Autumn Moon Festival and Other Fun

It has been another busy, but fun weekend. We went to the Bartlett Fest on Friday night and enjoyed barbecue made by the Poker Porkers. This is a group of our friends that enter the barbecue contest every year. It was yummy!

Snapdragon and I made apple cobbler and apple butter from the apples we picked last weekend. Buttercup and I began work on the three school projects she has due in the next two weeks. We made a trip to Hobby Lobby and went to Rhodes College to collect leaves for her science project. She has to collect twenty leaves and label them with their common and scientific name. Rhodes College is beautiful and they have most of their trees labeled. She was able to collect all of her leaves today. She finished her poster for religion class about a basilica in Avignon, France.

Today, we celebrated the Chinese Autumn Moon Festival with our annual home cooked Chinese meal, eating of moon cakes (and moon pies), and our glow stick hunt. It was a beautiful evening. Now, I am helping Buttercup study for her religion test tomorrow. Uggh! I'm tired!

Signs of Fall

Yummy apples!

Big pumpkins for sale at the market!

Can I get a little help here?

I want this one!

Look at that cute pumpkin in the panda hat!

The "snow" field.

Practicing in the backyard.

Check out Lola's haircut. I did it all by myself!

Sisterly love!

Signs of autumn are all around us. It is still HOT during the day, but it is cooling off at night. The girls have been going out to play in the backyard every night. I took Snapdragon to pick apples, peaches and pears today while Lou took Buttercup to cheer at a football game. It is nice not having to drive two hours like we did in California to go picking. The orchard is about 10 minutes from our house. Lou passes it everyday on his way to work. Buttercup wants to go picking next week, so I better get busy and make an apple crisp with the apples Snapdragon and I picked today.

We passed several cotton fields on our way to the orchard and Snapdragon kept saying, "Mom, look at all that snow growing!" I had to pull over and let her feel the cotton. She picked a stem to take to school tomorrow and has her speech all ready for share... It goes something like this, "I thought this was snow, but it's not. It's cotton and the farmers make our clothes from it. You can see it, but you can't have it because my mom picked it for me and the farmer might be mad."

By the way, I know the date is wrong on the camera. I broke my camera, so I am borrowing Buttercup's until Santa brings me a new one. I dropped this one at school. My last camera was dropped in the Kern River in California. I guess I can only "hold on" to a camera for about two years. Ugh!

Happy Fall!!!

Randomness

Buttercup and her friend dance to "Jump On It" at the zoo member night.
Dancing at the zoo!
The dragons face off!
Posing in the bamboo.
Hey, don't bug me...I'm driving this boat.

Checking out a hawk.
I'll miss them when they're gone!
Buttercup in action!
Cheering the Colts on to VICTORY!
I made this with my Cricut.
I made these, too!
I made Snapdragon a bow holder and you can see the curtains she picked out.
I made Buttercup a bow holder and you can see the curtains she picked out.
Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum....hey, let us in already! Lola has grown so much and is still a very playful puppy. Mel is as cute and quiet as ever.


Well, it's been a long time since I posted on the blog. We have been super busy with school, work, dance and cheerleading. This long weekend has been nice to get some cleaning and work done on the house. We hung curtains in all of the rooms upstairs, finally (a year and three months after moving in). I have been playing with my new birthday present, a Cricut. I really like it!!! Other than that, I have been busy writing lesson plans, grading and all the other usual teacher stuff. In the evenings I am teaching dance and busy being the mom taxi. I have started to make one or two extra dinners on Sunday, so all we have to do is reheat on busy nights. Lou's new project with the Navy is going to have him traveling more, again. He was already gone for the whole second week of school. It is nice having Snapdragon go with me everyday. Also, we have made some good friends here. Parents of some of Buttercup's friends at school. They help me get Buttercup to and from school when Lou is traveling. Awesome!!!!

Buttercup is enjoying school, but her Religion and Math teacher is very hard! She'll survive. Buttercup has cheer or tumbling practice three nights a week. I also convinced her to dance again. I am teaching her dance class this year. She taking up playing the flute. She decided to take band instead of choir as her music elective. Her band teacher is very nice and is giving her extra one on one practice after cheer practice on Thursday.

Snapdragron loves preschool. When we get to school each morning (about 20 minutes early so I can prep in my classroom) she wants to go straight to her room. I have to keep reminding her that her teachers need time to get ready, too. She especially likes going to the special classes like the big kids. They go to music, art, library and PE just like everyone else. They walk by my classroom a few times each week on their way to special and Snapdragon always yells, "Hi, Mom and her kids!" Snapdragon is also taking dance lessons once a week and tumbling once a week.


Well, enjoy the random photos! Also, if you want to see what's going on in my classroom, I started another blog for my students and parents. www.fifthgradepandamonium.blogspot.com