At long last the month of February is over!
Although life was a bit slower, we tried to keep life as normal as possible.
Growing mushrooms
Practicing more coffee art.
Getting out a little more.
Getting surprise visits from out of town friends.
Decorating cupcakes kits, gifted from friends!
<3
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The snow came and actually caused some closures
And so there was much shoveling of sidewalks.
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From out-of-the-blue,
we had a most delightful visit from dear friends from out of town.
<3<3<3<3<3<3!
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Back home for snow fun!
Sledding out back!
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Culinary sculpture mini...
Making Boba tea.
Making gluten-free tart crusts!!!
Victorious!
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Snow playdate.
Brrrr-ied in the snow.
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The children choreographed a fancy belated Valentine's Day dinner for he two of us...
There was confetti.
And fizzy juice.
A fancy salad with bell pepper hearts.
Mushroom with pasta!!!
And of course, the gluten-free fruit tart.
And of course...
One last confetti balloon to pop!
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I managed to squeeze in my first class this year, teaching the Our Whole Lives Sexual Education class...
Here we are setting things up.
The topic: Consent Education.
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There was more practicing for robotics competition.
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Passing of time with the family sticker poster...
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Someone was going to get to chair student congress at her debate class....
So I made her a nicely ostentatious crown.
Waiting rooms.
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We received a lot of things on ice in the mail this month.
<3
There included some kits with dry ice.
So we had a bit of fun!
Making fizzy juice...
Double, double toil and trouble...
For extra kicks, we used the dry ice in Miss 3's light up water bottle.
Fun effects.
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The kids' Toastmasters Youth Leadership Workshop was in high gear, by the time I got to visit a class.
The focus of the workshop is helping youth to become confident public speakers, communicators, and youth leaders.
Miss 1 was elected president.
Here she is opening the meeting.
Miss 3 giving her first speech.
More speeches!
Election for the second slate of leaders for the next 4 classes.
The elected board for the first half of the 8-week workshop.
All of the elected leadership board for the workshop.
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Back at home, we are starting to paint wooden dolls.
It's that time of year!
Working in parallel.
Miss 1 made a thing.
Experimented with making fortune cookies!
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Meanwhile Miss 3 continues her Chinese Dance classes.
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A spot of sunshine!
Birdie training.
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Preparing for my next Our Whole Lives Sexual Education class.
This next one will be the classic "How to use a Condom" class, plus discussion of STIs.
It will be hands-on and game-ified class.
Super excited to have found all of the materials for demonstration, including a simple but neat model for demonstration of how to use a female condom. Plus getting the female condoms themselves - that was a task and a half! They came all the way from Lithuania, via Germany. I had hunted all around town: CVS, Walgreens, Target, Blue Boutique, Cahoots, Planned Parenthood, there were none to be bought. They are overly expensive on Amazon, not the best place to get them.
The female/internal condom!
What a female/internal condom looks like.
It has two rings, one for insertion (at the closed end) and the outer ring (at the open end) for keeping access to the condom from the outside available.
What I ended up using for a demonstration model, for inserting the female/internal condom.
It's double walled inflatable packaging.
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Spring is coming.
And apparently, this year, we are into making/weaving baskets.
Miss 3 and 2's first completed baskets.
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Miss 3's is the most involved.
We have to boil the pine needles for 30 minutes to soften them first.
Miss 3's finished pine needle basket.
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Miss 1 starts a different style of basket.
She turned her kit into to tiny-mini baskets.
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Meanwhile more wooden dolls are in the queue for finishing up.
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Preparing for the state competition with her robotics team!
Go Team!!!
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Back at home.
It's spring so there are more displays by the birds.
Croissant crabs with nutella, for breakfast?
Yum.
I sure wish that they were GF, but at least I get to enjoy visually.
;)
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A little trip for fun to Boba tea.
Complete with a game of Magic the Gathering.
Another fun Toastmasters class!
The layout of the tables and chairs is changed every week.
This is so that the speakers get exposed to different seating of the audience, with whom they have to make eye contact.
The acting president.
Both the president and vice president are away for reasons of Robotics competition.
Table topics:
they are timed impromptu speeches
that are expected to last for between 1-2 minutes.
Table topics speaker 1
Table topics speaker 2
Table topics speaker 3
Table topics speaker 4:
Miss 3
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Miss 1 getting ready for her 5 minute speech:
By My Snake Oil
Many hands make the work light.
After class, we all clean up as a group.
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Back at home.
I'm glad that there's still room/time in our lives for fun with boxes...
And packaging...
Knock. knock?
