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.

Thankfulness

We started this "Thankful Tree" tradition back in 1998.  Here is our 2007 tree, which tells more of the story.  Every day each person who is in our home at supper time writes something he or she is thankful for on a paper leaf and we stick it on this "tree."  You have to think of something new every evening. This year Luci is old enough to understand, so she will have to think of new things each day. Since we have trouble getting her to be quiet, I'm sure she will be able to fill up 25 or so leaves (until Thanksgiving, then we get out the Christmas stuff!!).

What I found really special about tonight is that Luci wanted to write her own "thankful" bit!  She had a 15-word piece she wanted me to spell out letter-by-letter, which boiled down to she's thankful for the seasons God has made.  So we shortened it to "Seasons."   Then she drew a "fancy line" and signed her name.  (I wrote the date.)  I think I am going to be saving lots of leaves this year!

I had to include this photo, too.  Luci wanted to pose "all silly."