Christmas Break, Begin!

Written Wed Dec 11

Great news everyone! After I finish this post and my assigned reading, I’ll be on my Christmas break! Yay! This week has been, well these three days have been, pretty normal as usual, but I’m sure I can find something to write about!

You all remember that I told you I went to see the Phantom Tollbooth, right? Well, I’ve begun to read that book, and it's pretty good. I recognize a lot of it from the play, but there are some major parts that were cut from the play.

Yesterday, I went to the Holly Dance at Cotillion. We were B.U.S.Y.! My friend, who is also a student assistant there, and I were busy start to finish. When we first arrived, there were name tags to be alphabetically sorted, and kids to be checked in. Also, people were bringing in donations for the canned goods drive, which had to be sorted. When we actually began the class, we were short six girls, so my friend and I had to dance as well as make sure everyone was doing it correctly. In the second class, we were also short girls, which is unheard of for cotillion. Then we all learned a new dance, which the student assistants had to learn and help with. Don't get me wrong, we were busy, but I had a lot of fun! I also got to wear my Christmas dress! 

Well, I'd better get back to reading so that I can be on break! But, the blog's not over yet, enjoy some pictures! 

Vacuuming Princess
(It's not on - she's still afraid of the noise,
but wanted a turn with our new vacuum.)

Baby Mother Mary - dressed for Advent,
"holding" one of the Advent countdown books

So, Baby walks out of Big Sis' room.  I  hear crunching.
Investigating, I discover she pulled open Big Sis' Willy Wonka

cane and ATE one of the years' old Nerds inside!

"I'm doing school."

Looks like all the animals are in time out!

And, some mini My Little Ponies joined them!

Getting ready to do Christmas crafts!!

Till next year, bye!

Almost Christmas Break!

Hey everyone! Last week was the second to last week before Christmas break! The week was pretty dull, but I had a great weekend! 

During the week, I did have photography, like usual, and we worked on action pictures.

I also had my twice-a-month-science class. We mummified a strawberry, and when we go back we'll check on it and see what it looks like. We also lit a candle with matches and calculated how much it burned per minute, and how long it must have burned before we got it.

On Friday, one of my friends came over and we went to go see the new movie Frozen in theaters, then we came back to my house for a sleepover, it was so much fun! And the movie was absolutely phenomenal!

Saturday evening I went to see Phantom Tollbooth as a play with my Mom. It was pretty good, cool costumes, great acting, and funny.

Sunday was pretty relaxed, and I spent it drawing pictures and listening to the music from Frozen.

I guess this wasn't the most interesting week ever, but it was certainly fun! So, now you can enjoy pictures! 

pattern block play

Thanksgiving Weekend

Baby was soooo happy to have big sis home from college!

lots of game playing (and practicing photo angles)

my newest painting!

finished work -- took me 3 very long days

goes perfectly in my newly redecorated, peacock-inspired room!

another photo angle pic

First Week of Advent

Mom wrapped one book for each night of Advent.  

Baby is so excited to open & listen to one before bed each night.

"I'm an Advent candle!"

Till next time, bye!

I Blew Up My Lab Partner!

Hey everybody! How is everyone? Well, last week I promised another blog, and...here it is! This week was pretty similar to last week:  Mom was sick, and I took care of Baby. Well, Mom's -for the most part- feeling better, however, I got sick today. Nothing serious, just a mildly sore throat and runny nose. Oh well, it'll pass with time. I just hope it's gone by Thanksgiving! Well, in any case, you're not here to hear about that, are you? You want me to tell you about my week of school, right? 

There's not much to tell besides that I'm finishing the St. Mary Margaret book, which for awhile I read to Baby. I also had science this week. We blew up our lab partners! Well, not with dynamite or anything....Here, take a look at my lab reports to see what we really did! It's the last one! 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BypPK1qIEGuTTXVrTm9DSUV3cFk/edit?usp=sharing
Cool, right? See we didn't actually blow up our partner, we just blew up the bag which lifted them! 

I took my science test today, nice to get that over with!

I went to a Jessie Tree Ornament Exchange. 24 families signed up to each make 24 of one kind of ornament for the Jesse Tree for Advent.  I made 24 keys -- the ornament for Dec 20, one of the O Antiphons – The Key of David. I sculpted them out of clay, baked them, painted them silver, and tied on a light blue ribbon for hanging.  There were some really cool ornaments there, but I was disappointed with the event. I thought it would be kids my age, but it turned out to only be moms. Because Mom was sick, my dad took me, and was the only guy there, and I was the only kid my age there, except for one girl that I don't know that well. The rest of the kids were little tag-a-longs with moms. I did get some neat ornaments though.

I am working on memorizing a poem right now by Shakespeare, called Sonnet 65. I will now type it out with out looking at any source.

Sonnet 65

Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality o'erways their power
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
whose action is no stronger than a flower?

Oh, how shall summer's honey breath hold out
against the wreckful siege of battering days
when rocks impregnable are not so stout
nor gates of steel so strong but time decays?

