Month: March 2016

St. Patrick’s Day 2016

Today we had our traditional O’Markel family St. Patrick’s Day celebration. There was green and a leprechaun trap and corned beef and cabbage. We tried a new dessert this year…Guinness brownies with Bailey’s cream filling and a whiskey-laced chocolate glaze…they were amazing! We also read some of our favorite St. Patrick’s Day books, including Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland, The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day, and King Puck.

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St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite holidays of the year, and I enjoyed myself immensely!

Chickadee Thursday

Wearing green for St. Patrick’s Day…and her Fredbird hat on the walk to Moose’s school:

When we got home from our walk and turned on Riverdance, she promptly fell asleep. That’s what happens when you refuse to take the nap you still really need!

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Only five more days until Chickadee’s fourth birthday!

Lego Main Street–2016 Edition

Now that the Brick Bank is complete, our Lego Main Street has been updated:

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This is how it will stay until the next modular building comes out…and then who knows what might happen!

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It was hard to top last year’s epic Pi Day, but since you can round Pi to this year’s date (3.1416), I figured I should at least try. We enjoyed reading through Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi again (I highly recommend it!), and I finally found the Moon Pies I was looking for last year as a special treat. For dinner, we had English muffin pizzas again, and once again we had French Silk pie for dessert (it didn’t look as nice as last year’s model, but it still tasted great!):

I enjoy these fun little holidays, but I kind of wish Pi Day could have fallen during a less busy week this year!

Lego Brick Bank–Day Four

We built section three of the Brick Bank yesterday afternoon, and after dinner last night, we decided to go ahead and finish it.

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No minifigs this time, but there was a really cool Lego chandelier…I love all the different ways Lego has found to build really cool light fixtures!

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There were a lot of pieces in this part of the build, but the final product was small…the top of the second floor and the roof:

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All the small pieces made for some really cool details:

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Including another awesome Lego skylight:

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And the secret entrance to the vault below…yes, the set even came with robber’s apparel!

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It really is just like I dreamed it!

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Now that we’ve finished the Brick Bank, I can’t help but wonder what the next modular building will be. There’s been something of a crime spree going on for the last few years, what with the cookie caper and now the bank heist…perhaps a police station is in order? I would also like to see a post office eventually. I do know that whatever Lego comes up with next, we’ll be adding it to our Main Street!

Lego Brick Bank–Day Three

After taking such a long break between the first and second sets of bags for the Brick Bank, we got right back to work on set three today:

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Another two minifigs, including the bank president:

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There were two offices on this floor…a fancy office for the president (love the portrait hanging on his wall!), and a more simple office for a clerk:

The best part of this section of the build was the addition of the corner clock…a bank must-have, in my opinion!

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Since this is a corner building housing two different businesses, the two sides look very different!

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I can’t wait to finish off the rest of the building!

Lego Brick Bank–Day Two

The Lego Brick Bank has been rather neglected with all the rearranging and redecorating we’ve been doing, but Ryan and I finally got back to work on it this afternoon!

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There were two new minifigs in this section, and I love the colors and prints of their clothes!

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Lego “gold” and a really big check!

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We added lots of cool details, including the sign for the laundromat, some stained glass, and a secret drop between one of the washers and the bank vault:

It’s really starting to take shape:

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I’m really looking forward to seeing how the rest of it comes together!

2015-16 School Year–Week Twenty-Two

This was a very pleasant week of school!

We started with a half-day on Monday, since Moose had the day off (Casimir Pulaski Day). They were very happy to have a little break, and we spent the rest of the day watching some of my favorite sports movies (A League of Their Own, Field of Dreams, and Hoosiers).

The rest of the week we stuck to our regular schedule. Turkey and Bunny continued working on new geometry concepts in math. They also started graphing equations this week…I really don’t remember doing that until high school! Ladybug has been working on finding the area and volume of different shapes/solids. And there was hardly any complaining from anyone about the tests this week!

Turkey and Bunny began their literature study of The Trojan War yesterday. The names, places, and events are all familiar, because they’ve dedicated themselves to studying Greek mythology, but it’s always nice to read about it from a different point-of-view. Ladybug is continuing to work through Charlotte’s Web. We’ve also almost finished Mr. Pipes Comes to America. We finally came across a chapter about a Lutheran American hymn writer (Matthias Loy)…this book has been full of writers who are not easy to find in our hymnal!

In science, Turkey and Bunny have moved on to learning about life. We’re slowing working our way through the necessary elements for something to be considered alive. They even got to build a DNA model, although they were a little disappointed that theirs didn’t look quite like the picture in the textbook! Ladybug finally finished her chapter on bats, much to my relief!

In history, we learned about the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the revolution in Haiti. While I’m very familiar with Napoleon, the information about the French colony of Saint-Domingue, Toussaint Louverture’s rebellion, and General Leclerc was all new to me. Seeing how that tied in with the Louisiana Purchase here in America was fascinating…I love getting to learn with my children!

I think we’re just going to have a few days of school next week, and then we’ll begin our much-needed spring break. We have a lot of big events coming up, including Turkey’s 13th birthday, Ladybug’s confirmation, Chickadee’s birthday, and, of course, Holy Week and Easter, so we’re going to need the time off!

Chickadee Thursday

Chickadee was very excited to pose for me today, because she’s wearing a new skirt. I know exactly how she feels!

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She loves the (world’s tiniest) daffodils that are blooming in front of our house right now!

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