Our 1st Annual Thanksgiving Party!

Today was a super fun day, friends!  We had a Thanksgiving party at our house for a few of our fellow homeschool friends.

Here are some pictures from the fun!

I found this cute and {FREE} "give thanks" banner printable on the ucreateparties.com page.  Great site for cute resources!  The turkey in the background is courtesy of my very talented husband :)

The first craft we did was the Thanksgiving Story bracelet.  Light brown pipe cleaner and pony beads.  So fun and informative!

The Thanksgiving Story bracelet...

Next we made some pretty rad Indian headbands.  Wish I would've made one for myself.  Boo.

Three of our little Indian girls in attendance with their headbands :)

During our scavenger hunt the kids had to find pine cones, Indian rocks, run through the house like an Indian AND find and kiss Mr. Turkey...Miss Bella got a good smooch in :)

Then we moved into the living room to read, "Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving."  LOVE this book!

We made some really sweet "I Am Thankful For..." books but I didn't get a picture of any of them! Bummer.

This next activity was one of my favorites.  Probably because it involved, sugar, icing, sugar, sprinkles and more sugar :)  These are Tee Pee's made out of waffle cones!  Gently cut off the tip of the cone, ice the bottom with chocolate icing, dip in sprinkles, put icing in the top tee pee hole, stick pretzel sticks in and let it dry...VOILA!

Some were devoured just minutes after making them...

We also played, "pin the feather on the turkey."  This was great fun :)

I think Elijah's trying to peak! Little turkey...

We spun in a circle three times before pinning the feather :)

Momma's Indian and Pilgrim :)

All the little Indians that came to the pow wow!

This was such a joy for me today, friends.  Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of children and being able to come together to celebrate everything we have to be thankful for in your precious Son, Jesus. 

{Psalm 106:1}

Thanksgiving in the Schoolroom

I've been looking forward to this since our school year started, friends!  I love Thanksgiving.  I love having an entire month to focus our hearts and minds on the One who opens His hand of blessing on us everyday. And although I'm ridiculously excited to teach our boys about the Puritans, the Indians, the Mayflower and everything in between, my sincere prayer for them is to have a heart of thankfulness to God and everything He offers us through His Son, Jesus.

As we learn about Thanksgiving the entire month of November, we'll be reading lots of great books, memorizing verses on giving thanks to God, reading poems, studying a famous painting about Thanksgiving and listening to an early American composer from the 16oo's.

Here are some of the books we'll be reading...SO excited!

{N.C. Wyeth's Pilgrims by Robert D. San Souci}

{P is for Pilgrim by Carol Crane}

{Saying Grace - A Prayer of Thanksgiving by Virginia Kroll and Tim Ladwig}

{Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving by Eric Mextaxas}

{The First Thanksgiving by Jean Craighead George}

{The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh}

{Three Young Pilgrims by Cheryl Harness}

For our Picture Study:  "The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth" painted in 1914 by Jennie A. Brownscombe.

For our Music Study we'll be listening to and learning about Johann Frederich Peter.  Take a listen below:

http://www.folkways.si.edu/american-colonial-instrumental-music/folk-classical-historical-song/album/smithsonian

{A Psalm of Thanksgiving}

Blessings!

October's Field Trip Fun!

October was such a fun month for us, friends!  THREE field trips.  Not too shabby, huh?

Since we're learning about Ancient Egypt all year, we took the boys to the Ancient Egypt exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science {through Groupon we paid $30 for a family of four...regularly $80!}  It was amazing.  Every corner we turned the boys saw things we've been reading and learning about. It was such a joy hearing them spout off facts and get excited about what they saw.  Isaiah played it cool as long as he could when we saw real mummies then he made Guy hold him :)  Elijah, however, was fascinated by them--especially one that still had hair on his head and chin.  Pretty creepy,  but WAY cool! At lunch that afternoon Isaiah told me that he never thought he'd get to actually see everything we've been learning about at a museum until he was at least eighteen..."and I'm just SEVEN, Momma!"  Such a sweet and encouraging moment.  Sadly, we have ZERO pictures from the museum!  Can you believe that?  But to make up for that, here's a picture of Isaiah pretending he's an "ancient Egyptian artifact."

After the Ancient Egypt exhibit that afternoon we saw Jerusalem 3D in the IMAX theater.  Simply stunning. Elijah kept reaching his arms out during the film to touch things in the air :)  It was SO cute.  This film is a must see, friends!

Here's a clip below--breathtaking!

http://youtu.be/tejeDb_5WWs

We also took the boys on a field trip to The Oil Ranch.  SUCH a fun time!  The boys each got a free pumpkin from the Pumpkin Patch, we learned how cows get milked and the kids could even milk her {the boys wanted nothing to do with that}, the boys rode horses, learned about and got to pet tons of animals {pigs, goats, chickens, roosters, etc...} AND we got to see gorgeous peacocks, a ram and a real billy goat.  And not to mention the massive hay pile in the barn they got to play in and the tepee and totem poles--the boys loved it all.  There's even a mine where you can gather lots of small gems and stones...Isaiah came home with a pocket full!

http://oilranch.com/

{Isaiah was in cowboy mode all day at the ranch :)}

{Sweet Elijah riding a pony}

And last but not least we went to the Calendar Garden. This is such a sweet and quaint little garden that I happened to find while searching for fun fall/pumpkiny type things to do with the boys.  There are several free outdoor games to play and a hay maze.  They have a stunning rose garden and a Texas garden full of Texas flowers, plants and, of course, lots of cactus.  There were so many teachable moments at the garden as we saw and got to smell and touch citrus trees, herbs, vegetable plants, a grape vine and bumble bees!  We went with some precious friends of ours and we sat down at a table under a cute little rustic pavilion and note-booked about our day {thanks Susan!}  I can't wait to go back at Christmas.

http://www.calendargarden.com/

{Elijah...he could have stayed on this tractor all afternoon!}

{Isaiah and Cooper.  Baseball teammates AND homeschool buds!}  

{You always need a hay/mum picture at a fall garden, right???}

{Some citrus trees...they all smelled AMAZING}

{There were about 30 bumble bees in the bush behind the boys!}

November is sure to be fun as we'll be learning about the Mayflower, pilgrims and Indians!

Blessings!