The Feast

The grand finale of this year's Celebration de Reuben was a two-day excursion to The Feast of the Hunter's Moon.  He has been waiting for months for this annual 1700s historical reenactment festival.  I am so thankful for this event because it means we successfully avoided a Chuck E. Cheese birthday, his second choice.

We went on Friday for the School Trip Day and learned some things from costumed actors.

Then we went back on Saturday for the full feast effect.

These pics show a mix of both days.

 

See the learning?

This guy taught us all the parts of his gun, how to load it and fire it.

We took breaks for rest and nourishment.

Watching a wood-turner

This is super hard.

See?

Reuben needed to be convinced to try it.

I think he knew he wasn't going to be perfect at it on his first try

and he wanted to avoid failure.

He was right, so we moved on to the next game.

Throw the ring with these two sticks.

She said this used to be a game played by both girls and boys, but eventually only girls played it.

She thought the boys were banned from playing due to their playing it like boys:

Wild and rough.

It was fun.

And quicker to be good at.

Not like that roll the wheel with a stick game.

I realized today that this one is nearly ten!

Ack.

These are the Budabi Brothers.

We watch their funny juggling show every year,

even though we could tell all their jokes now.

We even considered inviting them to stay the night at our house,

instead of in their tent.

But we didn't.

But it could've been fun.

Or weird.

Okay, down to business.

Forget all this educational, entertaining stuff.

Let's shop!

He quickly learned to say 'rabbit foot.'

The whole point, according to the boys, for this event

is to shop and purchase a new weapon.

Happy Birthday!

Pirate sword with belt and sheath.

Time to battle.

Charlie's first sword.

Ah, so cute.

Here's some battle video.

It was a grand time.

If I had a daughter I'd get more into the costumes.

Fancy dresses and parasols.

Then the boys would want soldier uniforms.

But Paul... he would go more for the voyager look that made us giggle:

the longish shirt with a flappy thing at the waist.

Cold legs.

And bottom.

Pictures

Back in August we went to the State Fair with our Turkish friends.

We live in farm country so there's lots of farming stuff at our state's fair.

Mrs. O and our boys

She was thrilled when Charlie relaxed enough to let her hold him.

Now for random pics...

Reading The Story of the World, our history book.

A great book for general knowledge-of-the-world reading.

I've learned so much and many parts of my world make so much more sense.

Charlie is a train track-building champion.

Another day

Science with Dad

Something about molecules and whatnot.

I have a great disdain for science and don't even want to know what they're learning about.

This is why Dad as the new science prof is wonderful.

Let's see what else I can find...

 corn starch and water - more science

Science equals mess,

which is great fun for the mess-makers.

But I'm just in a stage of life where mess equals mess, ya know?

And mess means more work for me, the designated mess-cleaner-upper.

But!  As you can see I allow the mess because I value the learning experience.

 This is going to document a history lesson mess.

It started out as burying yellow M&Ms in a bucket of flour to simulate digging for gold.

Here's Rube showing his found gold.

 If there's a mess then that must mean they're learning.

This is what I tell myself.

 Then Reuben asked if he could add water to the flour to see what would happen.

Yes you can.

And then I left the room so as not to have to witness the foreshadowing mess.

If I can't see it then it doesn't exist.

I like this philosophy.

 Upon re-entry to the kitchen I found that Rube had gotten out the rolling pin, cookie cutters, and cookie sheet.

Flour and water cookies.

Peter baked them.

And they ate them.

Paul too.

Good to know they can live on flour  and water if needed.

And then I swept and wiped

and wiped and swept in a silly attempt to rid my kitchen of flour dust.

Reliving these messes has cause my stress level to rise even now.

Which is a shame because I'm sitting in an extremely rare empty house

which should be full of peace.

But for you, I relive the stress.

I hope you liked it.

More pics in a couple days.

Not in California

So we're home now.  Back in the Midwest - the land of tornadoes and drought-stunted corn.

