muted monday: the perfect weekend breakfast

birthday photos

It was a pretty crazy day, weather-wise, and we were limited to standing on our front porch for most of the photos. They turned out pretty well, considering, and at least we have documentation. This is the often the only time of year that I take portraits of my kids, and it is good to be able to compare from year to year.


Hazel put together a fabulous outfit, of course. She had purple and red flowers to match her hair and her stripey clothes. Too bad it was so cold she could barely stand still for photos!


We had blueberry pancakes for breakfast, by request, and we ate it at Hazel's usual breakfast time of 11 am. They went out to a late lunch at Panera Bread (again, Hazel's choice) and then headed downtown to Ciné to see the selection of Oscar nominees for Best Animated Short Film. They finished the evening with hot chocolates at Borders, our favorite late evening dessert spot. Seriously, the hot chocolates are FABulous and they have incredible cookies and brownies too. And they warm them up for you-MMMMmmmmmmmm. We really love it there. :)


Enjoying popcorn and cream sodas at Ciné. 

The festivities will continue on Friday, when Hazel and her friends will be seeing Alice in Wonderland on opening night and then having a sleepover. It's going to be great! 


Here are some more photos from yesterday. Hazel, we are so proud of who you are becoming as you grow older. We are so thankful you are a part of our lives!



 

fire station field trip

Yesterday we visited the fire station with a few of our homeschool friends.


We saw the living areas and kitchen that the crew uses when they are on duty, as well as their bedrooms. Even though my kids and I had been to a fire station before we had only seen the trucks and had not gotten to visit these areas, so it was really cool. We heard about how the 3 shifts of 7 people each (at this particular station, anyway) work and live as a family of sorts while they are there, preparing meals and maintaining the station while they wait to be called out.




We saw the locker room where their gear is kept, and the machines that are used to fill the air tanks that they breathe with in a fire.






Then we went out into the bay where the trucks are kept. Unfortunately, the big truck was out on a training exercise, so we didn't get to see that. But we did get to see the rescue vehicle and watch one of the firefighters put his gear on.


They explained about how the clothing is not fire proof but rather fire resistant, and that every area of skin has to be covered completely. We heard the guy in the suit breathing and everyone thought it was pretty cool that he sounded like Darth Vader. He said some of his ABC's so we could hear what he sounded like with the mask on, and he knelt down so everyone could touch his suit and see him up close.


Then we went back into the living room and sat down for a talk about fire safety, and the kids got to ask all the questions they could think of. We went over the basic stuff about what to do in a fire, and heard about some of their personal experiences (the biggest fire they had fought, etc.) We found out that they do not have a fire dog (this was of great interest to Stella!) and that most of the household fires they are called to are due to human error or bad judgment. One other interesting thing we found out is that the firefighters on this particular shift do yoga together! Everyone was surprised at that and thought it was really cool.


This was a great trip. We learned some new things and we also got to know our fire fighters a little better. I know it has sparked some ideas for things we need to talk about in our family regarding fire safety, and I think the kids will all be much more comfortable and unafraid if they are ever in a situation where one of these guys is helping them out of a fire or other emergency, now that they got to spend some time seeing what they do.

field trip

A few of our favorite families got together yesterday for a field trip to our local newspaper, the Athens Banner-Herald. We gathered at 11 am and met up with the tour guide, who was very nice. We had 14 kids and 6 adults, so a pretty nice sized group for a tour. Jason even came from work to meet us, which is a treat for our kids because it is usually just me and them during the weekdays. Now that he has built up some vacation time to spare, he will be able to join us now and then for our outings, which is great not only because he gets to experience some cool stuff with us but also he is able to help with Lyle and Stella and I can enjoy myself a bit more with extra help.


My camera battery died halfway through our visit (DOH!) so I missed out on the group shot at the end of the tour and also the offices and old camera and other equipment that they used to use, but I did get some shots of the big press, which was very cool and the highlight of the tour I think.


We saw the presses from up above while they were not moving. Our guide talked to us about the paper, the ink, and the machinery.


Then we went downstairs to get a little closer to everything. This area is where the folded papers come out of the machines, and are then stacked and sorted and put together with the other sections of the paper.


Then we saw how the plates are made for each page of the paper, before being put into the press for printing.




We learned about how the 4 colors of ink combine to make full color photos in the newspaper, and how they have to adjust them all to line up properly since each color is printed onto the paper separately.


Then we went upstairs to watch as they started the presses up. It is very loud down in the press room so the workers wear ear protection and we had to be outside the glass.


