Thanksgiving

The kids were very excited all week that Aunt Heather was coming for Thanksgiving. They love having visitors.

Molly with her big turkey leg.

Colin

Caleigh after her wish bone victory.

 

Thanksgiving Study

We spent a couple weeks studying Thanksgiving. They studied the book, Cranberry Thanksgving for a few days. We talked about the New England area, cranberry bogs, and how cranberries are harvested. We used the recipe in the book to make cranberry bread. Colin liked it, but the girls didn't. Later, when Molly saw the cranberry bread on the counter, she said, "Why do we still have that? Caleigh and me don't like it so you should just throw it away."

Then we studied the pilgrims. We read books and did activities about their voyage on the Mayflower, their arrival in the New World, and the Wampanoag Indians. They really liked these books: Tapenum's Day, Samuel Eaton's Day, and Sarah Morton's Day. Each of them told about what a typical day would have been like for the child. Colin and Caleigh drew the Mayflower, Squanto, and pilgrims using Draw Write Now. We made pilgrim puppets. We also made turkeys. I had the kids each put what they were thankful for on the feathers.

Colin wrote family, house, food and his Wii. Caleigh put the whole world, Chad, Colin, Molly, and me, her house, toys, TV, and her bed. Molly told me so I could write it and said family, my sister, my big brother, dad, you- I love you mom, this paper turkey, milk, house, kitchen so we can make something to eat, dolls, paper, toys, eyes, and candy.

 

 

PE Class

Monday was the last PE class for this year. Each week, they did a different sport. They included baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey, volleyball, badmitton, and kickball. The kids enjoyed most of them. I think they liked basketball and hockey most. Molly isn't old enough to be signed up for the class, but they let her participate some anyway. Monday was kickball and she was allowed to play the whole time. She did really well even though she kept skipping first base. After a while, she told the instructor that she was too tired to play anymore. The woman told her it would only be about 2 more minutes. Molly said, "I can only do one more minute, not two."

Visiting Santa

We were at the mall today and Molly wanted to see Santa. Colin agreed to go take a picture too. I asked Caleigh, but she said she didn't want to. While I was taking Colin and Molly, Chad asked Caleigh why she didn't want to see Santa. She said, "I know he's not the real Santa so why should I waste my time."

So here are pictures of the other two. They are pictures of a picture so may be a little blurry.





Colin wasn't too sure Caleigh was right. Santa told him to stop picking on his sisters so much so he decided that might just be the real one.

Molly's Party

We had Molly's birthday party today. She was so excited. She had a great time playing with her friends.



She was a little shy while everyone was singing Happy Birthday and kept looking at Caleigh.





Here's a better picture of the cake. She liked it, but said I should have put more animals. I did plan to have a zebra, but just couldn't fit in on there.



After cake and presents, all the girls went upstairs to have a tea party with a tea set Molly got as a gift. The girls were calling it a water party since they had water in their teapot instead of tea.

My baby is 4!

I can't believe how quickly time passes. We always think of Molly as the baby so her turning 4 seems impossible. She is such a sweet, loving child. I think her personality makes her getting bigger a little easier on me. She's always hugging or kissing us. She loves to sit in my lap. She usually really likes being the baby.



 Today



We don't do school on birthdays and Chad took the day off work so we all could celebrate. We took her out to lunch. She wore a birthday girl crown the whole time. Then we went to Party City, where she got to pick a balloon. She got a big Tinkerbell. We also got an animal one to match her party theme for tomorrow. When we got home, she got presents from all of us and chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles. Happy Birthday, Baby!

A Molly funny

Molly says lots of funny things. Well, at least they're funny to me. I always mean to write them down, but I usually forget them before I get around to it. I was just thinking of something she said yesterday and thought I would go ahead and post it here before I forget. I was laying their clothes out to get ready for their PE class. Molly came in and asked where we were going. I said, "We're going to PE." So then she says, "Why? We have bathroom right here."

