Happy Halloween!

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Fall in the Carolinas

Just some photos from our homeschool excursion yesterday. It's still 78 here, so we play in the water when we want to.

The aquarium was haunted for Halloween. Creepy.

Getting high-fived by the diver in the tank. Awesome!

My favorite viewing spot. It's even better when my kids are in it, though.

Gators! Aaack! You know, as creepy as these guys are close up, I can see why FL picked this animal as their mascot (besides the animal being indigenous).

Zac's First Pumpkin Carving

Remember the pumpkins we got at the farm the other day? Zac has been begging me to let him carve his--on his own. Now I must admit he's gotten pretty good in the kitchen, but I was still a little leary to let him CARVE a pumpkin (you know, sit there with knives and cut things for fun).

It went better than expected. I first insisted upon being the one who cut off the top. It's a big job, ya know. But then laid down the law. If there's any carving to be done, I WILL NOT clean out the pumpkin. You want to carve--you clean. So, clean he did (quite merrily...hmmmm).



Oh, look! A spectator! Yes, we're learning about exclamation points in our language lessons, and I thought I'd throw that in there. I mean, we DO work around here (in fact, Zac completed 6 lessons in his math book prior to carving this pumpkin--does that mean his lessons are too easy? Maybe, but it's 2nd grade math, so I'm just having him plod through it to make sure he gets it. Math needs to be repeated until it's rote, ya know?)
He designed his own face for this pumpkin. He did NOT want my help at all. So, I stayed out of the way. But, I did encourage him in the use of the design program we have on the computer. I mean, since he didn't know how to use my printer (well, he does, but it wasn't on, one of those things you don't think to check for, I suppose).


Keep it steady...stay on target, stay on target...
The final, lit, end result.
Can I add that all the while this was happening, after I'd taken a few photos, I walked into the kitchen and opened a cupboard...and a 2 pound bag of baking soda landed in a bowl of (cooled) vegetable oil?!?!? It splashed up our walls, all over me, all over the floor, into the cupboards, UG!! I did not take pictures because by this point, I was scrubbing oil with dish soap. Yuck, yuck, yuck! Thank heaven for awesome husbands who come in and give things another scrub afterward to help with left over oily residue. Eeeeew. I think we ruined the paint in the kitchen. But, considering it's obviously very cheap, watered down paint (it comes off easily if you need to see what plaster looks like), I'm not too sad.

About Atom...

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hee, hee.

Life on the Farm

We took a tour of a local farm yesterday. The weather was perfect. The pumpkins--a beautiful orange under the sun. The animals were interesting. My most favorite part, though, was when one little boy was complaining that there was dirt on the pumpkins. Chayce turned to him and said, "You know, you can always wash it off. It's just dirt." I love my little practical girl.







Yeah, OK, maybe we shouldn't have tried to smile into the sun...

For Grandma

Payge is finally big enough to hang out in the cute sweater her grandma T knitted for her. These pictures are for you! Oh, and if you haven't already checked out my mother-in-law's handiwork, I suggest you do so over at http://www.genevasprings.com She rocks the skin care world!

Clothes Line!

I wanted to feel a little more eco-friendly. What with not being able to do all the things I used to when I had a home (garden, compost, etc.). So, rather than make excuses, I got to work. My first order of business was planting lettuce out on the patio...but looking at pictures of dirt is boring, so I didn't take any. I'm sure you all know what dirt looks like.

Then I got to work playing with the power-tools and installed this baby! It's a retractable clothes line in our bedroom, right in front of the patio door. Perfect for hanging out towels and sweaters on less humid days like today.


Yes, that's my deep freeze in my bedroom. My place for all those pre-made yummies like the extra pan of enchiladas I made last week to place in the oven at some future date. Who says fast food has to be expensive?