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Today we went up to the mountain to play in the snow with the Life Learners. It was a perfect day for it! The girls had a blast sledding with their friends and I had fun taking pictures with my new zoom lens until the cold killed the battery. I love the picture with the huge tree. The girls look so tiny next to it! 
After a very busy month, Halloween kinda snuck up on me. The girls were very into their costumes and E wanted to decorate, so they kept up the Halloween momentum for me. I am fortunate in that I have a bunch of creative, fun ladies in the Lifelearners who were glad to throw us a great Halloween party, without me having to do very much at all. It ended up being a lovely holiday, despite my burned out status! Here's the highlights:
The girls and I each carved a pumpkin. Mine on the left (see how much creative juice I just did not have?), A in the middle, and E on the right. I helped only a little with the girls 'pumpkins, and the designs were all their own.
E with two of her "darkness fairy" friends at the LVLL party on Tuesday. E's costume was designed by her, made by Mama.
My contribution to the party was the apple dunking. Here is E going in for the bite. I love how concerned her friends look about keeping her hair out of the way!
A, enjoying the spoils of her dunk. She couldn't find an apple with a stem, so she used the suction technique!
Wednesday night, we had our friends over for trick or treating. The girls had fun running around the neighborhood, gathering the goods. Here is A with her haul.
And E, enjoying the first taste of her bucket of sugar.
Bonus picture! Me at the party on Tuesday. I'm a hippy. I mean, I dressed the part, for once!
A little spider we saw on our first hike Friday afternoon after getting settled into the campsite. Ok, it was freaking huge (big as my hand) and we think it is a rose haired tarantula. Anybody know?
My mountain goat in her element.
My other mountain goat playing king of the hill.
Snuggling by the campfire with Daddy.
E and her friend B warming by the fire on a cold moring.
Scenic Zion in bloom.
Flower girl #1.
Flower girl #2.
Hiking is easiest and best done with a buddy.
Moth friend came for the light of the lantern, but stayed for the love of a girl.
Communing with the elk in Springdale, UT.
One of our favorite rock shops.
The goods.
Yesterday, we went to the mountains with the LifeLearners. We had planned the trip a few weeks ago when the heat was getting bad and we all desired to escape it. Funny enough, it was not very hot yesterday and thunderstorms threatened and, I hear, actually dumped rain in some places. As we drove up there, we passed through a rainy spot and the clouds were building above the mountaintop. Oh no, I thought, this is not going to be good. The gods were favoring us, I guess, because we did not suffer even a drop of rain or the threat of thunder and lightning the whole time we were at the picnic spot. It was cool and refreshing, there was water in the creek, the wildlife was abundant, and the company was as stimulating as ever!
I had fun taking this picture of the girls and my favorite tree. The one you see here is actually a composite image of two pictures, since my camera could not capture the whole of the scene. Oh how I love photoshop!
Here are some of the cute little critters we encountered up there. These little guys were totally not afraid to get close to us. One even jumped up on the tree trunk we were sitting on while taking pictures, but thought the better of it and jumped right back down. He was close enough to touch.
This is a picture of the girls and their friend S waaaaaay up high on the side of the canyon we were in. You can click on the picture to get the big one and see them inside the circle I drew around them. Anyway, after seeing how high they got and hearing their excited shouts, I felt the need to go join them up there. On the way up, a big rock got knocked down by another one of the kids, and tumbled past a few of us frightfully close, and came to rest next to the picnic table we were sitting at. I saw it all from my spot on the side of the hill. My heart was pounding so hard and fast from the adrenaline. I mean the rock was bigger than one little boys' head! It could have cracked his skull open. Yikes! Everyone who was climbing the hill headed down and when they were back down, I continued up to reach the girls at the top. I had to rest a few times to get my heart to settle down. Once up there, the girls were so excited to show me how cool it was up there.
After admiring the view, taking some pictures, and getting my heart rate down, I suggested we seek out a new route down. The way up had scared me too much to want to go down the same way! We hiked along the top for a while and found a much nicer way back down to the picnic area. The girls were so excited that we had explored and climbed together. Boy, how a little adrenaline can make you feel so alive! We headed home when the sun was getting low and the temperature dropped. It was a good day.
Flowers and greens ready for crown making
Here's to many more years, whether I am here to run things or not, of great support for the unschoolers in this city! Happy 3rd, LVLL!!
p.s. scroll down for a new post, dated for Sunday
We had a magical day Tuesday at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park with the Life Learners. On a whim, I suggested that we bring bubble making stuff. Several moms did and the kids had a great time blowing bubbles and running to pop them. I had fun getting in on the action trying to capture some good photos. The one above is my favorite one of my kids. They also got out the parachute and had fun lifting and running under it, and bouncing balls high into the air on it.
Our Life Learner day today was a group art project called a community puzzle. I had purchased this a few years ago, thinking it would be cool to do sometime. Well, it seems the time had come. The puzzle has pieces that are all the same shape, so they go together any way you want to arrange them, then a border is added on. We had four families join us. Everyone worked on a piece to add to the whole, parents, too. We added the name of the group to the border and had the kids who wanted to do more than one piece create more art on the remaining border pieces. The finished whole is such a cool reminder of the diversity of the creative abilities of different people. We all had something very unique and beautiful to contribute, even those of us who did not think we were artists. We still have a few pieces to add, as some families did not make it but wanted to be a part of the puzzle. I post a picture when it is complete. As usual, the kids played and had a great time. The last family left at 8:30, if that is any indication of the fun we had!
Here is a portion of an article I have written that I am going to adapt for publication (hopefully!) in an unschooling magazine:
My daughters have a beautiful puzzle that is really a set of square wooden tiles with fragments of a scene painted on them. A piece of sky, with sun or rainbow, here, a window, door or roof there, various animals, people, and plants as well. There is no correct way to put it together. You start with one piece and add on, as you like. Each picture is different, but they are all beautiful. Four tiles, ten or 30, it does not matter; each is a complete scene.
I like to think of life and the learning that happens as like a puzzle with no edge pieces. There is no limit to what you can learn and no set time frame for how long you have to learn it. Each piece you find will fit somewhere in your own personal puzzle of life but it does not have to connect to any particular other piece. You build it as you fancy it. And it all adds up in the end because it is YOURS. It does not have to, and really should not, look like anyone else’s picture. Our present method of educating our children is to hand them the standardized puzzle pieces and tell them they have 13 years to complete it. And that they will be failures if they don’t complete it or if their puzzle looks different from everyone else’s or if they reject the standardized picture.
Unschooling is honoring that individual picture of a life in each child, even that picture in ourselves as well. Respecting that we each have a picture of our own choosing to create. Trusting that we will “finish the puzzle” because in each given moment it is complete. Knowing that all the moments leading up to the present moment create a finished life. You never know which moment will be your last. Why not live each one as if it IS your last?
I felt that was appropriate to share after our wonderful day today.
