Bird Boy

Encouraged by his previous success, Aaron went out twice this week to see if he could any birds to land on his hand.  This one flitted from tree to tree getting up his nerves.

Finally he got up the nerve and landed.

 It's a little hard to see, but I caught this one hovering right above his hands.

 Finally he landed as well.

 A blurry close up.

 Aaron has really enjoyed getting the chickadees to land on his hands.   He's even touched one of them on the  back.   Now his next goal is to get a nuthatch to eat out of his hands.

Pasta!

This Sunday, Joe made us another pasta feast.   I told him that I like the trend our Sundays have been taking lately.

This week it was Zite Sangiovanniello (on the left) and Shells with Gorgonzola and Pistachios (on the right).   Both were delicious.   The Zite was light and tasty and the Shells were cheesy and wonderful.

Birds and Snow

Aaron, our bird lover, went outside to fill up the bird feeders.   He stood very still for a long time and was finally successful.

 If you look very closely, you'll see a bird eating out of his hand.   It was a brave and hungry chickadee.

 Our chickens really love the ground under the birdfeeders.   But they don't like walking in the snow.   So Aaron shoveled a path from our coop to the bird feeders.

 The chickens appreciated the path very much.

 But it was a narrow "one chicken wide" path.   Whenever two chickens going opposite directions met, neither one wanted to give way and step into the deeper snow on either side of the path.   It made for entertaining viewing from the window.

Finally - Sledding Snow!

We FINALLY got enough snow to go sledding.

 So we did school faithfully until lunchtime...

 and then hit the big sledding hill in town.

 If the pictures look blurry, it's because it was still snowing while we were sledding.

 Thus the blur by our friend's face!   It looks like one of those crime pictures where they try to hide the face of the innocent person.

 Stephen and his friend relaxing on the slopes.   Stephen took it easy on the sledding hill due to a previous injury.  Nathan and Stephen were trying to run and see how far they could "ski" down the   "generator" ramp sidewalk this morning.   Eventually gravity caught up with them and Stephen came down hard on his hip.   He's mostly disappointed that there isn't a great bruise there.

Surviving the Elements (in a field trip)

This fall we took a survival field trip at the Chippewa Nature Center.   First we learned about compass work and how quickly you can get off course if you don't have a compass.

 I don't know if it was the fire building or the shelter building that was the more fun.   I helped Deborah's team get their shelter built.   Good thing we had two tarps and some rope in our "backpack".

 We had to create a shelter that would keep us dry and would house all the members of the team.

 Our "door" to our shelter

 The finished shelter.   Notice how we piled up lots of leaves to help keep out the wind at the bottom.

 Looking in through the door.   And yes, our whole team, including me, could fit in there.

 Aaron's team made a huge shelter that could shelter all three teams (as long as the wind didn't come from the east!).

 The outside view of Aaron's shelter.

 Now on to building fires!   Aaron and his partner set up the sticks in preparation for lighting.

 Deb was teammates with the only other girl in the group.   

And the girls win!   They got their fire going by only using 2 matches.

All of the boys really enjoyed building fires.

 Then we tried to make a fire without matches.

 Note:   Always bring emergency matches.   Otherwise you will die of cold!   Not one of us could even get a puff of smoke going.

Visit with Grandma and Grandpa

My parents came for a week of fun and food after Christmas Day and stayed until Jan 2nd.

We played a lot of board games,

 played with Grandpa and Grandma's Ipad,

 card games, 

more board games,

puzzles,

and more card games.   This is Nathan's hand in Quiddler.   Look at all those vowels!

 

Joe made us a surprise drink one night - the Swedish 60.   It is a variation of the French 75 drink.   It was made with aquavit which has an anise taste.  Since I come from a Swedish background, he thought we might find it interesting.

 I liked it.   I especially liked getting a picture of him pouring the drink from our John Deere pitcher!

 Joe also made a copy of the wonderful Poached Pears with Blue Cheese and Walnuts that we had at Molly's this summer with my parents.   They just loved it and my mom was raving about it 6 months later.   So Joe made her some.   He poached the pears for 5 hours in wine, sugar, and water.   Then he cooled them, split them, sprinkled crumbled blue cheese and pecans over the pears, and drizzled them with balsamic vinegar.   They were fantastic and Mom was very pleased.

Pasta tonight!

Joe made homemade pasta tonight for supper.

 Ta-da!   Tagliolini with mascarpone and lemon.   It was very lemony and light tasting.  

Debate Round Robins

Stephen and Nathan have joined our local homeschool debate club.   In December they participated in a debate round robin.   Each team got to debate two rounds, one negative and one affirmative.   For Stephen, this was the only debate he would be allowed to do since he is too young to compete and is auditing the course this year.    He seems to be a natural at debate and astounded my dh and myself with his passionate speaking style and presence at the podium.

Consulting with his partner before he gets up to speak.

 Stephen as first negative speaker.

 Stephen did very well and got the win for the team and best speaker in the round.

Nathan and his partner Kurtis preparing to defend their affirmative case.

 Nathan in his first affirmative rebuttal.

Nathan and Kurtis won their round as well.   As a former debator myself, I am thrilled to see them get this chance to speak and debate.   And it brought back all my memories of debating weekends in Kansas City.

Paris-Brest

When my dh was home this holiday season, he made me a beautiful dessert called Paris-Brest.   This dessert was inspired by the road race from Paris to Brest and resembles a car tire.   First he made the pastry cream.   Then he made a praline that he reduced to a dust in my food processor.   Then he folded that praline dust into the pastry cream.   

Then he went to work on the pastry rings.   They resembled eclair dough and were made by cooking the dough and then piping it onto parchment paper and baking them.

 The successful finished pastry on the left, the first try that got too dark on the right.

 He split the finished ring in half, spread the cream on the bottom and then put a "inner tube" ring in the middle of the cream.   Then he spread more cream on top of the inner tube and put on the top part of the big ring.

 Ta-da!   The finished product.   And it was very very good.