Halloween 2010

Our weekend was full of Halloween Fun - a Fall carnival at the girls' ballet school, carving our pumpkin, a Halloween Get Together on our street followed by meeting up with homeschool friends to trick-or-treat their neighborhood and hang out.

A Class in Etiquette

This week Lexi attended etiquette school - it was an amazing experience. I cannot speak highly enough of Mrs. Newfield, owner of The American School of Protocol. Lexi came home each day and bubbled over with excitement in recalling each day's lesson and the table-scape which greeted them upon arrival. Mrs. Newfield and her staff go above and beyond in decorating the table each day with a different type of decor, china, crystal and silver. The picture above is the table as it appeared today upon our arrival. There were over 150 roses and chrysanthemums and china circa 1860.

The class culminates with a fancy 5 course dinner at a private club in Atlanta. The children put all of their manners to the test along with table etiquette. They are required to come to the dinner with a speech prepared on a country of choice along with topics of conversation in which to engage other adults. Parents do not attend and the children are instructed not to speak to wait staff but, to use the table etiquette they learned to signal when they were finished or just taking a break from eating. This part worried me when I first heard it - I could not imagine by 8 year old being comfortable with all this. To my surprise, not only was she comfortable but, she had a marvelous time impressing her dinner companions with her knowledge of Ireland and her ability to speak Gaelic.

Today was Parent Day and the children all received their certificates along with parting words from Mrs. Newfield. Listening in on the final class made me want to take the class myself. I walked away knowing we will definitely be enrolling our other two children in the school.
Pictured above - Lexi and her friend, Muriel, with their certificates.

Fall Baseball Comes to a Close

Devin's Fall Baseball season came to an end this past weekend ... the team finished first in their division and, their award, being covered in silly string.

Devin had a great season winning "Defensive and Offensive Player of the Game", on several occasions. He hit his first triple, a couple of doubles, pitched for the first time and made many great plays at both first base and in center field.

Thanks Coach Jeff for another great season!

Homeschool Halloween Party

Yesterday we hosted one of the homeschool groups we belong to at our home for the 3rd Annual Halloween Party. We had a costume contest, played games, and enjoyed fun party foods and drinks. The kids had a blast and the weather was so beautiful that we spent almost all of our time outside.

The costume contest begins ...

The winners - (Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, Edna from The Incredibles, A Gypsy, Princess Leia from Star Wars, a Funky Fairy, and The Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland.

Playing the Donut Game.

Two of the cutest Mummy Wrap contestants ...

Devin and one of his friends try hard to get the wrapping off to a good start.

The winners of the Mummy Wrap Game.

Time to eat ...

Ava Mae and some friends enjoy snacks on the deck.

It was a wonderful party with 23 of our closest homeschool friends.

Weekend Projects

With our Homeschool Halloween Party quickly approaching I wanted to get a few projects done before we host on Friday.

I love all these fun pumpkin ideas I have seen on blogs recently and so with two different types of paint in hand my first project was to transform three of our pumpkins.

I got some assistance in prepping the pumpkins by wiping them down with a damp cloth and then drying them really well. For the copper pumpkins I chose to use real pumpkins I purchased at the grocery store for just $2.49 each. I worked in small sections as I did not want to spray paint the pumpkin stem.

This is the finished project ...

Next I chose to use one of our permanent pumpkins and paint it with chalkboard paint. I have seen quite a few of these with black chalkboard paint but, I would like to use the pumpkin for Thanksgiving decor too so I chose a green chalkboard paint.
The second project for the weekend was this fun Halloween Garland made from a scrapbook kit.
My last project was some baking that I needed to do for our Sunday School class - it was our turn to bring breakfast. I made banana bread and an apple caramel bundt cake - both of them were a big hit and the kids were glad we had a few slices leftover so they could eat some too.

Time in the Outdoors

With temps in the 70's and a wonderful breeze it is so hard to stay inside during the school day.

So, we packed a picnic lunch and we were off to a state park, just minutes from our home, that we just love. After lunch we hiked a short trail around the pond noticing all of the signs of fall - cool breezes, leaves changing colors, and squirrels burying acorns. It was a great day for a nature walk!

Wordless Wednesday

I love pumpkins!! (and fall, and cool weather, and changing leaves)

October Field Trip

This is our third field trip for this school year. The kids and I both really look forward to these learning opportunities. Today it was all about the farm. We took a hayride into the farm's cow pasture and the cows came right up and let the kids feed them. They had some unique milking cows and one in particular that was absolutely huge.

After the hayride we were able to see a demonstration on how they feed the calves. This baby calf drank a 1/2 gallon of milk in less than 3 minutes. Ava Mae wanted to take this adorable calf home.
Until she saw this kitten ... then she wanted to take him home instead.

I don't know that Devin was as impressed as the girls were with the cows but, he was super excited to take a run through the corn maze. By the end of the field trip he had gone through the maze two more times with his friends.

We rounded out our day with a picnic - enjoying the company of friends. It was a great day on the farm with perfect fall weather!