Weekly Wrap-Up for the Week of November 9

So apparently this past week was the cut-off for nice fall weather. When I checked the weather early in the week and saw that it was going to be nice for the first half of the week and then get really cold, I knew we had to soak up that final bit of nice weather to the fullest!

Conveniently our science curriculum cooperated.  To help understand how the sun, moon and earth all move around each other, we headed outside. Little Bit was the sun and the twins took turns, but in this picture Ashlyn is the earth, orbiting the sun and also rotating, and Lexie is the moon, orbiting the earth, but always facing the same side toward the earth. It was definitely a challenge, and they all had a blast.

Later we also tried using a magnifying glass to concentrate the sunbeams to melt chocolate, but I think the colder temperatures, and less direct sunlight of this time of year kept that from working. The girls plan to re-attempt that one next summer, along with, also mentioned in the science book, using a magnifying glass to burn a hole through a leaf.

Now that the driveway is actually done, the neighbor boys came over and everyone had fun riding bikes and scooters and playing basketball and such. More great soaking up of the nice weather while it lasted. I was rather amused, to note that Ashlyn, who has never liked "competitive games" of any sort, made a great cheerleader for E, age 7, when he and Lexie were playing "PIG" (like Horse, only shorter) with the basketball. So apparently she doesn't like to compete but she likes to see her, ever competitive, twin sister be competed with, LOL.

The fun with the neighbors, and the fact that E actually beat her once, inspired Lexie to spend lots of time practicing shooting hoops over the next couple of days. And once she felt cocky confident in her ability, she challenged Daddy to a game of PIG. Both girls were pretty excited when Lexie was able to beat him rather soundly.  I may have to remind all of them of this next spring when it warms up, it's good for all of them to get the exercise and fresh air :)

Unfortunately, by mid-week, the lovely fall weather was at an end and it was COLD! So we shifted from outside activities, to indoor ones. Little Bit has decided perhaps history is kind of fun afterall, when it means stories about Dragons and Princesses and other fairytale like things, so we're having some fun with that. while also watching lots of documentaries on the early kings of England and what information is available to indicate that the Dark Ages weren't really so dark, just not well-documented for later generations :)

At music lessons on Thursday, their music teacher sent them home with Christmas music books so we've been hearing lots of Christmas music since then. I might have an uncontrollable urge to sing along when Ashlyn plays, which annoys her greatly LOL. I've also realized that I've FAILED as a mother! Much as I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas music, my children know very little of it. Why? Because our house is always so noisy in general that I never think to play music as "background" as we go about our day and we are always listening to some kind of audiobook in the car so whereas pre-kids I always had Christmas music playing in the car from Thanksgiving till Christmas, now I never do, and therefore my poor, deprived children know very few Christmas songs. They're still having fun learning to play them however.

With extra time in the house, my children get creative. Little Bit decided she needed to paint Daddy's toenails. She roped Ashlyn into helping, so they painted them dark red and then Ashlyn drew Christmas trees on some of them. He's a very long-suffering Daddy LOL.