Spring

Spring is here, so we've been outside as much as possible.  Still, there are some parts of the day that are cool and best spent inside with a book and a dog.

There have been extra afternoon walks, sometimes to the river.  Can you say "strut?"

Spring often means housecleaning.  I can't admit to this, but we have done some house building. XX made another roly poly house.  We haven't found many rolies yet, but hopefully soon.

We did find a couple of ladybug larvae and even a few pupae.  One of our rosebushes is "blessed" with many aphids, so we have plenty of food for the little guys.

Galaxy found this highly interesting.

XX spent some time conjuring up a fairy house out of leaves, bark, magnolia petals, moss, and more.  Unfortunately, she chose materials that Red finds tasty so he ate quite a bit of it the next day.

This is for Aunty Kimba:  XX wanted me to take a video of her on her stilts so that AK knows how hard she is working.  She is still reaching for that goal of being a stilt person in a Chinese parade.

XX recently had her first professional voiceover audition.  The wonderful part about this audition was that it could take place at home with Daddy doing the recording!

She was happy to get a tomato hat at the grocery store as tomatoes are her favorite blogging hors d'oevres.

And Spring brings an added bonus around here ... the ice cream man! 

Happy Happy Spring!

Learning

XiaoXiao has been studying the history of civilization and has shown a real interest in the subject.  We're at Egypt now, which means some great hands-on projects.

Most notably, and perhaps most cringe-worthy, is Chicken-a-Roo. He's a soon-to-be mummy.

We washed him (yes, a real roaster), dried, rinsed in alcohol, then packed him in a salt mixture.  He's dried out quite a bit in three days and doesn't smell a bit.  Check back in six weeks or so when, if he's ready, we wrap him in linen strips. XX loves this project so much, she's eager to do it again and give Chicken-a-Roo a friend.

We made paper and XX wrote on it in hieroglyphics.

"Red"

"Galaxy"

There's zoology. We've learned the classification methods and are now working on the different phyla of the animal kingdom. As a side venture, XX dissected an owl pellet.

She found the skeletal remains of four voles inside. No varied diet for this owl.

On a less gruesome side, she's also learning to read music and play in duet with someone else.

I love seeing how far she and her teacher have come, both accommodating each other's quirks. We are so lucky to have Aunt Steff's former teacher as she is teaching XX far more than how to play the violin. She's teaching XX how to make music.

XX has started a class in American Sign Language.  The teacher said that starting this week, he's going to try to hold the class in silence.  I think "try" is the operative word in a class that includes XX.

This upcoming month includes art camp, a trip, standardized tests (which are concentrated into long periods over few days for homeschoolers here and therefore, even more egregious), and much rehearsal for both ballet and violin performances.

And don't forget Chicken-a-Roo!

What's New?

Lots!

XiaoXiao started gymnastics.  It's a great way for her to focus all that energy, and she got a ribbon soon after starting for good participation. Along with the shiny, sparkly leotards, she's hooked.

She loves climbing the ropes.

She's also started an on-camera acting class. This feeds right into her hammy nature.  She calls the studio "my place" already and says the class is one of her favorites.

Running lines with Daddy.

We went to the local Chinese New Year celebration where there were lots of games. XX is pretty competitive and decided to study the games as she played them.  She drew a crowd around her on this one as she worked hard and even pulled the straws in such a way as to bounce the marbles onto other straws rather than fall.

We went to the parade and lucked out into "front row" placement, right behind the barricade.  There were enormous lions and lots of dragons. She reached for everyone and everything, and touched many of the dragons' silk bodies for good luck as they wound around and around chasing the pearls.  There was only a brief lament that she was not able to be in the parade, but it passed quickly as she started waving to everyone on every float.

Galaxy graduated from puppy class and is now in intermediate level.  She happily put on the hat and posed for photos.  She's got the body of a fashion model, reed thin and all legs so it's no surprise.

Those long legs mean she's still awfully gawky.  She used to get this far onto a seat to be next to Red.

Now she suns with him after either jumping fairly gracefully or climbing up awkwardly.

XX now gets some music theory in her violin lessons, which run almost an hour and a half.  Her teacher demands a good pencil hold, careful penmanship, and even excellent color sense.  It's art and music all together, the best of everything.

And now we're just at the start of Spring; we're definitely looking forward to the season of "new."