Over the River and Through the Woods

Grandma Char and Grandpa Bob's (It was *freezing* that day, but Mal wouldn't wear a jacket.)Grandma and Papa Toonie'sGrandma and Poppa of the Forest

I Spent $1.35 at Carter's

Back in August, Alyssa at Keeping the Kingdom First was involved in the big Back to School giveaways. I won a $100 gift card to Carter's! Well, the card arrived and I promptly misplaced it. So frustrating! Earlier this month, I located it in Micah's insulated lunch bag. Good place for it, huh?

Well, I may be forgetful, but I'm no fool. I waited for a sale (50%) and waited for an email coupon (20%) and tonight we headed down to the store. I am so excited. Mal is growing out of all his size 5s. So, I bought the following.

2 pair jeans
1 pair cords
3 pair pajamas
3 shirts
1 sweat shirt
1 light jacket
2 pair of gloves
2 little giftees for my nephew due in the spring

I think that's everything. Anyway, that was almost $300! After sale, coupons and the gift card, I paid $1.35! I was so excited. AND I got a card for $10 off my next $10+ purchase.

Thank you so much Alyssa, Back 2 School Giveaways and Carter's!

Gettin' Girly

I've never really been the decorator type. I love to see the results, but I just never did much of it. I don't really have a good eye. For some reason, Micah seems to think I should be putting "feminine touches" around the house. Now where he gets that idea, I'll never know. ;)

Well, after 8 years together, I put together my first seasonal centerpiece.What do you think?

Halloween in Vermont

ECHO

We took a fun trip to ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center with our Christian Friday School friends. We headed to Lake Champlain and had a GREAT morning.

This is in the lobby. I loved it, but I wondered how practical is it if you have to have "caution slippery when wet" signs up 24/7.We explored several kinds of alternative energy.
HydroWindSolar - the lights are actually lit, just dimly.
The littles LOVED the water obstacle course.In Discovery Place, Mal got *inside* the turtle aquarium through a tube up the bottom. Too bad the sneaky turtles were sitting on the platform on top!
The shipwreck.Ignore the red eyes. I haven't figured out how to get rid of them on the laptop.Even the resource room was fun.Here's what's on the menu at ECHO.We saw turtles and fish and frogs.
South American blue poison dart frog. So pretty. And unnatural looking!Madagascar's tomato frog.The North American Malachi frog.There was also a small dig to unearth a beluga whale skeleton. They took this job very seriously.

Steamy Pictures

While cooking, I got the house all steamed up and Mal found a new drawing medium.

Our Trip "Down Under" week in review

"A queer country, so old that you walk on and on, there's a feeling comes over you that you are gone back to Genesis" - Australian bushman

G'day mates! Join us on our Expedition Australia!

Daily Objectives

Day 1: Where on earth is Australia?

Day 2: Some of the special places in Australia

Day 3: A bit of Australian history

Day 4: Cool things to know about Australia

Day 5: Fun and games in Australia

We especially loved learning about marsupials. Xavier wanted to get into my pouch! I was also excited to be able to use some of the information I learned from this unit to prepare for my Friday School class. This week, we learned about kangaroos. I had eight littles hopping all over the classroom like kangaroos. I always love to hear the grandiose ideas they come up with. "I can hop like a kangaroo 18 times around this room!" Three times around and they are wiped out. :)

Download N Go is a lapbooking/notebooking unit study series created by Amanda Bennett and The Old Schoolhouse. Intended for grades K-4, my 3.5 year old loves them as well! DNGs are formatted for a five day study, but with suggested reading and your family's favorite rabbit trails, it could easily expand well beyond that. They are bright and colorful and chock full of information. One thing I really like is the special DNG video page that youtube videos open up in. DNG units each have five daily objectives with components for a smart little lapbook, clickable links to videos and websites, vocabulary, history, geography and more.

I just spend an hour or so reading the introduction and searching our library's online catalog for some books. I print some sheets, depending on our needs for the week and do some cutting. The rest is done for me!

Expedition Australia is on sale right now for $5.95! Grab it at the sale price by November 8.

Over at the Download N Go blog, you can enter to win one of TWO political maps of Ausatralia from National Geographic! To enter the contest, just click over to the blog and leave a comment. You have until 9 PM EST on November 8. Good luck!

Still not convinced you *need* Expedition Australia? Check out the blog hop here.

***I was provided a free copy of Expedition Australia to use with my littles and write my honest review.***