Cow Play

This Week's You Capture Challenge over at I Should Be Folding Laundry is PLAY.

Even though I have four children for whom this theme couldn't be more perfect,

Here I am back in the cow pasture.

But, it's just that we had another new baby born, and it was a brown one,
and I love the brown ones.

(I call this one Rainbow, because we saw this:

moments before we discovered him out in the pasture for the first time. Aww.)



...and even though he was probably less than a day old,



he was already running up to PLAY with our dog Piper.



Piper, who is a little bit chicken about the big cows, was thrilled to have one to PLAY with who was a little closer to her size.


This is one of those times when I wish I'd had the video camera with me instead - it was so fun to watch them jump and prance and PLAY around with each other, which I obviously didn't catch very well in stills.


But eventually, Piper got a little too close



and it was Rainbow's turn to turn chicken



and he went running off to tell his friends


word got around...



... and they decided to send in the bigger Billy Goat Gruff.



Piper-the-Brave was undaunted.

Until...


they sent in the Biggest Billy Goat Gruff.


"Retreat!"



"Oh yeah, take that you big bullies!"



"Bull-ies. Heh, heh, heh. I kill myself."



See more PLAY captured at today's You Capture Challenge.

See more of the continuing adventures of cows and Super-Piper here.

Hot

Remember all those times last year when I complained about the heat?

Well, all those times...

I was a wimp.


Because this year, it's hotter.

It's so hot...


Okay, maybe it's not that hot,

but the thermometer on the bank downtown read 107 last week.


So we've been doing all we can to

stay cool








and stay happy...

pet rock masterpiece by BeachPea


But at least all this heat outside
is helping me not feel so bad about having to stay inside

to tackle this

the remains of last year's homeschool

New year starts in two weeks.

And I'm overwhelmed by all the planning I need to do to get ready.
But I am excited about some of the new curricula we'll be trying out this year.


I've read a lot about All About Spelling from other blogs, so I finally decided to give it a try. We did a test lesson over the summer with my younger girls and I think it's really going to work well for us.

Sidenote: Hmm, yes, this post was supposed to be about the heat, but you know how we are -
get a homeschooler talking about curriculum, and we are hopelessly diverted (ad nauseam).
So the rest of this post is going in that direction. If you are not a homeschooler, you are excused. Thank you.

And both of my older kids will be using Teaching Textbooks for math for the first time. My 4th grader used it last year and really liked it (so did I!), so I ordered it for my 8th grader this year, too.


We're also trying a new history text this year, A Child's History of the World by Hillyer. It's not so much a complete history curriculum as it is history in story form, but this year our focus is going to be on writing, reading, and math, as we've got a little catching up to do. So I feel like this, possibly supplemented with our previously-used copy of The Story of the World: Middle Ages (this is the second time we're cycling through history) will be enough to satisfy our history needs for this year, then we'll get more in depth when my son starts high school next year (gulp).

Still need to decide on the type of science we'll be teaching this year, but will probably use one of Apologia's Exploring Creation books. We loved our Astronomy study through that series last year.

So now it's off to find a place to put all these new books...

Oh my.

It was almost bedtime...

...when we looked out the window and saw a new baby calf out in the pasture.

That's why some of us ran out in our pajamas to get a closer look...

I didn't think a calf could get any cuter than this guy who joined us a few weeks ago...



but our newest addition is giving him a run for the money



but then I do have a soft spot for brown cows


and look at the sweet white socks
(I love white socks even more than I do brown cows)


everyone came out to see the new baby




even Ollie


and Bayson

(he almost looks a little worried that the new calf may take his place as most beautiful -

not to worry, Bayson, you'll always be the Prince of the Farm).


Sometimes it was a little hard to get a good shot of the new baby

because THIS GUY kept jumping in the picture


and this guy.


The Three Amigos


The Three Amigos, and a mom.


Did you ever feel like a cow when you were pregnant?


Wonder what she feels like?



Sorry, m'am. No offense. You look just lovely.



Yes, you're cute, too.



And this guy even has talent.


He does giraffe impressions.


Now back to our featured cutie...



I could take calf pictures all day.


But lucky for you...



My evil calf-photographing nemesis showed up to thwart my plans.


Meanwhile, our hero, Super-Piper, is off saving the day by chasing away the evil NeighborhoodDogWhoLikesToTormentOurRabbitsMan




So our dastardly villain puts her evil plan into action



the calves are naively unaware of the danger that lurks only a few feet away


"Hey is that a cow over there?" they innocently ask.


"It's kinda short"

"Let's go check it out"



"Hey, are you a cow?"



"'Cause you're kinda funny lookin'"



"And whew, you smell AWful!"



"NOT A COW! NOT A COW!"



And our evil villain prances triumphantly back to her lair to plot her next plan to foil Calf-Photographer-Girl's efforts.

So, Calf-Photographer-Girl is reduced instead to taking pictures of her daughters chasing grasshoppers...





which, as it turns out,




is actually a lot more fun.