September - a month to remember.

I am reconciled to being eternally behind in the blogosphere. Here's the photographic summary of month of September.

Annually, we trek to my parents on Labor Day weekend.  This visit's primary purpose is the wholesale slaughter of the local dove population, subsequently we indulge in a delicious feast of brined dove breast; grilled to perfection and topped with Eric's apricot & shallot confit.  

The ear protection smashes his face and gives him the most fabulous chipmunk cheeks.

CO-OP

As I've mentioned previously, we are homeschooling the Stagglets.  This decision has introduced us to a host of incredible families who have chosen to do the same and find great joy in encouraging one another on this journey. Thus, Homeschool Co-op is born!

After a word of prayer and the pledge of allegiance, we begin our day with music. Here is Michelle instructing. The children must call her Mrs. DeBoer - we are trying to teach them how to respectfully and formally refer to adults. So, when we are in our school setting they use our last names.).

Many of our families are serious procreators, with as many as 6 to 9 children, on this day, Trudi Gilman  (grandmother of the Sonnichsen clan of 8), was in attendance to assist. Here we are preparing the day's snack.  We give three year olds knives and fruit and say "get to work!"

On our first meeting, we did a physical education assessment test.  We'll do it again at the end of the year. Standing, is very pregnant Chelsea (baby boy #5), and seated is our radical, administrative wonder maven, Katie.  She is our chief organizer and motivator, she has four children.

Here is Kolter (Chelsea's third son) and Bitty proving they can indeed skip.

Can you see the double rainbow? The kids were amazed.  Particularly, as we were going through a Noah's Ark obsession and had discussed the first recorded rainbow with mind boggling repetitiveness. 

GW abhors clothing.  You will regularly find him dressed as pictured. He potty trained himself the week after his 2nd birthday and has been naked since. He has literally not worn any shoes but these boots since August 30th.  Flat out REFUSES. (It's now December 16 and I fear what will happen when they no longer fit). However, that's not the hill I want to die on, so I just let him.  As a bonus, how spectacular is it when you are trying to get out of the house with three midgets, that your barely two year old can put his own shoes on, unassisted? 

More co-op... we did a unit on gravity and, of course, rockets were the practical experiment/example.  The Russell family graciously agreed to host us (10 families with 48 children) on a Saturday evening for Rocket Launch!!!

Here is Levi and GW.  

Rockets abound, excitement too!

It's hard to capture them as they fly, pell mell, catapulted at an extraordinary speed by pressure created with an air compressor.

The rocket is waaaaay in the air, but here is the spray of water it leaves behind as it flies upward.

Proud rocket engineer and decorator.

Ryan, patriarch of the Russell clan and master rocket launcher.

Post rocket launch, we potlucked and then roasted s'mores.  Look at this picture big and check out how the heat changed the image.  Pictured is Tyler, our beloved administrative maven's oldest (and the most endearing) son.

A photo of me! Wowza.  Another mama said, you're always behind the camera...