This past weekend was filled with fun festivities.  We carved our pumpkins and roasted the pumpkin seeds.

Then on Saturday night,  my husband and I were invited as guests to the 236th United States Marine Corps Birthday Ball.  Our friend is a Colonel in the Marine Corps and we homeschool with his family.  He and his wife asked us to celebrate with them.  The video that we saw prior to our dinner was so touching as it highlighted how our men and women in the Marines have responded with bravery and courage to the most difficult and heartbreaking situations.  It was the same video that Justin Timberlake saw at the Marine Corps Birthday Ball that he attended.  I don't think I have much in common with Timberlake, but I will have to say I agree with what he wrote HERE about his experience at his Marine Corps Ball.

It was a fun night also!  The last time I saw my man in a tux was on our wedding day so it was awesome to see him all jazzed up and I had fun shopping for my accessories to match the dress I borrowed from friend :)  Here are a few pics:

Last week, I took a break from teaching to go on some field trips and celebrate our son's 10th birthday.  We started our homeschool year on August 1 so I was due for a break along with my kids :)

So who remembers Mr. Slim Goodbody on TV when you were younger?  I don't have any memories of the show, but alot of people I have talked to remember this program to teach interesting facts about your body and how to take care of your bodies.  Mr. Slim Goodbody does national tours and one of our field trips last week was to go to a 2 hour show in our hometown.  This was the second year in a row and it was as entertaining this year as last year and the kids had alot of fun learning more about our incredible bodies!  Here's the website if you want to find out more:  http://www.slimgoodbody.com/ 

So I wasn't allowed to take pictures during Slim Goodbody's show, but I snapped a quick picture with my oldest 3 children and Slim Goodbody (my youngest wasn't too sure about getting close to the man with the funny suit so she wasn't in the picture :) )


Another field trip we went on was to a local farm about 20 minutes from our home.  Our homeschool group tries to visit this farm each year and this arrangement was by the front porch of the farm owner's home. 

The children gathered around to watch the owner's dog do a trick by sitting on his hind legs.  Quite impressive and cute!

Then everyone watched how raw corn was taken off the cob with an early 1900 tool called a corn sheller.

First the corn is stripped


Then the corn is placed in the sheller and the person turns the handle manually.

Ms. Sally is holding up the clean corn rind.  It was cool to see how fast the corn came off with little effort.

After all the shelled corn was gathered in a bucket each of the kids got a handful...

And went to feed the ducks in the pond...


Then it was time to pet some adorable bunnies.


And feed the goats.  It was humorous to see the goats stick out their necks and horns to get food from everyone's hands!


Chasing the chickens and roosters is always a hit at the farm!


Then it was time to walk toward the back of the farm...

And catch a tractor ride....

And everyone loves riding the horses!


Last Friday, my hubby took off work and we took the 3 older children to a planetarium about an hour away.  I blogged about our first visit to this planetarium here.
We listened to a short presentation on meteorites and learned that they are magnetic pieces that fall from our solar system and you can "catch" meteorites with magnets.  I never knew that!
So we went outside with magnets and observed how pieces of rock/sand stuck to the magnets.


Being silly with the kids while learning more about astronomy...


After this activity we went back inside to watch a sky lab show on the 7 wonders of our solar system and learned about constellations in the sky lab.

All of our field trips during our Fall break were fun and educational so maybe we really didn't take a break from school since we were learning so much and having fun :)  We hope to go back to the planetarium this school year since we are learning about astronomy with Apologia in science.

I'm linking this post to Anna-Marie's Field Trip Blog Hop!

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Last week I took a break from school to celebrate our son's 10th birthday and do some field trips with the kids which I hope to blog about sometime this week.  Prior to Fall break, my preschooler and I worked on the Letter Cc for our letter of the week for our Alphabet Boxes.  Cupcake #4 painted orange dots on the C's with a Carrot.  She also cut out some Cc pictures like cow, crocodile, caterpillar, colored them and then glued them on her page.  Then I took a blue stamp pad and let her press her finger on the pad to make the blue caterpillar prints that are at the bottom of the page. 


Of course, it's hard to go through Cc week without reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  After we read this cute book, I thought of this caterpillar craft made from an egg carton and colored pom pom balls.
I first cut a strip of the egg carton and colored the top of the carton with different colored pens.


Then my daughter made the head of the caterpillar by gluing eyes and a nose to the purple ball.  She then had to match up the other colored poms poms to the colors on the top of the carton and glue them on.
This was an easy and quick craft for color recognition and my daughter enjoyed making her caterpillar and she proudly displayed it when she was done.

This week, after having a nice Fall break, we get back into school mode and I will be teaching the soft sound of Cc to Cupcake #4.  I look forward to reading a cute story all about the Circus for this week's Alphabet Boxes!