Some science fun

We are doing a short unit on plants this month, and yesterday we studied seeds and how they get from place to place. The girls put on wool socks and then we ran through the woods and grassy areas to see what would hang on to our socks. We also grabbed some berries (Rowan especially likes the idea of poop-spread seeds), some maple seeds (those whirly-gig ones) and some acorns.

Then we came in and looked at the tiny hooks on grass, and burrs, and the parachutes on the dandelion seeds under the loupes.

And today we played hooky and headed to Breezy Point beach to find fossilized shark teeth! I didn't bring the camera (too afraid of sand!) but here are our finds:

It was a beautiful 85 degree day, and Gryphon built a monster sand castle with a very deep (leg breaking) moat. We love the beach!

Best Mother's Day present ever...

...well, next to the TV-free year that is. I still ask for that every year, but no one is going for it again!

Gryphon wrote a play a few months ago, typed it up (complete with scene directions and a narrator) and printed out a copy each for the neighborhood kids. Then she highlighted their parts on their copy, and started rounding them up every day to practice! There was a bit of drama over people pulling out of the play, or not wanting to practice (Gryphon takes her plays very seriously) but today everyone put the play on!

They set up chairs in a neighbor's backyard, and 2 other neighborhood mothers came down with me to watch the play, along with some assorted Dads and siblings. They opened by presenting us with flowers (picked from someones yard no doubt!) and a cute song about Mother's Day. The play was adorable, and everyone remembered their lines, which made Gryphon very happy!

Truly, one of the neatest Mother's Day gifts ever.

Brace Face!

Gryphon got braces put on last week! They are *pink*, top and bottom, and she also has a pallet expander as well. You can the gap its made already in her top front teeth. She's doing really well managing with a mouth full of so very much metal-she spits a lot when she talks though! We can't wait to see her beautiful smile when they come off in 10 months.

Guess where I got a job?

I thought I had already blogged about this, but...I got a job at Starbucks! It's right around the corner from my house, and sometimes Mark and the kids walk the dogs up to see me at night. I sort of fell into it, I was in there one day getting coffee, and saw a "now hiring" sign, and well, the rest is history. It really is as fun as it looks to work at Starbucks, most of the time (busy Saturdays do not count!). And the free coffee, well, thats just priceless!

Could there be a more perfect part time job for me???

Some hard stuff here at the BS house

Last weekend, Beulah ran out the front door and attacked a little neighbor girl's poodle puppy (which was being walked by the 8 year old girl!). It was pretty awful-there was a whole flock of little girls in my front yard, and Beulah was seriously trying to kill that little dog. Screaming, Crying-awful. I was literally 2 steps behind her, and had to wrestle her to the ground to get her to stop. She *still* wouldn't stop, though, even as I bodily carried her away (Beulah isn't exactly a "little" dog though thankfully only about 50 pounds). She snapped at me, which I would never in a million years expect to happen.

The puppy was okay-no blood. Of course we apologized profusely, but there is anything that can be said to make up for something like that?

I knew Beulah had to go. She went from sweet mellow dog to vicious killer in a split second-and oddly enough, after trying to bite me while I carried her in, she turned into her sweet, normal self as soon as she got back in the house. The dog set her off, and there was no stopping her. She'd done it before- she attacked a beagle on a hike one day last summer the same way-zero to killer in an instant. That time she was leashed and it only involved adults, so we thought we were doing the right thing by just keeping her away from other dogs after that. We were wrong-she needed serious intervention *then*. And now, it was too late, I would never be able to live with myself if she bit a child, and if I hadn't been right there when it happened, it would have-she would have killed the puppy and bit any kid who tried to stop her.

So I started calling no-kill shelters.

23, to be exact.

Of the ones who weren't full, they all told me to just put her down. I know they are right, since perfectly tempered, purebred dogs are put down every year by the millions, because no one wants them. Who would want a Chow mutt with a bad temper?

So we made the appointment to have her put down.

