Spooky Houses Galore

Leif got on a real haunted house drawing kick in October. He decided to mail one to Grandma C. Did it make it there Grandma?

Look at Leif's chubby little toes. By the way, this last picture is the reason I now need to refinish the kitchen table. Again.  If I refinish it, it will be the 4th time it's been sanded and stained! ;-0. Leif decided to paint his picture after I'd all ready gone to bed and I didn't realize he had water color all over the table top.  I think I was tired and went to bed early that night. (Maybe because I'd had insomnia the night before. Haha.) I love these water colors though. They are liquid water colors from Dick Blick and they are really vibrant.

Art Class Happiness

I really, really love teaching art on Thursdays (and sometimes Friday) at the elementary school. I wish I could be a primary school art teacher as a profession.  It would be my dream job. Sadly, Idaho doesn't pay for art teacher positions in elementary. Tears. Deep Sigh.....But that's okay because I do it for free as a volunteer and enjoy myself immensely. And I know the kids do too!

Here's our version of northwest coastal Indian masks.

Notice in the background, on the right, my little art corner I created.  That dresser was a dumpster find at Ricks College years ago and through the years has been a dresser for Hailey, Heidi, and Taylor. I gave it a new coat of paint this summer and it's now serving as a place to store oil pastels, markers, texture tools, scissors, construction paper, paint cups, and all sorts of artsy goodness. 

The art room is the cafeteria which is also a stage. I love this small old school. 

Some of these kids have amazing talent. I'm glad I get to give them a creative outlet and hopefully contribute to an overall enjoyable school experience.

 

Halloween

I decided to pick up blogging again.  Maybe it will stick? If not, I'm going to try not to feel guilty about it.  In the meantime.....

Halloween 2015

Leif and Reagan.  Leif's costume is obvious but you may have to look close to figure out Reagan's. He found clothes, made a name tag and did his hair all on his own.  I love when kids can start being independent like that.  I have never seen the movie "Ace Ventura" by the way.....have you?

Hailey was a tire mechanic and Heidi was a tire. Heidi had a paper pinned to her sleeve that said "Firestone".  I find it funny that two of my children had to make and wear labels to identify themselves. ;)

My baby

I can't believe in less than a month my "baby"

will be 5 years old!  I'm glad he still likes to get in bed with me in the morning and snuggle.

Shearing Day

I thought you might want to see how the girls sheep looked BEFORE the fair.

First, they deep wash the wool to get all the grease and weeds AND manure out so the clippers can bite into the wool better. Last year we didn't know that and we found out it was impossible to shear them.  Don't ask me how the professional sheep shearers do it because I know there is no way they hand wash all the sheep in the huge flocks before shearing.  But we do! 

Washing:

Then we put these super tight covers on the sheep to keep them clean until shearing.  I despise these covers.  It's like putting a tight turtle neck on a sheep and they don't like it and don't cooperate!! Next year I want to sew some that have Velcro and open like a coat.

Here is Taylor testing it out before putting it on the sheep.  They are snug!

Shasta probably wondered what the heck was being done to her. :)

Clean and fluffy: ready to be sheared!!

Shearing:

This is Pansy and she was very, very unhappy that she was being sheared!  She was always the friendliest sheep until we started washing and shearing.  She never quite got over it or trusted us again, even at the fair. 

Don't you feel sorry for the poor sheep?  What an awkward pose, but it's the way you get to their under bellies. 

Joel sheared the second lamb and did a great job!  It's a little bit like cutting hair and he's good at that too! :)  Even though the sheep dislike the handling and the buzzing clippers, it must feel better to get all that thick wool off during our summer heat!

It was so kind of Courtney and Nick Bennett to come and help out and let us use their shears. It's quite a job!

Fair-- part 2

The night before the pig show, the boys practiced with their pigs in the arena, trying to get their energy out.  Last year, Reagan's pig was running around wild and fighting with other pigs during the show and it was quite entertaining.

See how the pigs are blurry?  They were running around like wild banchees having lots of fun.  

Show day- Taylor is ready to take Colonel Von Chop-Chop into the show ring if it will turn and go the right way! :)

Reagan showing his pig, Chops.  (The boys must have had pork chops on the brain when they named their pigs this year!)  Reagan's pig weighed 245 at weigh in.

Reagan was working on breaking Chops to ride.  

Reagan really loves his pigs!!!  During fair he spends a lot of time hanging out with them in their pen.  It's fun to hang out with your pig when it's all cleaned up and oiled with baby oil. :)

 

Hailey enjoying our other favorite part of Fair-- the Rodeo!  There are 4 evenings of rodeo.  Our favorite events to watch are the bronc and bull riding events and the wild horse races!

Owyhee county fair-- 2014

I thought I'd post some pictures of our week at the fair. This year Taylor and Reagan did swine projects and Hailey and Heidi brought lambs.  Taylor's pig did not make weight (it weighed 219 pounds the day of weigh in so he missed it by 11 pounds) but he had an awesome showing in the photography class-- bringing home 10 blue ribbons, Superintendents Choice and Reserve Grand Champion for his pictures.  Hailey and Taylor also performed in Owyhee County's Got Talent and won first place! It was a GREAT year and being able to borrow a camper with air conditioning made the experience even that much better. :)

Here are some miscellaneous photos of the kids washing, practicing, and showing their animals that week.

At the wash stations- one of my favorite parts of fair is washing the animals. Era laundry soap gets the lamb's wool so white and then they smell amazing too. :)

This is Shasta.  She wanted to nibble the camera.

Heidi and Shasta are ready to go out in the show ring.

Lining the sheep up for the judge to look at:   Heidi is on the left and Hailey is in her Rimrock FFA jacket on the right.  The girls were in the same quality class because their sheep both weighed exactly 129 pounds.  (We thought that was a strange coincidence!) For showmanship class they compete against kids their own age.

I'm going to post the boys and their pigs in part two because this long post messed up last night and I'm having to redo the whole thing!