Mini Society

3rd Graders at Runyon study economics in a fun way. They call it "mini-society" - a few weeks of learning, experimenting in barter and trading, choosing names, flags, money design, working to earn money (regular school "chores" as well as jobs like bankers, money cutters etc), market surveys, manufacturing products, balancing checkbooks, and selling products.

Today was selling day. It was oh so fun. Parents also earned money by coming to a prents meeting, or helping out in the classroom with book balancing. SO Elise and I got to shop, too.

Here is Owen setting up his shop:

The storefront:

Customers are lining up!

The product, #1 - Bendy snakes:

Product #2 - Cool Cork dudes or dudettes.
A few left waiting to be sold in the holding box:

A customer!


Making a transaction:

ELise trying to decide which flower tobuy:

Counting his money after the sale:




Elise bought a Cootie Catcher:

Owen making some sales:

Kids who weren't selling (the worked in 3 different shifts) comparing their loot and playing:

Here's some of our "loot" we all bought:

Whew! Exhausting day!

Kindergarten President's Day

The kindergarteners have been studying presidents. Specifically George Washington and Abe Lincoln. Reading books, doing crafts, writing about them, learning songs.

SO today was a day to show what they have accomplished to the parents. Of course, I got video of it all. Hopefully these are a bit better than I got last time ;-) with the penguins. (They're pretty shaky!)

Here is the class singing songs:

And Elise reading from her book about George Washington:

Art, Tea, and Photographs

Owen's artwork at the art show:



A whole wall of Runyon work:


Checking out the other schools' artwork:
Love this:

Everyone just MUST stand over the heat vent to get air blown up their clothes.....


A tea party arranged by Elise, just for the two of us....

And just for fun - a compilation of an afternoon's worth of pictures taken by Owen and Elise. Some of the highlights are - a hole in the tree, Oliver, the creek, and a robin visiting. Enjoy!

Mini-Vacation

Our long weekend started with a day off for Elise, and warm weather. We ate out on the porch (again!) and Elise made another of her luncheon creations. This one didn't really have a name, but it was a sad face, so I am told.

Thursday brought us a day off for both kids, parent teacher conferences (my kids are brilliant), and a day at the pool. We swam at Golden Rec Center, which is not close, but it is inexpensive, and mega fun. Owen made a chart listing all of our available pools, the amenities we care about (lazy river, slide, water depth, fun quotient) and put pluses or minuses for each. Golden won out. (Did I mention how brilliant my children are?) After that was ski rentals and ballet, then mom was off to a Mother Blessing (also know as a blessingway) for a friend who is expecting a baby. We hennaed her belly, and ourselves, lit some candles, told some stories, ate wonderful food. I don't have a pic of her belly (if I get one, I'll post it later!) but here is the henna on my arm:

I got home late Thursday evening, then we left bright and early on Friday for the ski slopes. We chose to go to Solvista for the first time, since it has been frequently recommended to us for kids. Owen and Elise did ski school all day on Friday, while John and I skied hard. We did most of the runs, except for a few black diamond runs that had bumps. For the most part, the blacks are like difficult blues at most of our favorite places, and the blues are like difficult greens. We still had a good time, and I was able to do many black runs that day (you can call me "Dragon Lady" now). The kids got lunch at ski school, while John and I tried out the cafeteria at Solvista. I thought I would be safe with the "special of the day", but apparently not. We vowed to bring our lunch next time. Friday was dinner at the condo, breakfast burritos.

Saturday was a day off for us, we spent time in our condo relaxing, watching movies, playing games, doing puzzles. We had planned to go sledding, but the blizzard-like conditions convinced us otherwise. We ate lunch in Winter Park at a nice cafe called the Mountain Rose Cafe. I had the best veggie-nut burger. Need to learn how to make that one myself. Everyone else's food was wonderful. Had dinner at the condo, soup, bread and cheese.
The condo had an outdoor hot tub, everyone (except for me) was looking forward to sitting in the hot tub in the snow, but by the time we were ready to go, it had stopped snowing and was actually sunny.

Sunday morning it was back to the slopes. Solvista is nice in that for $10, you can ski on just the Milestone lift and beginner slopes. Elise and I got those tickets, while John and Owen got tickets for the rest of the mountain. (Even regular lift tickets are only a fraction of the cost of the bigger more fancy resorts.) We mostly skied in the Milestone area, but Owen and John went up on some bigger green runs twice. That was enough for O :-) and Elise had a chance to go on those once and did fine.

Here are some pics of our day:

Owen picked up sking pretty quickly, he actually did pretty well when we went last year to Copper Mountain's Green Acres (another $10 lift ticket place). This year he learned how to turn and stop :-) (O is in the orange jacket.)

Here are Elise and John skiing together:

At first John helped Elise by lettingher hold on to his pole, but she quickly graduated to sking alone :-)

Riding the lift:

My big kid:

The view from below:

Here we are at lunch:

The kids riding up alone!

And finally, dinner at Beau Jo's on the way home!

Brag Time

This is the third Art Show in as many months that Owen's art has been included in. The first was at Bemis Library (Littleton's local library) with about 20 pieces from each Littleton school. The second was sponsored by the dowtown Littleton merchants and work was hung in many different shops along Main Street. Unfortunately, we missed that one, and I'm not even sure what piece was in that show. Now this third one is through Curtis Arts and Humanties Center, a local arts program that showcases local art in a variety of settings. Again, I'm not sure what piece of Owen's is in this show. Elise's art was also shown at the Bemis library, one of only 2 kindergarteners from our school.

