Nature Walk

Our weekly nature walks have been reduced to bi-weekly walks due to the new book club.

As usual, our walk started at the front pond.

After counting seven small fish, the girls turned their attention to the ants floating on the surface of the pond. The ants' wings were stick in the water and the poor insects' legs were wiggling like mad. Sparkle "rescued" one ant by scooping it out of the water. On the rocks, the girls watched smaller ants scurrying back and forth. On the ground, the girls found even more large ants with wings.


Lizards, in various sizes, are also in abundance, due to the warmer weather.


I've given up on hauling the large nature bag around, so the girls haven't been doing much drawing. Recently, I provided the girls with small notepads for them to carry in their purses. Sparkle pulled her notepad out to drawing the fish and the century plant.


Glitter hung out on the swing, the benches, and the "paths."

First Confession

Whenever we mentioned Sparkle's upcoming First Confession to her, she'd get this nervous look in her eye and she'd shrink about two inches. Discussing the matter didn't seem to help put her at her ease. So, I made sure that she knew her prayers, understood the concepts, read her the allegory of "The King of the Golden City" (which she *loved*), and left the rest to her teacher and the Almighty.

Then the *big day* came last Saturday. She wrung her hands and fumbled when practicing her prayers in the car. (Prayers that she has had down cold for months!) We exchanged extra big hugs as I dropped her off in her class.

The next time I saw her she was striding down the aisle of the church with her class, with a *huge* bounce in her step and a gigantic grin on her face. She was third in line for confession and seemed to take longer than the other kids before her. Then she quietly knelt in her pew and did her penance. Finally she joined us positively glowing with happiness.

Here's a picture I snapped just outside the church.


Then we went to celebrate with Marble Slab ice cream!

Dancing

Saturday evening Wander and I got a babysitter and went dancing!
I can't remember the last time the two of us have been on a date, and it's been even longer since we've been dancing.

Wander got dressed up. (Isn't he handsome?) But I just wore my everyday dress. (The same outfit I wear for primitive camping.)

Glitter Plays

When Sparkle first joined the family, my brother composed and sang a song welcoming her. He also gave Sparkle a song for her birthday. She adored having songs composed especially for her. Glitter liked her sister's songs, but didn't have a song of her own. So, when my brother last visited us, I mentioned that Glitter would probably like a song too, and asked if he could compose a song for her as well. Earlier this week, the desired song arrived in my inbox and I loaded it onto my iPod.





This was Glitter's first or second time playing the song, so she's a little dazed. I love how she nods her head when her uncle asks "Ready?" in the song. Glitter has since learned how to turn on my iPod, plug it into the speakers, and set the song to "repeat one" so that she can play her song all by herself over and over and over and over and over again.

Overscheduled

New year, new activities.

Too many activities that sound too good.

- dance class (1/week)
- piano class (1/week)
- drawing class (1/week)
- book club (2/month)
- homeschool pe (2/month)
- homeschool art club (1/month)
- homeschool virtue class (1/month)
- girl club (1/month)
- science class (1/month)

Not to mention our own stuff
- library (1/week)
- nature walk (1/week)
- teatime (1/week)