Owl Pellets, Playdoh, and Puppet Shows

We've heard SO, SO, SO many comments about our family.  FIVE?! kids?!  Wait, two twins, like two sets?  Your house is busy.

I often comment that I'm very thankful and it's a lot of fun.  And that's the truth!  Of course life with five children is exhausting, but I'm pretty sure life with one baby was exhausting.   It was so fun to write about all of the kids yesterday, so I "probably" want to do it again today.

Fridays are Classical Conversations and today was such a fun day!  One great thing about CC is doing cool science experiments I would probably never do at home.  Today was particularly interesting.  While Zinnia was at home making delicious cupcakes and playing with our friend, Mrs. Kathy, the older three kids and I were dissecting owl pellets.

All of the kids really enjoyed digging through their pellets.  They found skulls, vertebrae, leg bones, jaw bones, rib bones, & shoulder and many other bones.  Aside from the stinky smell of the autoclaved pellets, I heard lots of kids saying things like, "Cool!" " LOOK, LOOK, LOOK a bone!" "What's this one?"  As the little animal scientists discovered bones in their owl pellets, they got to lay them out on a diagram and match the bones.  I was so impressed with their abilities to recognize the bones they pulled out right away.  All of the students in our group were markedly more confident wit this week's science discovery.  Last week the kids got to inspect, and I got to dissect, a cray fish.  How cool is that?!  I kinda like science...

Esther's day included some clear liquids and she did great.  She hasn't had any pain today.  Her ANC was well over 600!  That is great news because the thing that will help her body heal the most are white blood cells.  They are coming along, folks!  She is getting hungry and wanted to eat more, so she and Anthony made a playdoh feast, complete with plates, napkins and silverware.  Tomorrow she'll get to try some soft foods.  If everything goes well tomorrow, she may get to come home Sunday evening.

**UPDATE 8am Saturday. Esther has had some more stomach pain and diarrhea in the night. Please pray she would feel better. Her ANC was almost 3500 today, so that will hopefully help.**

A Playdoh feast!

Tonight after dinner the big kids put on a puppet show for Zinnia and me. They really got creative.

Tickets, $100.

A dollhouse turned ticket box.

Thankfully Zinnia and I were on the list for this exclusive show.

Snacks and additional entertainment!

The fabulous puppeteers!

There were several skits in this puppet show.  From this clip you'd think Frannie was twin A, but she's not, Lydia's got her beat by 8 minutes.  Enjoy!