American History meets Catholicism

We are currently studying the American Revolution and after reading a chapter on the Boston Tea Party I overheard Aidan shouting "No taxation without Reconciliation!" That sure puts a different spin on history any way.

Adapting.

I'm pretty sure our Texan children are adapting to this climate. The other day we were playing in the leaves (the pile has grown significantly) and Emma complained of being "too hot", ran inside, and came back out wearing shorts and a t-shirt. The temperature was somewhere between 50 and 55 degrees. These kids are going to do the same thing next spring when the temp hits anywhere above 32! Woohoo! Heat wave!!!!

Happy Halloween!

I'm obviously on a sugar-high when I have to sing that little ditty to myself in order to spell

H-A-L-L-O-W-E-E-N! :-)

This year the kids went trick-or-treating as snowmen and the little girl who made the snowmen. We were supposed to be a snowman, a princess, and a pink poodle (recycled from last year), but Emma wanted to be what Aidan was going to be and...well....Gianna didn't want to be...period. We had a pretty good time. The kids are really excited about our All Saint's Day celebration tomorrow and the party with the homeschool group on Friday. Aidan is going to be St.Patrick and Emma is going to be St.Maria Goretti. Maybe we'll ditch trick-or-treating next year...one costume per year is enough for me (okay, so Brett actually made these ones, but I'm making the other ones...lol!)

Being a snowman is serious business...especially when you're all bundled up and you're hot and want to get going. (We were at a friends house is case those of you who've been to our house are wondering what part of the house this is.)

Another super-cute snowman....or, ahem...snowgirl.

Now if that face doesn't say it all.

On Your Mark...

Unfortunately many of our leaves have been blown away due to many windy and rainy days, but that didn't discourage them from trying.

Field Trip

Brett has all morning and most of the afternoon off on Tuesdays so he can go out and recruit. This works out great for our homeschooling family and shared love of being with "Daddy". On Tuesday (Emma was find, by the way) we did our schoolwork right away in the morning and headed out to Two Harbors, MN with Brett.

The kids and I dropped Brett off at the high school and went in search of something cool to do. We find an old train museum/depot with a locomotive displayed out in front. It was the train that they used to lay the rails that extend from Duluth on up the North Shore. Aidan was fascinated by it and loved looking at all the mechanism and trying to figure out what connected to what, and what made what move, etc. Fun stuff!

We had quite a bit of time left, but a front was coming in, we were right by the shore, and the wind was freezing cold so we drove up to the parking lot for the lighthouse, took this picture (see below), got back in the car and went to pick up Brett.

When we were getting into the car I noticed a sign indicating that touring the lighthouse was not going to break the bank so after we picked Brett up we headed back to the lighthouse and went on a self-guided tour.

Our first stop was the Pilot House from the ship the Frontenac. The ship was shipwrecked in 1979 due to snow and hazardous conditions. The kids had a great time taking turns being the "captain" (well, two liked taking turns...Miss Gigi mainly liked yelling at the other two for infringing upon her space) and checking out all the equipment they used for operating the ship.

This is Aidan pretending to be the captain as he's discovering the ship is about to hit the reef that ended her career.

"Full steam ahead me hearties!"

Exploring the kitchen in the "Assistant Keeper's House"

Trying to prove to Brett that although I don't have much to show for it I do know the general motion one needs to make in order to make a sewing machine work.

The Two Harbors Lighthouse is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the North Shore of Lake Superior. The first lighting was in 1892.

Are we doing a good job pretending we aren't freezing? Do you spy the ship coming in behind us (it actually didn't stop at Two Harbors, but continued on to Duluth and was leaving port this morning as we were crossing the bridge coming back from running errands...cool, huh?)

You be the Judge

Emma woke up this morning, sneezed, gagged, and threw up. Now, most kids who throw up are actually sick. Some of the times that is the case with Emma, but she has a gag reflex like none other and has in the past puked because she gagged.

We were supposed to go recruiting with Brett (well, we wouldn't actually go to the recruiting part), but now I'm not so sure. Is this a case of the stomach bug, or a case of a little girl who has been begging to watch a movie this week (we try to not do tv during the week, just the weekend) and knows that when one is sick in this household one gets to lay on the couch and watch pretty much however many movies one desires. Hmmmmm.....what to do, what to do.

Hiking again!

We took the kids out hiking again this past Saturday. We're trying to soak up all the heat and sunshine before winter gets here. I think this little guy was doing the same thing:

And because you know you all want to see more......

Who gave this one permission to grow up so fast?