Night at the Museum

What an awesome movie!! At least the first one was. The kids and I loved it. We saw it in the movie theatre-twice (you have to remember that we lived in Japan and it was $1/ticket) and then purchased it for home. Tomorrow number two comes out. I can't wait. The kids can't wait. Hubby can't wait. Unfortunately, we'll be busy tomorrow night and have to wait until Wednesday to watch it. That's okay though, really it is.

We never got a chance to see number two in theatres so it will be alot of fun for us to watch Wednesday night. We were too busy moving from Japan and traveling all over the US to go to the theatre-plus, the cost of tickets in the states is crazy. We'd have to take out a loan to take all of us and get popcorn!

In honor of the movie, www.currclick.com is offering a free lapbook. Just go to their website and get it. You will have to join if you are not a member already. I highly recommend doing it because they give away a free book every week!!

Enjoy the movie tomorrow!! And have a great school week!

Thanksgiving.....

Thanksgiving is a wonderful family tradition. Unfortunately, being military, we've spent maybe two Thanksgivings with family in the last thirteen years. I think those were the years that my dad actually retired and moved to VA to be near us and the kids. You'll note however, that we hightailed it outta VA and went to Japan. Not because of Grandpa, but that's where the Navy said to go.

So, each year, we have friends-our extended Navy family over for dinner. This year is no exception, we are lucky to have two couples and a single sailor that we were stationed with in Japan also living here. We do have another family that was going to come, but unfortunately, their son was hit by a car on Monday. Please pray for him. He's expected to fully recover-just a fractured femur, pelvic bone, and a small tear in his spleen-but this is a horrible way to spend the holidays. Especially when you're 11.

I look back over the years and remember all the friends that we've hosted for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. At first, it was mostly single sailors, then it changed into families, and now its a mixture of both. We are blessed to share these holidays with wonderful, caring people that are now all a part of our extended family. I still keep in touch with alot of them. Some still call me mom-this comes from those single sailor years where they often came to me for advise.

I miss my family alot, but find this blessing a wonderful thing indeed!! May you and yours have a blessed and safe Thanksgiving holiday!

Night at the Museum

Last night we hosted a Night at the Museum party at my house. The kids came dressed in historical costumes and brought a dish to share. Their dish could be from the time period or country related to their costume. We had Vikings, Annie Oakley, Robin Hood, the woman who discovered silk (her name slips my mind early this morning), Amelia Earhart, and a coal miner. They were very creative with their costumes. We did some odd history trivia before the movie started to break the ice some, and the kids really enjoyed it.

I"m not posting a photo because I don't have permission to put the kids photo on my blog. I'm thinking this may be an annual event. Perhaps next year we'll do National Treasure and go on a Treasure Hunt!!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!!

the Middle Ages.....

the time of knights, maidens and chivalry; and probably one of my most favorite in history!! Who can resist Robin Hood and his merry men, King Richard, the Hundred Years War and the Black Plague-okay so its not all romantic!

We started Middle Ages this week and we are enjoying it very much. I am using Hands of a Child's lapbook for Trey. I've found some other sources that I'm listing here:

Medieval Towns, Trade, and Travel by Lynne Elliott
Kaleidoscope Kids Knights and Castles activity book by Avery Hart and Paul Mantell
Usborne Beginners Castles
Color and Learn Medieval Times Coloring book
Usborne the Great Castle Search
The Making of a Knight by Patrick O'Brien
Hands on Heritage Medieval Times Activity Book

I also found four dvd's at our library that are fantastic. They are made by Schlessinger Video. We watched a dvd on the serf, knight, noble and I just ordered one on the history of the middle ages. You can check out all titles by this company at . I am so excited to find these. Each video is only about 20-25 minutes long, it was very entertaining (even the six year old sat through it) and each dvd has questions and activities suggested with it.

We're planning many different activities with this unit: a medieval feast, making a castle, making a shield and helmet, headwear for the girls, and making a catapult. I'm looking forward to it and will keep you updated in pictures as we progress through.

whew.......

Its a blustery day out there. We're getting 40-50mph winds right now and its supposed to get stronger, up to 75mph. Yes folks, that's hurricane strength winds!! We still have power, and praying that we keep it, but our satellite is out. I wanted to check the weather update, not so much, I guess.

As promised, here's photos from our many drives to Seattle.


You can check out fun and interesting facts about the space needle at www.spaceneedle.com. Did you know that it is 1254 Hershey candy bars tall? That it has a revolving restaurant at the top?


