Friday, April 15, 2011

Sheep to Shawl - Part I

Last Saturday I took the kids to a little festival a few minutes north of us.  It's Sheep to Shawl!

We saw a blacksmith demonstration [which is cool in and of itself, but Sophia's new poem for recitation is about a blacksmith - so all the things she learned and saw here made the references in the poem very visual and easier to understand]

 The coal reaches a temperature of 3000 degrees



 See the rectangular hole in the back of the anvil?
 ...this cutting tool (wedge-shaped) is used to cut off the metal - (shown in photos below)
 What he's spinning is the fan for the bellows...
 ...it really gets it hot!!
 Now you can see here how the wedged tool allows him to cut the metal hook off - actually he's basically scoring it - next....
 ...he snaps it off at the cut.
 There's something so "cute" about the little curl at the end of the hook - but I wouldn't tell him that! 
We didn't stick around for the "finishing touch" - when you have little ones, it's tough to stay for long tutorials!  It was really cool though!
Very bizarre-looking sheep indeed!
And I don't know if there are different types of sheep (I assume there are) - but these definitely don't look like the ones we pass by on little farms 'round here. If you are "sheep savvy", please leave a comment to educate this uninformed blogger!


The kids were excited when they grazed one of the lambs - they really stayed inside their little huddle.
Below, you'll see why...
"No.  Not me!  Don't pick me!!!"
 Helga chooses her sheer(ing) victim...
 Feisty little sheep... needed a gentleman to help hold her down. 
 snip, snip
 snip, snip
 snip, snip
 Nearing the end now...
 a little off the top...
   40 minutes later.... and, voila! A sheered sheep! 




Tools of the trade

For the record, I don't think her name was Helga. 

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Evening of Fine Arts

Here are some videos of the girls' performances on March 28th.  John Paul also performed - playing the piano and reciting his poem "The Owl and the Pussycat" - but I failed in taping his poem and the video of him playing piano won't upload (though the others do upload).  Darn it.  It's so cute too - his very first performance and all.  Bummer. 

If you happen to be a friend on facebook, then you can see all the videos there ;)  

Sophia's poem, "The Children's Hour"                        /               Therese playing "Minuet in G Minor", Bach

Therese* singing "I Whistle a Happy Tune" from The King and I / Sophia playing "Red River Flows Gently"

In addition, Therese recited an (long) excerpt from "Paul Revere's Ride" - and did wonderfully! 

*Apologies for the blurriness in this video.  I used my SLR camera and you can't zoom in/out or focus once recording has begun.  Again, bummer.