Weekly Wrap-Up: A Day Late

I'm late posting our wrap-up, which is in keeping with this week.  Tiny Girl was sick two days and is still congested.  We were also frenetically busy with meetings, appointments, and other atypical errands, which always make for a not-so-stellar school week.

But we have had some highlights, and I'm always glad to share.

First off, Miss Priss turned eleven this past Tuesday.  I have to take deep breaths every time I think about how fast the time is passing.  She opted for a spa birthday party at home, and we used the American Girl book Spa Fun to help us plan.  There were peppermint foot soaks and foot massages; oatmeal and honey facial masks; hand treatments and manicures; the yoga sun salutation stretch; "spa" food and watermelon water; and a make-your-own lavender bath salts craft.  My parents came to spend the night with us, so my Mama was on hand to help with the aesthetic ministrations, thank goodness!  Everyone had a great time.  This is a wonderful party theme idea for girls of this age group and even teenagers.

She received a Borders gift card, so we made a trip there on Tuesday so she could pick out some books.  This is how she spent a lot of her time this week.

 Note the carnations in her hair.  She did that herself, with flowers from her birthday bouquet.

We have a heavily wooded backyard, with oaks, maples, a hickory or two, and a few birch trees, along with several I can't identify.  On Wednesday, Miss Priss found this leaf in the backyard.  It's from a small tree in amongst other different trees, most likely thanks to the birds, and I have no idea what species it is.

Himself and Miss Priss cleaned out our raised bed and planted pansies for the winter.

The scholarly highlight of the week was in natural science.  A friend loaned us an external hard drive on which were twelve episodes of the BBC's Planet Earth Diaries, and we watched, on the desktop computer, the first episode, "Pole to Pole."  All I can say is Wow.  The photography is magnificent, especially some of the time-lapse sequences.  There was a scene that upset both girls, in which a wolf catches a young caribou, but they were able to get past it and were, for the most part, enthralled with the entire production. 

Of particular delight were the mother polar bear and her two cubs; the queer and vibrant tropical birds of paradise, especially the mating dance of one male to an audience of one unimpressed female; and a mother and cub Siberian Amur leopards, two of the forty remaining on the planet.  At the end of the episode, there is a behind-the-scenes look at how some of the footage was shot, which focuses on a segment depicting African wild dogs hunting impala.  For more info on the entire series, hop over to this Wikipedia article.

I hosted my book club on Thursday evening.  We had a wonderful time eating, sipping, and discussing Muriel barbery's excellent book, The Elegance of the Hedgehog.  Here's my blog post about the evening, plus a recipe for the utterly scrumptious pumpkin crisp I made for dessert.

I hope you had a great week!  For more wrap-ups, check out Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.  And blessings for a happy Thanksgiving to you.