Starting to Feel Like Autumn

We had our first day where the high temp was less than 80*.  I pulled down one of Hannah's new autumn outfits, and snapped a couple pictures.  

As Hannah has gotten bigger, I've been struggling with what she can wear.  

See, she has kind of a jumble of bones where most people have a thigh bone that points down.  This causes her prosthetic to be really bulgy at the top.  She can wear stretchy leggings, but she can't wear regular pants at all.  (I used to have her wear jeans from the boys department, and now even those aren't loose enough to accommodate her needs.)  

Now she's in that awkward stage where kid sizes are too small and adult sizes are too big.  It's been a challenge.  I was really sad when she outgrew a couple of my favorite brands.  But then I discovered some of them do adult sizes.  Like mother-daughter matching type stuff.  So, this gorgeous sunflower tunic that's close to perfect for Hannah is actually an XS adult top.  Having discovered a good fit for her, I'll be snagging some more of these the next time they pop up on Zulily.  

Up to more craziness in the school room.   

Those are toilet paper tubes, cut in half, and painted with tempera paint.

And a very stealthy proof of life photo of Jack, who hasn't been seen much on the blog recently.  

In-progress pictures

One of my classes has been learning about insect with their teacher, so I thought we'd do a bug craft in the library.  I put out the painted tubes, googley eyes, sticker eyes, pipe cleaners, scissors, black washi tape, black paint daubers, coffee filters, white glue, glue sticks, and tissue paper.  

I showed the kids 3 examples of bugs I'd made.  (There's a purple tube body under those coffee filter wings, even though you can't see it.)

But I told them they could do whatever they wanted.  They were actually super creative, and I feel like the craft was a success.  

Especially if the mess they left behind is any indication.  

Here's one of the K/1 class, student-completed puppy & bus pictures.  I like the idea of tying the book and craft together--although we don't have time to read the story, do the craft, and have checkout, all in the same visit.  

So it was story & checkout one visit; checkout & paint puppies one visit; and finally, cut out bus and glue puppy & bus to larger paper the third visit.  We reviewed the story at visits 2 & 3.  I'm hoping they can use the picture to tell their grown ups what happened in the story.  

The day I handed back their completed (and dry!) bus projects, we read a lion book.  

I've been cutting yarn during my TV time.  We'll be making lions next week, if all goes well.

I was outside and turned around to find Fiona watching me.  

We've dwindled down to a single library book being picked up from the city library.  Hannah needed this one for school.  Jack's class is currently reading Fahrenheit 451, and Katie's class is reading The Hobbit.  

This was a craft book project that Katie completed a couple weeks ago.  

"Mom?  Can you take a picture of this so I can throw it away?"  Okay then.  

Josiah was house sitting recently, and I think Fiona missed him.  He's her favorite.  

 She's a pretty little cat.  

The library white board is magnetic.  I took the Magnatiles to school and let the high schoolers play with them as one of the "stations" I did this week.  There were also a couple games, origami book & paper, and... 

The Thumbprint Drawing Book, which I set out with a stamp pad and some paper.  Some students produced drawings like this, similar to the ideas in the book, or even followed the book's tutorials to create exact copies of the examples shown.  

And one student went a bit further.  This was completely created from inkpad, fingerprints, and a black marker.  Obviously I'll be needing to provide more time for artsy expression.  

I had to fire up Crikey to cut out a bazillion yellow circles for lion faces, so I pulled out a few baby things I had socked away for Kasen.  

I Crikey-ed up a couple bibs and an orange sleeper.  

The color on this is horrible, that's red on royal blue.  I used a heart for the period.  

And this is where I struggled.  The longest word is 2.6".  Weeding this was a challenge to my eyesight.  Pulling off everything *except* the words from the fronting (like backing, only on the front) when my Crikey's knife is getting dull...  Tiny green on green not quite cut madness.  I'm really happy it turned out well, and I'm making a mental note not to attempt anything that little again.  

Snagged during a recent FaceTime.  Lil guy is adorable, and the big guy is smitten, which I think is adorable, too.  

I put out bookmarks for the students to take during checkout for all the classes from 3rd grade up.  Which means we go through a lot of bookmarks.  So I've been scouring the 'net for free ones.  Sometimes government websites have them in the teaching resources.  I also put out a request in a Facebook group for authors, publishers, and book reviewers, and that's where this pile came from.  NASA has some great printable ones, but my new printer is lousy, and printed them with stripes that shouldn't be there.  

Oh, the sacrifices my kids have made for this library!  Kellogg's is doing a promotion giving away free books with the purchase of specially marked packages.  So my kids are eating Froot Loops and other random Kellogg's products to do their part.  

Miss Fiona climbed right into my lap one day.  

I thought I had killed the plant Sam gave me for Mother's Day.  I'm terrible about killing plants.  But I started watering it regularly, and it came back.  I'm so happy to see it blooming again!  

Jack Jack participated in a charity shoot yesterday.  He had a great time, which made me happy for him.  

I zapped Zach some Amazon money for his birthday, and he sent me a picture of the hat he used it on.  With a little Kasen love thrown in on the side.  

Whew!  That's all for this week.  We're heading back to Shriners next week, hoping for big progress on Hannah's new leg, and maybe an ankle cover for Katie.