Our Week

Last week found me making alterations to the adult XS scrubs I bought for Hannah's Halloween costume the night before Halloween.  

I did custom lengths to accommodate her limb difference and prosthetic, and was surprised at how far off the two sides really are.  

After Halloween, I un-hemmed them, ran them through the wash, and will pass them on to our favorite tiny nursing student.  

Hannie-poo went as a doctor, and Katie-bug went as a lion (makeup by Brianna)

Also makeup by Brianna.  She scared the DoorDash dude.  

I took the girls to a drive through scavenger hunt put on by our church.  It was pirate themed.  They got candy and assorted booty, including Chik Fil A cards we'll have to put to good use soon.  

While we were out for the Halloween hunt, we stopped by the library to scare up some books.  

Our Parisian Sunset pictures.  I used Crikey to cut out some Eiffel Towers, and we used marker to make a sunset background for them.  I actually did another Cricut project this week, but I need to wait for permission before I share it.  

We were going to do another fun project, making models of Parisian landmarks, printed on cardstock, but my printer died this week.  It's been fickle and persnickety for a while, and it finally wheezed it's last.  Even the photocopy feature is gone now.  Hoping to replace it in the coming week.  It's hard to homeschool without one!  

The prescribed art project in our curriculum this week was silhouettes.  

It did not go well.  

Hannah's came out better because I stepped in and traced her.  

Grumman, judging me, from his flag-free perch.  

We watched a couple Nat Geo Kids videos about France, and Bertie curled up with Hannah.  

Grumman is not a lap cat, at all, but he does like to be near us, and he does enjoy videos.  

In keeping with our France theme, the girls also watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame in their down time.  

Katie's work-in-progress travel poster.  She is planning to print a map of Europe and mark the featured locations on it.  When we can print again.  

Our Eat2Explore box for France was another hit!  This was the beef stew.  

And this...  I'm going to call "French inspired" rather than strictly French.  I was tired, and didn't really follow the instructions.  I pulled everything out that was on the recipe page, and after the first step or two, just did my own thing.  But the masses were pleased with it, so I'm calling it a win.  

Why was I tired?  Because Josiah had his wisdom teeth out.  We're waiting for his prescriptions here, after the procedure.  

The girls did drawings from a library book, How to Draw France's Sights and Symbols.

I've seen some real improvement in Hannah's drawing this year.  

More books.  We actually got down to only 40 (of 60 possible) books on hold at one point because I forgot to add new ones when we brought these home.  This has since been remedied.  

Grumman checking out the new science selections.  I swear he's been interested in our Flying Science this year.  From gnawing the notebooks, to watching bird & butterfly videos, to giving the pteranodon books an extra sniff, he monitors it all.  

Bertie had next to no body fat when she came back, so she loved to lay in front of the space heater to keep warm.  I'd turn it on for her whenever she went over to it, so she wouldn't be losing extra calories trying to regulate her body temp.  

She was down to 1# 9 oz when she came back to us.  (She'd been 2# when we dropped her off.)  But she quickly thrived here, with people to snuggle her and Grumman to chase her, so she's back at the shelter awaiting her surgery again.  

I'm missing my furry little friend today.    

From 12 ounces... to 2#7 ounces.  Bertie the first day we had her, and Bertie the last day we had her.  A beautiful cat with a sweet purrsonality.  She left paw prints on my heart.  

Okay [sniff] back to homeschool stuff.  

I added a "day trip" to Greece, since we were about France-d out.  Since (broken record here) my printer is broken, I used Crikey to cut some flag pieces for the girls to DIY their passport flags.  

This proved to be more of a challenge for Hannah and Katie than I was expecting.  Note to self, might want to pull out some spatial awareness puzzles for them.  

I sent a Halloween care package to Sam and got a "proof of life delivery" photo from the delivery lady.  So good to see my boy on US soil again, even though he's still far away.  

Eli is even farther away now, and his Halloween box has yet to get to him, unfortunately.  Knowing this, I ordered his Christmas packages this morning, hoping they'll get to him by Christmas.  Fortunately, he's a good sport, and we've learned to be flexible with all things military over the years.  

Up next, we'll be learning about Germany!  We'll be adding a couple of "day trips" in the next two weeks, when the library books I've requested get here (and this time, I have the flags).  Looking forward to castles and some tasty German snacks.