This is the home of the Seattle Seahawks football team. And right next door, just for Arby, who loves baseball is..........


Safeco field, home of the Seattle Mariners Baseball team. Only something my hubby and Arby would appreciate. I, as usual when seeing something related to baseball, was snoozing in the seat. Baseball's like watching grass grow I tell ya!! Give me some football or hockey, even basketball....

Have a great day and stay safe everyone!

Field Trip-Pioneer Cemetary

When Grandpa was here, I still tried to get a little school done in the way of field trips. We went down to Coupeville, which is about ten miles south of us, to check out the pioneer cemetery. It is loaded with old stones and it very beautiful to see. We really enjoyed walking around-well, dad and I did. The kids ran for cover in the car after about fifteen minutes. Something about 35mph wind gusts-they complained they were cold.

Just in case you doubted that the cemetery was for pioneers-see it says it here.


Dad and I found this one very interesting.


Here is a view down from a little hill. The cemetery is very large and was very interesting to see all those old graves. We may have to head back when its not so blustery.


This very old headstone was interesting. We wondered when they arrived to Whidbey Island and discussed the hardships they must have endured. After all, if they ran out of supplies, it wasn't likely that they ran to the store down the street. What about medicines? School? It made my kids really think about things.







If you click on this photo, you should be able to enlarge it enough to read some very interesting information about the blockhouse that is located on the grounds.


Here is TL standing in the fireplace area. We had a very interesting discussion about how they cooked food.


Princess wanted to know where they slept, because the inside is very small. We discussed the loft area (which was not in this blockhouse), how they had to store food, probably table and chairs and the possibility of a very large family (6-10 people) in this very small space. The kids said that they rather enjoyed their spacious house and would not have enjoyed those days at all.

My next post will show pictures from Seattle, on our many trips back and forth to the airport!

Have a blessed day!

Getting back to normal

My kids are exhausted. Many late nights and busy days with Grandpa. I originally was going to take Wednesday off after Grandpa left, but Kevin and I discussed how tired the kids are and decided that Thursday was only going to be an hour or two of school. Here we are Friday morning, and only Little Miss Trouble is awake and its nine am. I didn't realize how out of our routine we had gotten.

Dad arrived in time to celebrate Little Miss Trouble's second birthday. As a surprise to him, I arranged to have my brother fly out this past weekend-just in time for dad's 60th birthday. It was a ton of fun. I haven't seen my brother in over three years and the kids loved it. They thoroughly enjoyed Uncle Kevin-yes my brother and husband have the same name. Y'know-this is my brother Daryl and my other brother Daryl? My mother uses it as this is my son Kevin, and my other son Kevin.

Anway, one of the days it was cloudy, but not raining so we went sight seeing to Mount Erie. The view is gorgeous, but it was cloudy, so it wasn't too great. Considering my brother lives near Buffalo, a clean dumpster would have been an improvement scenery wise.


Here's my "little" brother, myself, and dad-and yes, it was really chilly that day!


Enjoying some family time...



Gotta run. Tylar's up and crying. Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend-more photos to come soon!

Some sad news....

I received a call this morning that my great Aunt Vivian passed away due to her cancer. We're thankful. She was in pain, she was suffering, we've been praying for her time to come quickly. She's with her Father now, God is good!

Over the past few years, I've gotten to know my Aunt Vivian better. I've been working on our family genealogy and she has provided me with many insights into the past. I've learned about her mother, father, and her family. I looked at old family photos, heard about a letter and visit from an aunt from Scotland, and found out that Aunt Vivian lives in the same house that her grandfather built. I'm sad that I didn't get to know more. I was just starting to ask the questions about who they really were. Where did they live? What did they do? I didn't even get into asking about stories from the past. Now that is all lost. My sense of loss from Aunt Vivian is only heightened by my sense of loss of our family history.


I ask that you please pray for her son, Steve. Steve has never married and has stayed with his mother all of these years, being able to be with her during her elderly years. His sense of loss and grief are great and I pray that prayer will guide him through this rough time.

My children are lucky to have all of their grandparents living. This year, we are focusing on a huge genealogy, family history unit in which they will explore their ancestors by research and interviews. I'm really looking forward to it and will share the details with you. I plan on posting all that we're doing in the hopes that you will take advantage of this and learn about your own family. Prayers and blessings to you for a wonderful week!