In My Life This Week
Shopping. ((siiiiigh)) Do you hear the frustration? the fatigue? Crowds! I ALWAYS plan to do our Christmas shopping in SEPTEMBER or even OCTOBER, but I "get around to it" finally (out of necessity and time) the WEEK OR SO BEFORE CHRISTMAS. (Did I mention that I don't like to shop ever? I know - strange! LOL) Perhaps NEXT year I'll shop early?
What'cha Makin' Wednesday!
(Link up your kitchen cookin' with the kids by clicking on the sidebar button)
Does decorating a gingerbread house from a kit count? LOL
Or how about peppermint chocolate fudge? We shared these delights with some of our neighbors!
Oh, and White Pine made sweet and sour pork with brown rice for dinner one night from Cooking School Chinese. I REALLY think HE should take over the kitchen! ((wink))
And we made and decorated gingerbread cookies using an old fashioned recipe from Rockabye Butterfly.
Does decorating a gingerbread house from a kit count? LOL
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| Yeah, it's a little SPARSELY decorated. We used ALL the candies in the kit! We might just have to raid the red and green jimmies! |
Or how about peppermint chocolate fudge? We shared these delights with some of our neighbors!
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| Yep! It IS good! |
Oh, and White Pine made sweet and sour pork with brown rice for dinner one night from Cooking School Chinese. I REALLY think HE should take over the kitchen! ((wink))
And we made and decorated gingerbread cookies using an old fashioned recipe from Rockabye Butterfly.
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| Balsam Fir couldn't wait and ate the leg off his gingerbread BEAR. |
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| Sugar Maple's decorated gingerbread man...with peppermint frosting. |
Homeschool Happenings
Balsam Fir has discovered the joy of four wheels...on each foot. Rummaging through my parent's garage over Thanksgiving, he found some brand new "sneaker" roller skates (that were my youngest sister's) and they have spent more time ON his feet than off. He's getting QUITE good at getting around on them - inside AND out!
Balsam Fir has discovered the joy of four wheels...on each foot. Rummaging through my parent's garage over Thanksgiving, he found some brand new "sneaker" roller skates (that were my youngest sister's) and they have spent more time ON his feet than off. He's getting QUITE good at getting around on them - inside AND out!
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| Aren't these cute roller skates? |
Balsam Fir finished his SWEET gingerbread lapbook! (Find other free printables at Making Learning Fun.) Look how wonderful his lapbook came out!
Only one more explorer left! John Wesley Powell will have to wait until after Christmas break though. Sugar Maple explored with James Cook and Lewis and Clark this week. Have you seen History Pockets? They're GREAT for kids who enjoy crafty unit studies! She's anxious to start United States Geography though!
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| This is the outside cover of her Explorers study. We're still deciding how we'll organize her work INSIDE. (We don't do the "traditional pockets" with History Pockets.) |
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| Some of the work she's completed including a timeline of explorers, paper compass, an antiqued letter to Columbus, a map of sailing routes, and a recipe box for hardtack (which wasn't so bad...for a snack). |
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| Her next choice to study: United State Geography. Balsam Fir will join her with a State Notebook from PrimaryGraffiti, although I bet Sugar Maple will want to make one too! |
(Doing something fun in History and Geography? Link up your posts to All Things Beautiful's linky party. Click on the sidebar button.)
And White Pine...What did HE do this week? Well, it was his turn to be sick. ((sigh)) White Pine had a sore throat and sniffles for a few days so while he rested he watched the Ken Burns documentary "The Civil War". A definite watch for older kids and adults interested in American History! But he did get to a little regular ol' school work too.
We really enjoyed reading Jan Brett's Gingerbread Baby and Gingerbread Friends, so we borrowed more of her wonderful books from the library. (Psst! Visit her website too! Lots of activities that tie into her books!)
