Week 8 ~ A Whirlwind of Joy

We had a lovely week in our little corner of the world. Life flowed smoothly and we were abundantly blessed. Autumn has finally arrived!

We made our annual trek to the apple and pumpkin orchard. We got lots of apples, had apple donuts and apple slushies. We also explored the corn maze. It was lots of fun and we found three of the four hidden markers in the maze.

We had a fantastic time making elephant paste and watching it ooze out of a pumpkin. We also reviewed the term catalyst and how it speeds up a chemical reaction. I need to buy more yeast so we can do this again. The kids loved it!

Dance is going great! Anne is getting to explore so many new props in belly dancing. The belly dancers will be sirens in the Nutcracker performance.

We had a fun, spooky tea time with Edgar Allan Poe. We studied The Raven and ate lunch during tea time rather than snacks. Anne designed the table setting with things from around the house. I think she did a fantastic job. We are continuing to study Edgar Allan Poe for the rest of the month. 

We also studied all of the shells we found at the beach. The kids were most interested in the sand dollar and learning more about its life.

By Thursday hurricane Michael had made it to our area and caused lots of flooding, mudslides and downed trees. Fortunately, it didn't cause any deaths in our area. Our hearts go out to those on the coast.

My sweet girl turned 15 on Friday. Oh, if I could just slow down time! I am trying to savor every moment. Anne is such a joy to raise. She had two friends over for the evening and they went downtown to have a photo shoot. Tonight she has three more friends arriving for an overnight. Dean is also having a friend over for the night, so it is bound to be an exciting weekend.

They had so much fun setting up scenes for the photo shoot.

Taking pictures of their feet ~ Converse Nation

In between all of the adventures, the week was also filled with math, biology (just three more lessons and we are done), writing skills, grammar, a study of Peru for Dean and the family read aloud of Christy -- not to mention, lots of dance classes, sign language class and two art classes. Life is full and rich!

Blessings, Dawn