Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Happy Pie Day!

Today we had our annual pie making day for Thanksgiving tomorrow!!  We made 12 pies in total, including our mini pies for breakfast in the morning!  I made a key-lime pie, Carly made a pecan, Allie made apple, Nate made blueberry, my mom made a pumpkin pie and then we made two extra pumpkin pies.  We experimented and made one with cream and regular milk which turned out super thick and rich. We made one that had no dairy (we used almond milk) and no added sugar, and then we made another that was completely vegan!  Mini pies are amazing for breakfast, and super easy too!  Usually we have extra dough and filling so we just make minis out of it, instead of throwing it out.  Here are a few photos of our pie day!










 Try to figure out fact or fiction with this fun Thanksgiving quiz.  And you might enjoy reading this (our family read it last year before our feast; everyone around the table took turns reading a stanza).


Happy Thanksgiving!
Pie Day Posted By Micayla
11/23/11


Sunday, November 20, 2011

Hawk Research

We recently had the opportunity to go on another awesome adventure at Starr Ranch.  This time learned how to track hawks using radio telemetry.  We also got to hear the different calls that hawks make and saw a video of a hawk's nest with baby hawks that were born on the ranch. 

Here are some interesting things we learned:
*Hawks are raptors that are diurnal.
*Owls are raptors that are nocturnal.
*Animals that are awake at dawn and dusk are called crepuscular.
*Raptors have large sharp talons and hooked beaks.
*There are around 7 different kinds of hawks at Starr Ranch.
     -the ones we tracked were Red-tailed Hawks, Red-shouldered Hawks, and Cooper's Hawks
*Hawks make their nests out of sticks and often reuse nests from year to year.
*Hawks will eat rodents, birds, lizards and snakes. 
*100 Disneylands can fit into Starr Ranch.

We saw these deer when we first got there.
Getting ready to collect data.
Carly using the transmitter.
Nate reading the GPS coordinates of the location of the found hawk.
The girls with Scott, the education director.
Nate listening.





Sunday, November 6, 2011

Name This Insect... Again!

I was in our backyard today with my younger sister and brother.  I was doing a photo shoot of Allie when I spotted this amazing bug!  From a distance it looked like a ladybug, but closer it looks a lot bigger and it doesn't seem like it has wings to me.  It is about twice the size of the average ladybug and I found it on our purple cabbage plant in the garden.  Here are the photos, if you know what they are please comment and tell me! Thanks!





Posted by Micayla 
11/6/11

Friday, November 4, 2011

Ministry of Dance

My friend Madison and I started a dance group together (inspired from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series) called Ministry of Dance.  We posted our first dance on YouTube today!  It is a dance about Bellatrix and Madison.  Madison was not in the book series but we really wanted to do a dance with a duel between them so  Madison did the choreography and we both danced to it. She is playing an older version of herself and I am playing Bellatrix.  This is a duel because I (Bellatrix) just killed Madison's husband Sirius Black and she is really mad at me so we have this really epic duel!  Here is the link to our Weebly website, there is a link to our YouTube channel on the home page:
Ministry Of Dance
I hope you enjoy it!  To watch more of our dances in the future please subscribe to our channel! We will be doing a dance for every book in the Harry Potter series,  I will post on here when we make another one!  Thanks for watching it!




Posted by Micayla 11/3/11

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

NaNoWriMo



Carly told me about this really awesome website for young writers called NaNoWriMo!
I just got an account on it and I am going to enter my story it it!  It is a thirty day writing challenge and on the site you can put your story up for people to read and they can give you feedback and you get to help each other with editing.  It is a really great website!  There are dares they put up on the home page fore people to put into their story, for example today's dare was:  "We dare you to have your main character get terribly lost while sleepwalking".  (I really like that one... I might use it!)  There is also a homeschool forum for homeschoolers to post questions about their story and just chat and make new friends!  There is a word count so you can keep track of how many words you write and you can set a word goal for you to reach at the end of your story!!  Here are a list of vocabulary words that I like to use in my story:

Abhor: to hate
Nefarious: evil or mean
Hector: to bully or talk not nicely to somebody
Discomposed: disturb or agitate someone
Divulge:  to make known

I'll add more once I have written more of my story!
I hope you like this website as much as I do!

Here is the prologue of my story:


Legend
~Chasing Fire
Thus you shall think of this fleeting world 
a star at dawn, a bubble in a stream
a flash of light in a summer cloud
a flickering lamp, an illusion... a dream.

The morning songbirds did not sing, on this cold autumn day.  The air was thick with droplets of  dew, alone at the top of a hill a creature was stirring.  A single star emerged from amiss the clotted cream dawn.  If bothering to listen... you could hear the gurgle of a stream from the far mountains.  From the deep above, a light struck atop the hill; the creature whistled as the lightning fell down upon her, she was expecting it.  She reached out a single hand, reaching out to the light, reaching out to the far mountain stream, reaching out to assist the world as she fell.  The light enveloped her and she floated up, joining that light as it flew up into the clotted cream dawn, joining the star as it shines down upon those who would bother to reach out to it.  Down past the hill someone screamed, a lamp flashed, the bulb popped.  And atop that glorious hill... the creature returned for half a moment... to bring on new life, a sorcerer was born.   
Never in their whole life had the people of Catalina Island experienced something so marvelous.  First it started out to be only a regular thunderstorm, but slowly as the lightning began to build it struck the top branch of their favorite picnicking tree at the top of Mount Orizaba. Or at least they thought it was a tree... Mother Orizba screamed as the lightning struck her temple, the people covered themselves and ran for shelter.  As the rain pounded down harder the chief spokes person and his crew made their way slowly up the hiking trail to where the bare stump of their great tree stood helpless.  “I’m Alfred Queensly and this is Midnight News atop Mount Orizaba.”  Alfred cleared his throat and looked at the camera continuing his speech for the news cast.  “Exactly twelve 02 midnight, we are here at the aftermath of this wet autumn storm.  It seems that the lightning came directly down from the high peaks of Mount Orizaba striking the tree that has had the most popular past.  Shall we go down memory lane, Bozard?”  The camera man gave him a thumbs up and he started walking in a slow circle around the tree to make it more dramatic.  “The great tree of Orizaba has been named the islands main tourist attraction for the last 56 years!  Why is this so?  Well,”  Alfred gave a little chuckle into his microphone, “Millions of years ago there was a tale of sorcerers and witches, they came here and planted this very stump... as a seedling.  It was said to have special powers that protected our island and kept us safe from the pirates that used to dominate our coves. “Now that it is only a burnt up stump we are predicting the end of the world on February second in the year of 3017,  good luck folks, keep hope and Good Morning Midnight!”   The camera clicked to off and Alfred sighed and smiled to himself as he brought his umbrella up over his head.  Bozard winked at him and they started down the steep muddy trail of Mount Orizaba.  They had mocked what was left of Mother Orizba.. they were going to pay.  No sooner had they reached the bottom of the trail the spirit of their great tree swooped them off of their feet and swept them away.  They have never been seen since.  An owl hooted, someone screamed, a baby laughed; and atop Mount Orizaba a young sorcerer was beginning his journey to save Mother Orizba, and possibly the world.  





Posted by Micayla 11/1/11