Thanksgiving

We were going to get together with Jeremiah Green's family this year for Thanksgiving, but unfortunately several members of their family got sick, so we ended up doing Thanksgiving on our own. This was actually the very first time we celebrated Thanksgiving by ourselves. Aria and Zade chipped in and helped to make some of the food, and seemed to have a good time. They are both especially fond of Acini De Pepe, which is nice to see, because I love that stuff. :)

On Saturday we went to a U-Cut farm and picked out a Christmas tree.  As the mighty matriarch of the family, Tara kicked off the sawing.

And after she did all the hard work and got tired, I got to finish off the job. :)

As the pictures also reveal, we had the first snow of the winter.  The kids had fun sledding down the hill in our front yard and building snowmen in the backyard.

We also tried taking some family pics.  None of them turned out great, but a few were alright.  Such is life with children.

At church today Tara taught a lesson during Sharing Time in Primary about forgiveness.  During the family pictures Zade got hurt and got mad at Tara for not showing him as much sympathy as he wanted.  Later Tara asked Zade if he would forgive her. With a sparkle in his eye he responded, "Maybe.  I'll have to talk about it tomorrow during my meeting with Ryzen."  :)

Tooth Fairy

Guess who lost her first tooth?  :)  Apparently some of Aria's friends brought them $5 when they lost a tooth.  I couldn't believe it.  When I was a kid I just remember getting a coin or two.  Fortunately, the tooth fairy found some nice middle ground and Aria awoke to find a nice $1 bill. :)

Tara also read Charlotte's Web to Aria and Zade and then took them to see the play.  The kids loved it.

Halloween

Fun in the Forest

Each Tuesday we have a group that goes for a hike together.  My friend, Katrina, wants the venture to be like a Forest School.  We always hike to the same spot.  It takes about an hour to hike each way.  Once at our spot, the children run and play in the woods.  We also have an organized circle time at the end where we tell stories, poetry, sing songs, and play games.  Katrina has taken some beautiful pictures of our experiences thus far, but I don't have very many to put on the blog at this moment in time.  During the last hike, Aria found some fallen leaves and had fun making witch's claws. 

Below is a Monarch butterfly that Zade spotted on one of our morning walks.  It was injured and probably will not be able to make its' migration South.  We enjoyed watching it though.  We carried it home and placed it on one of our roses.

Our new math unit covers all four math processes: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  In Waldorf curriculum, everything is introduced through stories in the early years.  The kids are enjoying learning about math through the story of a mother and her four squirrels.  We have many of our own squirrels in the front yard right now, so gathering acorns and counting them like squirrels ties in perfectly with what we are currently experiencing.  

Halloween 2014
For Halloween this year we invited the Brushwoods and Tysons over for dinner and then headed out trick-or-treating.  Here are some fun treats that the children and I made.

We never got really good pictures of the kids' costumes this year.  Aria was Sleeping Beauty, Zade was Wolverine, and Ryzen was a panda bear.

Messy Fellow
Ryzen now consistently refuses to wear a bib, so he is always getting his clothes dirty.  He likes me to give him a paper towel so he can clean himself.  He really likes to be independent like his older siblings.  He can now scoot down the stairs, and he insists on doing this by himself.  The only thing he does not want to give up is nursing. :)  Whenever he is tired he wants to nurse, whether we are at church, or with other people, or wherever.  It is such a great sedative though.  All he has to do is nurse for a few minutes and he passes out into sweet oblivion.