Sugar Maple and I also made some gingerbread DOG treats to bring to the animal shelter with us. Our Golden Retriever was our taste-taster and she approved! LOL
Out-and-About
❄ S__, C__ and X__ popped over for a visit with the Trees ❄ Blue Spruce and Balsam Fir went Christmas caroling with the Cub Scouts and then swimming ❄ Sugar Maple celebrated a friend's birthday at an indoor ice skating rink ❄ Sugar Maple went to the animal shelter with the Girl Scouts ❄ Balsam Fir and White Pine had scout meetings ❄ Sugar Maple had a clarinet lesson and her first ever band concert as well as basketball practice and game ❄ We all went to the library for books and made chocolate Santa lollipops ❄ White Pine and Balsam Fir joined a new Lego Club ❆
My Favorite Thing This Week
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| Balsam Fir lost his 2nd tooth! |
Photo, Video, Link, or Quote to Share
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| Our beautiful eggs decorating Sugar Maple's Balsam Fir wreath |
Linking up to These GREAT blog hops:
Your explorer lap book looks neat. I love looking at lap books but never do them, to much work on my part. Your foods made me hungry, we made peppermint fudge to this week too! We also made cherry (my favorite) for our employees. I had did get it out of the house quick before I ate it:)
ReplyDeleteYour lapbooks look awesome! We love lapbooks here! I really need to come up with some good ones in the new year. :-)
ReplyDeleteAll of your pictures are making me hungry! Wow! It all looks delicious.
Hope you have a great weekend!
Many blessings,
Lisa
OOOh, I really like those explorer books! Sweet!!
ReplyDeleteI hate shopping too. Amazon has become my friend ;-) I do have stocking stuffers to finish and I will have to leave the house for that :-(
Wow! I want to come eat at your house! It looks like you had a very productive week, and congratulations to BF on losing his 3rd tooth. And for the record, I HATE shopping. :-)
ReplyDeleteWe will be moving on to The Civil War after Christmas, so I will get that documentary ordered. We are also wanting to make some dog treats for our pups for Christmas, while reading The Twelve Dog Days of Christmas, so I'll use your gingerbread recipe! Thanks for that!
ReplyDeleteAwesome week! Love those skate shoes. My son spends all of his time outside in roller skates. We're looking forward to reading our gingerbread books and making our house Monday. Yours looks great.
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome week! OMGOSH those goodies look umm ... GOOD :P hahahah :) ... I so want to do some holiday baking this upcoming week! UGH! Sorry about the shopping! I try to do mines early too and always end up getting last minute stuff done! :P Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteGingerbread house kits definitely count, as long as they're edible!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link for the gingerbread man stuff...I was just googling it when I was your post.
Awesome week. I remember sneaker roller skates. I loved mine. The gingerbread kit counts for sure! Have a blessed week.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Dawn
We read Gingerbread Baby this month too and really enjoyed it. I love Jan Brett's books. I'll have to check out her website.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my ScratchandPeck blog! You, my friend, are a lively blogger - So fun to connect with you! You asked about my coop -- I get inspiration from BackyardChickens.com coop pages -- Literally thousands of coops to look at! Didn't draw up any fancy plans -- just a couple of sketches on graph paper. The hens aren't too critical of my carpentry skills, and they love their home!
ReplyDeleteWe made gingerbread houses too:) Always one of my favorite things this time of year. As usual, it sounds like you had an awesome week! I love the idea of taking dog treats to the animal shelter...we'll have to do the same. Also, I really want to try the peppermint fudge if you don't mind sharing the recipe:)
ReplyDeleteHi, I am your new follower via Lovin' the Weekend Blog Hops.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sjb-myphotopage.com/
What a fun post, hopped over from HHM's.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I did like 90% of my shopping online. haha I don't care to shop much either, but I love getting packages ;) lol Thanks for linking up to BTT! That fudge looks delicious! Merry Christmas!!
ReplyDeleteI loathe shopping! I shop online whenever possible and hubby goes grocery shopping. We also used a kit for our gingerbread house this year! Thanks for linking up with BTT!
ReplyDelete