Saturday, February 28, 2009

These are the Picklets Favortie Things

  1. elephants
  2. books
  3. Harry Potter
  4. Mommy and Daddy
  5. pets
  6. Eragon
  7. Legend of Zelda
  8. Twilight Princess
  9. Wii
  10. Ipod
  11. DS
  12. Pokemon Pearl
  13. Kaya
  14. Felicity
  15. Josephina
  16. Julie
  17. Taylor Swift
  18. Nickleback
  19. Our Song
  20. Panera Cinnamon Crunch bagels
  21. Before He Cheats
  22. Myth Busters
  23. Dirty Jobs
  24. watching buildings explode
  25. Panera Hot Chocolate
  26. ostriches
  27. horses
  28. tigers
  29. Animorphs
  30. apple pie
  31. Chinese Caligraphy
  32. pumpkin pie
  33. cherry pie
  34. swords
  35. driving permit
  36. guns
  37. gymnatics
  38. Sokol
  39. Grandma
  40. Grandpa
  41. safe books
  42. Aunt Jeanne and Jo
  43. honey walnut cream cheese
  44. my phone
  45. Ocarina of Time
  46. my bed
  47. my house
  48. ocarina
  49. bass, piano
  50. Fairie Court
  51. The Little Waltz
  52. Bells are Ringing by Beethoven
  53. laptop
  54. neopets
  55. Club Penguin
  56. gmail
  57. Google Earth
  58. glass soda bottle collection
  59. motorcycles
  60. my room
  61. dinosaurs
  62. andelites
  63. silver back gorillas
  64. giraffes
  65. golden retrievers
  66. wolves
  67. grizzly bears
  68. The Hobbit
  69. mommy's food
  70. redtailed hawk
  71. bald eagles
  72. perigrin falcon
  73. daddy's omlets
  74. northern herrior
  75. polar bears
  76. The Dark KNight
  77. Clueless
  78. Bowling for Soup
  79. 1985
  80. Stride gum
  81. Z102.9
  82. Pec Nam Spadla
  83. blankie
  84. Sweet Kitty
  85. Chip Bunny
  86. little pillow
  87. Dutchess
  88. Gracie
  89. Palo
  90. Number Three
  91. Millie the Wonder Dog
  92. Master Shadow
  93. Blacktop
  94. Shamus
  95. Asia
  96. America
  97. mural wall at Sokol
  98. uneven bars
  99. rings
  100. macaroni and cheese
  101. pizza
  102. spaghetti
  103. lasagna
  104. apple dumpling with cinnamon ice cream
  105. apple crisp
  106. almond joy cake
  107. ice cream
  108. hot chocolate
  109. Mt. Dew
  110. Coke
  111. "Tough Guys Wear Pink" shirt
  112. skirts with pants under it
  113. hoodies
  114. Sokol shirt
  115. bald eagle shirt
  116. Adventureland
  117. 6 Flags
  118. Pappios Fun Place
  119. Omaha
  120. Chicago
  121. Iowa
  122. Shawn Johnson
  123. Olive Garden
  124. Texas Roadhouse
  125. library
  126. Naruto
  127. Yi-Gi-Oh!
  128. American Girls books
  129. Ben 10
  130. Arthur
  131. Card Heros
  132. Casey Ringtop
  133. reading
  134. A Christmas Story
  135. "So help me God, yellow eyes."
  136. Chip and Dill
  137. Svetlusy
  138. Sweet
  139. A Series of Unfortunate Events
  140. Thick and Creamy Yogurt

copyright 2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Boone County Historical Center, part 2

When we left the main hall we went up a set of stairs to the 2nd floor. To say this place was unorganized would be an understatement. I now wish I would have taken a picture of the whole thing so I could show you instead of trying to explain it. You had to walk sideways through areas and weave in and out of displays. There were places you had to step over things laying on the floor. It was just thrown up there in hopes of, one day, getting organized. I say this with experience because my basement looked much the same last summer. We did see alot of neat things and had alot of fun dodging everything.