They ran the press at a slow rate at first (which looked pretty fast to us!) while they made adjustments to the ink and alignment of the paper. Once everything was lined up right they turned the press up to full speed, and that was an amazing thing to see! The paper flew past and was cut and folded and out the other end in no time. It was very impressive.


Even the smallest kids in the group thought this part was pretty cool.


(Daisy and Bea had not seen each other in a few weeks so they were very happy to be together again! And look at Daisy's new haircut- she got bangs and some layers and I LOVE how it looks on her! Bea's new cut and color look awesome as well. I'm a sucker for some bright hair!)

Although I don't have photos, we also saw the circulation area, the reporters offices, and the old cut-and-paste area where they used to get the papers ready for printing back before the digital process which is now used. They used to manually piece together the page, then photograph it with very large cameras and then make the plates for the printing press from the negatives. Now they just send it straight from a computer down to the plate making room, so this whole area is now just for historical reference. We saw how they archive the papers into big books, and found out that we can go there to look up old newspapers if we ever need to. We heard about how the reporters are often out during the day getting their stories (the offices were pretty empty when we were there!) and saw where they sit to write up their articles in the evenings.

It was a great field trip- we learned a lot and had fun! Taking that crew into the Mellow Mushroom downtown afterward was a little crazy... but even that was lots of fun and the kids really do so well together. The big ones help with the little ones and everyone gets along. What a great group! Thank you all for a wonderful day. We love our homeschool family!!

teen film fest

Saturday night was the Teen Film Festival at the library. Daisy and Beatrice worked very hard filming and editing their videos together. They included a number of their friends (and even some of the parents!) in the films, and everyone got dressed up to go to the big premier together!


It was so awesome to see how much support and love these kids are surrounded by, evidenced that night by the twenty-one people we packed into the front two rows of the auditorium! Everyone was so excited just to see the films and cheer for Daisy & Bea. And then came the award ceremony! Between the two of them they took home 5 out of the 9 "Lucy" awards given away, including Best Film. It was a fantastic night!



Posting these videos to the internet has proven to be a bit of a challenge for me, mainly because they used some copyrighted music in the films and YouTube removed the audio for one of them. (lesson learned for next time!) For now, hopefully you can view the first film right here (below) and the second one is available here on YouTube (I posted that one below the first one now). They do go in order, so be sure to watch "What's it all Mean?" first, followed by "What Happened Before?" Thanks for watching!




I am so proud of these guys for following through to completion on this project! We all learned a lot about the software and also about the steps of putting a film together while working on this, and I know that the kids are all brimming with more cool ideas for upcoming films. I also want to thank Jason Hubbard for being such a great sport and doing whatever the girls asked them to for his part. That really made a huge impact on their project!

Update: We were Spotted!

my new painting

We just acquired another wonderful piece of art from our pool of amazing local artists. This is an oil painting done by our very talented friend, Sarah Cook.

What is so special about this painting (aside from it being unbelievably beautiful!) is that it was painted just for me. I gave Sarah some ideas about subject matter and color, and she created something far more amazing than I had even hoped for! I am very honored to own this piece and to be able to say I helped inspire it.



It's going to hang in our dining room, and will be one of the first things people see when they come in our front door. It looks really awesome against the green walls in there, but I haven't hung it yet and couldn't wait to share it here, so I took these photos with it sitting on the mantel. I just know that getting it up in the dining room will help me get motivated to finish up in there- we sort of stalled out after we did the walls.

Thank you again, Sarah! I am deeply thankful for your talent and your friendship.

no pinching here

We gathered up the crew (including 3 extra kids since we've got cousins visiting from TX and OK) and headed to the greenway for a nice St. Patty's day walk. Where else would we go besides the GREENway? We are so clever. But really, it's been raining for days and we just needed to get OUT OF THE HOUSE. It was a beautiful day and we wanted to see some friends and sport our green. So we met Rachel, Grace and Luke and went for a walk in the sunshine.


:Luke:Grace:Hazel:Kaden:Daisy:Dylan:Trinity:Stella:Lyle:


:Gracie:Hazel:Kaden:Dylan:Trinity:Daisy:Lyle:Luke:Stella:


Climbing on the brick wall


Kaden & Stella


Grammy & Pops with the kids

we won!!

Jason just said this weekend that we never win anything. And then he got an email today that he was a winner in the Shop Your ATH Off drawing! $100 worth of gift certificates to local businesses. And what's more, my friend Shannon's name was also drawn! The paper said hundreds of people pledged, and there were 15 names drawn. Everyone got 4 certificates for $25 each to use at local businesses. We got a restaurant, a salon, an art/jewelry shop, and a tattoo shop. What a great reward for shopping local and encouraging others to do the same.

