Grateful Feathers

We are doing something HUGE this Thanksgiving.  Well, really this holiday season.  We are staying put.  Staying home.  Doing our own holiday things.  We would LOVE to go back East & of course spend it with our extended family, but it just isn't necessary when you have the expenses of flying on top of the costs of Christmas & Santa.  And with time off, it isn't really worth it to pay lots in flying for a whopping 4-5 days to see loved ones just to return home again.  So we are staying home & getting the chance to start some of our own traditions.

One we got underway already although we will "make" it on Thanksgiving day.  We sent feathers to lots of our family back home requesting them to color them, decorate them, & write on them what, exactly, they are grateful for.  I thought it would be a fun way to incorporate our family into our Thanksgiving Day by using their feathers to make a turkey for the crazies on Turkey Day.  As we read who wrote what we will go down roll call of various members assuring the crazies that  they ARE a part of our holiday!  

So, we printed off lots of feathers & directions & got them in the mail.  Already they have started coming into our mailbox & the crazies get excited.  We can't wait to post a picture of the turkey on Thanksgiving Day!

The feathers we found online by looking for "free printable turkey feathers".  We cut them out & sent the right number to each address.

Deacon got them all mailed off for us!

Her Slippers Have Been Retired

It seems like just yesterday we started Kennedy in dance & ballet.  Seriously, it hasn't even been a year, so when she took off her slippers in class telling me "day huwt my toes" I was in some serious denial that she'd outgrown her first pair of ballet slippers.  I have a vision to hang all of her slippers through the years on this board with pictures dangling based on a picture I saw on the infamous Pintrest, but one pair didn't give me much to work with yet.  So, I took the pair & created this shadowbox.  And I love it.  I love that it captures her at the exact age that she wore these shoes & I love that the B&W make it a pretty timeless picture.  We hung it in her room this week & she could not be more proud of her pictures or her shoes, or maybe the fact that her toes won't hurt anymore.

Our Polar Express Night

We have BIG plans in the next couple of weeks & we are getting soooo excited!!  Meme is coming to visit & the crazies cannot wait AND while she is here we are headed to the Polar Express in Williams, AZ.  It runs from Williams to the Grand Canyon & is centered around the theme from the movie.  

http://www.thetrain.com/polar-express-5679.html

With this fast approaching, we decided to have an early showing of the movie here last night to get the crazies all geared up.  We got dressed in our Christmas pajamas, made homemade hot chocolate, & watched the movie.  I even got in the spirit after making the hot chocolate & pulled out my Christmas decor -- our season has started!!

 It made for a fun night & to say they loved the movie is an understatement!  Deacon tried to talk like the kid that talked alot & Kennedy really thinks the Williams train will go as fast as the one in the movie, hills & all.  I can't wait to watch their expressions when we go on the trip especially after watching their faces during the movie -- it will be priceless!!

The Featured Movie

Chocolate Yumminess!!

Getting their chocolate fix

Let the decorating begin!!

K fell in love with this Dancing & Singing Tree... I think I'll hear it all season

G is for Gas, Liquid, Solid

So this week was sort of a transition week -- did H for Halloween & saving I for Indian & needed to cover G.  I came up with G is for gas, liquid, & solids to have a break from fall crafts & get creative with how to cover the subject.  With it also being election week, I educated the crazies on the candidates & talked about what it means to vote.  They decorated some "Future Voter" badges & apparently it all resignated with them because even over the weekend Kennedy was asking about "Ronnie".  We did lots of melting & freezing & cooking to demonstrate the 3 phases of matter.  I found some great worksheets on education.com that helped Deacon learn about it all.  It was a fun way to fit in election discussion as well as have a break between Halloween & Thanksgiving!

They both colored one Presidential Candidate information sheet & learned who was running

We made our own "Future Voter" badges & they sported them proudly -- D wanted to know how many more years he has until he is 18 : )

 The worksheets full of pictures of gas, solid, & liquid made it easier for D to learn it all

We made our own freeze pops to teach how liquid could turn into solid... & of course they were eager to eat them when they were frozen! 

We enjoyed them with some friends we had over for a playdate

K getting her fix!

Of course I used water to show the ice, water, & steam -- I love how into it K is!!

I took a tupperware container & froze it solid with some of Deacon's army things in it...

And he chiseled it all out... again, we did this while some friends were over.

And when they got one out, it was like finding gold each time!  This went on for about an hour!

And we made rice crispy treats to show the marshmallows going from solid to liquid.

Our Reveal...

Remember our post from Sunday about the project involving paint, canvas, & the crazies' fingerprints?!?  Well, here is a little something we put together for some of our family with Thanksgiving fast approaching.  I had to wait for the mail to run to not ruin what was coming, but this is what we did!  I just used some 8x8 canvases, paint, & their thumbprints to make the turkey feathers.  After that dried, I painted the turkey & did the wording.  We were pleased with how they turned out, although the crazies both thought their thumbs were going to fall off.

To Be Revealed

No details yet, but I thought I would share a sneak peak of how the crazies were busy today.  It involves a canvas, paint, & their fingerprints.  I will show the master piece after the 

mail runs later this week!

H is for Halloween & Harvest!!

Since this was the week of Halloween there was no skirtin' around a "H is for Halloween" learning week.  And because Halloween fell on a Wednesday, we used a "H is for Harvest" theme for the later part of the week.  The crazies did everything from making witch hats to learning about pumpkin life cycles.  Deacon was introduced to connect the dots & picked it up super quickly. Oopsey Daisy blog http://www.oopseydaisyblog.com/mommy-school has a great H is for Halloween packet with movement cards, puzzles, & printables -- I used alot of that with Kennedy & it's colorful & she loved it!  Deacon also learned how to draw a heart & I caught him writing his first "sentence"... it was too sweet to not post.  The crazies also played Hungry Hippos for the first time -- since it starts with "H" I thought it would be a fun game to introduce & they have played it daily since.  There was alot of fun in the house with the Halloween & Harvest theme & they learned more than they knew they did!

K using her fine motor skills to match candy corn to numbers

some of the movement cards from the blog referenced

K enjoyed putting these simple puzzles together 

D connecting the dots                                 D matching cards

 Cutting & pasteing the pumpkin life cycle

Edible witch hat assembly

Yummo!!  And Easy Peasy!!

D first "sentence"

Making those pumpkin seeds useful... another pumpkin craft

 An intense game of Hungry Hippos

 A fun handprint spider... then we practiced counting with it