Jumping back in with some Wise Words:

Mothers have a tendency to exhaust themselves during the first weeks of December. Often, they don’t fully appreciate the blessings of Christmas because they have driven themselves so hard to "create" magic for everyone around them. We aren’t magicians and Christmas isn’t magic. It is a beautiful, spiritual feast that requires as much contemplation as action to prepare. You take care of yourself when you make time every day to pray, to exercise, to eat right and to sleep well. Promise yourself that you will do those things. Take time to do them in order to be the best you can for your family. ~~Elizabeth Foss

Our first Lapbook!

We made our first lapbook today! I've always been intimidated by them, for some reason, but basically it was just coloring, cutting, and gluing and now we have a wonderful book handmade by Seany and B-Rad. This particular lapbook was from Hearts and Trees.

Outdoor Hour Challenge Autum Series-Squirrels

Just a tawny glimmer, a dash of red and gray, Was it a flitting shadow, or a sunbeam gone astray! It glances up a tree trunk, and a pair of bright eyes glow Where a little spy in ambush is measuring his foe. I hear a mocking chuckle, then wrathful, he grows bold And stays his pressing business to scold and scold and scold.
~~From the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock

Today our nature study was about squirrels! I've never really cared for squirrels, and would always feels a little nervous if they got too close. While reading up on them, though, I found out that they are the cleanest mammals in the rodent family.

Since Big Daddy was home today on Veteran's Day, and since it was cold and rainy, the 4 biggest and I decided to venture outside, especially around back where we have observed squirrels from our deck.

The first thing we observed was that the lining of Joz's hood of her coat looked like a squirrel!

Here is the little guy (or gal) we observed while we were outside. We first found him on the ground and he ran under this bush as we tried to (quietly) get closer. We are pretty sure he is an eastern gray squirrel.


We then observed him as he ran up the tree to his nest. We couldn't get a good look at him once he was up there. Rayzor observed that when he ran up the tree he ran around the tree, instead of shooting straight up the tree.
The best part was when we observed him as he jumped from branch to branch and tree to tree and finally finding a resting spot in a tree several trees away from his nest. There was another nest in this tree as well.
This picture was originally quite dark. I was able to lighten it to show that the squirrel (huddled in the center) found it's resting spot in the final tree. He was hanging out there (or chillin' as the kids said) for awhile, so we decided to look for more squirrels. We never found anymore so we headed inside to work on the notebook pages.
The kids had brought peanuts, pistachios, and almonds outside and scattered them to entice the squirrel to come a little closer. I'm sure he waited until we left to get his treasure. We also put a handful of peanuts on our back deck, so we could get a closer look at our new friend.
As the kids were sketching, Big Daddy told the story about how when he was a boy, he rescued a baby squirrel who had fallen from his nest, and had him for a pet for a while until he released it.

B-Rad fills out her notebook page...

By: Joz

By: Ev

By: B-Rad

By: Rayzor

By: Seany "I almost threw up on the steps because looking at squirrels is pretty ugly"...

We are also looking forward to working on our mammals lapbook in the next couple of days and weeks!

The End

Outdoor Hour Challenge Autumn Series-Seasonal Weather

When in the night we wake and hear the rain Which on the white bloom of the orchard falls, And on the young, green wheat-blades, where thought recalls How in the furrow stands the rusting plow, Then fancy pictures what the day will see -- The ducklings paddling in the puddled lane, Sheep grazing slowly up the emerald slope, Clear bird-notes ringing, and the droning bee Among the lilac's bloom -- enchanting hope -- How fair the fading dreams we entertain, When in the night we wake and hear the rain!
~~ Robert Burns Wilson from the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock

Here we go again with our weekly nature study! This week we are learning about seasonal weather while we join up with Barb at Handbook of Nature Study. Our challenge this week was to

Pick a day this week to spend 15-20 minutes outdoors observing the weather and recording the conditions using the Seasonal Weather Study notebook page. We will be completing a weather study challenge during each season in the coming year and the more detailed you get in your observations, the easier it will be to compare the weather from season to season.

So while Benny napped we headed out front to study our weather here in Maryland.

Seany gets to work right away on his coloring page...

