Friday, November 12, 2010

Veterans Day

Having two grandfathers who served in the military, I thought it was a good day for AH to visit two memorials in our little town in honor of Veteran's Day. 
 
 


I gave AH the camera and this is what he saw...






Thursday, November 11, 2010

Changes

My son, AH,  and I entered our 4th year of homeschooling on November 1st.  I cannot believe my youngest is a 7th grader!  He is also our only child living in the house.  Lots of changes this year.  Our 19 year old, AD,  is off to college this fall and I know AH misses him.  Little brother had a hard time when his big sis, AN, moved to college and I'm seeing some of the same things this time around even though AH is 6 years older.  Dinner time is when he seemed to feel the loss of his sister the most and I'm finding this to be true this time around.  Dinner is a very different affair without AD.  I guess I never realized how AD would lead the conversation each night because we have much quieter dinners these days.  He was home a couple of weekends ago and it was wonderful to hear these words again: "So, Dad, how was your day today?" and "Mom, guess what?"
 There is a big hole in our lives.  We will figure it out, but change is tough.
 We make our way through this change by forming new traditions and looking forward to the times when big sister and big brother are here.   One such change is to watch a movie or documentary together each night.  We started out watching each of the Harry Potter movies in anticipation of the Deathly Hallows, Pt. 1, but it has been so much fun that we save the documentaries we watch for school until dad gets home.  Last week it was Luther (happy belated Reformation Day!)
Another way to cope is to keep busy and we have had one of the busiest falls of our lives! It seems we are averaging 2 to 3 field trips, clubs or park days per week! Here is a sampling of our adventures so far this fall:
Got the new Lego Minotaur Game and played it A LOT
Took a class at Como Zoo: Life Through Time
A Millipede, one of the many examples of life shown to us during the 8 week Life Through Time class
Art Club
Searched for fossils at a fossil class

Found one!
Found some of Dad's childhood toys while helping Grandpa clean out storage...

AH and Dad try out the boxing gloves found.

Harvest Fest.  And that is the worlds heaviest pumpkin and it did weigh 1,820.5 lbs!

Another monster pumpkin at Harvest Fest

A Harry Potter Halloween party

Carving a pumpkin


Draco Malfoy

Celebrated Big Brother's birthday