Sweet is the next Vanna!
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Chip got the biggest kick out of this Brick Town set.
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Chip also got a big kick out of the back side of this radio. He took 7 pictures of it!
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Spectacles, testicles, wallet, watch and nitro so says dad. Sorry, family joke...mom you get it,right? Anyway, no need to wait a week. Glasses made while you wait!
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This Phylco TV was amazing. I loved the way the screen can move up and down. I wonder if we could hook the DVD player up to it...lol
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Retro and educational? I soooooooo want this game! Who knows, maybe I had it when I was gowing up. I know I had the Grease album next to it.
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I also had one of these nifty Bee Gee's transistor radios.
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Dill stood over and read the directions for injecting this anti-venom. Can you say OUCH!
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This mallet was almost as big as Sweet. How anyone could lift and hit with this thing makes me wonder.
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Here is the story behind the mallet.
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We really had a good field trip day. After we left the Historical Center we headed home listening to A Short History of the United States by Edward Chaning. We stopped at a DQ had an ice cream cone for a snack, bought milk in a bag and stopped to see my mom and dad. It was a great day!

Boone County Historical Center, part 1

After viewing the scenery from atop the Mahanay Tower we headed back east to Boone. (don't pay attention to this picture...it was taken as we were driving west...I just liked it)Photobucket
We ate lunch at Taco John's. I had the Buffalo Chicken wrap...and OMG was it goooooood!

We then went on to the second part of our field trip. The Boone County Historical Center. It is a very small museum but had alot of neat stuff to look at.

The first room we went to had a whole bunch of war stuff. Guns and cannons and uniforms, oh my! These guns are from the Civil War.
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Inside the casing was a bunch of war memoribilia. The picklets got a kick out of the blue canning jars. I have a bunch of these that I keep spices in on my counters.
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This log was awesome! It has actual shrapnel in it. I think it is from the Civil War but I cannot remember for sure.
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This coat was used during the Vietnam War. The picklets made me take a pickture of it because it looks just like my winter coat.
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This Dragoons uniform is pretty snazzy.
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Some information on the Dragoons.
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The next room we went to was a natural history room. I am not afraid to admit that this room scared the heck out me. I wasn't expecting real animals to be stuffed and NOT be behind glass. These things coulda jumped out and attacked me! Let's just say they took me by surprise. Look at the little beedy red eyes! Don't tell me that doesn't scare you.
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This mountain lion is really cool but it did freak me out. Ever see Night at the Museum?
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Look at the size of the paws on this monster.
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The information on the mountain lion is interesting. Though the information is a bit outdated. The 2000 killing was in Dennison. My mom and dad didn't live too far from there at that time. A couple years ago another mountain lion was spotted in Cedar Rapids. It wasn't killed and as far as I know it hasn't been spotted again.
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How cool is this mammoth tusk???
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There was another room downstairs that we visited. I guess I didn't take any pictures of it though. I had a bunch of presidential memorabilia. All Democratic...LOL. NO Republican at all. It also had a replica of a mining tunnel and a repllica of the path that Kate Shelley took. We had absolutely no idea of who Kate Shelley was so we asked the curator. He set us up in the basement with a 20 minute video.

It is a rather neat story. Kate Shelly was 15 years old. It was a stormy night and there was a passenger train due in to the Moingona station. The station sent a train out to make sure the way was safe ie: there were no bridges out. Unfortunately that train fell into Honey Creek because the Honey Creek bridge washed out. Kate made her way to the station crawling along the Des Moines River bridge to give warning that the bridge washed out. The station then sent word to stop the passenger train and the lives of the passengers were saved. Of all the people who were on that path only two lives were lost thanks to the bravery of 15 year old Kate Shelley. If you are interested you can read about Kate Shelley yourself. Edhelper also has a literature unit on the book Kate Shelley and the Midnight Express by Maraget Wetterer it you have a membership.

