Change of Grade Day 2009

Happy Labor Day everyone! Today is the Change of Grade Day here at the Gandara Bug Academy. Before you go getting all hot and bothered about today being a holiday and all... we decided to celebrate our first day of school on a day Daddy could join us - and Daddy has today off because of the holiday - making it a perfect first day of school!

Breakfast is special on the first day... Alphabits

M for Megan

L for Lauren

And D for Douglas



Even Buloney got into the spelling action this morning:

After Breakfast I sent the bugs to shower and get dressed... While they got ready the "new school supply Fairy" paid them a visit... well apparently there is no room in he world for the school supply fairy - because Lauren informed me she knows I get them all their school supplies lol.

The highlight was new backpacks this year... everyone got their favorite:

Lauren = Hannah Montana




Megan = Camp Rock

Douglas = Ben 10

Here are the bugs discovering what's inside







It is a tradition to walk to school on the first day... so here we go!

Notice Daddy in the background... he has the door to the "bus" open for a surprise trip!


Here are the bugs loaded on the bus... buddies and all!

We drove up to a local apple orchard - Los Rios Rancho for a First Day Field Trip!


Daddy and the bugs along the boardwalk trail.

Douglas Grade 1, Megan Grade 2, Lauren Grade 3

Daddy pointing out the "wild" blackberries.

Mrs. Crabtree and her Students

The bugs took a workshop (that we just happened to luck out and discover!) on Animal adaptations and their senses. After Douglas showed the teachers his super speed (he is a super hero you know) the bugs got to listen, touch, and learn all about local animals and their adaptations. The perfect classroom!

I could not have asked for a better day! I know we will have lots of learning going on this year... our first adventure is the Amazon Rain Forest... stay tuned for more adventures with the GBA - I promise to be a better blogger!

Field Trip!

It wasn't to egypt, or to any egyptian related place... but it was a great educational day none the less! I had the pleasure of helping my niece with her 4th grade mission project. Here in California the standard 4th grade history course of study is California History - and the Callifornia Missions are a huge part of that! So today the GBA visited Mission San Juan Capistrano.

Here are a few highlights:

All the kids in front of a statue of Fr. Serra and an indian child. Douglas thinks he is silly!

Posing in front of one of the many fountains! Again - Douglas thinks he is funny!



Look at these Indians - Now Lauren is funny!

Here is my Niece Gabby making all of us some acorn mash - I'm all about the hand's on learning ya know!

A fun family picture at the end of the day!

When Mrs. Crabtree calls in sick...

Yesterday Mrs. Crabtree had a migraine, so she called in sick. I handed the bugs a package of brown lunch bags and they had access to all their other "crafty" supplies...

so this morning I wake up to this:

I *think* that is quackers inside 2 bags....

Miscelaneous mess....

some sort of monster puppet...

puppet and mess...

I know the bugs had fun but I sure wish the mess wasn't so big!

I bet the first principal I worked for thought the same thing every evening when she went into my classroom - it was always a disaster - and I mean a disaster... my answer was: Learning is messy business... and it's still true today!

The Results are IN!

Thank you for helping us with our graph... we discovered that unlike the Egyptians - the Friends of the Gandara Bug Academy seem to like Dogs best... among all responses there were 25 dogs!

We learned some fun things about Sugal Gliders and the difference between a turtle and a tortise as well... Enjoy our graphs!

Egyptians Loved their Pets!

And so do we here at the Gandara Bug Academy... so we are asking for your help! We have been studying what life was like in Ancient Egypt and discussing The different kinds of pets... so we are doing a survey... if you could please reply to this post listing the type of pets your family enjoys - all pets from the exotic to the ordinary. We will compile a graph and post it later next week to see what is the most "popular" pet!

Oh, and that is the Goddess Baset

- She was seen as a protector of cats and those who cared for them.

Adventuring through Ancient Egypt!

Toady the GBA starts their lessons in Ancient Egypt- guided by the 3rd Magic Tree House book - Mummies in the Morning.

Look for more posts and Pictures to our blog coming soon!

Learning isn't always book work!

The official curriculum of the Gandara Bug Academy for the 2008 - 2009 school year is the Magic Tree House series of books by Mary Pope Osbourne. We are still exploring the Medieval Times of Knights and Castles...but sometimes the bugs have their own ideas and we just GO FOR IT!!! Last week Megan was working hard on some folded paper thingy- so I asked her what it was... It's an invitation to Quacker's Birthday she replied... Oh Quackers is having a birthday??? (news to me!) But we went with it- I mean why NOT... Megan made invitations with a picture of Quackers on the out side and the words: HAPYBURSDA on the inside... for those of you wondering it says: Happy Burst Day - think of haow a child would say it and think it is spelled. She planned the menu ( a Tea Party) and had games all planned... I made a quick run to the store for some przes and cupcake mix and the Party was ON!

Here Megan scoops cupcake mix into the mini muffin pan to make "crumpets". The party Guests - Lauren, Megan, Douglas and our cousin Ethan... Molugin (mulligan) Kode, (Kody), Smoke (Smokey), and Tigr (Tiger) were also invited... Momma and Ant Anna (not a typo - that's how Megan spelled it) came to the party as well.

The Birthday Girl, Quackers was turning 4.

Here she is munching her crumpets!

Now Megan has a good feel for Party Planning- a skill I'm sure she will use a lot in life. The event did create somewhat of a snowball effect because The next day I found more invitations.... Come to Buloney's Party.... I laughed and told Lauren we'd indeed celebrate Bull's birthday - just how about in February!

