Louisiana Arts and Science Museum

 LASM is a great place to go on a rainy day.

 The kids could spend hours with the golf balls in this contraption.

There were all kinds of fun magnetic toys to play with.

Chicot State Park

 We went to Chicot State Park for Thanksgiving.  The older three had a blast!  H and J got cold a good bit I think.  J was scared of being inside the tent which was unexpected because when it was set up in our yard he enjoyed going in and out.
We stayed two nights and were pretty tired when we got home.  It was very memorable though.

 This is the trunk of a cypress tree.  The 'stumps' are the 'knees' of the tree.  The parts of the root that come up for air.

 The lake was down five feet because of low rainfall.

 The older kids really enjoyed the fire.  We cooked sweet potatoes for our thanksgiving meal.  We wrapped them in tin foil and put them straight in the fire.  I wasn't sure how they would turn out or how long they would take to cook.  They tasted better than when I make them in my oven at home.

The Louisiana State Arboretum is in the park.  We took a nice walk through the surprisingly hilly terrain.

Live Nativity

 The three oldest kids singing in the choir.

 Baby "Jesus" was a real baby about a month old.  He did great and didn't cry for the whole half hour this lasted.
The camel was kind of scary.  He wasn't too sure about being around so many people.  The man leading him is a veterinarian and knew what he was doing.  The camel got a snack every few feet.  I am very thankful nothing happened.  This is the first year the camel has come.  The old regulars were also there, the donkey and half a dozen sheep and goats.

This is J trying to take off with the Magi's gift.  

Frozen grapes

Frozen grapes are a treat for us.  I have discovered that our kids love to chew on all sorts of frozen foods, grapes, blueberries, peas, strawberries, peaches, pineapple...  they are an easy snack and can be frozen in large batches.  
We got our first picking of our fall lettuce last night.  Our carrots are still very small.  I added a lot of compost into the carrot row, we usually get very stumpy carrots, maybe because our soil is mostly clay.  Maybe this year will be different, you can always hope.

Rural Life Museum

 D and F are watching a lady spin wool into yarn.  Children their age would have done this as a chore.

 D and F are digging in the dirt to make mud bricks.

 Here we are waiting for the paraffin to melt so we can dip candles.  After half an hour and much patient dipping we finally got a half inch diameter candle!!  I do like to just flip a switch.  When my kids say they would have liked to have lived in the time of candles and horses I tell them they may be going back to that again!!  It's not such a simple life, people worked really hard.

Here we are at the brick making table again.

Leaf Men

 G with one of her teachers.

G was the thunder and lightning.  This is the end of the first nine weeks for us.  It'll be nice to have a break for a couple of days.

Mr Spots

F got to bring Mr. Spots home this week for being "student of the week", good job!

Tunica Hills

Tunica Hills is about an hour away, just over the border of Mississippi.  This is as much vertical as we can find this close to home.  We've been coming here for ten years and it keeps changing every time there is a big storm.  The rock is very soft, more like packed clay.  The kids found different colors of clay to bring home as well as a collection of leaves. 
We topped off the hike with some ice cream at the pond store just down the road.  The store has its original cash register as well as many other antiques inside.

Pumpkin field trip

 H is showing off her pumpkin

 D grabbed the biggest pumpkin he could find.

 J was a little scared of the pig.

Learning about the past

 I am so glad for seat belts these days!!!

 J enjoyed trying to bounce on this piece of farm equipment.

 The lady with the yellow backpack is D's teacher.  D is rescuing J from inside the tipi.

J and H got to milk a cow.  Good thing it was a wooden cow since J would have gotten kicked if it were a real one.

At the zoo

 So much fun to be in a small space.

 J with some giant turtles.  They were very lively, maybe because it was cool but warm in the sun.

 H is showing off her giraffe in front of the real giraffes.
Now that the weather is nice it's nice to get out and visit the places that were too hot during the summer.

Kitchen help

 My kids love to help in the kitchen.  Making pizza has become a Friday night ritual.  Utensils are not a favorite for our kids so we call it 'finger Friday'.

G is helping put granola into jars.

Art!!

Beds!

 These are my little helpers.  I've been working on these beds for the past three weeks, mostly during nap time but I also hired a baby sitter for part of it when I was using power tools.  I made most of it outside in the shed so I could keep it as a surprise and then assembled it inside.  I got the pattern from Anna White's website.

 Here J is enjoying walking 'in' the bed.

This is the finished product.  Now I have to work on getting the girls to make their beds every morning.

Fall has arrived!!

 These beauties are Hurricane Lilies.  They put on a pretty show but only for two or three days.  I found what seemed to be about 100 bulbs planted around one of our oak trees last year.  I dug them up and transplanted them all around our yard.  My guess is that about thirty of them came up and they are still popping up out of the ground!  The chickens ate about three of them before I was realized what they were doing and locked them in their coop.  They may have to stay in their coop for a while until the garden is more established.
J did more damage, he snapped at least seven flowers.

With cooler mornings comes the fall garden!!  We probably won't have a hard freeze till January and we aren't having as many 90 degree days so the lettuce, peas, and beans will do better.

The 'new' kitchen

H loves to dance in her tutu.