Lunar Eclipse

Elizabeth is loving her Apologia Astronomy science book. She's read through all of it, though we still read and do activities at a slower pace together for school. But she heard about a lunar eclipse coming up and was thrilled. She read about it and explained to me what it was. It's when the earth passes between the sun and the moon so that the earth's shadow is cast upon the moon. It gives the moon a reddish glow. This is the first time since 1638 that a total lunar eclipse happened on the winter solstice (shortest day of the year). The next one to happen on a winter solstice will be 2094. I set my alarm for 3 am and Liz and I went outside to see a cool total eclipse of the moon. We stayed about 2 minutes and then went back to bed. It was cold. It would have been cool to see all the phases but that would have taken several hours and we're not THAT into it. :-)

Photo from http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2004/13oct_lunareclipse/

Gingerbread Houses

Last year we received a book called "Gingerbread from the Heart" for Christmas. It was illustrated by a family friend, so it's kind of neat to read it to the kids. Ever since we received it, the kids have been talking about making gingerbread houses for Christmas! Which means they've been talking about it all year. So I blocked out two days on the calendar to do just that. No school, just gingerbread houses.









A photo really minimizes the mess. There was nothing minimal about it! I don't think this will be a yearly tradition. Worth it and fun, but not every year.






And a picture of Harrison thrown in. This was taken a few days back when it was truly cold enough to wear a sweater. Today it was quite warm.

In Which Elizabeth Turns Nine

This party was much easier than the last "friend" party she had. Of course she was 6 last time and there were 8 or so girls there. The girls this year mainly wanted to play house upstairs. They were all in their 20's except for Phoebe who was 6. Blue and white were the colors for everything because it was a winter theme. And Liz wanted a jello cake which was 4 layers of jello (blue and purple alternating) and cool whip for the frosting. The girls pronounced it surprisingly yummy.

How We Take Our Coffee

Every morning this helps us get out of bed.

Phillip takes two sugars and two creams (French Vanilla).
Lanaya takes one sugar and 5 or 6 creams. And sometimes some cinnamon.