How to Make an Apple Pie.

Another book we've read for school is How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. We read this one back in September also, timing it with the apple harvest. It's a fun book, in which the market is closed so the main character travels around the world to gather all of the ingredients.

On her way to Jamaica for some sugar cane, she gets a jar full of sea water for the salt. Since we didn't have any seawater, we measured out some salt and mixed it with water, then we put it on low heat on the stove to evaporate the water (the book just said to let it sit for several hours/days, but we decided to speed up the process). The end result was a pan of salt (and a stove top covered in salt as you can see), which we measured again to show that it was the same, or close to it.

Don't worry...everything is cooled now-I didn't let them work with a hot stove:)

(also as a side note, this also happens to be the same day that Addie locked herself into the bedroom. It took me about 20 minutes, taking off the door knob and calling Matt to get her out!... Not a great day, but since then our friends gave us a long skinny screwdriver that works much better).

My favorite thing about this book was the geography. Everyday we would mark where she traveled around the world. It exposed the kids to some new places and how they are similar or different to where we live. We also ended the week by making an apple pie of course! (our trip to the orchard was cancelled due to weather-and the fact that we had already received about 100 apples from Aunt Jodi).

Lentil.

School has been going well-but I realize that for some subject, mainly science, that although we are "doing" experiments and activities, we don't have anything to show for it at the end of the day (except hopefully more knowledge:). I have a good friend who's homeschooling, and posted pictures of what they had done...so "duh", I'll just photograph what we do. This way I can remember, and it's evidence that I'm teaching my kids!

We are doing a curriculum called Five in a Row, where you read a picture book each day, then each day there is a different lesson in either Art, Math, Science, Language Arts, or Social Studies. A few weeks ago we read Lentil by Robert McCloskey-great book, and Nathan liked it because in it a boy named Lentil learns to play the harmonica.

Lentil's favorite place to play: the bathtub!

So, for one experiment we practiced playing our harmonicas in the bedroom where there was carpet, curtains, bedding, etc. then played in the bathtub to see if the acoustics were "improved 100%" (as Lentil stated in the book). We talked a little about what acoustics are an why the sound was improved. Mainly it was just fun to play in the tub:)

In Lentil there are also sour lemons...so we talked about our tastebuds, how we taste different things, and where we taste different flavors. Ella was brave enough to try the lemon juice and taste how sour it was (Nathan just smelled it).

After the sour, we did an experiment with sweet by adding sugar and water, and making of course, lemonade!

It was a "fun" day...have I mentioned I love teaching my kids!

Autumn.

Autumn is definitely one of our favorite seasons (OK, so there's only 4 seasons, and I would probably say that about everyone of them...except winter-but Nathan loves winter!) The weather here, like many places, has been beautiful. It's been sunny and 80 degrees almost everyday, but 50's at night-perfect for sleeping with the windows open...also did I mention no humidity! Yes, it's been wonderful.

Gorgeous Autumn weather + Saturday equals annual trip to the pumpkin patch. We ventured to a new place this year called Garden of Weedin'. It's very "earthy" and affordable...not at all commercial, and really great. The kids had a lot of fun finding the right pumpkin, and I had a great time searching through the produce shed.

I went home with 2 large pumpkins, 2 butternut squash, 2 acorn squash, and 7 mini pumpkins
for about $5.00!

We were able to meet some friends from Church. They have a daughter the same age as Ella as well as a son the same age as Nathan.

(Adeline, Hannah, Nathan, Ella, and Joel)

Now we just need to light our pumpkin candle, have some pumpkin muffins (or maybe some pumpkin pancakes), and do some leaf prints! Oh yeah, and who could forget the apple orchard...hopefully we'll have pictures from there next!

Go Twins!

This past September, we finally made it back to the Twin Cities, and finally made it to our first game at the new ballpark, Target Field (Target seems to own everything over there, but I still love Target). It was a great stadium, a great time...horrible team, but still lots of fun! We entered at gate 34, for the late great Kirby Puckett of course.

The nice thing is that you can walk around the entire stadium and still watch the game. Since the game wasn't so entertaining, we did this for 6 innings:) Here is a view from standing room.

Here is the view from our seats. Not bad for $10. (Sadly, it was way too easy to get tickets under value).

Angie was able to go too! Notice the puffy vest-the only disappointment (besides the team) was that it was cloudy and cold when we went. Thankfully as the game got going the sun came out and it warmed up. We were also able to go with Jake and Nicole Klein, Angie's bro and sis-in-law and good friends of mine.

It was a noon game, so of course we enjoyed some stadium dining...this was taken from where we ate. There are tables around the entire stadium where you can stand and watch the game while you eat.

The kids stayed with Grandma and Grandpa, though next time we'll definitely bring Nathan because he would LOVE it! This does mean however that Matt was the main subject for the pictures. Here is with Twin's Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew.

(this is all I got...not a whole lot of effort on Matt's part:)

But, this is better...here is Matt with Kirby.

It really is a great stadium and something I hope we can make an annual tradition. Even though the Twins were terrible this year (just one shy of 100 losses), they'll always be a team we love to cheer for and always something Matt and I will have in common...Go Twins!

See Bug.

We got 2 pets: Jaysa and Popcorn, 2 very active fuzzy, orange caterpillars. Nathan was very excited because he found one all by himself in the tall grasses, and all the kids helped set up a home for them. As caterpillars, we observed them eating ferociously everyday (now we now where that book the Hungry Hungry Caterpillar is coming from), and had lots of fun when they would try to escape (we once found one crawling down the table leg).

Sadly I must report that Popcorn, who was very lively, escaped for good, and Jaysa though she spun a beautiful cocoon has not emerged...and we're losing hope (and interest). Also, it was a cocoon, which means we were raising a moth, which didn't bother the kids at all, but I was a little disappointed.

Addie, who is terrified of most animals, was greatly intrigued by the fuzzy creatures. Though she would never never touch one, she also couldn't keep away from watching them through the glass. She would always climb on the stool saying "see bug, see bug". It's a good picture of her energy (always climbing!) and curiosity!