Chickadee

Ready for Hogwarts

Today is Chickadee’s 11th birthday, and she found a letter from Hogwarts waiting for her at the table when she got up this morning!

After the excitement of receiving her invitation to study at the wizarding school wore off, she opened her presents:

We spent most of the day watching Doctor Who…I’m always intrigued by what she chooses! While we watched, I worked on the dinner she requested…pork tenderloin and käsespätzle (plus the pickled beets I added to the menu). She also asked me to make Butterbeer, and that was before she even knew I had planned Harry Potter elements for her birthday!

I asked her if her cake could be a surprise…I really wanted to make the cake Hagrid made for Harry on his 11th birthday. I was really happy with how it turned out!

It’s hard to believe another Markel birthday has already come and gone!

20&10

I always feel a little nostalgic in the days between the March birthdays of my oldest and youngest children. This year I can’t help but appreciate these brief few days where they are “20” and “10.” It reminds me of a day over a decade ago when Turkey realized he was nine years and nine months old at the same time Chickadee was just nine months, and in remembering that, I had to get a picture of the two of them again, much older, but still oldest and youngest:

2022-23 School Year–Week Twenty-Four

This was our last week of school before spring break, and the theme for the week was wrapping things up…we finished a remarkable number of things!

Ladybug graphed parabolas in algebra 2. She finished To Kill a Mockingbird. In history, she read about the breaking up of the Islamic Empire and also about Vikings in Britain. She finished the chapter on the gas phase in chemistry, focusing on the Ideal Gas Law.

Chickadee worked with ratios in math. We finished reading The Journey Begins. We also finished the science chapter on snakes and lizards. In history, she read all about Julius Caesar…the battles he fought, his rise to power, and his untimely death. She diagrammed compound sentences in grammar.

We also had an opportunity for a field trip this week…the Missouri History Museum had a “History Exploration Day” about mid-century women, which was right up my alley. The workshop on “Women, War, and the Workforce” was, in my opinion, one of the best they’ve presented. There were also some cool, um, “artifacts” to explore:

While we were out, we swung by the St. Louis Science Center:

I’m looking forward to spring break!

Chickadee Thursday

Chickadee has been doing a great job keeping up with our library’s reading program and earning Pokémon-style cards…on Tuesday she received her selections for February, and only has two more months to go!

Chickadee Thursday

Last week, Chickadee and I gathered up all the change we had lying around the house and ran it through a Coinstar machine. We then took our riches to Starbucks. It was Chickadee’s first time to order Starbucks beverage…she got a pineapple lemonade!

We also visited the Orchid Show at the Missouri Botanical Garden for the first time since 2020:

I wonder what adventures we’ll have next?

Chickadee Thursday

Chickadee knows about as much about soccer as I do (so pretty much next to nothing!), but we’re still excited about the inaugural season of St. Louis City, which begins in less than a month!