New Mexico Milky Way cake.

Well we did it.  We made the Milky Way cake from New Mexico.  We used our Eat Your Way Through the USA cookbook.  It was fun to make and eat.  By the way, did I mention that there are 8 full size Milky Way bars in this cake?

Here it is.  Milky Way cake.  Isn't it beautiful?  We put a few pieces of cut Milky Way bar on top.

Josefina's appliqued treasure box.

We used Josefina's Craft Book to make our very own appliqued treasure boxes.  I did make a few modifications to reduce the cost but the boxes turned out great!

The book.

The instructions.

The box.  I got the boxes from Hobby Lobby and they were 30% off.

Black and red soy paint.

A gold metallic paint marker.

A pack of foam paint brushes.

You paint the inside of the box red and let it dry completely.

With a fine-tipped paint brush, paint around the hardware.

Paint the entire box black.

Keep painting.

Once your outside black paint has dried, with a fine-tipped paint brush paint the trim of the inside black.

Now here is where we took a different route.  Once your box has been painted, to make it beautiful the book called for gluing on individual strands of corn husk to make a design.  This was not going to happen at this house.  Seriously!  So instead, we made our designs with the gold metallic paint marker.

This is C12's box.  She made a design similar to the one in the book.

This is A10's box.  She chose to use her initials.

 These boxes turned out fabulous!  They want to make a few more.  These would make great gifts too.

More cuteness!

More pictures of the cuties!

We went to Hobby Lobby the other day with grandma, and we noticed all these cute pictures of kittens in teacups and with different backgrounds so my girls thought they would give it a try with our little kittens.   I did not help at all.  Here are the results.

These pictures turned out great! 

Cuteness!

Meet Josefina

We finished up our study of Kaya and now we are moving on to Josefina.

Josefina represents the history of New Mexico.  She lives with her father and older sisters.  Josefina's mother has passed away, and Josefina feels lost without her.

We will be studying New Mexico and some basic Spanish vocabulary.  Our crafts will include an appliqued treasure box, glass-bead necklaces, and a coil pot.  The ideas for these crafts are from Josefina's Craft Book.

Here are some of the books that we will be using.

Here are a few fun links to games for Josefina.

Josefina's fiesta
Josefina's Santa Fe market adventure
Josefina's piano
This looks like a great study.  We have not done an official study on New Mexico yet.  While we were looking though our Eat Your Way Through the USA cookbook, we discovered that in New Mexico they make a Milky Way cake so we just might have to add that to our list of enrichment activities.

A new recipe by A10.

This is a new recipe/game that A10 invented.  First you put a little peanut butter on a graham cracker, then use toothpicks to make a tic-tac-toe board, use marshmallows and chocolate chips as the X' and O's, play, remove the toothpicks and enjoy.

We played this until we got a stomachache so I suggest maybe limit yourself to 2 games.

Quote of the day.

“Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not. „

Georgia O'Keeffe

Double rainbow

A beautiful double rainbow after a hideous storm.

Yummo!

Fresh from our garden.

Just add salt.

I love tomatoes!  Really love tomatoes.  When I was young (a million years ago) I remember my grandfather would keep a big salt shaker in his truck.  We would go to the garden and pick tomatoes and shake salt on them and just eat them right there. 

Various pictues with the new camera.

C12 is really having fun with her new camera.  I could not put all 345 of the pictures she has taken in one blog post so I picked out a few that I really like.
 

If you look really close there is a butterfly.

Sunsets seem to be a favorite.

The moon!

C12 is getting really good at taking pictures, and she loves her new camera. 

Requested photos of our horse.

A friend of ours wanted to see new photos of our horse so here are a few.

New homeschoolers with lots of questions.

Today, we decided to take a quick trip to the local water park.  My kiddos were swimming and having fun.  I was sitting and reading the latest issue of Homeschooling Today.  A lady walked up to me and asked if we home-schooled (I guess she came to that conclusion because of my magazine) and I told her yes.  She plopped down beside me and started asking a lot of questions.  I never mind answering the questions and I try to be helpful but I also choose my words very carefully.  She said that she has had enough of government schools and will be homeschooling her 6th and 3rd graders this year coming up.  She really did not know where to start.  Our big homeschooling convention is coming up so I recommend that she check that out.  I did warn her that she would probably be overwhelmed by it all because there are a lot of vendors and college recruiters there.  I remember my first homeschooling convention.  I was like a deer in headlights.  I had no idea what to do or even look at.  After 6 years, I can confidentially say I do know what to do and can manage a homeschool convention like a pro.

Back to the lady and her questions.  She wanted to know how to homeschool.   Really, there is no wrong or right way.  I know what works for us but it did take me a while to figure that out.  I explained to her our methods but told her it might not work for her and that after some time, she will figure it out.

She gave me a few reasons why she has decided to homeschoool and I gave her a few reasons why we homeschool.  Her reasons included the school friends her kids hangout with, bullying, and not enough individual attention.  All very good reasons.  I gave her just a few of my reasons which include wanting my kids to not have a "herd" mentality so they can think for themselves and not just do what everyone else is doing because that is what they are suppose to do, to experience being with kids and people of all ages not just the kids that are the same age as them, and I want my kids to have a childhood which does not included boyfriends, smoking, and foul language.  For us, homeschooling is a way of life and while anyone can homeschool not everyone should.  This is a huge commitment and should not be taken lightly.  In our county, homeschooling is a very common thing with more than 5,000 reported homeschoolers for the last school year.  So good luck to new homeschoolers keep asking those questions and continued success to current homeschoolers.

Cookie and her kittens.

Finally, some pictures of Cookie and her kittens.  I never knew it was so hard to take pictures of kittens.  I have taken a lot of pictures but the kittens were moving so they looked like hairy blobs. 

Here is momma.

I think she is tired of being photographed.

3 little kittens.

These 2 are trying to escape.

Have you ever seen such a cute face?

It has been a lot of fun watching these kittens grow and change over the last 2 weeks.  Hopefully, they will all find good homes in the next 6 weeks.