Welcome, Baby Benny!

Welcome, Baby Bennett Lee from the blogworld!! My little sister had her first baby last Wednesday, November 25th at 4:36pm, weighing in at 7#15oz.

I was lucky enough to be there beside her while she painfully brought him into the world. It was emotional to say the least. I've obviously been involved in a couple of births myself, but never actually seen one...it was pretty amazing!

Tessa, you did a great job and were so calm, despite the pain!

Bennett is going to be one loved baby...as you can see, my kids have accepted the new addition, gladly into the family....

"I love him," said Jack :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I'm thankful for food, friends, health, and family today. With the current economy and the crazy world we live in, I'm thankful for Jarrod's job! I'm thankful for being able to be home with my kids and being able to educate them myself at home. I'm thankful mostly that I have a Lord that loves me, no matter what!

Have a thankful Thanksgiving!!

I was Featured!

Deanna at 'A Common Bond' has featured me on her homeschool blog! She'd be happy to feature any of you too, homeschoolers! Go check it out here:

Thanks Deanna! Happy to be featured on your blog!

Mountains and More Native Americans

We finished our last week of landforms and Native Americans today. We've been reading about Indians of the Pacific Northwest and the upper North areas and for science, we read about mountains. We did a couple projects and completed one last diorama to show the landform. Now next week, Noah's going to give a simple presentation to explain what he learned. (He'll also be taking a test...dun, dun, duuuun! :)

Here's a couple things Noah did this week. The bear on the left tells a story about a hunter and the picture on the right is supposed to look like a Chilkat blanket, a very intricate blanket the Chief wore. The boys learned about how the Eskimos in the far North kept warm and found food in the winter. They also watched Brother Bear for a little "video supplement."

Here's the mountain diorama...papier mache mountains, some rocks, and little mountain animals.

Here's some of the books we read:

Turkey Time!

This week's art project was super fun! It involved paint and a Salad Spinner, so I knew we couldn't go wrong!

We started with a plain piece of cardstock and a Salad Spinner...

Add some globs of "turkey" colored paint...

...and spin away!!

How fun is that??
Then we added turkey bodies...the boys used their fingers for eyeballs and painted beaks and "gobbles"...(I don't know what those red things are that hang off their noses..??) then attach to their tail feathers.

Jack's turkey!

Noah's turkey!

The "Sophia Line"

In honor of the Project Runway finale tonight (I *love* that show!),

I'm sharing with you an outfit I made for Miss Sophie a couple weeks ago....

I secretly love to sew, but I'm not very good at it. My lovely friend who can sew really well has a really hard time watching me make rules up as I go. (Right, Robin!?! :) But this is a project that went surprisingly well! Just a simple skirt, I know, but for a novice like me it's a huge accomplishment!
Here's a close-up of the skirt and the sweet little socks I knitted to go with...just kidding, I wish!

I made the t-shirt with a coordinating fabric by cutting out a flower and some of the leaves and arranging them and affixing them to the shirt with "Wonder-Under." Then I stitched around the flower and leaves really slowly, which made me crazy going so slow!

Here's another shot of the "model"...I am working on another "look" for my "Sophia line," but it won't be ready for a while...I'll let ya know when it's done! I'm also working on a couple of things for my nieces for Christmas...*gulp* other people seeing my sewing up close?? I must have lost it!!

Deserts and Southwest Indians

Deserts and Southwest Indians were the topics of interest this week....we read lots of books and did some fun projects. Noah and Jack learned there are lots of animals and plant life in the desert even though there's not a lot rainfall. They also learned that Southwest Indians were excellent potters and jewelers and had to adapt to growing crops in the desert to survive.

We made another diorama for the desert. We made some clay snakes and cacti, used cornmeal for the sand, and added some "tumbleweeds" we found in the yard.
For Indian projects, Noah made a piece of pottery and a sandpainting. The sandpainting is just tinted cornmeal and he glued it in a pattern he drew.

This was a project to show the kids how cactus roots reach way down to find water. We put blue food coloring in the water to illustrate. These carnations are turning blue, but slowly.

Here's some of the books we read:

6-0!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today you're 60...how is it that you can have two days in a row of celebration?? How'd you work that one out?

Anyway, it's your day and I hope you're not feeling bad about being 60 because it's awesome that you are! I was going to give you wishes for your b-day like I do for everyone else, but instead of wishes I thought I'd tell you my opinion of your accomplishments for every decade you are....

Here goes...

1.) You made us!!(Well, you and the Creator, of course) Some of the coolest people ever! And you're a great Dad! Tough at times, yes, but appropriately so...we gave (and give) you a hard time at times, but you are always an assertive, but loving Dad.

2.) You're fun and funny! When we were little, you always wanted to do fun things with us and take us fun places...we can remember tons of summers of fun vacations and lots of great memories.

3.) You've always wanted to make a difference to people and help where you can. I can think of tons of people growing up, calling you for advice...wanting to know what you think. People value your opinion...maybe it's your infinite wisdom?? :)

4.) You have lots of mercy, but you're also very discerning...two qualities that depend on one another.

5.) You're kind...even though you have a tough-guy side to you, with the whole Harley and everything, you're super kindhearted...

6.) You're a "great" grandpa..not as is really old grandpa, but a wonderful "gum-pa." What other guy would dress like this just to make his grand kids laugh?

So, Happy Birthday, Dad!! I hope you have a wonderful day! I'm praying for blessings upon blessings for you on your day! I love ya!

We Salute You!

Happy Veteran's Day to our favorite Vet! We love you, Grandpa (Dad)...you're our hero!

Woodlands

This week in our Native American studies, we looked at Northeast Woodland Indians. We did a lot of reading this week, but not a lot of "hands-on" stuff. Although, we did learn about how the Indians depended on what they grew in their crops, so we had popcorn and roasted pumpkins seeds for a snack. :)

Here's some of the books we read:

So, since we studied the Woodland Native Americans, we also studied forests in science. Again, we read lots of books...some fiction and some non-fiction. Noah did quite a bit of independent reading on his own. Towards the end of the week we started on a diorama of a forest scene as our "final project."

Here's the forest....

Noah painted pine cones we gathered to make the trees...
We painted some little wood thingies to look like toadstools...and most of the other stuff we found at the crafts store. No, not everything is proportionate to everything else...like the bird could definitely take out that bear! Oh, well he had fun.

He actually said.."Mom, I just love this!! It's so...it's so...cute!!" :)

What Noah learned about forests: They're cute :)