellet contained at least 1 or two rodent skulls along with a lot of fur and tiny bones.

After the pellets were done, we feasted on owl cupcakes.
Tonight, there will be a presentation of sorts. Each duckling has something to show & tell about owls. Should be fun & interesting!

Horsin' around

Bootsie & the horse that actually bears the same (real) name as Mama Duck

I am really enjoying my camera & the free photo editing programs that I've found online!

Buffet Style

Chickens are amazingly dumb animals, but they sure know how to take advantage of a situation. They watch for the lid to be lifted off the can, and if the lid lifter happens to be on the smaller (or unsuspecting) side, these bullies hop right in and start guzzling down the grain like there's no tomorrow. Or at least until the next chicken jumps in and lands on his head...

We're down to two roosters now and about 15 hens. Daddy Duck & Bootsie butchered the last 7 roos last weekend. Except for feeding time, life's a lot more peaceful now in the chicken coop.

Note to self: if we are ever forced to live off the land, we will become vegetarians:)

Two pretty girls

Well, at least I think Mimi (formerly known as Violet) is a girl.

The hills are alive

The ducklings and I got to go to the mountains with some friends yesterday. This particular spot is so beautiful, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect!

There were lots of salamanders And a gigantic tadpole

The sky is the limit!

Bumps on a log?

Watching TV

I think we may have to start limiting Kitty's screentime.This part of the movie must have been so exciting for her to watch. There was a bobcat chasing the family dog.

Take me to your leader.