School Time

 Lots of busy little workers this morning! Today's lesson: Phylums Anthophyta, Coniferophyta, Pterophyta, and Bryophyta. (Kudos to you if you remember what kind of plant goes in each phylum ;)

Included a little nature walk today as well, finding the different plants for drawing.

And of course, this little guy wasn't going to be left out! :D 

The three younger ones weren't the only busy ones! Spiderman was constructing some pretty awesome gliders too.

Apologia is really awesome! The books are really descriptive and colourful and the projects in them are so much fun. It really keeps everyone occupied :)

Have you tried Apologia before? Did you like it?

March Highlights

Goodbye March, helloooo April! 

How has your March gone? What kind of memories did you make this month? :) 

Here are some of the highlights from my month! 

Picture taken from Google

For Biology, I had to do this Kingdom Project where my nature pictures finally got put to use :) But since I hadn't taken any pictures on fungus, I had to go out into the forest and find some.

And then that led to a nature walk which led to a visit to the pond...

Which led to someone falling into the pond. Yep! :D 

There have also been quite a few rainstorms lately. After one really dark, cloudy day I went outside and found everything sparkling. It was so pretty! 

Ah yes! And Mr. Robin decided to show up! When I first saw him, I said "Yes! Spring is finally coming!!" 

But then two days later, this happened: 

The day after the ice storm, the sun came out and melted away all the ice. But I could hear what sounded like glass shattering all day!

Picture taken from Google

I actually did a lot more baking this month than I usually do! But I do love baking - and watching people eat my baking :) Anyway, here are the results of those ventures! 

Making these cream puffs is so much fun! And filling them up with cream...ahhh, it was just SO fun! Watching the cream puff grow while piping cream into it was so mesmerizing, but I got a little carried away and put too much inside. There were a few people who bit into it and had cream exploding in their face :P 

Two toned cupcakes! Technique taken from that handy-dandy site called Youtube. 

Tiger Lily entered a Pi Baking contest and made these yummy looking cupcakes. Buttercream frosting and piped melted chocolate, mmm!

For Easter, we had our family over for dinner. Tiger Lily and I decided to make bread rolls instead of buying them and I'm so glad we did! The recipe came out better than expected and we made another batch today! :) The bread is really light and fluffy and oh-so-good!

I like birthdays, it gives me an excuse to bake something ;) Tiger Lily and I were trying to find a new chocolate cake recipe. So after looking through AllRecipes, we found this recipe called Perfect Chocolate Cake. Let me say now, we don't judge on the title of the recipe! ;) Do you know how many "Perfect", "World Famous", "Greatest", "Best", "Most Wonderful" chocolate cakes there are?!?! The way I usually try to judge whether the recipe is good is by visualizing the directions in my head. And also looking at photos of the results if there are any. What is your method of testing recipes? 

Anyway, we decided on this "Perfect Chocolate Cake" recipe and it turned out really well. The cake was really rich and moist and I'm definitely keeping the recipe! You can find the recipe here: Perfect Chocolate Cake. 

Tiger Lily and I were a little worried over having enough whipped cream in the middle since a few cakes ago, the filling was barely visible. But I think we got a substantial amount of whipped cream, don't you?  

Picture taken from Google

School has been going pretty well lately. We just finished our Easter/March break last week and getting back into the swing of things. Been a little bit more busy juggling lots of stuff, but we're all getting through :) 

In Biology, I've been studying Kingdom Plantae. My second favourite kingdom. My absolute favourite is Kingdom Animalia because it's so diverse and I love animals! What is your favourite kingdom? 

The two major projects that I did for Kingdom Plantae was dissecting a flower and growing lima beans. Both of which were really fun! 

It's so cool watching the beans grow. God is such an amazing Creator!! 

My Kingdom Project

Picture taken from Google

You all probably know this already, but... Tiger Lily got the highest score in her vocal class! :) She was super happy, but to be honest, I think I was happier than her for some reason :P 

And a SUPER special event; Spiderman turned 12! Happy, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! :D 

We learned something really exciting this month. I'm really eager to share it with you, but right now it's being kept under wraps. I sort of feel like this emoticon here:

Picture taken from Google

Keeping it zipped but really ready to burst! :P But it's really, really exciting and I can't wait until I can tell you all what it is! 

Picture taken from Google

The books I read this month are:

1. White Fang - Jack London
2. The Call of the Wild - Jack London
3. The Sea of Adventure - Enid Blyton
4. The Hydrofoil Mystery - Eric Walters 
5. 39 Clues Book 2 - Jude Watson
6. 39 Clues Book 5 - Patrick Carman
7. 39 Clues Book 6 - Jude Watson
8. An Old Fashioned Girl - Louisa May Alcott
9. The Last Ride - Susan K. Marlow
10. The Princess Spy - Melanie Dickerson
11. The Golden Braid - Melanie Dickerson
12. The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Elizabeth George Speare
13. Treasures from Grandma’s Attic - Arleta Richardson
14. Spy in the Shadows - Barbara Greenwood
15. Shiloh - Phyllis Reynolds Naylor 
16. Galatians 
17. Ephesians 

My favourite from this list would have to be The Last Ride. I read it in one night and it. was. amazing! I've been bugging Tiger Lily to read it and she's finally given in. She's reading it right now while I'm typing, I do believe ;) 

While looking on Google, I found this:

Picture taken from Google

But really, do you ever have this problem? I do! Facing a bookshelf crammed with books and sometimes spending more than 15 minutes trying to find one to read! 

And that about wraps up the month of March! 

What did you enjoy reading the most? 
What are some of the highlights in your month? 

Congratulations!!!!

Congratulations to my dear sister, Tiger Lily! Today, she got a letter from her vocal teacher saying that she had gotten the highest grade in the course!!!!! 

We were so happy! And, okay, I admit I did squeal and jump up and down when I found out :P But I was am SOOOO proud of her!

Wonderful, fantastic, absolutely AMAZING job, Tiger Lily!!!!! :D 

The Very Belated Photo Post

Hello all! Here it is, the very belated photo post.

Enjoy! 

Monday, January 4: Puzzles 

Okay, this picture was actually taken on the 5th, but the picture that I had for the 4th
didn't turn out as well as I would have liked and it was really hard to see the subject :( 

Tuesday, January 5: Happy 10th Birthday, Ironman!  

Wednesday, January 6: First Time Skater! 

Thursday, January 7: Meringue

Friday, January 8: Superwoman! 

Snow White's creativity....

Sunday, January 10: January 10 :) 

Tuesday, January 12: Math. . . 

just a note though, I am no longer doing Precalculus! Yippee! :P Found out
that it was wwaaayyy too advanced for me, so now I'm going through Algebra II
instead ;) 

Thursday, January 14: Colonial Tea Set

Friday, January 15: Chickens + Snow

Saturday, January 16: The Photo of a Photo

Sunday, January 17: My Song To-Do List

Monday, January 18: Snow! 

Tuesday, January 19: Ski Pile

Yup, I wore ALL of that to go skiing :P 

Wednesday, January 20: Skiing! 

And just an extra picture... it was snowing really hard when we left! 

Thursday, January 21: Calendar Picture

Friday, January 22: Brother and Sister

Sunday, January 24: Meeting Yoda

Monday, January 25: Showing Off His Motorcycle ;) 

Tuesday, January 26: Ever After! 

Here's a picture of the DVD that I won from Heidi.
I was totally blown away with the cover!
I thought it was going to look like this:

But what I got is SOOO much prettier than the other one!!
Thank you so much, Heidi! :) 

Wednesday, January 27: Puppy Face

Thursday, January 28: Snow Covered Bush

Friday, January 29: Fluffy Elephant

Saturday, January 30: Photo Shoot with a Friend! :D 

Sunday, January 31: Friends Forever

A beautiful water-colour painting given to me by one of my
dearest friends! :) 

Monday, February 1: Old, Broken Jewelry

The pearls at the bottom are mostly missing, the clasp on the other piece is
totally gone, and did you know that it used to be on a necklace? I was
attempting to make the jewelry prettier than what it actually looks like
in real life. Do you think I succeeded, or does it still look pretty old and broken and
somewhat ugly? 

Tuesday, February 2: A Printed Photograph. . . 

Wednesday, February 3: Watching Studio C

Thursday, February 4: Ice Cream in a Cup

Friday, February 5: Sweet (literally) Sixteen! 

Yours truly turned 16! :D
 I woke up to a family waiting in the dining
room to surprise me with banners, birthday decorations, presents. these pretty
cakes and a whole lot of love! :D
I have an awesome family!!!!! :) 

Saturday, February 6: Birthday Banner

A corner of the beautiful and very colourful banner that my siblings made for me.
Ironman drew a very pretty sunrise, and then I found out that Tiger Lily had snuck in
"You're old!"  at the bottom of a mountain.  Isn't she the loveliest sister? :P 

Sunday, February 7: Mouldy Sandwich

Note to self: Always check to make sure that the ski bag is completely empty.
Or else you might find, well, that. 

Monday, February 8: Three Little Skiers

Look who started skiing!! I managed to persuade Mom to let Toblerone try skiing
in the last two hours of our ski day, and she agreed. At the end of about 1.5 hours, he
was able to ski straight a little ways by himself! He's growing up so fast!! :)