Wordless Wednesday: Early Autumn Hike

 

Weird Things I Found on My Phone Explained, Part Two

 

 

 A dinner that we occasionally have is Pepperoni Pizza Monkey Bread.  We use a sheet pan instead of a Bundt pan because we need to make enough for 10 people. And we do other fillings sometimes.

This is close to that, but not quite.  This is Pizza Monkey Puzzle Bread.  It's a puzzle because one of the little rolls contains something that is technically edible, but is definitely NOT pizza.

Theoretically, you can figure out which one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Choclo actually managed to crack the puzzle and found... a lemon!

 

Which leaves the puzzle of "Why am I like this?" 

 

 

 

 This is from Oob.

If you look very closely, the imperiled person in the middle is not from the usual WWII army guy collection.

He's holding a sword.

He's a Jedi!

 

It's everyone else who's in trouble.

 

 

 

 Birds!

 

Mike really likes hanging out with Leena, but Oob clipped on a few cute (fake) birbs of his own, much to Mike's confusion. 

In other bird news, we had another baby crow (Ace) show up.  He paced back and forth on the driveway until we came out and fed him.

He must have been very young.  He stabbed the cheese with his beak and got it stuck on the tip- a noob move for sure!

He hung out with us for a few hours until his parents got him flying again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Graduation, Leena!

 Our town did a lovely parade to celebrate all the kids who were graduating during the pandemic.

The kids stood at the correct social distance (in a parking lot) while cars paraded past honking and shouting good wishes.

We live in a small town surrounded by sprawling cities (near Washington DC), and I am occasionally reminded how delightfully "small town" it really is.

This parade is definitely part of that, plus the fact that parade was led by the town fire truck and  ambulance, and concluded by our police car.  

And, after a remarkably short ceremony, Leena is officially a high school graduate!

Way to go Leena!  Four down, two to go!

Happy 18th Birthday Leena!

 Leena Beana is an adult!

And I'm really behind on my blogging because her birthday was last month!














18 Awesome Things About Leena:

1. She's always willing to help out.
2. She's great at audio and video editing!
3. She tells horribly hilarious jokes and puns.
3. She is a gerbil whisperer.
4. She runs two hilarious Twitter accounts!
5. She plays piano in the basement or the reading nook, and the whole house sounds great!
5. She really cares about other people.
6. She has a beautiful singing voice.
7. She's on the honor roll for her college classes.
7. She likes to have adventures.
8. She has over a thousand subscribers on her You Tube channel!
9. She's a sweet and loving sister.
9. She draws amazingly well.
10.  She can have fun with people much older than she is.
12. She can have fun with people much younger than she is.
12. She has dozens of music compositions on her Sound Cloud Channel!
13. She and I are in charge of the flowers for our parish!
13. She makes great baked beans.
14. She writes scripts, short stories, and novellas.
15. She's always up for crazy ideas.
15. She knows a LOT about G2 Bionicle.
16. She's a wonderful voice actress.
17. She gets paid to write music, do art, and voice act!
17. She is ridiculously musically talented.
18. She's a sweet, thoughtful and loving person.

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday: Random Art

 The first three are referring to the Professor Layton puzzle games

Happy Birthday, Leena!

 Leena is 17!

She has her driver's license and a phone...she's almost a grown up already!

It's hard to believe!

She got many cool presents, including an addition to her gerbil palace, and the (custom tie-dyed) shirt which says: I work hard so my gerbilz can have a better life.

17 Awesome Things About Leena:

1. She's always willing to help out.
2. She's great at audio and video editing!
3. She tells horribly hilarious jokes and puns.
3. She is a gerbil whisperer.
4. She likes to do math with me.
5. She plays piano in the basement or the reading nook, and the whole house sounds great!
5. She really cares about other people.
6. She has a beautiful singing voice.
7. She's on the honor roll for her college classes.
7. She likes to ice skate.
8. She has over a thousand subscribers on her You Tube channel!
9. She's a sweet and loving sister.
9. She draws amazingly well.
10.  She can have fun with people much older than she is.
12. She can have fun with people much younger than she is.
12. She has more than 50 compositions on her Sound Cloud Channel!
13. She and I are in charge of the flowers for our parish!
13. She makes great baked beans.
14. She writes scripts, short stories, and novellas.
15. She's always up for an adventure.
16. She's a wonderful voice actress.
16. She gets paid to write music, do art, and voice act!
17. She's a sweet and loving daughter.

Leena is Driving!

 Leena went for her driver's test last week.

Was she nervous?

Maybe a little...

Going places!

But she passed with flying colors on her first try!

That makes four kids driving independently, and it means SIX drivers in the house!!!

Yet More Random Things

 I don't think I've mentioned it, but the Emperor had minor foot surgery in January... and again in February when the first surgery didn't work.  I think he's doing better. At the very least, he certainly looks dapper with a cane!  He's supposed to be all healed up in a few weeks.



Completely unrelated, how amazing is it that Klenda can copy a Michelangelo sketch in his style, and also sketch herself and her sister in a completely different style on the same day?

Leena (who backed the big honking van into this tiny parking space perfectly on the first try) is taking her driver's test for her license next week!   I think she'll do great, but prayers would be appreciated!

I'm trying to stretch my brain around the concept that we will have 6 drivers in the house...


And, speaking of stretching my brain, I've been working on a new science class for younger kids: Paleontology!!

It's been super fun to work on, but tricky to  work out how much to cover and in what order.  I started out planning it sequentially, like: this is how life on Earth developed, and then realized that, while perfect for a high school class, it was way too much detail for the age group (7-13 year olds).

On the plus side, I think I've figured out a hands on way to explain radiometric dating to young kids.  It involves chocolate.  I'll be posting those classes as I do them starting in March.





And, lastly, one of the great joys of feeding birds in the winter, is finding your yard covered in teeny tiny bird footprints, along with the occasional little squirrel prints.

Wordless Wednesday: Sisters

Wordless Wednesday: Falling for Fall