Our school's art teacher is very good about displaying all the kids artwork (not enough room around the school halls and display cases to show everyone's artwork, all the time), she rotates displays so that every child has their art displayed at some time. But I do feel that she does a lot of encouraging to my kids. with shows and all. I am thankful for that! I want them to keep their love of art and creativity for ever.

The funny thing is, that the things she picks to show, aren't even my favorite pieces! Or especially the ones that really show off Owen and Elise's true creativity. Ah well.

Look at out sweet kitty - sleeping in the sun. He does follow the sun around the house.

He is in a little wicker chair that has kitty cushions on it.

Funny kids

3rd Grade is when the standardized testing begins for school children. They are a necessary evil, I agree, and could be less focused on in schools. I don't feel that Owen's school "teaches to the test" too much, but there was a good bit of talk about them in the week previous. (Get lots of rest, don't be absent if you can help it, etc.) I didn't realize that Owen paid much attention, until Monday morning before school the kids came up with this creation:
The letters CSAP (Colorado Student Assessment Program) out of legos.
I do have strange children.

Last week Elise and I visited some friends who have chickens. DIdn't get many good pictures (mostly took ones of the coop and run :-) but here is A with his chickens, and Elise checking them out.

And then this weekend we luckily came upon a chicken coop. I swear, the universe literally plopped it down at our feet. I am still deciding where to put it, and how to make a decent sized yet safe place for the chickens to be out during the day. (We have many creatures who coexsist with our family in our yard. Who would like to eat chickens.) The local farm supply store will start getting chicks in March, so I need to decide what kind to get, and then try to be on hand when they come in. We definitely want ones that lay interesting colored eggs, although that won't be for quite a while. For now, they wil be pets, this time will be for bonding (the kids and the chickens, I mean) and learning how to take care of them.

Nothing else much is going on right now. Same old thing - teach Nia, clean the house, dance Nia, do some volunteer work, do some more volunteer work, dance Nia, take kids to classes, clean house some more, dance some more, learn some new routines also, clean. Pay bills. Do taxes. Meet with friends occassionally, need to do that more.

Finally, coming out of the fog...

Well, the kids have been sick for about the past week. Elise starting on Tuesday, it hit Owen about Thursday evening. The kids are both still hacking away, the are well enough to go to school, but still sound scary. I'll send them off and see how it goes. John had a fever sometime in the middle there, it didn't affect his work schedule, but he was pretty mopey for a few days. I was mopey too, but never got feverish. Hopefully it's all gone now!

Dinner!

Had some really good curry for dinner tonight. The picture isn't nearly as good looking as it looked, and tasted. It was a mixture of several different recipes I found....

Eggplant Potato Thai Curry

In large pot, saute 1/2 chopped white onion in butter (was supposed to be ghee, but I didn't have time to make ghee) til soft, add in 2 red potatoes, cubed, and 3 teaspoons of prepared curry paste (I had some massamun curry paste that has been in my fridge for way too long) til coated. Add 1 can coconut milk, and 2 cups water (had no broth on hand). Add 1/4 red bell pepper, sliced. Let simmer for about 15 minutes. Salt to taste, and add 1 small thai red pepper, crumbled.

In the meantime, in a frying pan, saute 1 medium diced eggplant in 1/4 cup butter (again with the ghee) til slightly charred and gooey (okay, I have no idea if mine got charred, but yes to goey). (About 10 minutes?)

Add eggplant to coconut milk - potato mixture, cover, and let simmer another 15 minutes.

Serve over brown rice. Yummy!

I just love my kids. They went out with dad to the store, and came home with these foam headpieces, from some tax prep company. I caught them making shadows out in the driveway:

Had a really nice Nia class today, #3 for me. 11 people were there, and they all had a very good energy, my hopes for Nia in the gym have just gotten higher.

Thoughts towards gardening....

Turning away from valentine's day..... Thinking about gardening.
For dinner, we're having something vaguely mexican, and I harvested some cilantro from my garden. Yes, you heard right, cilantro, on February 13th. Apparently my cilantro likes this cold weather. It's the only thing green right now! I had to dig it out of the snow.
Started some basil and spinach seeds, just for fun. Aren't they cute?
I have been reading blogs and online catalogues about starting seeds and planning for this spring. I plan to rearrange my garden some, tomatoes have been in the same spot at least three years in a row now, I think my greens will do fine in the spot the zucchinis do not like. I'll put the peas where the tomatoes were, tomatoes can have the "new" garden. Still not sure where peppers will do best, I have not had luck with them yet in Colorado.
Here's my wish list:
Tomatoes - roma type of course, maybe some yellow
Peppers - I'd like to have many kinds, jalepenos, serranos, redbells, maybe something spicy>
Peas of course - snap, sugar, or snow
Greens- of course - lettuce, spinach, chard
Zucchini- yes, in a more sunny spot this time!
Potatoes - LOVED growing them last year, so fun to dig up
Sweet potatoes - want to give them a try. They need a wide row space as they are viney. They can be staked, not sure where to put them
Pumpkins- We always have a few pumpkin vies, I kind of let them go where they will, try to trellis onto my wooden railing
Onions - still trying. Past two years have not been very successful. Maybe try seeds this year?
Garlic - see onions.
Squash - not sure yet what to grow, really don't have the garden space set up yet, maybe into the yard?
Basil - to me, this is a crop separate from herbs. Need lots and lots, to make pesto to greeze for the winter......
Herbs- I have some oregano, sage, chives, and parsley, they come back every year. Maybe I'll add this year.
I really want to start most of the plants from seeds indoors this year, as I feel I spend way too much on plants every year. Except for the obvious direct seeded plants.
I'm sure I missed something, but I'll work on my list as the winter goes on. This blog can be a place for me to note what I have done and what happens. I hope. Look for updates!