pics:

Math wars:

We tried Quirkle for the first time today, very fun!!

Swim awards:

Plants with Robin- Ella is growing: cucumber, Morning Glory, radish, & Marigolds. Very fun!! They all should be sprouting very soon. :)

Zorb ball and Gracie pics....

Zorb ball---they had so much fun doing this!!

Today we had a swim meet---the girls did awesome. I'm exhausted. I'm not going to post swim pics today.

Okay--so I come home, and there is so much to be done...laundry, cooking, cleaning....ick. So, what did I do? I go outside and take pictures of Gracie and avoid my household duties till the sun goes down. :)

I love these pics! I have more, but these were my favorites.

pics from my little camera....

Today we went to the Hyatt for some much needed pool/beach time:

These are pics from a few weeks ago. The first Friday of every month the club on base has a special dinner, all you can eat; $5 a person. It's a pretty amazing deal considering the food is really great--a huge variety. There is always a DJ, and the kids LOVE to dance-

Swim team bake sale a few weeks ago-

I guess that's about it from my little camera. Blogging hasn't been a huge priority lately---not even sure my family still checks it?! April is a very busy month for us, so my updates might be few and far between for a little while. We've got 3 birthdays coming up, yay!! Well, I guess, I'm excited---I feel a little sad that my baby girl is turning 3 soon. Time seems to be moving super-speed lately.

pics...

more student artworks, love these!-

messy art day-

Tea party-

Short course finals- swim meet

Oh my goodness, best swim meet ever for my girls!! I'm so proud of them-
Ella:

hehe---love this pic...we've got to work on Ella's game face. Ella is smiling at the other girl, while the other girl is staring her down...(double click the pic to enlarge) :)

Untitled from Amy B on Vimeo.

Kate-

Not only did they beat a personal best time in every race they swam in, but they also placed in most of their events!

Ella- 1st place: 25 Breast
2nd place: 25 Free

Kate- 2nd place: 100 IM
2nd place: 50 Free (36 seconds-great time, Kate!)
4th place: 50 Fly

Their swim practices have been more intense the past couple of weeks. Their hard work is paying off--big time!

Gracie-

One quick video of the relay--Ella then Kate:

Gracie knows a lot of the state capitals-

The other night I asked Ella, "What is the capital of Pennsylvania?"---and she hesitated. Gracie could see that Ella was having trouble, so she said "Harrisburg." I had no idea that she had been learning the capitals along with Ella---I certainly had not been quizzing Gracie! So last night I took a quick video of some of the capitals that she knows. Today when it was time for me to review Ella on the capitals, Gracie came running in from the other room saying, "Ask me!". :)

Just before this video, she had been in the dress-up bin--and put on Ella's Halloween witch costume. :)

g capitals from Amy Bartley on Vimeo.

Also, if you have a toddler--this is a fun little project. We cut paper towel/toilet paper rolls in half, and taped up a slide for her vintage little people, but I'm sure marbles would work too:

loving my art classes....

I teach a class on Mon, Tue. and Wed. mornings, and it's my favorite part of the week. :) My students are ages 5 to 16.

One of the older groups just got finished with monochromatic portraits-

All tints and shades of blue on this one by an eleven year old student-

pointillism; we studied Georges Seurat, the kids amazed me with this project--they really got into mixing the acrylic paint
5 years old-

8 years old-

monochromatic contours- (loved how these turned out)
12 years old-

light/shadows/value study with Gracie's blocks- using chalk pastels
ages 11 & 12-

Someday soon I'll create a blog for student artworks only.

weekend pics--

around the house-

Gracie-

pics...

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss. A Fish Out of Water is one of our favorites right now...

Loved it that Kate was helping Ella out with the ripstik today-

But then quickly realized that there was a catch! --she was charging Ella a fee for 'ripstik school'.

I'm so proud of her, she's been a really good big sis to Ella lately (except charging her for help on the ripstik)-

I just ordered Ella her own ripstik. She will be paying for it w/allowance $$.

Getting ready to sit down for a family game of Monopoly-yay! + we had yummy Japanese food tonight-that makes for a perfect night. :)

creative Kate

Kate made up a cute story including 10 of her spelling words. Here is it, it's called The Land That Will Never End, and her spelling words are in bold.

"Once their was a land that never ended. That land was called Goo. Goo was a magical land. It was full of magical creatures. One day an evil man heard about the land, and said he would soon uncover it. He said he would rule Goo forever. Even if he is disenchanted, he can still get to Goo. He would have to defrost a big thing of ice to get in. He would also have to wear some kind of deodorant, or else everything in Goo would attack him. It will be very unpredictable and unpleasant. I think he might make it in Goo. He has found two out of five clues to finding Goo. He will be unfamiliar with the land. If he gets in here he could, explode, deflate, or become very dehydrated. He will be so disobedient, if he makes it. I hope he doesn’t make it. I like cheese. What I said it was very unnecessary, sorry."