Nature in our Yard

 When looking at the house I noticed this nest. Even the owner didn't notice it, but I guess I must have an eye for these things. When I saw some little finches hanging around the tree I was hopeful that they were going to use this nest but they haven't returned since I took this picture.

 This is a beautiful lilac bush. The flowers opened a day or two after this picture.

 This bee was dying so we put it in a jar and it die. Now we have it to observe.

Austyn caught a damselfly under the lid of this jar and when he went to try and let it out to catch it in the jar the insect flew right in. We got a close up look at a live damselfly.

this moment - bullet hole?

{this moment}

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{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

If you would like to see what others have posted or if you would like to join in here is the link to SouleMama's Blog:
http://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/2011/01/this-moment.html

Austyn and his Stories

Austyn is constantly telling me stories. He still doesn't have the ability to put all of them down on paper so I decided to sit down and type some of his words out today. He isn't finished and wants to continue and do this for other stories he has been thinking about. Here are two of his stories that I typed out for him this morning.

The Story About the Planet

June 9^th, 2011

By Austyn

          There was a planet. It was called “Fire” because it always blows up and has explosions. There are tunnels to go to that planet. The planet shot fire at Earth and it killed more than half of the people on Earth. It shot rocks at Earth too. This all happened when there was a huge explosion. There was so much smoke on Earth and that is how it killed more than half of the people.

          Some of my Lego friends went on to the planet to try and stop it from blowing up. They did stop it. Now people go on it all the time and they can live on it.

The Best Lego Team in the World

June 9^th, 2011

By Austyn

          My Lego team is the second best Lego team in the whole world and I’m still fighting the best Lego team in the world. My Lego team probably will be the best Lego team in the world. My Lego friend John is the best fighter on my team. I’m the owner of my Lego team. I’m the leader too.

There are Ninja guys who have sword holders on their backs and they can do back flips and climb up walls. They can do back flips when someone is trying to shoot them and they will miss because they’ll just shoot them between their legs.

There are all different fighters and two of the best fighters are called the Lightening Sword Fighters. The lightening swords can burn right through people. That’s how they can be so tough.

          Do you know what I can do? I can turn myself into mist and when someone tries to hit me with a sword it won’t hurt me. It will just go right through me and I’ll be fine. Two people both holding an axe were in front of me and behind me. I ducked and they hit each other instead of me. Even my bones can turn into mist.

          There are other fighters who are like Ninjas and they look like Ninjas but they aren’t Ninjas because they can’t do back flips or climb up walls. Their job is just to guard our house. I have guard dragons and they are called Cheetah Dragons. They are part Cheetah and part Dragon. I have two of them. They have wings but they can’t fly. They do have really sharp teeth and they can run really fast.

          My Lego friend, John, has a Great Horned Dragon. Do you know why it’s called a Great Horned Dragon? It’s because its horns are so huge! Its face looks like an ox face. The horns look like horns from an ox.

          My Lego friend, Harry, has a Hammer Tailed Dragon. It’s called a Hammer Tailed Dragon because the end of its tail is shaped like a hammer. Do you know what they use this dragon for? Fighting and breaking things.

Book Sharing Monday - Leon and the Place Between

Being a magic lover, Austyn had an instant fondness of this book.

Leon watched a magic show and was called up for one of the acts. What happened to him when he disappeared was almost beyond words, but Angela McAllister captured the details of that place that he disappeared to well in this book. If you have a young magician in your house, this book will be sure to mystify.

Science Sunday - The Ant Kill

Yes... sadly... they were killing ants. They were trying different things on the ants to see what would kill the ants faster when they came in contact with the different substances. I saw them use, Off Skintastic, water, salt, baking soda, vinegar, chalk, and anything else they could find. This all went on while I picked weeds in the garden. They noticed after they were finished that the ants didn't like to walk on the area that they used to do the experiments. And... yes... Austyn is sticking out his tongue at the ants in the picture above because they can't walk over that big wet spot to get to the ant hole. Sigh... well... I guess this is science, the unschooling way. LOL!!!