Along Came A Dog... (named Eva)

Keeping up with the Koepnicks!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

CAT!

Today I am planning to make Abby feed me beef ( hehehe) WAIT I SEE A CAT!!!! AND IT IS WALKING BY " HEY CAT GO AWAY I WANT ALL YOUR BEEF GO TELL YOUR MASTER TO COME OVER HERE AND GIVE ME ALL THERE BEEF" back to my plan, oh no Abby is reading this right now! have a great day
EVA

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Beethoven Lives Upstairs

My family and Toby ( my friend) got free tickets for Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra's Beethoven Lives Upstairs through Event Horizon Planning, a homeschool group.
We got to do stations before the show.  The first one was conducting a 5 piece strings ensemble group. Children took turns .  Toby put on a fancy schmancy suitcoat with tails to conduct them. He had so much fun.
    Next was the instrument petting zoo.  Toby tried playing a trumpet.  He did better than all the other kids,
getting a nice sound out of the instrument with instructions from an expert.  I already had a cold and thought there might be too many germs passed around on this thing, although it was cleaned off between turns.
Next was the movement station.  It was fun seeing my former piano teacher there.
The craft was making a doorknocker that said "P" for piano and "F" for forte on the other.
The game was about matching facts from Beethoven's life.
      There were two actors ( one boy and one grown up man) who where reading letters, telling the story
of Christoff's frustrations with having Beethoven as a boarder upstairs in his house. The acting and costumes were suberb. My mom liked it when they threw paper everywhere.  ( kind of looked like our house?)The story was told using exerpts from Beethoven's music.  It was sad that he went deaf.
Interesting that he had 4 pianos and many people thought this genius was very strange!

MCIC Middle School Fair Trade Conference in Winnipeg

I got to go to a fair trade conference! It was very fun and you learned about fair trade and what it is. We were almost late because the roads where  very icy and mom had to drive very slow.
    When we got there I got a name tag and a book to write notes, then mom left and I sat at the table where the home schoolers where supposed to sit. There were snack bars bars and juice to eat before it started.
 When it started we watched a video about how chocolate is made then we played a game, that we made the chocolate. We learned how fair trade works for chocolate.
     It is a program where the farmers get a fair amount of money, the sellers pay a fair amount etc. For soccer balls we learned that some kids are forced to make the soccer balls and don't get the right amount of money for their work .
 In some countries  kids aren't allowed to make soccer balls, also the kids can't go to school if they are working all day. Did you know that a normal soccer ball takes 690 stitches to sew it up?  If a soccer ball just says "child labor free" they might be lying they need a fair trade stamp.
 But fair trade soccer balls are made a little differently. Children don't have to work and in some buildings they have a school for the kids and the moms can see their kids any time. If a 16 year old girl would like to make a soccer ball after school that is not child labor. This is what the two stamps look like       
This is the official logo and the fair trade certified may be used also.
In the official logo, you are guaranteed that no pesticides, no child labor and
that good conditions exist for the producer and seller.
After that our group learned how to use a video camera the RIGHT way.
We learned how to do closeups, and different angles.
Have a great day- Abby .k.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Why I have not been posting


2012 WOW it sounds so old but new! What new years  resolutions have you made? Our family is trying to be more healthy, That doesn't mean you can't eat sweets but you need to eat HEALTHY sweets like dates some times they are too sweet for me! sorry I have not been posting lately I have been busy with  youtube thinking " what to do next?" and my camera is not working but that will all stop soon because WE HAVE A WEB CAM!!! ( yay)  and I have been doing a lot of crafts, telling Eva she is cute, sneaking Esthers new HEALTHY cookies wait.... goes down stairs sneaks past Esther opens the lid " ABBY!"
 "Moooom...  Abby is  eating all my cookies!" , moans Esther. Abby goes back upstairs.

A note from Janice, this healthy stuff is great.  substitute date paste for sugar, substitute cauliflor or
butternut squash for butter, etc.  For more info go to http://eatinghealthyinafastfoodworld.blogspot.com/
Esther's blog.