Family Happenings Thanksgiving Week 2012

Well, for the first time in a looooong time,

none of the big kids could make it home for Thanksgiving...

Shae is feeling quite pregnant for a 9 hour drive to sound appealing at all, Graham found the airfare too cost prohibitive, and Lee had to work for 12 hours at the Moose Jaw in the Dells.

Only half of my kids would be with me.

After the initial sadness of not seeing the "big"kiddos and their families,

I started to savor the idea of a mini vacation...

no cooking  no dishes  no cleaning

no leftovers (that's kind of sad)

John's dad took us to Druggan's 

for a fantastic buffet on Thanksgiving...my mom and stepdad joined us along with my step-bro,Tim!

With Maeve, Sorcha, and Fionn that made a record low number for us...ONLY 9! 

It was a very nice time!

Can you believe I did not take ONE SINGLE PICTURE?

What?  It must of have been the sadness of not having the big kids around creeping in subconsciously...hmmm...or maybe I was enjoying the witty repertoire between Maeve and Sorch...

not ONE PICTURE!

On Saturday I did some yard work and found this nice little clutch of eggs...FROZEN!  How pretty though!

Now I just need to check this spot daily to get 

a fresh egg before it freezes again.

Oh, the joys of free range chickens!

So I did end up baking and cooking

and washing a boat load of dishes on Saturday.

We roasted a turkey with all the fixins' 

so we could have LEFTOVERS!

Also made these Homemade 60 minute cinnamon rolls

from Pinterest

http://pinterest.com/pin/233061349438108249/

Yummy and simple and heavenly smelling!

I needed 90 minutes though, as I have a bad habit

of multitasking (flitting around)

roasting that bird, washing dishes, etc...

John and I and Sorcha headed to Owatonna to Cabela's at 2:30am

CRAZY!

My hubby wanted to be the first 600 in line to receive prizes plus he wished to purchase "under armor" winterwear for us at $9.99 as opposed to $25.  So...we waited in the FREEZING COLD with WINTERY WINDS and in a skirt and tights (just me!) 

CRAZY and UNDERDRESSED!

Wished I could have had that long underwear we were going to buy!

Here is Sorch and I hanging out inside an ice shanty 

(inside the store)

waiting for John to finish shopping...

Sorcha snuggling real close to her Daddy at 4:00 am

trying to keep warm...

On Wednesday I rang the bells again for Salvation Army at HyVee.

It is always heart warming to witness

 the generosity of the human race!

 Kollin and his brother stopped by to help!

Tuesday evening we enjoyed Sorcha's Fall concert.

Not too many of these left in our lives!

Cherish each one of your little ones concerts!

This is me all dressed up for Mrs. Sand's 

annual Christmas party at the Creamery in Rushford.

It was a BETTY CROCKER theme!

Fun!

I took a strawberry huller as a gift to pass

and brought home an avocado peeler!

Nice!

Here is another pinterest recipe we tried:

Peasant bread...good but not EXCELLENT...

I will keep trying bread recipes until I find the perfect one!

And finally our new favorite TV series to watch on Netflix

Anyone else watching?  We are just beginning season 3.

We began watching after Maeve and I returned from Atlanta

as that is where the first part is filmed.

Very close to Graham's apartment actually.

Creepy fun!

(Not for young kids, though, sorry K families)

Week 12:letter Rr, Pilgrims, Turkeys, Thanksgiving, and Stone Soup

Oh My! What a fast, short, and fun week!

We have been working on 2 star words "I' and "see".

The kiddos are so funny, every time I turn around

it seems someone has shown off their new skills by writing 

a star word in the mini sand box...

They are so smart!

Here's a few more adorable

family projects...turkeys!

And here they are in the hallway...cute!

 

This was Andrea's last week with us.

We will miss her!

Some of the kiddos with still see her

in Cardinal Club as she works there in the morning.

She is going to be a GREAT teacher one day!

Andrea's center was a writing station.

The kiddos took a sentence strip from the pot

and decided if they liked that food.

Then they printed it on their sheet.

What a fun way to practice printing!

 This station was practicing tally marks.

This is a tough skill but the kiddos are catching on!

 This station was about the ingredient in stone soup.

It was a fun reading and writing project!

Plus when they were finished they got to vote on the back 

of the page whether or not they liked each veggie.

We were given some academic choice at the carpet.

The kiddos could choose patterns, a dice game,

or both!  What fun!

This station was about beginning sounds:

These were our morning challenges for this 

 short week:

 Candy corn ABC order....

Candy corn sentences...

Candy corn missing numerals...

Oh, I just LOVELOVELOVE this project:

This isn't just a turkey

As anyone can see...

Here we are cutting veggies for our stone soup...

 And here is our stone soup ready to cook...

 Can you see our magic stone?

Our portion of the soup was potatoes, sweet potatoes, and carrots...

Mrs.Pilger's class brought corn, beans, pasta and peas...

Mrs.Kalmes class provided the barley, onions, and meat...

The Kiddos won the ABC game again!

 This time they needed to reach 20 points before me.

There prize was a snack from my house.

So here is midnight brownies with whipped cream frosting!

Mmmmm!

 Eli also brought 2 Wednesday Rr snacks for us!

Raisins and Rice Cream Bars...RRReally Good!

Please see the page listed above for the Wednesday Snack Schedule for the rest of the year.

Thanks to all who signed up!

We had many moments this week where we shared what we were

thankful for...I am thankful for Grandma Rita~

Here she is making lucky duck books for us!

Oh, My Goodness!

Weren't those turkey finger puppets adorable?

My hubby donates the work gloves that we snip the 

fingers from to make the turkey bodies.

CUTE!

Did you notice the Wamponoag hats we've been sporting

for the past few pics?

We used this chart to design them.

We made a pictogram story using

Native American symbols.

It's just not a holiday unless we play TAPE NOSE!

We called this one TURKEY NOSE...

we even learned how to roll our own tape circle this time!

 Bryce was the winner!

Are you ready for this one?

Gabby was the regional winner for the 

FIRE POSTER contest!

Congratulations, Gabby!

 She received two checks and a plaque!

At 1:30 we met the other k classes in the cafeteria.

We came as the helpful Wampanoag Indians and brought 

our carrot/potato, sweet potato soup.

Mrs. Pilger's kids came as the Pilgrim's bringing their

bean/pea/corn/pasta soup.

Mrs. Kalmes' kids came as the turkeys

and brought their onion/barley/meat soup~

 Here we are with our yummy soup!

 Each soup is very nice but it would be so much better

if we could mix them together...

Soup from a Stone? Fancy that!

The lesson from stone soup is similar to the Pilgrim's 1st Thanksgiving...everything is far better when shared as we are grateful for what we have!

 Tadadadada!  MMMMM!

We loved our combined stone soup!

 We sang songs, ate, and played together.

Then while the teachers cleaned up,

the kiddos watched Thanksgiving videos in Mrs. Kalmes' room.

What a nice week!

Here's some of our books from this week:

  

Here's next week's line up:

November 26-30

Reading: Letter Tt, star word "like", beginning sounds, and sequence of events

Math: Topic 5~Six-Ten:Writing, Counting, Making 10

Theme: Families

Science: Where do Animals Find Food?

Social Studies: Seasons Bring Change

BIG NEWS: We will be collecting the bottom third of clean milk jugs through December, we are making an igloo!

If you wish to see last year's look back at Dec 2011 blog listing.

FUN!