Veterans Day

"We praise you that in this world of hatred and war, you still give us courageous brothers and sisters who offer their lives to the making of peace.  They are indeed your beloved children."

~ Brother Sun, Sister Moon (Saint Francis of Assisi's Canticle of Creatures)

Fun Friday: Gearing Up

 Today we stayed home and did some holiday preparations.  The kids were super excited when I said we'd do handprint turkeys.  I completely forgot we made them last year but the kids didn't care because there are few things they love more than getting their hands and/or feet painted.

 I also realized it was time to get to work on our FIAR ornaments.  I wrote all the FIAR titles we have rowed since the last time we made ornaments and Jack eventually decided on Paul Revere's Ride.  (I'm coming back to add that this picture was taken after he had erased quite a few titles.  Sometimes we're slow around here, but we really have done more than four books in a year!)

 While he did that, Alice did some Thanksgiving decorating for us.

 We also got all of the leaves hung on our Thanks Giving Tree.  You could probably go to the woods and find special branches from the trees you planted on some special occasion and then weave grasses into ribbon for the leaves.  Or you could use the metal tree you already have and some yarn from WalMart.  Whatever floats your boat.

I especially love this one this week.

Happy Friday!

~~~

Check out this week's post at MetroFamily on things to do with littles (and see a cute picture of Alice from a couple of years ago) and read details about Quartz Mountain in this month's Exploring Oklahoma article.

Read my review of Letting Go of Perfect at the Homeschool Share Blog and keep watching there for your chance to win a copy!

President of the Week Finale

 Did you hear that there was an election yesterday?  And does it look to you like those people in the wheelchairs are playing chicken?

 We finished up our President of the Week project with an election night dinner comprised of:

eggs (William McKinley)

jelly beans (Ronald Reagan)

pickles (John Adams)

fruit (John Quincy Adams)

cheese and crackers (Abraham Lincoln)

peanut butter and honey sandwiches (Mitt Romney--A girl can dream, right?)

(And a little leftover chicken cordon bleu a drug rep brought by the office.)

My friend Jayme sent me a link to this article about presidential foods a while back that I don't think I ever shared here.  It is really interesting!

 We put all of the layer books from the year into a notebook.

Be sure to visit Homeschool Share for these layer books as well as many other free lapbook resources!

Even though Election Day is over, you can still vote for Homeschool Share and the Homeschool Share Blog in the Homeschool Blog Awards in the categories of Best Variety Blog and Best SUPER Homeschooler!  Unlike governmental elections, you can legally vote multiple times from multiple devices, so get to it!

Thanksgiving Dinner 2012

 Yes, I know it's only November 4, but we had our family Thanksgiving dinner today.  Until last year we usually did this the week before Thanksgiving, but I thought it made more sense to spread it out a bit.

 This year's turkey was not quite 10 pounds.  I always get the smallest one I can find.

 I've been doing this so many years now that it didn't even matter that we were gone all day yesterday and didn't get home until almost 8:00--I started the pies after 11:00!  The only problem I ran into was rolls that weren't quite ready for the oven, so I sat them next to the oven vent.  Problem solved!

 Alice helped set the table.

 I made these little pilgrim hat place holders from an idea I saw on Pinterest.  I didn't have anything to make the bottom of the hat with, so I used ribbon above the rim instead.  It worked out pretty well, but I did have to bring the ribbon down to the bottom on the back side.  Do you like the ribbon Jack chose?

Happy Thanksgiving!

National Housewife Day

Happy National Housewife Day!

(And Happy National Sandwich Day, too.)

Fun Friday: Parents' Night Out Edition

 The kids had a fairly good day--How bad can it be when you get to watch Freaky Friday and are in your jammies until 4:00 in the afternoon?  (And yes, we did do school first.)  Jay and I had a night out, though, which was great!

 We really went to see Mark Knopfler.  (These are bad pictures because we were by the aisle and the usher kept walking up and down saying, "No pictures!  No pictures!" and that kind of cramped my style.)  He didn't sing my favorite song (it's a duet with Emmylou Harris), but he was great anyway.

I wasn't really expecting to enjoy the Bob Dylan (that's him in the hat on the right side) part much because even though I think he's a fabulous songwriter, his voice just doesn't do anything for me.  However, it was ohmygoodnesssososocool to see him sing (well, speak, really) "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" accompanied by Mark Knopfler.  And the encore was "Blowin' in the Wind" all jazzed up.  Very nice.

On the way home we discussed his style and I am curious to know how he presents a song.  When he wrote "Make You Feel My Love" did he hear it like Adele sings it?  And if so, why does he just say the words?  It's weird. He still has a surprisingly strong voice for a guy who's been doing this for fifty-something years.  

Happy late Friday!

(Here's my favorite version of "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" for you.)

Alice's First Haircut

 We didn't wait quite as long as we did for Jack's first haircut, but it was close.  Lately Alice has been asking for a haircut, so today was the day!

 Right before the haircut--when it was wet it was almost to the small of her back!

 My main hesitation was the loss of the boing boing curls, especially this one.  Alice told me they could cut it off and give it to me so I could boing it whenever I wanted.

 She loved it when the chair moved up and down.

 She smiled almost the whole time!

There still seems to be quite a bit of curl left and happily, the boing boing curl is still there!