Treats and more Treats

What a nice day we had to end October. Back to reality in November with cooler temps in the forecast. We started the day out with Bible Study Fellowship. Afterward, in the van we ate the picnic lunch of ham, celery and grapes. Then we dropped Sean off at preschool. They made persimmon pudding today while wearing their baker's aprons.

We went trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Callie did not solicit candy but a couple of people insisted on giving her some which was nice. It appeared that about one-third or a half of the kids trick-or-treating were her age or older. Sean was like a hunter... out for the big kill. We ran into an old preschool buddy of his from last year and they were excited to see each other. We probably heard "Hi Sean! Hi T.J.!" about 20 times as we kept passing them along the way. Sean was glad to see him since they do not go to school together this year.

Sierra was good at remembering her manners so Sean started letting her go first so he would remember to say thank you when she did. When she would get her candy, she would turn around, eyes real big and walk to me holding her open sack so I could see. It was like she was in disbelief that these people would give her all this candy. We ended the day at Mamaw's. Her tootsie rolls were a big hit with the kids. And the bananas and apples - not that she spoils them or anything.

Sean's not as into sweets and does not like tart candy but Sierra hasn't found any candy she doesn't like yet. I think Sierra has her mommy's sweet tooth. When I was a kid, we would get a dollar for our allowance each week and I would go next door and spend it on candy. I always nickeled and dimed it away (literally back in those days) on things like ring pops, jolly ranchers, candy cigarettes (because they were sweet and only 10 cents a box), sweettarts, etc. I never blew it all in one place like on a candy bar. I wanted to make it last. I'm probably one of the few who still had Halloween candy left by the time Easter rolled around.

Enjoy the pics.

CHRISTIAN PUMPKIN

Sean made this pumpkin at preschool. They do not celebrate Halloween but tomorrow they will be dressing as bakers to do some baking. Ma made him and Sierra baker aprons and hats so that is what they will be trick-or-treating as this year. I think Callie has retired from trick-or-treating but she plans to dress up to hand out candy.

Sierra and Cedarmont Kids Video

Body Electric

Sierra enjoyed (well not totally) some exercise with the PBS workout channel this week. She prefers marching and dancing to the Cedarmont Kids videos.

Sudoku Anyone?

Here our two math brains are enjoying game of Sudoku for Kids.

Kids had school pictures made the other day so I took some more of them when we got home. Enjoy!

So much for going to sleep early....

I'm on an email list for weather alerts and we got this email today.

This is a heads up for tonight's weather. We don't want to alarm anyone but this
storm system has some real potential to do damage.
Spotters - you will be activated tonight.
For businesses/industries that run 2nd and 3rd shifts, pay
close attention to your weather alert radios/devices. Make certain your
employees know what to do in severe weather events.

Alrighty then! No sleep for us moms. Additional notices gave us some good news: Storms are fast moving (possible up to a mile per minute). Flash flooding is not likely to be a problem if the speed of the storm continues.
Well, that is a relief - at least they don't expect flash floods. Just possible tornadoes that might be long lived and possible 70-80 mph winds and storms that are moving up to 1 mile in a minute..

I want to know what a spotter is. Is that a paid job? Running around looking at the sky for tornadoes? Could that be safer than sitting at home unable to hear the tornado sirens or see the tornadoes through the trees? Might be a good job to be on-call for if it doesn't require any previous experience. :)

Picasso?

Sean helped Daddy with a bookcase that Mommy found at a garage sale for $8. Here is his depiction of their project.

What happens when mom and dad are sick and the kids dress themselves.

While mom and dad and big sister were down with the nasty cold virus, the young ones, who were feeling much better, entertained themselves as you can see.

Sean's birthday is today. We celebrated on Sunday by letting him pick out something at Toys R Us and then having cake and ice cream at home. I could not get the video to publish on here so here is the link if you want to watch it.

http://s50.photobucket.com/albums/f333/schneisa/?action=view&current=MVI_4291.flv

Sean has been wanting Aquadots ever since he saw a commercial for them a few months ago. So that is what he picked out without any hesitation. Much to my surprise, it works like the commercials show on tv. He has made a hot air balloon and a girl so far. See the pictures.

I have two complaints. One is that there are not 500 dots in the set as it says. Also, it says it is for ages 4 and up. After some practice, Sean is able to drop the dots in the tray to make the pictures but most four year olds probably cannot do that. Loading the dispenser from the small plastic pouches of tiny dots is not something for a 4-year old either. Sean loves this and asks often to get it out. So I guess my review ultimately is a thumbs almost up.

