Issue 76

Sweet Baby

Monday, Steve and I went to the hospital to welcome our newest nephew on his first day on earth. This is baby number 5 for Steve's sister Laura and her husband Dave, and what a sweet baby he is.

Haiku and Fish Sticks

While studying medieval Japan this week, we made Japanese fabric carp kites (dubbed fish sticks by my 3 year-old nephew.) We also read lots of Haiku poetry. Then we went on a Ginko, or Haiku nature walk and everyone tried their hand at writing some poetry. Although they are not all traditional Haiku, I think they are all beautiful.

Dog Behind Fence by Steve L.

Barking frantically,

The hysterical brown dog

Warns off intruders.

by Daniel

With 2 cousins we made fish kites,

all colorful and white.

We went to a field

scattered about with leaves.

We had lots of energy and ran here and there,

with our kites above and

just behind us they flowed.

by Janey

I am a daisy

born in the spring.

I pop up when

the birdies sing.

by Ellie

When the grass is dead

and the trees don't have leaves,

We go to the dinosaur museum.

Beautiful Flowers

Steve gave me the beautiful mixed bouquet the day before he left town on business. The next morning the long stemmed roses (all 96 of them) arrived by FedEx. They were a gift from Steve's bosses for supporting my husband in the great job he does for his company. He does hard work and I get roses, now that's a deal!

Cousins and Cows

Field Trip Friday found us at Farm Country at Thanksgiving point. An unseasonably warm day, it was perfect for outdoor fun. We invited our cousins along for an extra good time. If you haven't seen their new Soil to Market hands on exhibit, we highly recommend it. I finally had to drag the kids away after an hour at that exhibit alone.

Two Victories

Steve L. competed in two different speech competitions this week. The first was the preliminaries for The Focus on the Founders event held in his Statesmanship Club. He prepared a speech on John Adams and took first place in the event! He will go on to compete in December with all the other Statesmanship clubs in the state.

Saturday he also competed at Weber State University in a homeschool speech and debate tournament. He competed in Spar debate and Impromptu speaking. His dad and I arrived in time to see his last round in each event and see him receive his award for taking 3rd place in Impromptu! Way to go Steve!

Uncle Quinn

We don't get to see nearly enough of Uncle Quinn, so we decided to invite him to dinner and have him all to ourselves. The kids especially loved playing The Great Dalmuti card game and eating brownies and ice cream with him!