Since we didn't have time this trip, we are planning another trip back to visit the Kate Shelley park, railway station, bridge and path. Sweet was very interested in her.

In the main lobby of the museum there was a collection of coins. Those were also neat but I didn't get pictures of them either. Musta not been on my game. Next we headed upstairs....

copyright 2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Mahanay Bell Tower

We had a piece of gymnastics equipment we needed to pick up three hours from home.
Can you say field trip??? The first place we went to was Mahanay Tower.Photobucket
It is 14 stories high and once up there we could see for about 25 miles. I was really worried about having to climb 14 flights of stairs but lucky for me it had an elevator. :-)
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It was a beautiful, sunny day and we could see wonderfully. I love the fly on the window. :-)
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A close up of the water tower. I had this on 10 zoom.
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One of the bells. We waited for half an hour to hear the bells but a workman turned them off earlier that morning. Bummer.
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The picklets looking down and telling me they would like to eat at the Chinese restraunt on the corner.
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This building was kinda neat with the painted scene on it.
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The courthouse is right next to the tower.
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My van from 14 stories up.
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It really wasn't educational but the picklets got a kick out seeing the grain towers where Grandma and Grandpa used to live.

Monday, February 23, 2009

A Day in Our Homeschool Life

I thought I would share a typical (or not so) day in our homeschool with you.

I woke up at 5 this morning and made a pot of coffee, unfortunately 5am is all too typical. Cool and I then watched Fox News while drinking a couple cups of coffee together. Cool brought me a cup of coffee and accidently put creamer in it. YUCK! While Cool showered and got ready for work I went out and started his car, got his lunch ready, made another pot of coffee and saw him off. It was 6:00.

I sat down to the computer to check my email and found the internet was down so decided to take a shower. After brushing my teeth, I woke the picklets up. They were very happy to be up so early...NOT! I sent Dill and Sweet up to shovel the library sidewalk while Chip took a shower. Dill and Sweet are still working off their fines. I called Chrissy and made apple cinnamon bread.

After Dill and Sweet got back we sat down on the couch and watched Stick It! It was a movie about gymnastics and all three loved it. I believe it showed the picklets perseverance and how good they could be if they work really hard at it. During the movie we ate our sweet bread and drank chocolate milk. I have found starting the day with a movie once or twice a week really helps start the day off with a bang. We all enjoy the relaxation. Plus with the Netflix membership Cool got us we always have something to watch.


When the movie was finished I started reading Lincoln and His Boys by Rosemary Wells. It is a very easy read and the picklets seemed to enjoy it.

After I finished the first third of the book the picklets went their separate ways for individual study. Chip started with math review. Dill worked on spelling and then math. Sweet worked in her Daily Learning Drills book. I started soaking the dishes and checked my email. I signed up for a free Quizno's sub. I then went and did the dishes. Dill had a question about his spelling words so I helped him with those.

When I finished the dishes I sat down with Dill and corrected his math and spelling. We went over the wrong items. Sweet then asked if lightening bugs are beetles so we looked that up. Yes indeed they are.

I went to the kitchen and started lunch. Sweet is ecstatic because I decided on corn dog casserole. While the onions and hot dogs were browning I helped Sweet with some math problems. Chip came downstairs, put his math book on the counter and continued reading Series of Unfortunate events #13. I finished putting the casserole together, put it in the oven and corrected Chip's math. He continued reading and corrected as I went along.

Since the casserole wasn't quite ready yet I decided to continue reading Lincoln and His Boys. In the book President Lincoln ate chicken fricassee. Dill questioned what is in it so we looked it up and decided to make it sometime this week. After finishing the second third of the book we got our plates of corn dog casserole and carrots and sat down at the computer to watch a PBS documentary of Egypt. It is in three parts. We only watched half of the first part. It is rather, ummmmmm, boring and we will watch it in shifts.