B-Rad looks upward to perfect her cloud sketches while Rayzor and Joz work on their pages...

By: Seany

Seany decides to take his horsey for a ride...

Ev follows on the scooter...

By: Rayzor "Temperature 52 degrees, Clouds are stratocumulus"

By: Joz "Temperature 54 degrees, Clouds are altostratus"

By: B-Rad "Clouds are altostratus". Her picture makes me laugh because the bottom picture tells them to "Sketch the view from your window each season". Apparently she sees a scary sun with glasses and teeth when she looks out the window. Good thing we are moving!

By: Ev

Rayzor rakes...

...while Seany digs for worms...

B-Rad reluctantly gets in on the action...

CANNONBALL!!!

One last thing...

The End

It was a Dark and Stormy Night...

STARRING:

Pumpkin as Obese Pirate

Rayzor as Orange M&M!

Joz as Reese's Peanut Butter Cups!

B-Rad as Ballerina!

And Seany as the Monkey!

The Crew minus two who were sick

Outdoor Hour Challenge Autumn Series-Pumpkins

Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West, From North and from South come the pilgrim and guest, When the gray-haired New-Englander sees round his board The old broken lines of affection restored, When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more, And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before, What moistens the lip and brightens the eye? What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie? Oh, fruit loved of boyhood! the old days recalling, When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling, When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin, Glaring out through the dark with a candle within! When we laughed round the corn-heap, with hearts all in tune, Our chair a broad pumpkin - our lantern the moon, Telling tales of the fairy who travelled like, steam, In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team! ~~J.G. Whittier from Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock

Once again, we're joining in with Barb over at Handbook of Nature Study! Our challenge was to:

You can either plan a field trip to a pumpkin field to observe pumpkin plants and pumpkins or you can purchase a pumpkin at the grocery and bring it home and complete this study with a real pumpkin. You could also plan on doing both!

Knowing this challenge was next this week, and Halloween was this week-end, we decided to head to a wonderfully new pumpkin patch to gather our pumpkins for the upcoming events! We had a great time, and with our "supplies" ready, we dove right in today!

Waiting patiently for the other kids...

Making observations...this was Rayzor's favorite nature study so far...

Seany digs right in while B-Rad looks on...

Collecting the seeds to clean and roast...

We were all surprised at how different Rayzor's pumpkin was on the inside, compared to the rest...

Mommy, what about me???

Seany works on cutting his Halloween placemat...

...while Ev colors his page...

All done! (See the funny gift bag from Aunt D in the background?!)

By: Rayzor "My pumpkin was really ripe and meaty."

Rayzor decided to cut up his pumpkin to cook and taste...

What would taste better...the pumpkin or the pumpkin butter???

Sampling the pumpkin butter...

Sampling the cooked pumpkin...

Joz thought the cooked pumpkin tasted like squash...

Rayzor cleaned and roasted the pumpkin seeds...

Learning the life cycle of the pumpkin...(Thanks Barb, for sharing your links!!!)

By: Joz "Creases up and down. Color: orange, bright orange. It feels a bit lighter without all of the seeds and gunky stuff. My pumpkin was full before I took everything out. Now it is wayyy lighter and emptier."

By: B-Rad "It sounds like a drum. The creases go up and down. The pumpkin butter tastes like pumpkin pie. My pumpkin sat on its bottom. My pumpkin is mostly empty."

After the kids recited the pumpkin poem, Joz colors hers...

After making their observations, Rayzor, Joz, and Seany decided to make their pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns...THE END

Halloween Recipes

The kids got a very thoughtful gift from a wonderful relative (thanks Aunt D!) and have been enjoying the gift bag full of bubbles, crayons, coloring books, glue gel pens, temporary halloween tattoos, pencils, activity books, and stamps. My two oldest have gotten the greatest enjoyment from the Halloween recipe book that was tucked into the bag. While we were out on Monday we stopped at the store and gathered our ingredients for a couple of the recipes. Joz picked Spooky Spiderweb Pizza:
She made this and another "regular" pizza and we had that for dinner Monday night! And Rayzor picked the dessert, Mud Sodas:
Yum!