Luci-isms

The Wetter--what you call a clothes washer.

The Dryer--the clothes dryer, d-u-h!

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The Iron Bowl football game was on Friday afternoon.  John's Alma Mater, Auburn, vs their in-state rivals, Alabama.

Luci asked which team we wanted to win--and because she is all about fashion, she wanted to know:  the white ones or the red ones?  

Bryan:  The white team!  the red ones we don't care for.

Luci:  Yes, we do care about them, we just don't want them to win.

I'm in love with that tender little heart.

Auburn won.  So John is a very happy man.  This means bragging rights until next year's Iron Bowl.

Sunday Morning

still young enough to want 

to dress like Mrs. Santa

(and that makes me happy!)

Luci-ism for Thanksgiving

As we ate our huge lunch, Luci, who usually eats next-to-nothing, was chowing down!  Such a nice thing to see. 

Then she starts singing about her food, That's the way, uh-huh, uh-huh, I like it!

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Luci made her very first pumpkin pie this year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's a warm day here--the weather feels weird.  It will be cooler tomorrow, and then it will feel more like it's supposed to.

Turkey is in the oven, fruit salad made, the other sides are next on the list.  We may put a leaf in the table just to hold the extra food.  ☺  

It would be so nice to see everyone today, but it's just so rush-rush and later on we can visit for an extended time.  John and Bryan leave on their mission trip tomorrow, so it's nice to be home today.  Especially since Bryan hadn't packed anything until I forced him to bring me X-number of underpants, shirts, socks, shorts and pants a few moments ago.  I can't imagine saving that for the last minute tomorrow (today is last-minute enough for me!). 

Luci is having a blast watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Just when I thought she'd find it boring because it's bands and floats and not a fast-paced Disney or Sprout show. 

It is so nice having John home this year.  We've had so many birthdays and holidays missed and messed up by his trips that most "special" days seem like just normal days to the boys and me.  It's hard to get excited over a date on the calendar (Luci is still pretty excited over December 25th, though).  The boys don't care as long as on some day they get presents.  But December 25th?  Thanksgiving?  They are just dates on the calendar.  The product of being military kids during multiple deployments, I guess.

Here is our tree full of Thanks-giving from the whole month!

Luci-isms

Luci told us this morning that Bamboo  is the plural of Bambi.

Bambi picture from here.http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlxYG3BSSDP0hC6_bVhOWoeFZfWIOdW7EnxZv6AqZ85UUVyc_ynec5sUeWZ05f3_guJUBj7lRzGrwoaeQTzusVKbUez_LV2vKir79upd7bx_sKmbUqSlZ-Kq0WRXWVBLUfclJa/s1600/Bambi.jpg&imgrefurl=http://stacyssoapbox.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html&h=768&w=1024&sz=75&tbnid=2RG0IeZ9hlcMGM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbambi%2Bphotos&zoom=1&q=bambi+photos&hl=&usg=__Xvo_3TcSQppLWBNYwhEFe4ulJxo=&sa=X&ei=5CntTN7PN4KC8ga1x7HLAQ&ved=0CCEQ9QEwAA

Ahem.

Luci came to us this morning, so pleased to announce that she had on her "Birthday Suit!"

This adorable tee was a birthday present from Kenzi.   A glittery tiara and Luci's name in sparkly gems.  Thank you, Kenzi!

JT kept asking, "When can I tell her what birthday suit really means?"

Luci-isms

Gold Fish -- a card game you might know as "Go Fish."

ORD-a-mints --things you hang on a Christmas tree.  (Yes, we put our tree up already!  That little sock is one that Bryan wore in 1992.  One of his socks from today could double as a tree-carrier!  And I just noticed that I put the wrong year on his itty-bitty sock!  Maybe I dated it for the actual year it was first put on the tree?  I'm going with that.)

And, heard at McDonald's the other day:

Me, leaning down in Luci's face:  If we order a Happy Meal, you must eat the burger this time!

Luci:  If I don't, are you going to put a curse on me?

Maybe we ought to watch fewer fairy tale movies??

LaGrange

Today's field trip was to LaGrange College in Colbert County.  This is an historical park not far from home.  There are quite a few buildings that were brought to the college location and rebuilt.  Featured are a kitchen,  chapel, barbershop, outhouse, cabin, and several other buildings.  Here are some shots from today.

view from a hill...

pie safe...the panels were red from rust...

great group of homeschoolers...

on a Christmas tree...

having fun!

Channel 31 showed up to do a piece on "Christmas in the Country" that will be held at LaGrange College this weekend.  If you look closely, you can see the videographer on the other side of the sign.  Luci and several other girls kept getting in the shots.  It was pretty funny.  We saw ourselves on Channel 31 tonight!  Luci gave autographs to each of us.  Whether we asked for them or not.

the kitchen...

inside the big house....

Principal and Teacher

Cornbread's ready!

Our cutie.

and, at home, relaxing in the tree house.

Field Trip!

Okay, so I have used that title before.  It's hard to come up with something new every time.

Today we went to the Indian Mound Museum. John came with us!  Here are some shots.  (Ignore the dates on the photos, John's camera is showing the wrong date.)

Funny, how it looks like Spring in this photo.  It really is November 17th.