3 new Knights in the kingdom Gandara!

Here Ye! Hear ye! King Anthony of Gandara has appointed 3 new Knights into his service!

The ceremony was performed on December 2, 2008 in Castle Gandara.

Each Knight swore fealty to King Anthony and Queen Christy and swore to abide by the following code of chivalry: A Knight's sword shall be used to defend the Church, protect damsles, orphans, the poor and especially buddies and critters. A Knight will serve his lord in battle with honor and bravery.

Each Knight was garbed in the finest velvet robe......and dubbed with a light saber!

Presenting Sir Douglas

Presenting Sir Megan

Presenting Sir Lauren

After the Dubbing Ceremony the Castle feasted on chicken, grean beans and soup.. Medieval Style on Bread Trenchers! We drank mugs of "ale" and had a GREAT time!

After the Feast the Knights were called to duty and had to fight the fierce dragon - Kodiak .

Never fear, peace has been restored to the lands... at lease until I ask the bugs to clean the playroom!

Douglas Gets Glasses

Today was a wonderful day at the Gandara Bug Academy. Douglas got glasses! My children are not ordinary children - Douglas was actually SUPER EXCITED and Lauren and Megan are pouting because they don't have glasses!

Here is Douglas getting fitted:

Looking in the Mirror

Handsome Boy!

I have noticed for awhile that Douglas favors one eye over the other - I was hoping it might correct itself. (We mothers call that denial).

But I could ignore no longer when Douglas said to me: I poked my eye, and it was my good eye too! That meant the problem was noticable to Douglas. So I called the Wal Mart Vision center and off we went. The glasses were here in just 24 hours - record time according to all the clerks at the Vision Center. Now Mommy and Douglas have to add cleaning glasses to our chore chart!

Spur of the Moment Concert!

At our Family Halloween - Spook Tacular, Aunt Anabel (Who is definatey in the running for the Aunt of the year!) told me about how she was taking her girls to the Billy Ray Cyrus concert and how a "special Cyrus" was going to make an appearance... Turns out her friend had 2 extra tickets, and I got to use Ruben's ticket (thanks Coz!) !!! We went to the concert with the hope that the "special Cyrys" was Miley! Everyone, including Anabel and I were excited beyond belief. Esmeralda happens to be my God Daughter and she actually likes Billy Ray (As do I - I'm a country girl at heart!)

Here are the Girls before the concert, acting like Rock Stars!

Now, just seeing the concert is exciting in itself, and the prospect of the "special Cyrus" being none other than Hanna Montana was almost too much to take... but wether the girls realize it or not - the BEST part of this experience was that we were part of the "official" group that got to meet and take a picture with "Bobby Ray"... aka Billy Ray Cyrus!

For the moment you are going to have to trust me, because the photographs were taken by a professional and we have to wait for the marketing department to get them and give them to us - but can I just say... Billy Ray is tall and very handsome in person. I went right over for the picture leaving Anabel and the girls in the dust, lol! I think our little girls were a bit awestruck to see "Hannah's Daddy", but I was all over it!

Here are the 4 girls waiting for the Concert to begin...

We were in a small ballroom at a local casino and there were no bad seats! Another amazing thing that the girls are not quite old enough to appreciate - but I am!!!

Check out this happy lady:

The Concert was AWESOME. Everyone had a great time.

We took some great pictures of Billy Ray:

We waitied patiently for the "special Cyrus" to make an appearance and found out we had made an interesting mistake... Miley was no where to be found... but Braison Cyrus came on stage for the Final song with his Guitar Player Mikey from his band Burning Down Boston. . . They sang "Wild Thing" with Billy Ray - it was Great... but yet another moment the Girls are a bit too young to appreciate. We got a picture of them wth Braison so when he hits it big...

He was very sweet to kneel down to be more at level with the girls!

So there you have it... one day I'm sitting in a chair at a halloween party and the next I'm rocking out with Billy Ray Cyrus!

Halloween with the GBA!

I love Halloween these days... we have been focusing on creating costumes rather than buying them, and this year was another creative year!

Lauren, 7 years old... Miley Cyrus/Hanna Montana

This was a FUN costume to do with the "best of both worlds" options!

She was Miley during the day for our homeschool gathering and Hanna for the trick or treat festivities!

Lauren wore a new pair of jeans (and the only reason they are new is because the girl had the nerve to GROW!) and a "bling" decorated pink top... the jacket was a "dress up" item from Grandma Rosalia... all I bought was a blonde wig and the little microphone headset.

She looks great!

Douglas wanted to be his favorite cartoon network character - Ben 10. We saw a costume in the stores for over $30.00... and I knew I could make it. White t-shirt, black paint, some kakhi pants and wa-la = Ben 10! Douglas never was able to make the omnitrix transform him into an alien - but he keeps trying!

Megan had her heart set on being a witch. Score - A witch is such an easy costume to make - I even have black sheets I could have used... but my little girl wanted NOTHING to do with Mommy making the costume because she had seen one in the store and fell in love... sheet draping I can do - full on costume sewing, not so much --- so I did purchase this witch costume for about $10 at K-Mart..it came with the hat, so score on that one! Megan's daytime look was simple and "clean" - her night time look just added some green face paint for a more "witchy" appearance.

Here are my three cuties all together.

So my creativity does not end with the kids... since before Douglas was born, the buddies have dressed for halloween as well...




Left we have Quackers, the Snow Princess... Center we have Big Baboo the Cave Man (er, Cave Whale??), and on the Right we have Bulloney the Vampire - fangs and all!

I hope you all had a safe happy Halloween!