Thanks, Flagpole!

thankful

Do you ever have one of those days when you have to really make yourself be thankful? Today wasn't even one of those days- just one of those evenings. We had a wonderful day playing with our friends at their house (and doing Cleaning Club! Shannon and I scaled Mount Laundry together!) We had a nice lunch, the weather was gorgeous, the kids played, we even had an impromptu beauty shop and I have less hair now- it was a great day! But throw a trip to the very busy grocery store on there, add a couple of kids who won't go to bed, mix in a parental spat and a messy house, and you get a pretty crappy evening in which it becomes difficult to remember all the reasons to be thankful. And it doesn't help that I am feeling grumpy and over-stimulated by electronics... stay tuned for a new and improved plan for reducing our screen time around here...

Anyway. It doesn't take too much to remind me why I am thankful, once I sit down and clear my head of all the unpleasantness of a not-so-great evening. As always, we have loving and accepting families who love us in spite of all our flaws. We have healthy, happy kids and lots and lots (and looooots) of time to spend with them. We have a great house and vehicles that are running and don't have to worry too much about making ends meet most months. We have love. And as we've just been celebrating our first year in our new town, I am constantly aware of how fortunate we are to be here. We have made a lot of decisions in our past and even made a lot of moves to new towns and new homes, and wondered later if it was the right choice. But we have never felt so at home as we do here. I am so thankful for that this year- for the awesome feeling of knowing you are exactly where you are meant to be. Surrounded by love and support and friendship, we are so glad we have put down our roots and chosen to make Athens our home.

shop local

You might remember last year before the holidays I pledged to buy handmade items for all our gifts. I of course intended to do the same again this year, but we just found a way to take it a step further. Our local alternative newspaper, Flagpole, is promoting local shopping by sponsoring a giveaway based on pledges. You can sign up to "Shop your ATH off" (pledge to spend at least $100 of your holiday budget at locally owned businesses), and you are entered into a drawing for $100 worth of gift certificates to local businesses. After living here only a year we have been thrilled to see just how many opportunities there are in Athens to buy from local crafters, farmers, artisans, and musicians. So we wholeheartedly support any program which brings them more customers!

For all of our out of town readers, please consider seeking out local and/or handmade gifts in your area as well. Even if it doesn't get you entered in a drawing, it helps your community very much when you choose to skip the national chains and shop local.

talented

Today was the last day of the session with our homeschool co-op, ACE (Athens Cooperative Experience). We always have a pot luck as well as a talent show on the last day, and we have all started to really look forward to it!

Daisy wowed everyone with her stilt-walking abilities. She did a great job! Before you know it we'll be making her some of those big tall pants to cover her stilts and she'll be walking in parades and at fairs :) It is so weird to have to look up at her so much in order to talk to her. I am used to being one of the tallest people around and don't spend too much time looking up at folks.



I couldn't get Hazel's video to upload to Flickr, so it's at Youtube instead. She and her friends, India and Grace, did a dance number which they worked up during an overnight last week. Grace has got some cool dance moves! Next time I need any choreography done I am definitely calling her. All 3 of the girls did a great job, even though they were nervous to be in front of everyone.



There was a lot of really great talent from the entire group once again. We saw singing, dancing, martial arts, gymnastics, harmonica playing, and even a leapfrog demonstration. What a great group.

protest

Today our family made some signs and went down to show our support for equal rights.



It was chilly and windy, but the kids did great and had lots of fun. Lyle took a nap in the Ergo and we got to take part in an awesome demonstration of love for our fellow human beings. We met up with our friends Rachel and Grace, who shared their extensive knowledge of protest chants with us! Hazel and Gracie were really into that, and even added dance moves sometimes. They got a good bit of attention!





We think it is really important to help the kids learn that it is never ok to treat someone differently based on their skin color, gender, religion, or sexual orientation.



This goes right along with watching the election and learning about how our government works, and the process we go through to get laws made/changed. Getting firsthand experience is the best way to learn about something. Seeing it in action as the people of our country voice their concerns and fight to bring about change.



The energy in Athens was awesome today- there were lots of people out driving past and honking their support. We saw a real diversity in the supporters too, which was encouraging.



We are really hopeful that our kids will witness the end of this discrimination within their lifetimes. So that they and their children will be able to say that they can barely remember a time when so many people in our country were denied rights granted to others.