Water haiku

water, water, caught
in every container
each drop so preciousoh how will i clean
piles of dishes in the sink
dirty hands and feetmountains of laundry
shut the laundry room door - FAST!
an avalanche comeswater come quickly
and fill my dishwasher, please
and coffee pot, too

Hurricane Irene

from our front porch:
the rain & wind coming down all dayit took forever to fall asleep last night,
and it was very unsettling to wake up to the sound of trees hitting the ground.

the aftermath.
this is my neighbor's yard. they had about 8 enormous oak trees fall, all towards their house. their front door was blocked, and there were some branches against the roof, but miraculously, there was no major damage, and they were safe!this is their front yard. it almost seems like something from the jurassic period.
this is the scrap fort my kids built back in May
this is what it looks like today
24 hours later, we are still without power. we had some water leak in the back door & will probably have to tear up and replace some of the flooring there. other than that, we are doing great! so thankful no trees landed on our house and that our neighbors are safe as well.

Batten down the hatches

We spent the day getting ready for Hurricane Irene's arrival. The boys disassembled the pool - all by themselves! (They also killed 11 black widows in the process. YIKES!)Mae and Bootsie removed all the screens from the windows and put them in the shed.


Sugar Baby led the way in the laundry department, and I (among other things) baked bread...
Generator is ready, extra water is set aside, and poptarts are in the pantry. I think we are ready!

Phonics at your fingertips

And toe tips!

Sugar Baby painted Queenie's finger & toenails last night and also painted the vowels that Queenie is learning on them.
Considering how much time Queenie spends adoring her nails when they are painted, I thought it was a brilliant idea! She'll know her ABC's in no time!

Dry Erase

We've discovered another little thing that has helped our homeschooling and I thought I'd share it on here, because it might help someone else.

Daddy Duck bought a huge sheet of dry erase board from Lowes for about $12 and had them cut it into smaller rectangles - about 18" by 24". I think we ended up getting 8 sections from the one large sheet. Everyone likes having their own board.They've been extremely helpful! Some of the kids like using them in place of scratch paper, Queenie likes them for practicing her letters and everyone likes them for drawing or doodling.
Happy Homeschooling!

Time for School!

The summer has flown by here, and even though it's not officially over, we went ahead and started school this past week. It feels good to get back into a routine and have some semblance of sanity!

The boys are studying ancient history this year. Lucky for them, I had a large batch of unused pink marshmallow fondant in the fridge (left from a red lego birthday cake gone awry) and we pulled it out and made our own version of Ancient Sumerian Cuneiform Tablets!
(It kind of reminds me of a piece of salmon.)

Anywho...

All six of my ducklings are officially in school this year. Queenie is so excited to have her own books, notebooks, pencils and flashcards. I love this time of year!