Casual Learning

Jake conned Sarah into stacking 2 bean bags last week so he could read his books up top while we had our class time.  What a goof!

A New Twist On A Classic

The kids have been watching tons of Christmas movies lately.  There are the many we own plus the fact that we have a free month of the Hallmark Channel which has Christmas movies on all day all month.  We have watched the new Jim Carey version of A Christmas Carol as well as the Muppet version, a generic cartoon version, a musical version featuring Kelsey Grammar and others.  Yesterday Jake was going through the house saying "OH, Brown Hound dog."  I could not figure out what he was talking about or where he got that.  Then yet another version came on when I was looking for something for him to watch while I made dinner and he said "Mom, Oh Brown Hound Dog is on!"  OK, he should be saying "Bah Humbug!"  Kids are so cute at 4 years-old.

Yeah Daddy!

Kevin finally took a day for himself!  He went out deer hunting on Monday & got a very nice buck.  Even though a few of the antlers are snapped off  it is still a very nice one & will be added to our wall.

The Reeves Home & Museum Field Trip

Monday we had a local field trip to the J L Reeves Home & Museum.  It was very interesting, especially with the local bits of history and the fact that we had a good friend as our tour guide.  It is a very open home with no ropes protecting priceless, irreplaceable items.  I was a bit nervous with 13 kids in our group.  They all did very well, paying attention.  We even got out without anything sat on, knocked over, touched or broken.  It was a nice visit with friends and family.

Happy Thanksgiving

 Yesterday we were invited to join some friends and relatives for an Authentic First Thanksgiving Meal.  There was hard tack, fish, venison, smoked turkey, butternut squash, cranberries, blueberries and home made biscuits and cornbread made by the kids.  They all had a great time and the food was terrific.



Alex gets his instructions for making biscuits.




Jake gives it a try and wears more flour than he puts in the dough.



Sarah learns about the various nuts that the Pilgrims would have eaten.



Jake asleep in his Pilgrim hat, boy was that a big day!

Be sure to check your refrigerator setting.............

Make sure you don't set your refrigerator too cold.  This is what happens when it gets too cold & freezes a can of pop!  The ruptured can was kind of neat to look over but the mess in the fridge to be cleaned up, not so much!

Pumpkins

This has really been an off year. Usually we carve pumpkins, I make the costumes that the kids are all excited about, we go trick-or-treating and all the fun stuff associated with Halloween. Since we live out in the country now it seemed a bit foolish and a waste of money to make costumes since it was likely they wouldn't be wearing them. Besides, with homeschooling I truly did not have the energy nor time to make anything.
We did get pumpkins but didn't really feel like carving them. Kevin had the great idea to give them the sharpie markers & let the draw on them. They had fun & got more that one image on the pumpkins.  Earlier in the day I had the kids scoop them out.  I finally got smart & had them do this on the back porch since inevitably one of them shakes their hands wildly to get all the goop off.  This year it was Jake.  They did have fun out there though!