November School Projects

Another fun month of art projects at preschool.  I am so impressed with all the creativity they are able to get into the day. 

 

 

Love the pillow stuffing mashed potatos with brown paint gravy, the pumpkin pie with cotton ball whipped cream and the paper bag turkey leg.

 

These turkeys were mounted on a dowel rod and made the center piece at their thanksgiving lunch.

Cute scarecrow from a paper plate.

Love the drawing and her thoughts on what she might be when she grows up.  Last night I asked her again and she had already changed her mind.  It's now a firefighter (although the conversation may have been that she was going to marry a fireman).

Gotta love the classic hand print turkey, too!

Big Buck & Nice Doe: WARNING

Kevin got a very nice doe and a HUGE buck this week.  It's the largest he's ever gotten with a very nice 12-point rack.  He is excited to get another mount for the wall.  Scroll down only if you are prepared to see dead animals (and a little bit of blood).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GaGa's Little Helper

Sunday afternoon, Camden went to GaGa's to help put up her Christmas decorations.  When I picked her up (after a nice afternoon nap for me!), I brought my camera to snap a picture of her in front of the fireplace.  When I said I wanted a picture with the decorations, Camden lead me to every corner of two adjoining rooms and had me take a picture next to every decoration.  I only put the 4 cutest ones on here, but am so thankful for digital so I could capture her pride in her efforts and take all the pictures she wanted.

 

This one turned out a little blurry and I cut off the left side, but I loved the expression it captured.

Hankeroni

Saturday afternoon and evening Camden and I went to Lafayette to spend time with my family.  Unfortunately, Kevin had to work 2nd trick and couldn't go with us.  Camden's highlights were showing off her new Ninja Turtle hat (the TMNT are her latest obsession) and playing with Hank (aka hankeroni).  Time with Uncle Ric that included both were about too much for her!

 

It's important to note that the hat is reversible with Donatello (blue mask) and Leonardo (purple mask).  Too cute!

Food Prep

I didn't have to cook a big meal, but I did lots of baking for this holiday.  Camden had a luncheon on Wednesday at her school (2 loaves of homemade bread & cake balls), Thursday in Illinois (german chocolate pecan bars), and Saturday in Lafayette (2 loaves of homemade bread - plus 2 more for home & GaGa's, ham salad, pumpkin roll, and Pecan Cheesecake Pie).  Whew!

 

Everything turned out delicious and I actually loved every minute of prep, especially when I had a wonderful helper!  Grinding the ingredients for ham salad...

 

Rolling out the bread dough...

Next time I should probably pull back that hair (and put some clothes on her!).  In my defense, it was early in the morning and she had just got out of the tub.  And she was so eager to help.

Black Friday Deal

We got home on Thursday evening and had already decided to head to Walmart to see if we could score a bargain.  When we pulled into the lot, we had never ever seen the parking lot this full.  Seriously, I think 1/2 of Crawfordsville was there.  We got into the madness and lasted about 30 minutes.  Definitely not our cup of tea to shop in those crowds.  The one bargain we left with...an ants in the can game for Camden.  

 

 

Kevin did go to Staples the next morning at 5am to get us a new laptop.  But it was on his way to hunt in the woods, so not any earlier than normal for him (and Camden and I got to sleep in!).



Illinois Thanksgiving

As always, we made our annual trek to southern Illinois to visit Kevin's grandma and other family for Turkey Day.  Camden and Hali hung out most of the time - playing in the gym or outside on the playground.

 

They even drank in unison.

Also made sure to get the annual generation pictures.

 

We've come a long way since this first one...

 



Happy Thanksgiving

I'm ReeRee

Camden got to stay the night with Aunt Carole on Friday while Kevin and I had our annual "first date" dinner at Scotty's Brewhouse.  November 16 marked the 7th year since that first encounter.

 

The next morning, Aunt Carole braided her hair before they all headed to Indy where I would pick her up.  She slept in the braids and on Sunday when I took them out she had the cutest kinks.  When I got her dressed for church, I told her she had curly hair like Ree Ree.  She excitedly ran out to the kitchen to Kevin and shouted, "Look Daddy, I'm Ree Ree."

 

Grandpa Don

Saturday, November 17 marked the 15th anniversary of my dad's passing.  Kevin, Camden and I stopped by his grave to leave some flowers.  We need to tell Camden more stories about her Grandpa Don.  I'm going to dig out some pictures over this long weekend and make some connections for her.



 

School Crafts

At the end of each month, the kids get to bring home the various crafts they have made.  As I have mentioned, last month they did Noah's Ark and storms.  

 

They also carved Ms. Lana's pumpkin and got to explore the inside of it.  They used the seeds to make this masterpiece.

Harvest

When Kevin was a young adult, he lived and worked on a farm.  He'd work long hours at Raybestos, then do work with Al.  He loved it.  They still stay in touch and, in fact, Kevin hunts on Al's property.  Al is still harvesting some fields, so Kevin and Camden stopped by to get a ride on a combine.

 

Not only did she get to ride the combine, but took a ride with Al on the tractor as well.

 

She was so excited to climb up in the big machine and take a spin through the fields. 

Imagination Station - Upstairs

 After exploring all that she could downstairs, we headed upstairs for another roomful of hands-on activities.  This place is a little run down and not quite as "cool" as other museums, but Camden had a ball and didn't seem to notice.

 

Loved the "intense" chess play by these two.  They, obviously, didn't have a clue, but giggled and "tricked" each other.