Change

   It's Fall time!!!!   This week of weather has been beautiful. 

   We finally got up our fall decorations (salvaged from our garden)!

   We are seeing combines in the fields harvesting the wheat and the corn.

   We have seen partly colored trees and partly colored fallen leaves on the ground.

   And I got to sit on the front porch for a few minutes and enjoy the change!

  

   The boys are asking when it's going to snow because they are excited to sled. 

   Josh and I aren't there yet...   :)

  

Harvesting sunflower seeds

   This year we had about 8-10 sunflowers planted around the yard.   Since we didn't get to harvest any seeds last year off the plants we had, we decided to give it a try this year.
   We got a few seeds...the whole kitchen table was covered! :)

   After roasting them, we have 7 quarts of seeds...which Josh thinks will last him through the year! I hope so! :)

   We got to the bottom of the sorting pile after removing the seeds from the flower heads, and decided to do the birdfeeder option with the rest.  So we flipped a couple bigger sunflower heads over and filled them with the leftover seeds.  Hopefully the birds and squirrels with enjoy them. 

   Of course, this could just be a luring point for the hunters in the family...

Bass and Bluegills

    It was a prime day for fishing on Saturday.  So, after the soccer games, we gathered the gear and headed to a friend's house to do some fishing. 
   Joe cast his line in...and asked (as usual) "Is this a river?" (When we were in South Bend, he fished in a river and had to keep reeling and casting...which he didn't like for long!)  Before I even finished answering him, he said, "Aw, it's stuck!" 
   Nope...he had this Smallmouth Bass already hooked on his line!

Jake wanted to catch a Bluegill so he could get credit with Cub Scouts for it.  He didn't have to wait for long either.  This little guy hooked right on his line.

 We caught several fish and our friend let us take what we wanted.  We threw some smaller ones back in...and we think we caught one of them several times!  (There was a hole in the right side of it's mouth so it was easy to tell...)
  The fish traveled home in a bucket in the back of the Tahoe and one flopped a few times, but stayed in the bucket! :)  (The boys got a kick out of it after they got over their fear that the fish would get out!)

  When we got home,  Josh had to brush up on how to prep the fish.  So the boys were worried Daisy would get the fish out of the bucket.  (They created traps and covers with their toys to keep her out.)  After dinner, Josh and Jake went out to get the meat off the fish.

making funny faces :)

  I put the meat in the freezer (because we just had fish tacos the night before and that's about the only way Joe loves to eat fish!).  

Bookcase and kittens...no relation

 Below are pictures of the pull out bookcase that Josh crafted.  My canning stuff has a place to live now...behind the bookcase!

And, Daisy had her kittens...has not eaten any of them...and they are still alive!  Five of them...4 are black and 1 is white. 

Fresh applesauce

   This week is Aa, apple, for Joe.  So, I thought to ride our bikes over to the Miller farm to see if they still had some fresh apples. (Our trees are empty.) 
   The boys were excited about the adventure.  Joe counted the hills he had to ride up...making sure I knew how hard he worked and what a great job he did getting up them! :) 

   
   We quickly found some awesome tasting red apples...!  So, the boys bit in and enjoyed fresh sweet red apples.  YUM!

  And, we found some green apples.  (which are like the ones on our property) And some hedge apples (which Jake proceeded to cut open with his pocket knife...that he had brought in case we found a snake that needed its head cut off)

  We also discovered several persimmon trees (except we had to break off a branch with leaves and fruit so we could identify it at home).  So, we plan to go back with Woody truck and a ladder  next week when some of the red apples are more ready so we can pick more great apples.   (Don't worry, we asked Bill Doles and Bill Finley if it was okay to do this! :)

 Then we came home to make applesauce.  The boys peeled and cored the apples, watched them cook (anxiously) and pureed the mix of cinnamon, apples, and a touch of apple juice. ...And dug in...

  You can listen to the result...

Joe asked if we could make applesauce again the next day... "I don't like the apples, but I like applesauce!"

Experience is everything

  This week has been full of experiencing new things. 

  Monday night found Jake starting Cub Scouts.  He was very excited to go and didn't even want me to stay. (He knew a couple boys from soccer and his leader is a swim/soccer dad. So we know the family.  That helped Jake feel more comfortable for sure!)
  He is eager to work through his book. Lots of great things to learn...and teach Joe! :)


 Tuesday we headed to Conner Prairie to take advantage of the Homeschool discount day.  The boys experienced Prairietown (1816)...Joe's favorites...watching the blacksmith and trying to walk on stilts. Jake's favorites...watching the pottery making (which Joe enjoyed a lot, too) and watching things weighed on the scales.
  Then we checked out the Indian area and the Civil War area (1863-- and where the house that has been brought to and preserved at the sight had several features identical to our house...neat to see).
  Inside the boys made some crafts and then played with some science things dealing with energy (electrical circuits, wind power, etc).  It was a fun day of learning and experiencing things.

Interestingly, on the way home...we left Indy where the thermometer read 99 and we watched it drop to 79 as we traveled through the path behind a storm (that didn't give us any rain, but dropped 4 inches in Rushville in a short time).  It was a hot day on the Prairie...


Today...we were invited to come to North Decatur Elementary (helps to know the principal) to see the StarLab Planetarium.  It was a bubble shaped tent like room (because you enter in and zip it behind you) where the kids could see images of the night sky displayed above them like an IMAX theater.  The teacher could zoom in on the various stars/planets and enlarge them as he talked about them. And there was video of trips to the moon and the current space station in space.  It tied in well with a majority of what the boys have been studying these first few weeks of school.  So, pretty neat...

Here are some of the creations from studying Indians...

 

Yummy moon phases...

Joe's coloring (needs work) :)

 (better today)

Love Joe's numbers...big and small (who needs boundaries?)

Jake's rocket creation...

A Proper and common noun family tree...

Grammie's birthday

   Although we didn't get to go on her birthday, we did get to enjoy a longer weekend just after Grammie's birthday.  The boys created art for Grammie...Joe did stamping along with a written label (to Grammie and Grandpa) and Jake did a fingerpainting in Grammie's favorite colors (with flowers b/c she loves flowers) and he turned it into  a puzzle.

But let's face it, Joe was ready to swim! :)

 At Dollywood...
  Jake finally can drive the bumper cars.  So, it was a big day moving up to the YELLOW wrist band. (Ironically...he doesn't like to ride all the roller coasters he can now ride...yet Joe is anxious to ride all the roller coasters he still can't ride!)

On Douglas Lake...
  Grammie and Grandpa's small group took a pontoon boat out on the lake.  The boys enjoyed taking turns driving the boat.  Joe especially liked when we had to go over waves/wakes! (picture a big smile, nodding head, and thumbs up)

Pirate ship in Pirates Cove

The boys did jump in the water a few times when we stopped for a bathroom break.  Joe was worried about catfish getting him! :)

And, of course, we didn't stop with the ice cream eating after Grammie's birthday.  At their house...the ice cream ritual is experienced daily! :)  Eat on, boys!

Just before we left, we found a tiny baby turtle...