JT's in there somewhere.  All the other photos had him looking rather blurry.

Bryan's comment of the day:  "It looked like a big pile of dirt last year, and it still looks like a big pile of dirt."

Handsome gent:

Loved how this photo looks like the docent has the arrow going straight up her nose!  The lady was not used to homeschool groups.  Poor lady.  I'm sure she's telling someone at dinner tonight how unruly our group was--all ages blended together and none of them knew how to line up!

I mostly saw the backs of the kids.

Going up the Mound.  All three of ours are in there somewhere.

View from the Deck

I see this when I look out the back window.  Autumn here is beautiful!  And I totally love seeing Luci's pink tree house through the foliage.  This year the colors of the leaves have not been as bright because the weather has been dry.  You really can't tell that from our backyard.  For that I am thankful.

30 Days of GiveAways

30 Days of GiveAways at NiHao, Y'all!

I love her blog. Lots to learn there.

Levers

Here is the result of Wednesday's lesson on Levers. We submitted this to How to Homeschool Today, for possible inclusion on her webpage.

Science and Math, Honey. Science and Math.

I kept saying that I would turn all math and science over to John once he retired.  Everyone thought I was joking, but I wasn't.  Not much, anyways.  John had this experiment rigged up when we got home from karate this morning, demonstrating fulcrum and lever principles. 

Luci shows that, without the fulcrum, this is a lot of work!

Demonstrating the ease of use with a longer arm--pulling nails is easier.

And then, this impromptu science lesson:  a little house wren was stunned when it ran into our basement door's window.    Luci was thrilled that she got to pet it before it flew away.

And then, later this afternoon, the neighbor's dogs were visiting...the female is in heat (oh joy) so you can guess what Luci learned.   Puppy love!  (no photos, gag!) Perhaps, in two months, that doggy can tell her "which one does the juice."

And they called it Puppy Love....

 I bought some face paint on the Halloween aisle at Walmart (after Halloween! so it was dirt cheap).  We've had lots of fun with it.  Mostly it was for Bryan to use in his movie-making, but some of it has been used up...

on this cute puppy!

And her mommy.  Luci has had a turn at painting all of our faces.  I promised I wouldn't take photos of the boys or John.  So I didn't (really! I didn't! so don't look for blackmail photos here.  Really.)  But I did let John take some photos of me, and this is the only one I'm sharing.  :)

Heard Last Night

Yesterday, while Luci was taking a bath, Luci and I had a conversation.  It went like this:

Mama, why did Jesus make dots (she says, pointing to the dots on her chest)?

Because when you grow up, they turn into "mommy-things" (our family word for them) and you can feed your baby with them.

Confused look.  Which one does the juice?

Our Birthday Present to Luci

Our present to Luci was a trip to Birmingham to see Disney Princesses on Ice.  (Daddy went to work, the boys went to work in the Friendship Center, and I got to go have fun with Luci.)   Impressive show, and lots of fun.  Luci and I left home at 6:30 a.m.(yawn--Mama, we can't go now!  It's still night time.  No one is up yet!!) 

Favorite parts:

Kenzi and Mamie were there, too!  Here Luci is with Kenzi.

Oh My!  Wonderful show!

I got off easy on the buying spree...there is always TONS of stuff to buy at these things.  I only got sucked into getting Luci some cotton candy (she is in love with it! that was her first exposure to cotton candy) and it came with a Micky Mouse crown.  The glowing wand, necklaces and bracelets I bought a few days earlier at the Dollar Tree--total cost for those was $3.  Worth every penny.

Wowzer, Disney does a show right.  Maleficent's dragon (from Sleeping Beauty) breathed fire!

And the dragon lit the ice on fire!

Tinkerbell is in the golden coach as the Princesses and their Princes skate the finale (this was just before the fireworks went off!).

When we got home, Luci wanted to try the hair paint that I got on sale after Halloween.  She was hoping for bright pink, but on such dark hair it does not match up to her imagination.

Luci's drawing of one of the Princesses ice skating. 

Worth every penny and even getting up so early....Life is good with a SIX year old daughter!

Two Momentous Occasions

Bryan's first time to vote

And John's Retirement Party!  Bryan's voting was listed first, because there are fewer photos...John's party had many more.

So, here it goes:

Bryan looking oh-so-smart and sophisticated, having voted, and all.

 The spread at John's party.  It was great food!

 Packing up

 Reading Luci's letter...Luci is more interested in her donut.

 Laven, John's administrative assistant, who planned the whole she-bang.  She did an awesome job.  Luci says Laven is "Daddy's Boss." 

 Bryan with Rita and Baxter Graves.  Baxter is an elder at our church.  We were so tickled that they came.

 Waymon, John's real boss (well, besides me, that is).

 Kevin reading Heath's letter.  Heath teaches at a university about 4.5 hours from here and could not make it in person.

 Listening to Heath's message.

 Audrey called!  All the way from Germany.  Luci was happy because she got to say hi to Maggie and Haley.  Heath called a few minutes after.  Both phone calls were a total surprise and John loved them.  So did everyone else--it was a crowded room!

 Talking to Audrey.

 Luci wondering why it's all about Daddy.  Like most six-year-olds would.