Then Mark got a call from a rescue near the North Carolina/Virginia border, who could take her. They specialize in aggressive dogs-in fact, they have mostly Pit Bulls. Comparatively speaking, Beulah was an "easy case" for these guys.

Beulah was saved from imminent death-by-car on the highway in Mississippi, then had a dangerous abscess, and now has been lucky yet again. I swear she's destined to save someone from a burning building or something some day, that is one lucky dog.

I took her there on Thursday, I think I cried the whole way. George and Patrick, who run the shelter, were wonderful-they hugged me and assured me that Beulah would be okay. I hope so. They are gay vegetarian Buddhists, and I have to say, if you need to give your dog up, that's who you want to give it to. Wonderful, amazing men with a mission to save the world's most unwanted. Which Beulah is, again.

I just really want her back, even though I know we can't keep her. Its been a tough week here.The girls are doing okay with it, I think because they were there and saw the whole thing. Pretty scary. I've never been on *this* side of the dog rescue world though, and I never want to again. I miss her, and I love her, and I know we let her down by not taking her dog aggression seriously until the worst happened. Its never the dogs fault, really, its always the owners, the dogs just pay the price.

I have to believe Beulah will find peace and love and a new home with people who can handle her. The only other option was putting her to sleep, so this at least gives her a chance. I know she won't lack love, as George and Patrick are very loving people. They also work with a trainer named Melissa who rehabilitates these dogs (they have some rescued from dog fighting rings-the truly tough cases). Its a small place-only 11 dogs. They said she's one of the most adoptable dogs they have-fixed, housebroken, good with kids. Some of their dogs are unadoptable, ruined forever by people who trained them to kill.

Anyway, that's the story. These are some photos of Beulah I took for them to put up on their website, so she'd look cute and"take me home" -able.

I miss her.

More April Photos-Of-The-Day

April 26th-its spring, and time to get the sidewalk chalk out!

It is also caterpillar season-yeeuck! Gryphon has about 200 in a glas jar. Here's one of the little cuties.
And for April 28th, here's Circus Freak Rowan in her brand spankin' new leotard. Her favorite color is blue, and she likes the stars because her team is the Shooting Stars!

More Photos of the Day

I forgot to do April 19th-it was testing day. We went over to our friend's so the girls could play in between testing sessions.

April 21st the girls, Grammy and Pa-Pa went on a Pentagon tour courtesy of Dad. No pictures allowed, so here is Rowan riding her bike with Pa-Pa when they got home.

April 22nd- the girls, Mark, Grammy and Pa-Pa headed downtown to see monuments on this gorgeous day! Here are the girls looking solemn at the Wall (the Vietnam memorial).

POTD April 20th

Last day of our home school co-op, here is Gryphon eating pizza with her buddies.

Photo of the Day-April 17th and 18th

On the 17th, Mark, the girls and Grammy and Papa (visiting from St. Louis) went on a Capitol tour in D.C. Here they are on the steps overlooking the mall and the Washington Monument.

And today was a big day for Rowan at gymnastic's practice. She is on a developmental team for the gym's competitive program. We signed her up for beginning girls gymnastics in March, and after one class they moved her to "Shooting Stars", the developmental team. As the newest girl on the team, Rowan was the only one who hadn't climbed to the top of the 30 foot rope and rung the bell hanging from the gym's ceiling. Today she rang the bell, and they had a popsicle party after her practice to celebrate! We were very excited for her!

More Photos of the Day

Wednesday, April 11th was library day. Rowan's books were all about Joan of Arc (don't ask), and Gryphon's books were all American Girl books.

April 13th I had leg surgery. Here are my gnarly looking legs, all bandaged up. I'm allergic to Percoset, so no picture for April 14th since I was VERY grouchy without any pain medication!

OK, its hard to see, but here is my swelled up foot-little sausage toes! Gross, I know.Trust me, its better in black and white than color!!

