Salt dough mobile.

We wanted to find a use for Hannah's big salt dough beads so that they didn't just kick around the house bugging her daddy. This is what we came up with.


As with all the best learning experiences, this lesson on balance was unplanned and sprung naturally from our fun. Hannah got to learn how size, distance from center of the stick, and length of ribbon affected the balance. For instance, a medium sized bead tied close to the stick balanced out an extra-large bead tied with a two foot long ribbon.

Ainsley tied some beads on, but spent most of her time licking them.



I'm always amazed at Hannah's creativity when she's not being coached. When coached on a process, she gets 'stuck' in it, unable to allow her own ideas to come through and always worried about doing it 'right' or 'wrong'. When possible, I don't coach her anymore, I just start doing it and let her follow along if she wishes and ask questions if she gets stuck. When it came to this project, she tied beads onto ribbons in creative ways that I wouldn't have thought of, including making chains of beads that were separated by several inches of ribbon. They looked really good on the mobile.

The animals on our place are loving this also.

The kittens couldn't leave it alone for the first day. Watch Ghandi (the gray cat) in these pictures. He's so disdainful, but he gets closer and closer. When the kittens finally left for a few minutes, he tried his paw at it.

Two nights after we made this, my husband accidentally left the pasture gate open. I heard thumping around on the porch and went out to find the sheep and goats looking like they were bobbing for apples on this. Luckily, they didn't do much damage.

Discovering cattails.

Cross-posted.

We've lived here for three years and every year, twice a year, my children discover cattails as if it was the first time they'd seen them. One of the times is in the fall when the cattails dry and burst. The other is now, in the spring, right before the new cattails make their appearance and the old cattails are especially easy to, er, distribute.

"Let's get some exercise" says she as she heads down the road.

Once we realize she's serious, we run to catch up.

Exploring.

Discussing.

Loving.

Mother realizes that if there are to be any pictures of Grayson on this blog, she'd better take one.

We reach the 'pond'. Our nearest farmer uses this as his backup water. In a few weeks he'll burn this to the ground, clearing the way for the pond to be filled with irrigation water a few weeks after that. A few weeks after that, this seemingly barren little area will be teeming with plant and animal life.

Look what we discover.

Oh, the fun to be had with these.






Even the cats got in on the game.

"Is it raving you are, girl? To capture a leprechaun is no easy thing!"*

Two nights ago, Hannah tried leaving out shoelaces for the leprechaun because he is a shoemaker. He took the shoelaces and gold chocolate coins and got away.

So yesterday she got serious. She asked me to read her all of her leprechaun books yet again. We looked at our bookmarked leprechaun sites. She made me write down the following facts:

1) Leprechauns are shoemakers.
2) Leprechauns like gold.
3) Leprechauns are grumpy and live alone.
4) Leprechauns are drunk a lot.
5) Leprechauns are tiny.

If caught, remember the following:

1) Leprechauns are tricky.
2) Leprechauns won't lie. But their truth is tricky.
3) Leprechauns can't get away if you keep looking at them, so they will try to trick you into looking away.

Remembering all of the above, she set about making the final, most important (last chance until next year!) trap.

Alcohol. (Apple juice - we're fresh out of alcohol. And she had to borrow her sister's My Little Pony cups and bowls - she didn't want him to drown in a bigger cup.)


Shoelaces - lots this time. Chocolate gold coins. Not only in the bowl but in a path leading up to the bowl.

She was certain she had him this time. He'd probably get too drunk to get away but if he could hold his liquor, he wouldn't be able to get away fast enough with his arms so full of shoelaces and gold. Hee hee hee.

But 'tis no easy thing to catch a leprechaun.

He got away, probably drunk as a skunk. He drank all the alcohol and left the cups and bowls in a mess. He tipped over the gold coins and left a trail of them out the door. He dropped some of the shoelaces. The box knocked off and trapped his hat. He didn't get away unscathed, but he did get away.

Hannah had to inspect every piece of evidence.


Then she had to call her father and tell him all about it.


Until next year...

Books we had fun with:
*quote from Leprechauns Never Lie - how a leprechaun tricks a lazy girl into helping her grandma
Leprechaun Gold - how a leprechaun tricks a man into taking the gold he owes him
Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato - a lazy man catches a leprechaun who talks him into taking a potato seed instead of a pot of gold

A website you have to see:
The Leprechaun Watch - a webcam set up in a prime leprechaun viewing area. After you've read that page, click on 'webcam' up in the top lefthand corner. So much fun!

Snow day.

A week or so ago we went to visit my husband's family in Wyoming. We have cold here and we have wind here, but they have lots of snow. Want to see what jumpin on a trampoline in Wyoming looks like for half of the year?


Most of them quickly gave up and went on to more exciting snow activities.


But little Zee just kept on jumping. She never got much bounce.


The uncles decided that the four-wheelers needed to come out to play and one of them *cough Matt cough* got the four wheeler stuck in four feet of snow. They spent the next few hours trying to get it out.




Meanwhile, the kids had fun playing in snow.











Reaching for an icicle.


There was a lot of really fun, really fast sledding going on on one of the drifts, but this is the only picture I got since I was mostly helping children get on and aimed right and then helping them get back up.


We built a snow cave in one of the drifts for this cousin.


Ainsley ate snow.

About the four-wheeler - they finally did get it out. It took a tractor.


It's too bad the snow was too hard and crusty for making snow people. Hannah's been wanting to do that all winter.

Snapshot Sunday

Today is my first outside Snapshot Sunday. It was not a warm day, but it was one of those cool spring days that beckons you and you can't resist - and it wasn't just me. Nobody seemed capable of staying inside today. Which is why I could not seem to snap a single picture without some living creature in it. By the fifth picture I'd given up and included my own feet.



















How it began.


Sunnymama's up!

I missed Ramblings last week. Sorry!