Groundhog Day 2012

After learning about China after Chinese New Year we've been learning about hibernation in anticipation of Groundhog Day. We have also been discussing the concepts of migration and estivation (basically the same as hibernation but done by animals in climates such as the dessert because of a lack of water/food). I think Reagan has a pretty good understanding of the three concepts. I may have just confused Kennedy more than anything, however... I thought these concepts would make more sense if we acted them out. So we've migrated by flying down to the basement, we've been true hibernators (like groundhogs, hedgehogs, bats who are so heavily asleep they may appear to be dead), we've been the Antartic Cod one (if not the only) fish who hibernates during the coldest times of year. We've created different caves, burrows etc. over the past couple of weeks to accomodate our sleeping state(s). While both girls have had a lot of fun doing this, Kennedy's take away has apparently been as follows; if you ask her what hibernation means she consistently responds "You hide under a blanket and go to sleep! I'm a good hibernator!" We'll take another shot at it next year... lol :) One of our books specifically about Groundhog Day let us know that every year at precisely 7:25AM Punxsutawny Phil makes his prediction on Gobbler's Knob. The girls happily hopped out of their beds and into ours to wait for Phil's prediction. As you can see in the picture above Reagan was very excited about Phil's prediction of 6 more weeks of winter. She was surprisingly excited which I didn't quite understand. After hopping out of bed she immediately ran to the window and wanted to know where the snow was. That should have tipped me off to her excitement but I didn't get it until I heard her excitedly explaining to someone else later in the day that "Punxsutawny Phil predicted 6 more weeks of snow!!!" lol :) Poor thing! I sure agree that we need some snow around here! Thank you Phil for at least giving us a chance (even if it's not a full 6 weeks).The girl's and Daddy decided it would be nice to snuggle for a few minutes in bed before heading down for breakfast.Thursdays are a busy day for us as we have both violin lessons and then head over to St. Michael's church for our homeschool classes through the BHLC. Reagan is taking a Foods 101 class this semester in the morning. They will be trying different foods and learning where they come from/how far the food traveled etc. I think it's a really neat idea. When we got in the van Thursday afternoon Reagan announced "I love my 101 class! We had Pomegranate's today and they were much better than yours Mom!" I noticed her teacher getting into her car a couple down from ours so I conveyed the message to her and asked about her Pomegranates. She said she got them from Kroger. The same place I purchase mine. lol :) Her teacher pointed out it is much more fun and way cooler to try things out with all your friends. :)

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Because Thursdays are pretty full as it is, we don't typically plan too many late afternoon activities. We do usually stop by Sonic for their Happy Hour special - it's a good and inexpensive incentive for two little girls too cooperate all day long. It's especially inexpensive because believe it or not Reagan and Kennedy generally select small or medium slushes. This is especially true of Reagan. I'm not sure what has brought this awareness on, but lately she has been very aware of not being wasteful and not wanting to take too much. Last Sunday she became very upset when we told the waitress to go ahead and giver her a refill on her Sweet Tea. She later explained to me that she knew she wasn't going to drink anymore and she was right, she didn't even though it was in a to go cup which we took home. She may drive me crazy sometimes but then there are other times when she really surprises me with her awareness and self restraint. I just can't imagine most kids, including myself, being able to judge or request wanting a smaller amount of ice cream or other treat because they know they won't be able to consume it all.

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Anyhoo... since yesterday was Groundhog Day, I did have a small art project planned for making groundhogs out of hearts (you guessed it, another Pinterest idea). Jackson didn't make a groundhog himself but he did discover that wiggly eyes are a lot of fun to play with and place on paper. :) He was so careful and sweet to begin with. The girls eventually wanted to select eyes for their groundhogs, however, and that positively infuriated him. In his efforts to pull the bag away he discovered shaking and dumping out the bag of wiggly eyes was even more fun! What a little stinker! lol :)

The girls cut out their large hearts for the groundhog's face using one of my Creative Memory Scrapbook cutting mats. I was hoping I would have the right size hearts for the entire project but we ended up needing to create the smaller ones. Missy K was pretty determined to do all the cutting herself but in the end let me help a bit before getting too frustrated.Cutting a heart in half to make the groundhog's earsReagan did a great job of tracing the hearts her groundhog required. She did a pretty good job cutting them out as well although she became a little frustrated and requested my assistance.
Cutting whiskers for her groundhogReagan gluing the groundhog together. I decided to let her try and do this on her own and she did a good job putting it all together. The one thing that ended up being a little funny was that I told her she would need to use extra glue for the whiskers. Reagan apparently took me very literally. Suffice it to say Reagan's groundhog's whiskers will never ever fall off!!! Our finished groundhogs made from heartsMy silly girls with the most colorful groundhogs I've ever seen! No one can say we're not creative around here!!! :)Recently Jackson has begun cleaning up toys. He sometimes volunteers but he is extremely good at it if you specifically ask him to help and show him what you want him to do. Here he is cleaning up his wiggly eye mess. What a big boy! :)Earlier in the day at the BHLC, we made groundhogs who could pop up out of their "holes" to look for their shadows. I thought this idea was cute when I saw it on Pinterest, but all the kids absoutely loved this activity! I would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for something cute like this to do. The template for the groundhog can be found at the following link: http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/crafts/detail.asp?fil=/crafts/animals/forest/images/groundhog-template.gif&cat=Spring&nam=Groundhog-Craft-TemplateSorry for the wordiness of this blog but I think as I've explained before while I began this blog with the idea of keeping friends and family informed of the kids progress I've realized I'm the one who uses it the most. It's become my journal. I realized the other day that for that reason I should be taking the time to capture more of what the kids say here. Pictures are my favorite but I need to capture stories too. Having said that we had a super fun Groundhog Day and we hope you did too! :)

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Kennedy kept mispronouncing Punxsutawny Phil's name all day. She would struggle with it and finally get something to the effect of Tunxsutawnypawny Phil out. It was so darned cute I wanted to catch it on tape. Wouldn't you know as soon as I asked her to say it she said it correctly! lol :) So I asked her to say it the other day. Then Reagan wanted in on the action too. I actually have several more takes of this trying to capture them both. Welcome to a portion of our personal repetitious version of Groundhog Day.