It's been a while! We've just been putting along living life without anything too terribly exciting going on. A week ago we had a meeting harvest party that I was real excited to take pictures of and blog about. I made sure to remember the camera and took it out as soon as we arrived at the elaborately prepared Diesel Depot. I aimed the camera at a tray of decadent and lovely home-prepared caramel apples...I focused, I pushed the button...nothing. What? Try again. Nothing. Error message--no memory card. Major bummer. There was a delicious dinner of ribs and baked beans and corn bread and salads and fresh pressed cider (as in, the press was right there and the mess was still underneath it). We sat at tables amidst friends and had a "drawing on our table cloth" contest. Ezra sat at the kids table waaaaay across the shop from us and would randomly come tell Tadd "I love you, Daddy" and then go running back to be silly with the other kids. We dressed up in old fashioned clothes and had family pictures taken. We played humiliating games. We talked and ate some more and laughed A LOT. You'll have to imagine what it all looked like. One of my favorite parts was watching Ezra in the "donut hanging from a string" eating contest. He turned in about a dozen circles trying to get a good hold on the donut with his mouth (hands are tied behind the back) before someone took pity on him and held the donut still.

Aside from all the picture-less fun we had...a couple weeks ago Tadd enjoyed playing with the camera while the full moon was rising over the reservoir.


Ezra and Caroline enjoyed a Saturday of playing with their cousins.

And during the week the kids and I have been doing a Thanksgiving study. It's nothing too detailed and I highly suggest doing it with any toddlers you have at home. Each day we read a book about Thanksgiving--the first Thanksgiving or current Thanksgivings (most of these books are from my classroom, but you can find many at your local library). Then we read a poem or two (I searched for them on the internet) and sing a song or finger poem (found these on the internet as well).
We talk about what Thanksgiving is, what it meant to the pilgrims, why they left for the new world, what Thanksgiving means to us, etc. It's amazing how much the kids can remember from our lessons. This week we'll be studying Thanksgiving traditions, then and now--and foods, then and now.


We do a coloring sheet and/or project each day at the end of our study. There are a lot of good coloring sheets online and a lot of simple projects. We made hand print turkeys last week. This week we'll be working on a paper mache turkey pinata just like we did last year. We'll also make some pilgrim hats for the kids to wear around the house Thanksgiving week. It's fun to have a theme to play with for a couple of weeks. And if you haven't started yet, don't despair--you still have a week and a half and that's plenty of time for a Thanksgiving study.