A trip to the Science Museum (this time to enjoy the King Tut exhibit and Omnitheater show, Secrets of the Pharaohs) is not complete without pretending to be a news anchor. We try to go on an “educational” field trip every Friday. Yay homeschooling!
Category Archives: elijah
Seven Thirty AM Wake Up Call
Both Elijah and Zeke are doing piano lessons this year, which, ironically, is much easier than it was to have only Elijah in piano lessons. For the time being, Zeke actually likes to practice, and even [insert the "Hallelujah" chorus here] remembers to practice on his own! And this is where having competitive boys becomes a good thing. You see, Elijah ends up being provoked to practice when Zeke practices regularly …cause there’s no way Zeke’s gonna be better than him at piano! Humph! For the past coule of mornings, Zeke has decided to practice as soon as he gets up, which works out well, and makes my life easier still. Elijah’s a difficult one to rouse come morning time and since the piano is under his bed…well, the photo says it all! He he! P.S. Zeke just scored this rare Packers jersey at Marshall’s for $7.99. Sweet deal!
A Printing Press to Rival Gutenbergs
Did you know that a German guy named Johannes Gutenberg started the printing revolution by inventing the printing press in the mid-1400s? These are the types of things you learn when you homeschool your kids. All sorts of very, very important information that you either didn’t learn…or forgot you learned.
Anywhoo…this year, as part of the virtual public school that we’re a part of, we received a printer/scanner with all of our school supplies. (Why? you ask. Because we need to submit monthly work samples. Kind of a pain, but it’s actually good for me to have outside accountability!) I managed to conceal the fact that it was, in fact, a scanner until just a couple days ago. How Elijah finally discovered that it was a scanner, I do not know, but ever since he’s been sketching, scanning, reproducing and selling comics of “Flame Man.” Yes…selling. You’d be surprised how many college students are a sucker for a cute kid with homemade merchandise…
Touchdown!
Ya know what’s fun? Watching your kids play sports. It really, actually is. I’m surprised at how entertaining it is. This fall we signed Elijah and Zeke up for flag football and then, just a few days before it began, Dave got talked into being their coach…
This past Saturday was just a perfect fall day for football. The leaves here are just starting to turn and there was a delicious chill in the air. It was also Grammie’s last Saturday here, and Elijah requested that she come and watch their game, so we all piled into our little silver van (Yes, little. Yours truly rode illegally on the floor of the van. I know, I’m such a lawbreaker.) and headed over to the playfield.
It was an exciting game! Elijah was headbutted in the stomach, and then limped away form this play…
Elijah is in the blue. Most of those yellow-shirted lads collided with him! But he didn’t let that slow him down…
Look, there he is out front with the ball, almost to the endzone!
And here he is, touchdown complete, spiking the ball behind him. It was classic.
And here is cheerleader Ellie. She’s just started attempting to stand and she’s pretty proud of herself! That little, snack sized Oreo cookie that you see in her hand, which she begged off of her brother, may also be why she’s smiling so proudly.
P.S. I think I need a telephoto lens if I’m going to continue taking pictures of my kids playing sports, don’t you? Hmmm…yeah, definitely. How I wish I could have zoomed in closer for Elijah’s touchdown!
The Great Minnesota Get Together 2010 Part I
The Horsmans took their annual trip to the State Fair this past Labor Day weekend. Little Ellie and Grammie had a restful day at home, while the other six of us traipsed all over the Minnesota State Fair Grounds.
I think this is what we’ll remember most from our 2010 trip…
The Mega Corndog. Eighteen inches (that’d be three jumbo wieners, people) of corn bread battered processed meat.
Elijah actually spent three dollors of his own money to upgrade to the “Mega,” the other three Horsman children very sensibly chose to have only a “Jumbo.” Elijah is already halfway through his “Mega” in this photo, while the others are on their first bite.
Almost done.
Conquered.
Defeated. Oy.
More pictures to come!
Favorite Photo of the Day
In 20 years they’re gonna love this photo. And they’ll forget all about how they were so ticked off with me for making them take they’re shirts off. Or…maybe they won’t forget.
The Rip-Van-Horsmans
Have you heard of/seen the new-fangled skateboard called a RIPSTIK? Oui? Non? (I need to brush up on my French. We begin a French foreign language course this fall. Exciting! Elijah and Zeke think that they’ll finally have a language to have secret conversations in the same way that the Portuguese speakers on campus do.) A RIPSTIK was all Zeke wanted for Christmas this past year and a RIPSTIK he did get.
As soon as the snow cleared this spring Zeke started practicing the wiggling maneuver used to propel himself on his RIPSTIK. He soon found out that it wasn’t as easy as it looked. He fell…a lot. But he kept at it. And fell a lot more. His elbows took the brunt of most of his collisions with the sidewalk. Ouch. Me? I would have given up.
But finally – like overnight – Zeke figured it out! Now he’s cruising all over campus. I love this picture of him doing a U-turn and the concentration evident in the tongue curl.
Of course, it simply would not do for Zeke to have a skill that Elijah didn’t have, so now Elijah is determined to figure out the RIPSTIK too…
Boys…everything’s a competition.
