January Happenings

A beautiful sunrise one morning (before all the snow)

Oh, this little lady

And this boy... "Take a picture of me, Mom!"

Abigail watched him for me one night and sent me this :-D

The new year brought with it some sickness- it tore through most of us, fast and furious

Opal got a "rented" violin for Christmas and started lessons up in Madison once a week. So far she is liking it. She's mostly been learning notes by plucking the strings and has been practicing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Row Row Row Your Boat, and Frère Jacques

Abigail's hairstyling skills

This one's been warming to her Daddy

Storytime

Toby and Joel earned their green belts!

Trying to think of new incentives to get this one potty trained (he had complained a lot of the seat hurting)... Spoiler alert: a soft Bluey potty wasn't the answer.

Weekly poetry teatime

Penny Lu Who

This one found a pair of scissors.

Toby was proud to show me he'd put her in here by himself <3

Sledding with friends on the Belleville sledding hill

I came home from a dr. appt one day to find this

She was pretty pleased with herself to be eatng a cookie on the counter (she got the stool to get up there and the cookie herself)

Are these not the most adorable tiny braids? (by Abigail)

Abigail made these (very delicious!) cinnamon rolls.

Tomorrow is Febraury! I hope we get another pretty snow, as it's looking drained and patchy outside right now.

Snowflakes {kid art}

The past two weeks our art and science has focused on snow. We've been learning all about snow and other weather. Last week we experimented with scratchboard and etching tools to draw our own imperfect snow crystals.

Iris's work- I wish she would do more of these and fill up her board- she does amazing work.

This past week we made some paper snowflakes to decorate our kitchen windows.

Some of the girls' snowflakes

I love what it adds to our school space.

And I love to see them slightly spinning here while I'm standing at the kitchen sink.

March for Life ~ Jack goes to DC

Last week, Jack had the awesome opportunity to travel to DC and meet up with a group of students from Kolbe Academy, including a few people he knew from the France trip. The purpose of their trip was to participate in the March for Life, but they were also able to go to the National Cathedral, The Museum of the Bible, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, and the National Gallery of Art. And they met up with some Kolbe alumni at the Catholic University of America.

The National Cathedral

The Rosetta Stone (a replica)

Playing Mafia in the hotel lobby (is it ironic that they are playing Mafia while attending the March for Life? :-P)

On Friday DC got 4-5 inches of snow! Fortunately, Mike thought to check Jack's packing job before they departed for O'Hare and reminded him to bring a hat, gloves, winter coat, and plenty of warm clothing.

Jack spotted the Pro-Life Wisconsin group, some members of which we also know who attended, but he wasn't able to get close enough to meet up with them.

I remember this elephant at the entrance of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum from when I was little.

The Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals

Jack said the highlight here was touching this rock from Mars (Martian Basalt).

The Hope Diamond

Jack's flight was not until later on Saturday, so a smaller group got to visit the Natioanl Gallery of Art. I like seeing what Jack chose to take pictures of- some of my favorites as well.

Getting a ride back to the airport with a friend (a classmate and France-goer) and teacher (also a France-trip chaperone).