April 16th, the girls at Mary Washington's house in Fredricksburg, VA. Mark took this. As you cansee, our 80 degree summer weather has been replaced by COLD!

PotD April 9th

OK, so we have 2 today- to make up for missing the 6th! School is closed today and the neighbor kids are spending the day with us.

PotD April 8th

Hoppy Easter!!

Fotd April 7th

Yeah, it snowed. On my newly potted flowers. On the tulips, crocuses and blooming magnolias. And on the cherry blossoms. Stupid weather- its APRIL!

Photo a Day in April-4/5

Thursday is home school gymnastics day-hard to get any pictures inside the cavernous gym with awful fluorescent lighting and fast moving kids, so here are the girls at the bleachers!

Photo a Day in April 4/4

We went to the zoo with the neighbors today, and though it was cold, had a fun time!

This is a nautilus, aren't they neat?

Cherry Blossoms in the Tidal Basin

We headed downtown early to catch the good light and get some photos of the cherry blossoms. Today was their peak day, and they were lovely!

This is the Thomas Jefferson memorial with the basin in front.

The girls-especially Gryphon-were not terribly cooperative for photos. I think they have reached the limits of their tolerance for Momma's photography hobby.

It was a beautiful morning, well worth getting up at 6 for!

A photo a day in April

Jackie told me about a neat idea she saw-taking a photo a day, over a long span of time. I have seen one photo a week for a baby's first year, but never done it. This month I am going to try and take a photo a day, and post them here. Of course, I missed April 1st, so thats not a very auspicious start to the project, but whatever. I'll do my best.

So, enjoy!

Here are the girls' grubby feet, along with those of their friends, waiting for the ice cream man on Monday. It was 82 degrees!

Another trip to DC this weekend

We took April and Casey, friends of the girls from our home school group, with us to DC this weekend.

Every Saturday morning they have free performances at the National Theatre in DC. Last weekends was a Laura Ingalls WIlder play that I am kicking myself for missing. Thsi weekend they had a comedian/magician, who was hilarious!

Mark got "volunteered" to assist the performer onto his unicycle-it was 7 feet high, and the guy literally climbed up Mark! The girls loved it.

Then we walked across the city a few blocks (it was finally warm!) The girls didn't mind the walk-they played sled dogs the whole way and we "mushed" them.

We ended up at the Museum of African art, because we are reading about African kingdoms in history this week. They had some neat stuff, especially the masks, but the girls were more interested in playing dogs!

Sorry about the awful pictures- the white balance was all messed up and I didn't notice until I got home! I'm still learning this digital camera stuff!

Toothless

Rowan lost her 2 bottom teeth recently, making her entirely toothless in the front! The new ones are poking up, but the top teeth are still MIA. She's got a few more loose, too!

Our little girl is growing up!

Fun with Fine Art

We took a trip to the National Gallery on Monday-spur of the moment. We joined a tour of American Art, and the girls really enjoyed it!
Not surprisingly, if you know the girls, they talked the tour guide's ear off. She seemed to enjoy their enthusiasm.
















After the tour, we went to see the Impressionists, since they are our favorites, and we are studying Mary Cassatt. I thought she'd be in the tour of Americans, but as she spent most of her life in France, and was part of the French Impressionist movement, her paintings are hung there. Gryphon loves Monet's Waterlilly series, who doesn't?











Here are few of the Mary Cassatt paintings we looked at. Her favorite subjects were women and children, so her paintings have a very sweet, nostalgic feeling to them.

One of the benefits to seeing the original work of art-especially with the Impressionists-is you can see the paint strokes. The girls love to get veeerrryyyy close, and see only paint blobs, then back veeerrrryyyy far, and see the picture emerge.












Here they are being goofy on our way out!


We went home and later did an art unit on Mary Cassatt, with the neighbor kids. Here they are proudly showing off their creations. Mary Cassatt used hats and bonnets as a natural frame for her subjects faces-so we made hats and profiles.