Ben's Gallery: Christmas Trees

Ben drew this picture on the way down to Grandpa and Grandma's house. It's a maze of Christmas trees. You have to find your way through the maze from the upper left to the small green tree. BUT watch out for the some of the trees they may trap you!! And then you can only escape by bonking them on the head!

The Trumpeter

Santa brought Ben a trumpet!

A Crowder Christmas

We are enjoying a Florida Christmas this year! We headed south on December 23rd and have been enjoying warm weather and sunshine!

Beautiful Tree

celebrating with Crowder eggnog

new golf bags! 

trumpeting the arrival of Grandma and Grandpa's present - a photo album

what could possibly be in this box?1? pom-poms, of course!

a favorite!

Santa came to FL!

Looking like a real golfer!

Fore!

loving the links!

Daddy, the caddy

Mommy, the other caddy

Staking claim to Julia's chair

laser tag! Gotcha!

Chillin'

Christmas Celebrations II

A few shots from Christmas at the Nadeau's!! 

Grandpa Rick with his strength trainers from Julia. Build those muscles!

hair styling'

What will you find in McElligot's Pool?

Christmas Celebrations I

We had a special visitor this past Saturday... Santa Claus made an early stop to our house to deliver some of the kids' gifts since we are not going to be home on Christmas Day. The kids were very surprised!

Patiently posing before opening the first present from Santa.

Julia's favorite present - a kitty cat from Benjamin named Pellie

Thanks Bro!

Andrew's new epee!

Thrilled with his Calico Critters!

As I'm writing this we have had a few Christmas celebrations so far and Benjamin has been delightful at each one. He is so excited about every single present! He, of course, looks forward to his own but is also thrilled to give them to others. It's adorable!

The Nutcracker

Our school schedule has been slowing down for the holidays. Well, maybe slowing down isn't the right word; we are spending less time on books and more time enjoying Christmas activities and spending time with friends.

Last week we had two outings that were focused on the Nutcracker ballet. On Monday, both kids and I attended a demonstration put on Festival Ballet. The dancers explained a little about the history of ballet, the story of the nutcracker, shared some costumes with us, and taught the kids a couple of dance routines from the ballet. Benjamin particularly enjoyed it and was one of the first to hop up when they asked for volunteers to come to the stage and participate in the dancing!

On Thursday, Julia and I attended the Festival Ballet's performance of The Nutcracker at the Providence Performing Arts Center. She loved trying to pick out the dancers that we had met on Monday.

Anna, Elizabeth, and Julia (with her dolphins)

After the play, she and I had a special lunch at the Duck and Bunny Snuggery (how appropriate a name for a lunch with Julia!) in Providence. It was nice to spend some quiet time together and get into the holiday spirit!

Christmas with Friends

A few pictures from various holidays activities over the past couple of weeks.

With Sarah and Elizabeth at Jordan's Christmas Village.

Adding what we're thankful for to the gratitude tree at co-op.

One of B's teachers reading to him at co-op.

Playing duck, duck, goose. It was Ben's idea to play and then they decided to play it in Spanish! So actually it's pato, pato,  ganso! I learn something new everyday!

Benj and Sarah building pyramids

Decked out for our holiday poetry teatime!

getting crafty!

time for hot chocolate

celebrating with friends! 

scones, cookies, hot chocolate and poetry - a recipe for success!

The Story of the Polar Bear and the Snowman

Benjamin has been putting on puppet theater shows for us recently. Here is his original creation, "The Story of the Polar Bear and the Snowman."

Animal Magic

The following story is an original creation of Julia's. I gave her the story prompt "I woke up one morning and discovered I had turned into a bunny." She took it from there!

Animal Magic

By Julia Crowder

December 15, 2015

One morning I woke up and discovered I had turned into a bunny! Then my mother came in and said, “Julia, it’s time for breakfast.” When she saw that I was a bunny she said, “okay, I’ll carry you down and feed you a carrot.” After breakfast I got put in a cage. She put the lock on the cage and put some carrots and water in there and a water bottle on the side. She put a drinking tube on the top. She said, “okay, I guess I’ll keep you in a cage.” I went to sleep for the night. The next morning I turned back into a person. I was too big for the cage! I was squished in it! Then Daddy came down and saw me in the cage. He let me out of the cage. I had breakfast.

Another morning Benjamin woke up and discovered that he had turned into a penguin! My mother went into Benjamin’s room and said “Hey Benjamin, it’s time for breakfast!” When she noticed he was a penguin she screamed, “Someone get the penguin out of the house!” My Dad came and put him outside in a cold, cold pool. Then he went to sleep for the night. When he woke up he was a person again and hated being in the pool. So he yelled, “Daddy!” Daddy saw that he was a person again and brought him inside and fed him breakfast. It was grapefruit. My mother came in and saw that he was a person again and said, “There must be magic going on. Last week Julia was a bunny. Now Benjamin has turned into a penguin. I’m going to ask the neighbors.

Our neighbors said, “Last week my son turned into a giraffe and this morning he turned into a pink penguin!” The rest of the neighbors said that the same magic had been happening. One of the mothers said, “Let’s call the police and see if they can figure out what is happening.” The mother next door called the policeman and he came. The policeman asked “what has been happening?” “Our sons and daughters have been turning into strange animals because of some magic.” Two penguins came out of 2 houses and 3 giraffes came out of 3 houses and 4 bunnies came out of 4 houses and 5 hippos came out of 5 houses!

The policeman called more police and said, “We have to find the person that is causing all this and make them turn these animals back into people.” They had looked everywhere and the North Pole was the only place left. They found a witch up at the North Pole. They said, “Hey Witch, you need to put all this magic back to normal.” The witch said “no.” One of the policemen said “I’ll take your wand and do it myself.” There were five buttons on the wand, like the five hippos. A policeman said, “How about if we put this witch in jail?” So they put the witch in jail and figured out which button put all the animals back to people. The mothers said “thank you” to the policemen for helping them. The policemen melted the wand because it had too strong of a power.

The end

Nighttime Chronicles

We spent an afternoon baking cookies and getting prepared for a holiday tea party that we hosted. That night, right before he went to sleep, Benj whispered in my ear, "Mom, do we get to eat those scrumptious cookies tomorrow?" "Yes, Benjamin." With a sleepy smile, "oh good... they really are the most scrumptious."

All Christmas cookies should be "scrumptious"!

The Artist

While painting gingerbread houses the other day Benjamin declared, "I am going to be an artist when I grow up." 

loving color

isn't naked the best way to paint?

the artist's eye

Violin Recital December 2015

Julia has been taking violin classes through our homeschool co-op. She absolutely loves playing and has thoroughly enjoyed the class. At the end of their last session, they put on a performance for our co-op members.

Art Gallery: Anansi

Anansi, a character from ancient african folktales has become a favorite character of the kids this year. In our history studies we have read, and listened to, many different Anansi stories; in some, Anansi is a man and in others he is a spider. The drawings below are Benjamin and Julia's illustrations of Anansi from the story Anansi and the Turtle.

Anansi next to the river with the turtle by Julia

Christmas Prep 2015

Time for lights!

Figuring out a lighting strategy for Grandma and Grandpa's tree

finding the right spot

celebrating Mom and Auntie's birthday with noise makers

woohoo!