Crayfish

Lukas and Noah had a chance to inspect a crayfish as part of the science experiment segment of Classical Conversation on Monday. Since I am the tutor, there is no time for picture taking, so I am grateful for the Moms who snap away with their phones. Lukas really enjoyed his new companion and was happy that he did not have to cut him open, but only observe the many parts of this little critter.

Homework

Homework is not something we are used to, there is no need to assign home work when all the education takes place at home. However, the boys are participating in a speech class and each week they are given an assignment to complete before the next class. Last week, the assignment was to give clear and appropriate directions, and they both set out to tell each other how to make sandwiches. There were a few giggles and laughs and neither Lukas nor Noah could keep a straight face as they followed some of the vague directions to a 't'

The result was two terrific sandwiches and two happy boys - homework and lunch done!

Another birthday celebration

Time to say good bye!

Lukas birthday celebration continued as we spent Saturday with dear friends. After a lovely luncheon topped off with birthday candles and delicious dessert, and gifts;  we headed to the beach for some crab hunting. Lukas, Noah, Bob, along with our friends jumped from rock to rock, crouching over to peak into crevices, looking for yet another crab. Tongs and containers allowed the boys to capture and study the sharp clawed critters before releasing them back into the Pacific Ocean. A wonderful way to spend a leisurely Saturday afternoon. We are truly blessed with amazing friends who care so deeply for us - not only lavishing the boys with nice presents, but pouring out the most extravagant gift of all, their time, on us. 

English grammar

The boys practice diagramming daily, to mix it up a bit the whiteboard is replaced by the window sometimes...

Happy Birthday Lukas!

Eleven years ago, our lives changed drastically. We thought we were busy and we thought we lived full lives.. Lukas Johann changed our lives in so many great and wonderful ways. He celebrated his birthday 'his way' meaning very little school, waffle breakfast, spending time tinkering and a quiet family dinner celebration. Yes, there was a swim practiced thrown in, and of course what is becoming the obligatory stop at MYO on the birthday for a free MYO Sundae.

Talking to Grammy and Pappy

Let's take this outside.....

Lukas gleefully opened his gifts, and he and Noah spent the entire day engaged in the tree house and the garage - in Lukas' words a PERFECT day.

Swimathon

Lukas and Noah has recently joined a local swim team. This means we are now hanging out at the pool several days a week. This past weekend, the club held a swimathon to raise money. Lukas and Noah solicited donations and pledges from generous friends, families and neighbors before the event. It is clear that those who pledged a fixed amount got the 'better deal' as the boys exceeded their own expectations of how far they would swim by a factor of 2 - Noah managed to swim 36 laps which equals one half mile, even though he had neck muscle pain and Lukas pushed to get one up and swam 38 laps.

Sunday Sundaes

To celebrate Lukas' birthday we hosted a Sunday Sundaes on the back deck. Toppings, ice cream, whipping cream and jokes - that was the agenda for the afternoon. Everyone was asked to bring a favorite joke to share and we laughed hard and heartily for a long time, even when the jokes began to center on blondes...
When all the ice cream was gone, the children organized tug of wars and cops and robber games - the sugar definitely kicked in quickly!

It does not get any fresher than this...

Most of the produce that is consumed in this country is grown not too far from where we live. We are fortunate to have the freshest vegetables and fruits almost all year around. Today, we visited the farm that delivers tasty treats to us weekly. A man in the field picked carrots for us, another cut bunches of kale, a third one picked green peppers, our strawberries had spent all of 10 minutes in clamshells, and the butternut squash was picked this morning. Just last week, we had our first batch of Jerusalem Artichokes and today we watched as the farmer dug some out for us, we ate them right there in the field, all that was needed was a quick brush off to get most of the dirt off..

I got a bit carried away as evident by the counter back home; and we spent almost $30. Now it is time to make kale salad, kale soup, butternut squash soup and stuffed peppers - the freezer will be full soon!

It worked

This week's science project worked! We cleaned pennies and then watched what happened as the air dried the 'clean' pennies. The boys also used the liquid that was used to clean the pennies to coat paper clips and nails. They realized that there is no money in making copper plated paperclips, but they sure had fun. Since some of the experiment required waiting, they multi-tasked and consumed lunch while observing.

Heat wave

Monterey weather is pretty predictable,  and the temperature rarely varies much. However, this past week, we had a heat wave - that is a Monterey heat wave. The temperature gauge in cars read 85, and some even managed to get a 90 reading when the car was parked right in the sun. For anyone used to 60ish degrees this can be a bit much to stomach. We headed to the beach for some fun, sun and sand. The boys donned wetsuits and off they went into the chilly water, and the cool Pacific quickly resolved any discomfort caused by heat.  I on the other hand enjoyed the sun rays standing on the shore watching my three favorite guys along with friends riding the waves. It was such an unusual day that it even made the newspaper - page two above the fold - there we are on the beach. Maybe it was a slow newsday....

Faith in Action

To show the true love of Christ, our church cancelled service on Sunday and headed out to serve and bless the community. Our assignment was to bring cookies to the police and firefighters in Carmel - unsung heroes who worked hard to keep all of us safe.

Paso Robles

On Saturday we met dear friends in Paso Robles. They flew in from the East Coast and we drove down from Monterey. We had a great afternoon, tasting a few wines while chatting, sipping wine and catching up on all the happenings while listening to some live music and watching the moon rise over the hills. Lukas and Noah had a great time hanging out with fun friends and even mastered the art of cracker from forehead to mouth without hand move.  A fabulous way to spend a Saturday.

Pizza night

On Friday, we often eat home made pizza and watch a movie. This week, the boys had some extra dough, some left over stuff in the fridge so in addition to Hawaiian pizza they made this dessert pie. Apricot jam, caramel and vanilla sauce. Judging from the leftovers, which there were none, it was pretty tasty!

Monsieur Noah

The photo says it all ....

No success

Science is what we do on Fridays and usually we have a lot of fun and end up with some great results. Last week, we had fun, but ended up with no results. That in itself is part of the learning.. to continue to experiment and try even when something failed.
The good news was the boys had a bunch of science supplies left over - and they sure tasted good.
A final experiment was to determine if different color M&Ms and Reese's Pieces taste the same - and the answer is: YES! At least we learned something in Science that day.

What we were suppose to was a chromatography measure of color in candies....