Oh, that made me think of something else she said. We took them to a track and they all ran a lap around it. Molly only ran a little and then would stop to walk. She seemed to be talking. We thought she was talking to the people walking around the track. She ended up cutting across the grass instead of going the whole way around. When she got there, Chad asked why she kept talking. While breathing heavily, she said, "I just had to keep telling my heart not to stop."

                              

The Story about Ping & China

 Last week, Colin studied ancient China for history and the girls were doing The Story of Ping so they all studied China together. Some books we read were Children Just Like Me, The Five Chinese Brothers, Tikki Tikki Tembo, The Story of Paper, Ma Jiang and the Orange Ants, Come Along Daisy, The Little Duck, Daisy Comes Home, and Giant Pandas. We also went to a Chinese restaurant, where the kids attempted to use chopsticks and got fortune cookies. We talked about buoyancy and experimented to see which things float.

Here is Caleigh's notebook page:



Under where does Ping live, there is a map of China with the Yangtze River drawn in and marked. She drew a duck and a panda using Draw Write Now. For counting Ping's family, we had a small duck card for each member (68 in all) and counted them. I printed out her name in Chinese. For the panda anatomy booklet, she told me about its coloring, size, eyes, paws, fur, and teeth and I wrote it for her. The Chinese counting book has a page for numbers 1-12. Each page has the corresponding number of objects related to China, our number, the Chinese number, and pronunciation. On each page, she wrote the number our way and then the Chinese way. She colored China's flag. Then there are some math worksheets using ducks in the story problems.

Asheville

Chad had to work in Asheville this week so we tagged along. Tuesday we went to the NC Arboretum. I wanted to see some of the fall colors and thought it would be good for the kids to get out of the hotel and run around some. The kids enjoyed it much more than I had thought they would and have already asked to go back. We walked some trails, walked through the gardens, and looked at the displays.

Molly complains anytime we go somewhere without her stroller so it wasn't long before she was complaining. She would say her legs hurt and someone needed to carry her. As soon as she would see something that interested her though, she would run to it. Here you can see that the cute face worked on Colin.

 

Today, we went to The Health Adventure Museum. It went along well with our school since Colin is just getting ready to finish up his human body study.

They were fascinated by this skeleton pedaling a bicycle.

This body had transparent skin. It would light up and talk about the different parts of the body.

They had a Curious George section, which was one of their favorite parts.

 

We also went to the Earth Science Museum for a little while since it was in the same building.

The kids said it was a fun trip, but we were all glad to get home tonight.

Zoo

We went to the zoo on Saturday. We used to go to the zoo a lot in KY and Texas, but we haven't been since I took the kids when we lived in Boston so it's been over a year. I think everyone was tired from Friday and it's a very spread out zoo. There are 2 sections to the zoo and we did get to see all of one side.

I think they liked the fake animals as much, or maybe more than the real ones.

 

Pumpkins

Last week, we studied pumpkins. Some of the pumpkin books we read were: Pumpkin Jack, The Runaway Pumpkin, The Pumpkin Book, From Seed to Pumpkin, and Five Little Pumpkins. We also spent a day on scarecrows. We read The Scarecrow's Hat, The Little Scarecrow, and Jeb Scarecrow's Pumpkin Patch.

Here are Caleigh's notebook pages:

 

On the left side is a finish the pumpkin pattern worksheet. Under it is a worksheet to fill in the missing letters (alphabetical order) in the pumpkin patch. The small pumpkin is a book where she drew a jack-o-lantern and answered questions about pumpkins. The larger pumpkin has seeds and string glued inside to look like a real pumpkin. On the right side are cards she put in order to show how a pumpkin grows. She had to draw in the correct number of pumpkins in the scarecrow book.

Happy Halloween!

It was a full day with a bowling birthday party for a friend of the kids and then trick or treating. Caleigh went out for about 40 minutes and then wanted to come back home to give out candy. She and Chad did that last year and she thought it was one of the best parts. Molly went for about 10 more minutes before she wanted to come home. Colin ended up being out for a little over 2 hours when I told him we had to go home.