Callie normally has good days with school now that we are doing it at home. But yesterday she was really struggling with Social Studies on Japan. She kept whining how hard it was and then when she got to one section of her vocabulary page, she went ballistic. She said "These words don't make any sense!! They don't even look like real words!!! " So, I took a look at the words.... snmooons, maroigi, ufot, etc.... I looked at the directions next. "Write the correct word for each definition. Use the scrambled letters to help you." I asked her to read the directions. Boy, was she embarrassed. :)

Looking at Sierra in today's pictures, I kept thinking she looks so tall, so I went back to last November and found this picture for comparison. When she went for her 3 year well child visit recently, the doctor said she has grown 5 1/2 inches in the past year. Wow. She is a little above average in height at the 62nd percentile. Sean has finally climbed his way up to average at around the 52nd percentile (which makes him look even skinnier since he's at the 9th percentile for weight). Last time Callie was charted she was at 80th percentile for height. I think she's grown some too.

More Field Trip pics

The Apple Works had a neat barn with a slide coming out of the loft. Sean thought it was great once he got brave enough to go down it. Callie was a bit tall for it and hit her head at the bend. Sierra thought it was too big for her.

They had a gravel road course for the tricycles. It was complete with stop signs and streets named after apples.
The end of a fun day!

Another Field Trip!

Little Seeds Preschool arranged for a Family Field Trip for late this afternoon and early evening at The Apple Works. It is an apple orchard that has a nice lake or pond, a petting zoo, a maze, a cool playground. We also got to take a wagon ride around the orchard and learn about their operation. It was quite warm but we had a very enjoyable time. It had some great places for taking pictures so enjoy.

Field Trip Week.

Sean and Jeff went with the pre-K kids on a field trip on Wednesday. We have some great pictures courtesy of Samuel's mom. For some reason, Samuel and Sean are often next to each other which is a great benefit for us since we keep having camera troubles at times like these. We didn't get any of them on their horses but they did get to ride and had a great time.

In Memory of Greg

12/9/55-9/27/07

Greg is on the right in these three pictures.

The kids wanted to watch a Care Bears video tonight which I thought at first was a great idea - keep 'em busy while I clean up in the kitchen. After a while, Sean appears in the kitchen requesting a "Banana Milkshake". Then I realized that the video I had agreed to let them watch is called "Rainy Day Activities" and is just full of wonderful craft and cooking ideas for kids! Oh brother. Every time Sean watches this video he comes to me with a memorized list of materials he needs to make something he saw on the video. We've made "flutes" which didn't work very well, kazoos that worked a little better, but I always refuse to punch the hole in the two metal cans and tie a string between them to make a phone. Tonight, it was Banana Milkshakes. Thanks, Care Bears!

At first I told him that our bananas weren't ripe enough yet but then he found the one on the counter that was so ripe it was almost sliding out of the skin. I then told him we don't have any ice cream and he informed me we don't need ice cream, we just need bananas and yogurt. He described the process for making them which sounded kind of complicated so I got out our little food processor and began cutting up the banana. He told me they will just drink them from a jar (like the Care Bears, I suppose). I told him he would need a spoon for these because they were kind of thick with bananas. So, he told me I must not have done it like they said. Well, I wasn't the one watching the video, but the kids ate them anyway. Callie wasn't too fond of them. Sierra dropped hers and it went all over the wall in the dining room. Sean thought it was delicious and the greatest idea, especially since he thought of it. Ha.

Below is Callie teaching Sean and Sierra how to play Candy Land.

You know how math story problems can be a problem if you do not read them carefully? Well this week we had a problem that went something like this:
"Each square dance circle has 4 couples. There are 6 circles of square dancers. How many square dancers are there? (BE CAREFUL)!"

When I checked the problem and realized it was wrong (she put 24), I asked her if she noticed the "BE CAREFUL" in the problem. She said that she thought they meant for the dancers to be careful since there were so many of them. I'm not kidding.

I think God knows how important humor is for me to maintain my sanity (what little there is left) especially in this first year of homeschooling.

During poetry today, our conversation went kind of like this: "Is Edgar Allan Poe dead?" "Well, when was he born?" She looks it up and says "1809". So, thinking 'math', I ask, "How old would he be today?" After some impressive, in-her-head calculation, she answers, "198". Then I reply, "So, do you think he is dead?" :D
Just for the record, he died in 1849.