harvest festival at church

today, after church, was our annual ‘harvest festival’. layla was VERY insistent that we go, since we were mean parents and skipped it last year. there was a lot of kid-friendly food, coloring stuff, game stations, prizes, story time, etc…

after eating, micah went straight for the giant pumpkin to pound in golf tees.

layla spent a good 20 minutes coloring this before she even left the table to play the games.

pumpkin hockey was a HUGE favorite, especially of micah. I actually had to pull him away at one point so other kids could play. I had several adults tell me I needed to sign him up for hockey because he was so good!

shane got roped into helping out in many areas. he spent the church hour cooking, he passed out candy to the ‘trick or treaters’ at the end, and spent the main part manning the ‘lolly pop tree’ station. also known as the leaning tower of suckers.

basically, you pick a lollypop. if your lollypop has a regular stick, you just get the lollypop. if your lollypop has a colored stick, you get the lollypop AND a prize. (I just wrote lollypop a lot of times.) lollypop.

more coloring!

more pounding…

those are all the pictures I have because my camera battery was dying.

I love that we seem to always have several ‘halloween’ events leading up to it and the kids get to wear their costumes more than once. of course, I guess I have to go and get the rest of micah’s costume…

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for my not-so-american friends

i didn't have an actual roll w/ the green plaid on it, but i found a refill and an empty roll in my junk drawer (yeah, i know, that should tell me something). but even the empty one says 'scotch' on it. there you go! SCOTCH TAPE!

i have "done something"

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first day of school

so, we started school today. this is a big deal because it is OUR first day of official homeschooling. you know, here. at home. most everyone reading this is already aware of the fact that shane has been homeschooled since first grade, but that he has spent the majority of that ‘school’ time, with my mother as his ‘teacher’. this was a fine arrangement, she was willing and more than qualified, and he was learning. but for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being my mother’s current cancer issues, it had become clear that it was time for me to take over. AND,with layla being 4 now, i really wanted to do a little bit more preschool stuff with her. being a little bit of a chicken flake, i (with much urging from my loving husband) decided the best route to go would be with a packaged curriculum. i figured it would be the most time-effective way to cover what we needed to cover, and be somewhat dummy-proof, but at the same time, having the option to supplement with as much

does home ec even exist anymore?

my last post got me thinking about how i somehow missed 'learning' all of those things which are essential in running a successful home. i'm wondering who dropped the ball on this (because, i can't possibly take responsibility for my own shortcomings here). i guess traditionally, one learns these things from their parents. i suppose i did learn a lot of my domestic skills at home. for example, the husband is supposed to eat the leftovers in the fridge. when making a bed, the 'top' of the top sheet goes down so that when you fold the edge over the blanket, the 'top' side is then up. why this matters when you are just going to cover the whole thing with a pillow and comforter is totally beyond me. but that's how you do it. so yes, my mother taught me how to iron, do laundry, clean a toilet, etc. my dad taught me how to plant a garden, mow a lawn, appreciate baseball, etc. and then there's home ec. do people still take home ec? i took it

junk drawer challenge 2008!

if you're anything like me, you have one of these: yeah, that WAS my junk drawer. it's ridiculous. it was getting to the point where you couldn't even close it. instead of the "junk drawer" i think it should really be called the "don't know what to do with it or too lazy to put it where it really goes drawer". so i decided to document exactly how ridiculous it really was. this is all the stuff laid out on the kitchen counter: so what is all this stuff? here we have a dozen or so rubber bands and used twisty ties, a stamp pad from a hand/foot print kit we got when micah was born, 4 used birthday candles, and a pack of spare buttons from some pants. a bunch of batteries and a bunch of cord-type things. instruction booklets and a bunch of writing utensils... although upon closer examination, the red one in the middle is actually a tinker toy! a bunch of the little packages of 'hardware' that comes with stuff - notice th

rachel's continued ramblings

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