Try to Remember the Kind of September...

It didn't take long for school to get into full swing. Megan had several projects in September and early October. First was the assignment to make a 3-D model of a cell. Megan chose to do a plant cell. We tried something new this time around and sewed some clear vinyl together. We filled it with rice and beans (chloroplasts and ribosomes), a big pom pom (nucleus), and little felt pillows (vacuoles). It worked out pretty well and she got a A.

Next came a book report. Megan had to make a diorama depicting an important scene from her book. She read Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass (one of her favorite authors). It is about 3 kids who unwittingly end up at a campsite to watch a solar eclipse and become friends in the process. So Megan wanted to make her scene of the eclipse--thus the sunglasses on the people (you can't really see them in this picture). We found out it is really hard to figure out how to make a sun look like it's being covered by a shadow!

 After that it was time for the 6th grade Egyptian Wax Museum. Megan was supposed to be Wadjet, the cobra goddess. She was a protector of the pharaoh, ready to strike and kill his enemies. We had big plans to make her a cobra headdress out of papier-mache, but as with many big ideas at our house, it didn't happen in time. She had to memorize a part about her goddess and recite it when someone came to her and pushed her "button."She wasn't super excited about this event. I tried to get her to "walk like an Egyptian," but no luck!

 

When she's not doing homework, Megan always is busy finding ways to amuse herself. Here are two examples of her creative boredom busters!

Chin people--always a fun distraction!

Making word art out of our Mags :)

School Days, a Birthday, and Harvest Time

School started Aug. 25th (3 weeks ago--I'm a bit slow) and I snapped a shot of Brooke getting on the bus for her first day of Jr. High. She was so nervous, but now she's cool with it. Danika is in 9th this year, but not technically a freshman because 9th grade is in Jr. High here. It's hard to see, but they are walking with a friend right in front of the bus.

Brooke also turned 12 on the 2nd, and is SO glad to be in Young Women's now.

By the way, Brooke will be singing in the Primary choir in the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference if you want to look for her (they snagged her before she turned 12, and we encouraged her to do it even though she would be in YW by then). She got an iPod for her birthday, and can now be heard singing songs from "Wicked" throughout the house!Megan is now in 3rd grade at Snow Horse Elementary and loving it. If you are wondering about the name of her school, you can read about it here http://www.davis.k12.ut.us/schools/snowhorse/files/2A749AFD5EEC4FD6A463B3ED2D9E4E14.pdf

I am keeping busy with work at Megan's school, and canning all the fresh produce we are enjoying right now. So far I have picked and canned our beets, made and canned salsa from our own tomatoes and peppers, made raspberry and lemon-nectarine-blueberry freezer jam, and as I type this there is a bushel of peaches and 5 lbs of pears sitting on my table waiting to be canned. Just call me Martha . . .

No More Teachers, No More Books...

Schools out! As the bus pulled away this morning, I was ambivalent...on one hand, I won't have peace and quiet at home anymore during the day, and on the other, I am sooooo ecstatic that I don't have to wake the girls up every morning, nag them to hurry up, do their hair, help them with homework, or make their lunches anymore!!! I really despise making lunches every day. Megan absolutely refuses to buy hot lunch. Brooke would on days that I was just fed up with it, but not Megan. It is so HARD not to make PB & J every stinkin' day. In my pre-children days I never would have guessed that making lunches day in and day out would tax my creativity so heavily. (I realize how incredibly lame that sounds!) I guess that it is one of those mundane, redundant areas of life where the phrase "endure to the end" has especially poignant meaning to me.

Brooke finished up 6th Grade today, and it's on to Jr. High! Woo-hoo! Great job Brooke! Here she is with her awesome teacher Julie Miner.

And here are Danika's feeling about the day...

And here's Megan walking home from the bus stop. What a cutie! And look at those gorgeous mountains in the background (love them).

Hooray for summer vacation :)

Last Minute Miracle

All the 6th Graders at Brooke's school put on a Shakespearean play--"A Comedy of Errors"--on Thursday night. There were not enough parts for everyone, so the kids who weren't in the play put on a Green Show. Brooke's group was doing a fortune-telling booth. Unfortunately, it rained, so they had to move it into the hallway. Sooo, our plan to use our EZ-Up shade canopy for the booth didn't pan out. It was too big to fit in the hall. So at about 2 o'clock on Thursday, I was trying to figure out how we were going to make some kind of booth. We had the box from our freezer in the basement, so I decided to run and get some paint and paint it. I cut it down the middle in the back so it could fan out wider, and put on the base coat. When the girls got home, I set them to work on painting gold details.


Looks pretty awesome, don't you think?


While it was drying, we grabbed some fabric we had in my stash downstairs, some scissors, and a stapler. I was just going to wing it once we got there! (Did I mention we had dance lessons and Activity Days in the midst of this?!) Because of the cooler temps. and rain, the paint took a while to dry, so we got to the school just a few minutes before the show started. Becca, Brooke's friend, already had the table with the crystal ball set up, so we just put the box around the table with the open side against the wall. We stapled some fabric over the top to make it dark and along the back. It turned out pretty well considering how last-minute it was, and their booth was a big hit!


Crowd control!



Megan, McKenna, Brooke and Becca--the gypsy fortune tellers.

I am SO glad that project is over! I think all moms should receive honorary diplomas for getting their kids through all the school projects they do!