Wednesday, September 26, 2007

What to do if . . .

Usually I love a cold, rainy day but yesterday it just added to my bad mood. We were supposed to go to a birthday party in the afternoon (it was to be my saving grace) but about an hour before the party was to start we got a call that the birthday girl had burned her chin on the oven rack whilst smelling her birthday cupcakes--OUCH! The party is postponed for a week!

ARRGH! We popped in the Disney version of Robin Hood and I did, as always, get a good chuckle out of Lady Kluck.

What next? Well we did what it says on page 84 of the homeschooling handbook*, "If you are in an extremely bad mood, bake a cake and get gerbils." So we did!





Evie made up the cake recipe, as usual, and it came out moist and delicious. We always decide on frosting that is good for decorating but isn't really very yummy so we had fun with the decorations but we scrape off the frosting before we eat it. In the midst of measuring things Evie asks me "One half times one quarter is one eighth, right?" Yikes! "Yup, "I reply. More measuring. "Multiplication is the opposite of division, right?" "Uhhh, I think they're called 'inverse operations' but yeah, they're opposites" I said impressed that I remembered such a phrase. "So is one half divided by one quarter two?" "Yup." "Thought so! If I am ever a pastry chef I will need to know these things!" Glad we covered multiplying and dividing fractions so thoroughly- HA! I don't think I have EVER mentioned anything about manipulatingfractions, her brain is MUCH more mathematically put together than mine.





Then we went to a satellite adoption center of the Dane County Humane Society and met some wonderful gerbils. Chipmunk and Snowman came home with us and they are hilarious! Evie is over the moon as they are her very own (she says I can play with them whenever I want to). I was curious about how our cats would react. Gertie is a little scared. Either that or she is affronted that we would keep rodents and fawn over them--she is our mouse catcher. Yali think we bought her a kitty TV tuned to the best channel in the world. She just lays down and watches and reacts without lunging for them, it is really cute. I think there will be many more posts about our newest family members.**







* If only there were such a thing! (I know, I know, a million such books have been written--few up our alley!)
**First gerbil picture is Snowman, second is Chipmunk. First cat picture is Yali, second is Gertie.

1 comment:

tiff said...

WOW..another cake creation from EVIE...LOVE that she is so capable...and well the frosting is fun, but totally see why you don't eat it...those bright colors...hee :)

As for the gerbils...this is the response I got from the boys'..."Mom can we get a gerbil. Someone has to feed our dogs when we are not here they could feed our gerbils too." Ah the logic. But we will not be getting one or two, as the temp variances in the house are pretty extreme for a gerbil.

Enjoy! Hoping for sunny crisp fall days coming your way!