Oh, fearful mediation, where alack,
shall time's best treasure from time's chest lay hid,
and what strong foot, can hold his swift foot back?
Or his spoil of beauty can forbid?

On none, unless this miracle might
that in black ink, my love may still shine bright.

Well, I guess that's about all for now! Till next time, bye!

Now please enjoy some pictures:

 reading aloud to Baby

 

I'm sick, just like Mommy!

"I'm feeding the poor"

dressed as St. Cecilia & playing music

wacky week

Hey everyone! How are you all? I'm doing pretty well, especially 'cause it's finally Friday! This week was pretty wacky. Mom got sick on Tuesday, and so all the things we did together had to be bumped to the end of the week, and maybe even onto next week. She's been laying in bed all these days trying to get better. In the mean time, I’ve had complete-or almost complete-care of Baby. I started a routine with her; I would get her up and wash her up, get her dressed, and take her down to eat. Then, while she was eating, I would start on school-if I hadn't already while she slept. When she was finished eating, she would be content for a while just playing on her own. By the time she needed attention, I was done-or almost done with school. Then I would read aloud to her my school book “St. Mary Margaret” and she would play quietly while she listened. When I was finished with the reading assignment, we watched Angelina Ballerina. After that, we ate lunch, or played, or she played quietly while I did some of my stuff. Mom's a little bit better now, and will hopefully be completely better by next week, but as for now, we'll do what we can!

I had cotillion on Tuesday. My teacher Mrs. B loves having pictures for her website, and I love taking pictures with my new photography skills, so I asked if I could take pictures during the class. She said yes, and I got like a hundred! I'll only share with you some though, as there are a ton! 

I actually have another dance today called a Ceili. (Bonus: try and find the right pronunciation of Ceili and comment with it!) It is Irish folk dancing, and this is my first time going. My friend told me about it when I saw her at the Family Rosary-I’ll tell you about that in a minute.- I am driving with her to it because it is really far away. I've never gone before, but if I like it, maybe I’ll start going!

The Family Rosary was on Saturday, chronologically I should have started with that, but why not save the best for last? There's this one homeschool family who holds a Family Rosary twice a year. Everyone goes to their house bringing snacks and goodies, drinks, etc. Then we all hang around for a while before praying the Rosary. Once the rosary is finished, the get together lasts for a few hours. Everyone eats, plays, talks, or hangs out with friends. I saw my friend M.S.;remember, the one I did science with last year? I haven't seen her for a while so it was nice to talk with her again. I also met her friend AA. M.S. Told me about the Ceili, and that's who I’m driving with. I hope it will be loads of fun! At the Rosary, Baby had lots of fun playing on the playground. M.S.'s dad took a picture of everyone, which I'm sharing with you in the pictures.

 

Photo Gallery

 Still playing Dragon Warrior

You're not list-e-n-ing to me!

imitating Daddy

leaf pile fun!

Baby & Mommy

crashed!

Portrait Practice at Photography Class
pictures edited with techniques our teacher recommended

 

 

Well, that's about it for this week-don't worry, blogs come every week! 'Till next time, BYE!

Confirmation, science, and fall

Hello Everyone! Guess what? I'm confirmed! Cool, right? My confirmation was on Tuesday! My friend A. came to it as well as my family, and of course, my sponsor. The confirmation and Mass were a total of two hours, then we had pictures with the Bishop. Afterwards, we went home, and I had a sleepover with A. The next day was science. A. does the same science, so she came with us. We did four experiments. You can see what we did in this link (my lab reports):

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BypPK1qIEGuTVkIwZDJZXy0zVEU/edit?usp=sharing

I also had photography class on Monday. The following are some of the pictures I took for my homework.

 

 

I almost stepped on that!
It's a baby copperhead (poisonous)!

By the way, HAPPY FALL! Let's enjoy it before winter comes around, shall we?

Baby and Mom went on a leaf hunt, and used the leaves they found for crafts! 

 got leaves?
(Thanks Miss Joyce for the caption idea!!)

 photo technique1

 photo technique 2

eeww ... I got glue on my fingers!

 

Leaf Man

Mama Leaf holding Baby Leaf

 

I made a craft too! 

My confirmation pictures:

 

My confirmation class

 The anointing with sacred chrism

"Rose, Be sealed with the Holy Spirit"

(My Confirmation name is Rose - for St. Rose of Lima)

recessional

our family & my sponsor with our Bishop

my big sister was away at college :-(

with my friend, A

my cake - red velvet with white icing

I decorated it with a dove (symbol of the Holy Spirit)

and 7 tongues of fire & the acronym WUFF PCK 

for the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit

(wisdom, understanding, fear of the Lord, fortitude

piety, counsel, and knowledge)

A couple other fun pics from the week

My Mom went shopping & asked me to put away the groceries...

I added this sign :-)

I showed my Mom some of the experiments we did in Science class

Baby said, "We're the Holy Family.  Larry is St. Joseph.  

He's my imaginary friend, so you can't see him."   

... She's talking about Larry from Veggie Tales!

She has LOTS of imaginary friends from V.T.!!

 Well, that's all for now, till next time, bye!