After watching the Egypt video the picklets took the dogs for a walk. The sun is out and shining brightly. Better to take advantage of it rather than ignore. While they were walking the dogs I checked my email, folded a load of laundry, threw in another load, did the dishes from lunch and talked to Chrissy. The kids put their laundry away and did their chores after walking the dog. Chore time is rather a hassle because the boys think they need to be in the same room and they don't work but talk, play, hit each other with boxes and ignore what is being said to them. Still working on this. While the picklets do their chores, I put away mine and Cools clothes, hang up the laundry, make my bed and continue to "direct traffic". Unfortunately my voice is raised more than I like. Still working on this too.



Chores took a bit longer than I had hoped. We won't get to the art and science I had planned for the day. I threw king ranch chicken together and put it in the oven then sat down to read the rest of Lincoln and His Sons aloud. The picklets really liked the book and felt bad about Willie dying of "the fever". I then started reading Socrates Ancient Greek in Search of Truth by Pamela Dell aloud.

This book isn't written in the fun way that most books I read are. I was a bit worried that the kids weren't getting anything from it. So after the 2nd chapter I asked what they learned. Oh wow! "At the age of 70 Socrates was sentenced to death and was sentenced to drink hemlock. When he was young his dad died and he was in charge of his mom. If she wanted to get married she had to get his permission!" I guess they were listening and soaking up what I read.

Cool called right after that and told me he was about a half mile from home, pulled over on the side of the road, watching a bald eagle in a field. He asked if we wanted to come see it but as I said, "Yes!" the eagle flew off.

I had the picklets set the table and finished supper. We sat down and ate supper after Cool got home. The picklets cleared the table as I did the dishes.

Chip is now working on his page for the Sokol Newsletter, Dill is upstairs reading The Virginian and Sweet is reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in her room. Cool and I are watching The History Channel while I work on the blog. They are talking about Dexter, IA and the shoot out that happened between the law and Bonnie and Clyde. I had no idea that happened in IA! Clyde got away but his brother Buck died and Bucks wife Blanche was captured and spent 10 years in jail. Pretty neat.

So, give or take, that was our day. Really, it was pretty typical. I usually try to have game night on Monday nights but since Chip needed to finish the newsletter it wasn't even an option.

To end the evening, I am going to warm up some apple pie in a jar and serve it over ice cream for dessert. That should put a smile on every one's face.

G'night.


copyright 2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Unplugged: Clothing

When my aunt lived in Hawaii she had a business selling handmade cards to the local gift shops. One of the cards she made had a cloth shirt on the front and cloth shorts on the back. The cloth was Hawaiian fabric of course.

We decided to make our own cards after that fashion. We have an entire bag full of old hankies that were given to Sweet by our dear, departed neighber Mrs. D. The picklets went through the hankies and picked out fabric to use.
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Dill made a shirt and pair of pants. He put his pants on front and the shirt on back. They sort of look like cowboy clothes.
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Sweet made a skirt and tank. The lace on the bottom of the skirt is not glued on so it can blow in the breeze. She even made shoes to go with the outfit.
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In all a fun project.


copyright 2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Unplugged: Color and Wrinkle

I am a bit behind on my unplugged projects so thought I would combine two weeks into one. We marbeled crinkled paper with shaving creme and food coloring and then made them into postcards. You can follow the step by step instructions in the slide below. We saw this marbeling technique on Kid Concoctions. The Kid Concoctions books are worth checking out from your library for fun craft projects.




copyright 2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Slat Books

During our Chinese New Year Study we learned that Chinese characters were written up and down and read right to left. To figure out why we made slat books. The slat books open like scrolls. The right hand side is "unrolled" first and read. It continues to be opened and read.

Chip's scroll is the noodle soup recipe he likes so much. Dill's and Sweet's broke before I got the chance to take a picture.
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Orange Still Life

Since oranges are good luck during Chinese New Year, I thought it would be fun for the picklets to draw an orange still life. We were out of oranges so I put clementines into a glass bowl and the picklets drew them.

Chip tried his hand at shading.
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Dill drew his from the top view.
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Sweet drew hers from the side. She even made the ends look like stars.
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copyright 2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines