Spring is Early

Welcome

I hope spring has sprung for you as it has for us.  We've been soaking in the sun and we've started sprouting some spring plants.  The winter funk has left and everyone is feeling much better all around.  We've been trying to spend 2+ hours outside a day.  I've found we're all sleeping so much better since we started.  Even if we're just sitting around doing school work, just simply being outside and absorbing the sun is doing wonders for us. 

If you squint you can see a few pea sprouts poking their heads out of the garden.






We're also letting the chickens run around the yard while we do school work in the morning.  They love free ranging.  Every time we go outside the girls get exciting assuming they are going to get to play with us.

Vlogging

L-bug has been working hard on her YouTube channel.  Sadly, I don't have quite as much free time as she has, so I have a queue of five videos we've filmed that I still need to edit.  Shame on me.  If you haven't checked her out yet she's The IcyBreeze Show.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaAZTuEiHrWst4s7I9QqVWw

So far she has a toy reveal, a toy review and a short skit.  We have a baking review in the works, and a few more little projects in the works.  Working on a channel has been an experience so far and its nice to have something for her to work on that's all hers.  It was her idea to open the channel and she's in charge of what and when we film (within reason) I just edit and upload. 

On the Bookshelf

We decided to continue on with The Fellowship of the Rings, it is hard to fit in long chunks of free reading so we're taking it nice and slow.  We'll be in this book for a considerable time, but that's okay because she's loving every minute of it.  How much time do you spend free reading a day?

Crafting

So many of my friends and family are having or are expecting babies that I've been working almost exclusively on baby items.  I've even started making some for the Etsy store.  There's the cutest baby bunny hats I wish I'd made for my girls when they were little and a little fox hat and diaper cover set for sale on Blue Rabbit Cottage.  I can make the bunny hats bigger, but only Boo is interested.  I'm going to get her a pink one made before she outgrows cutsie little things like that. 

Projects

Aside from vlogging L-bug has been busy working on her computer programing and doing art like always.  She might have hit a slump in programing because she has to work with fractions more than she has in math.  She's interested enough in it though, I think she'll work though it pretty easily.  We shall see.  I have to says thank you to Kahn Academy for offering such a great math and programing program for free.  I never would have thought these subjects could be so easy to learn before we found that site. 

L-bug got a blank book today and has already started filling it up with pictures from her favorite anime, Fairy Tail.

All in all things are going smoothly and we're all happy and healthy at the Blue Rabbit Academy.  I hope you can say the same for you and yours.  Thanks for stopping by to visit and come back soon to see what we've been getting into.  Feel free to share what's been happening in your neck of the woods in the comments below.

5 School Supplies We Can't Live Without

We have many things we use everyday in our school.  We have a tote for our most used books in L-bug's room, a shelf for occasional books in the living room, and shelves lining the walls with free reads.  There is the phone where we listen to Librivox, and the tablet where we do Duolingo, and the desktop where we use Kahn, ABC Mouse, and Peep: in spite of all this we have narrowed down the top 5 school supplies we just can't live without.

What is so funny about this list is the fact that these five items are so important they are magical. You see, they get up and move on their own.  We spend more time looking for these things everyday than we spend looking for the hairbrush (and the brush has several little sprites who help hide it each day.

From least to most important we have...

The pencil sharpener.  We have dozens of tiny pencil sharpeners and yet we can never find them.  Do they have parties under the furniture? I don't know, but they are sneaky little pests.

Pencils themselves come in at number four.  We have buckets full of crayons, but pencils simply fly away.  The girls get numerous pencils for back to school and in Christmas stockings, but no luck.  Every day we have the same hunt for a 'writing stick.'

Scissors are in the middle of the pack.  Now, truthfully, we do not use scissors everyday.  However, we have ten or so pairs, ranging from safty scissors to sewing scissors and everything in between.  Can we find them when we need them? Never.

Number two is dry erase markers.  At the beginning of each school year, I buy bushels of packages for brand new dry erase markers. And every year we loose them one by one.  By spring break we're usually down to the yucky orange that's hard to read.  Some the babies leave uncapped and they dry out, but overall they just pull a Houdini and vanish.

Finally, white boards.  Everyday we write out our day's work on a white board.  The board is supposed to go in the aforementioned tote, and yet somehow every morning I'm searching for a board to get the day started.

These are our five top school supplies we cannot live without here at the Blue Rabbit Academy.  In the comments share your necessary supplies and whether they also have minds of their own.

Thank you for visiting the Blue Rabbit Academy.  Please come back and visit again soon. 

February Funk

Welcome Back

We have been rather busy around the academy.  Sadly, it feels like we're slacking in the school department and we're just busy with everything else in life.  I think we're really doing fine, we're just feeling the February funk.  We're a little tired of the snow, wind, and mud.

Sleep Over

L-bug had some friends spend the night last weekend.  We made some cupcakes, got pizza and rented a couple of movies.  Half of us hadn't seen Hotel Transylvania II, so the sissies and I were invited to watch with the big girls.  It was a fairly cute movie.  The other movie rented was Goosebumps so sissies and I left to go watch Barbie and the Rockin' Royals upstairs.  One of our guests couldn't make it because there was a bad snow storm and they weren't sure if they'd be able to leave their house the next day to pick her back up.  Sadly, the snow all melted the next day, but better safe than sorry.  We'll have to throw another sleep over again soon, so that everyone can come.

Sickness

Right after the sleepover I fell to the plague.  Not really, but it was a nasty head cold.  Boo had had a case of the sniffles the week before, but it was nothing like this.  I had a fever and a cold that went straight to a cough.  Thankfully the fever and cold lasted two or three days, but the cough still lingers.  L-bug fell pray to the cough today and spent her day on the couch doing as little as possible.

Snow

After the storm that looked to be pretty bad, but melted quickly- we had another good downpour of snow.

 4.5", and that's a lot for us.  Sadly, we were sick and that storm ended with a rain storm so the snow was totally gone the next day.  Thankfully it didn't then ice over, that was my biggest fear. 

Lego Club

We did manage to make it to Lego Club this month, it was a little bit iffy all day.  We were running late, but we made it anyway.  Ro-bear and L-bug worked on the theme of the month: mazes.  Boo played with some Duplo and we built an 'airplane' together. 

Crafts

Most of my crafting time has been devoted to Christmas presents for the girls.  I decided this year I am going to make some clothes for the girls' 18" dolls, so I needed to start early and work a little bit all year.  So far I  have most of a coat, hat, boots and scarf set done each, and two of three tutus done.  I think after these sets I'll take a break to work on some other projects.  If you like the doll tutus, we'll be carrying some over at the Blue Rabbit Cottage in the months to come. 

YouTube

L-bug finally has her YouTube channel.  Her user name is Icy Breeze and her show is called The Icy Breeze show.  So far we just have the one episode up, which is a toy reveal.  We have a few other videos lined up in our editing software and a few more ideas in our heads for filming.  This has been a fun experience so far. 

On Bookshelf

Due to being sick and crazy, we just finally finished The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. We loved this book, but we're debating about what book to read next.  Books in our line up are, By the Shores of Silver Lake, we had started this book and couldn't get into it like the rest of the series, so we shelved it for later.  The Fellowship of the Ring which we also started, but due to sore throat had shelved for a shorter book.  or continue in the Narnia series.  Any suggestions?  Please comment below with which book you would chose and why. 

I hope you have had a pleasant visit with us today.  I hope you have avoided all the illnesses and the February funk and can sit down with a piping hot cup of tea, put your feet up and just enjoy your evening.  That sounds lovely to me at least.  I hope to see you back here again soon, I have a special post in the works, so check back next week, I'm thinking Wednesday to see what I've got up my sleeve. Until then- peace.







Go to Bed

"Go to bed" has probably been the most said phrase in my house this week.  What have you had to repeat more times than you care to count this week alone?

Fun things the Littles say:

Boo: You'll pay for that!
Ro-bear: Do you even know what that means?
Boo: Yeah, it means you have to give me all your monies.


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Boo: I'm a big girl because I use the potty, but I'm still a little girl because I'm short. I'm big and small, so I'm a little girl.


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New Subjects

L-bug has started programing on Kahn Academy. She's just started this week, but she is really loving it.  She has drawn a snowman, and a dinner plate so far. 

She's also decided she really doesn't want to take Spanish anymore.  So, this New Year when I started Duolingo in Spanish she started in French, then I picked up French just to brush up on it all because its been a while.  She's getting to a point where its getting easier because all the words aren't totally new anymore. 

Obsessions

L-bug has become obsessed with YouTube toy channels like DisneyCarToys and The Mommy and Gracie Show.  She's wanting to open her own channel to play with toys, and do skits, etc.


She's also obsessed with the anime Fairy Tail.  We'd gotten two new seasons on DVD for Christmas because we watched both seasons on Netflix already.  She's devoured them and is totally waiting for the next gift giving occasion hoping we'll get a few more seasons.


Boo is obsessed with sitting on my Pinterest and looking at pictures of Sword Art Online.  Her favorite characters are Yui and Asuna.

Gymnastics

Ro-bear has moved up to big girl gymnastics.  She loves her new class and her new coach. On the flip side Boo is just eating up the fact that she's now the big girl in her class.  She's showing off and acting like the little princess we all know her to be.

Sorry for the bad quality of the picture, but in the center is little Ro-bear on her big girl beam with L-bug and the rest of the class.

On the Bookshelf Homeschool edition

Over at the Blue Rabbit Cottage we've started a feature called "on the bookshelf" were I talked about the recent book I'd read.  I thought that I'd share what the kids and I have been reading.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe we're half through the novel and L-bug is very excited to finally get to Aslan any chapter now.  We went to Jungle Jim's recently and bought some Turkish Deights... they were not a huge hit.  We're also planning on watching the movie when we have finished the book. 

Outside time

We've been spending more time outside because of the beautiful weather and the chickens.  The chickens want to get out and forage around the yard.  We've been trying to let them out for half an hour or so each day to run around and eat buggies.  Its going to turn cold again shortly so staying out won't be as much fun.

Lego Club:

This month at Lego club the kids built robots.  Ro-bear was very proud of her robot.





L-bear's is the tall robot beside her.

Contest on Blue Rabbit Cottage

Head over to the Blue Rabbit Cottage Facebook page and 'like' and 'share' the contest post for a chance to win a bow.  Contest ends February 28, 2016 and winner will be announced February 29, 2016.


Hope you have had a good week and we hope to see you back at the Blue Rabbit Academy to see a little bit about what we do at our school and life in general.

Happy New Year- 2016

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and that this new year has started out smoothly for you. We've been fairly busy this past month. We took a few weeks off school for the holidays and then of course the holidays themselves took a toll on everyone. 

Before Christmas Shenanigans

Some of the fun things we've done since we were here last-  Our local G2K had a breakfast and board games day on Saturday.  All of us went and played some games and ate some donuts with some of Dad's friends. 

 

My friend's twins were born over a month early the week before Christmas and got to come home on New Year's.  Everyone seems to be doing fine. 

We attended a Library Christmas party.  Everyone brought in some snacks and the kids listened to a few Christmas books and then had snacks with their friends.

 

We went up to visit my family the weekend before Christmas, and got to celebrate Christmas at the hospital with my friend before we left.  It was fun getting to see her, even if we weren't allowed to see the babies.

 

We got to play some board games, and visited EnterTrainment with my dad.  Amazingly I only took one picture the entire day... and Ro-bear wasn't in it.

When we made it back I got two early Christmas presents... a chicken coop from one brother in law and two chickens to go in it from the other brother in law.  We're very excited to have chickens.

The girls got named Snowball and Ginger.  They seem to be settling in fairly nicely.  

New Year's Nonsense

L-bug got some new games for Christmas this year and we're just getting around to trying them out.  Ro-bear and I played her in Tsuro.  Ro-bear isn't quite old enough to play well yet, but she really loved being part of the game.  Another of this new favorite games is Cash N' Guns.  Ro-bear just likes to aim the little foam gun at people, but everyone's enjoyed that one thus far.

 Who would have thought we would still be playing outside in January?  The weather has been fairly nice this year, but I hear that's coming to an end any day now.  It was nice while it lasted.

 The library did a program on trains this past week.  No one was really in a mood to leave the house, until we remembered the theme was train and Ro-bear loves trains. The library had a large model of the polar express for kids to take their picture with, the girls had a blast.

This was our first full week back to school after such a long break.  It was a little rough on Ro-bear and Boo, but L-bear was a trooper.  She learned about World War I and the properties of light and worked on an essay for a contest due next week.  She's also started a hat for the Chemo Kits she's wanting to make for the local hospital.  We went out after Christmas and bought some blankets and stuffed animals to go in them as well.  I think its a wonderful idea, but I do wonder how long she'll stick with it and how many hats I'll end up making at the end of the year. 

The other thing going on in the near future is Ro-bear's birthday.  She'll be 5 this coming week.  I find that very hard to believe.

Non Academy News

If anyone is interested in reading our craft blog head over to www.bluerabbitcottage.blogspot.com  For the month of January we're holding a contest.  Comment over there with your New Year's Resolution for a chance to win a 5$ gift card to our Etsy store.

I hope to see you back soon for more news from the Blue Rabbit Academy! Have a wonderful New Year!





Advent Activities

December Fun

I hope you have been enjoying all this month has to offer.  We've been working through our Advent Calendar we have a good mixture of baking, movies and crafts and so far everyone seems to be enjoying our time together. 

We're about pictured out this December.  Last month we did family pictures with cousins, then we did our yearly Christmas card pictures, and finally went to get pictures made with Santa.  Lots of fun, but tiresome for little people.  Expect for the price tags in the background I really like this year's picture with Santa.

 When L-bug was little we used to hang the stockings on the Christmas tree, but once the other two girls came along it just didn't seem like such a good idea anymore.  Last year L-bug had the idea to hang them up on the guitar hooks.  Everyone chose their favorite instrument and we hung them up above the TV. I love the way it looks now.

 Last weekend the weather was so nice we took a trip to the park.  Everyone had so much fun getting out and enjoying themselves.  This week the weather should be even nicer so a return visit might be necessary. 

 L-bug decided in November that she wanted to buy an American Girl doll.  Just after she decided this they did a promotion, that for every doll sold they would donate a doll to a girl in need.  At that point she knew she just had to buy a doll.  Her dad told her he'd match her dollar for dollar.  She made rainbow loom bracelets and little yarn hat ornaments to sell at work, the library, PE and gymnastics and she managed to earn her half of the money.  Her doll arrived today, she chose Kaya.  This picture is actually her posing in her new hat, scarf and gloves with the little hat ornaments she was making at the time.  She thinks she might keep selling out of her box and use any more money she earns to put together cancer care packages for the local hospital.  I still need to look into this and see if the hospital is interested or not. 

 Here are a few random pictures of the girls decorating the tree.  Each year we get a special ornament.  This year each girl got a princess in her favorite color.  Every year as we unpack the ornaments they ask where we got all the ornaments, or as L-bug gets older she takes over telling some of the stories. 

 Ro-bear had the bright idea that she wanted roasted marshmellows one day, but was too lazy to hold up her roasting stick.  So L-bug had to copy her proper upper device.

 I was working on a fleece tie blanket when Boo and L-bug decided to play Nintendo on it.  They were very careful not to wrinkle. 

 November Highlights

L-bug decided to join the Lego club at the local library.  Her dad didn't get off work in time to keep the small fries so they came along.  Luckily there were some bigger blocks for them and their friends to play with as well. 

With L-bug's Little Passports box we decided to do an embroidery for each country we 'visit' so far she has done Japan shown here, an outline of the islands with Japan written at the bottom. Some reason I don't have a picture of it completed.  And she chose a fleur du lis for France with, of course, France written at the bottom. 

 Finally, L-bug has gotten a new round loom to knit hats on.  She managed to make two little red hats for my friend's baby shower for her twins due in January.  I wasn't positive L-bug would get them both finished in time, but she did manage and they turned out very cute. 

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and I hope to see you here again after Christmas as we bring in the new year.  Share pictures of your tree below, I love to see how others decorate for the holiday!