Day 36 and 37 of our California Extravaganza (last Wed. and Thurs.) were full of packing, cleaning, and traveling home.  Our first flight left an hour late at five in the evening, getting into Vegas with no layover.  We just got off the plane and walked to the next gate and got on that plane.  This second flight was three hours and ten minutes and I am so pleased to tell you that it was great.  The boys were fabulous and the time went by quickly.  Peter cracked me up because he is friendly and talkative to pretty much anyone who will give him audience.  A mom and her twenty-something daughter sat next to him on the long flight and they played games, shared jokes, and told each other stories.  I sat across the aisle with Charlie and Reuben where we played with little Strawberry Shortcake figures from my childhood (I had dug them out to give to Carly, but forgot to pass them on to her - Charlie thought they were great fun), drank soda through straws, and all crammed into the lavatory when Reuben needed to go.  Let's see if I have any pictures...

 Sodas with lids and a straw have a very high entertainment value.

 

"I want to see."

 His assortment of small figures, including a few Strawberry Shortcake girls,
two Cabbage Patch babies, and random bugs and animals.

 Reuben put together his very first Lego kit all by himself.

Zero help from me.

I was very proud.

 One of the Shortcake girls had a watering can in her hand and Charlie used it to water everything.

For a long time.

I think I remember resting my head on my seat at this point.  It felt nice.

We arrived at our home airport at one in the morning on Thursday.

Charlie was awake the entire trip.  Rube declared himself tired and slept the last hour.

I think we were home and to bed around 2:30 or 3am.

This is Thursday, later in the day.  After we slept, but before we unpacked.

Charlie brought Paul a stack of books to read.

First things first.

A friend called to invite Peter and Reuben over for a movie party at 10 am.

Still in my pjs, Paul and I used this time to go through the garage and the boys' room and toss stuff out.  They were gone five weeks in California.  Let's get rid of stuff before they remember they have it, you know?  Ever do this?  It was great.  And the trash truck picked it all up before the boys got home.  And they haven't missed a thing.  Ok, not true.  I did find Rube searching for this one monster truck that we tossed, but he quickly moved on.

So that same night was the Homeschool Back to School Night where we have a pitch-in meal (that's Midwestern for potluck), sign up for classes, and buy/sell curriculum.  While chatting with another mom about her new baby, the tornado sirens started.  I couldn't believe it.  Barely home from 36 days of perfect California weather and now I'm seeking shelter to save my life.  I didn't though.  I just sat there like a person in denial and told the storm to just take me.  Whisk me back to California, dear tornado.

I spent Friday and Saturday cleaning our house and preparing for our official first day of school.

We are homeschooling this year.  Did you gather that?

We did lessons almost everyday in California, but it was very unstructured and go-with-the-flowish.

It was really nice.

But now it's serious.  I've got some educating to do.

So yesterday was our first day of routines and book learning.

We started with chocolate cake for breakfast.

 Reuben helped me make it.

 It is an oatmeal chocolate cake, so that totally makes it breakfast worthy.

And mixed in with all the chocolate chips on top were very healthy walnuts.

Strawberries on the side and a cup of milk = an excellent breakfast.

 Charlie loves the first day of school too.

 Cute, cute boy.

 My big boy.

Then outside for the First Day of School pictures.

 Charlie, too, wants to be in the pictures.

And in the middle of everything we're doing.

Of course.  He's two.

He has his own set of dry-erase markers and a little white board.

When we build with linking cubes for math, he squirms on to my lap to 'play' too.

 And when I am unavailable to get him a snack, he tries to get his own.

He's a busy guy.

Which means I'm a busy Mama.

A happy busy Mama.

We've had a good first two days

and as Headmistress of our prestigious academy

I am declaring tomorrow a half day.  (Meeting with a church)

And Thursday too.  (Charlie's 2 year-old checkup)

But Friday, we're just closing school for the whole day.  (Going to the State Fair with our Turkish friends)

See how fantastic this homeschooling thing is?

Love it.

I shall close with a sample of Peter's artist expression titled First Day of Scool, as you will see.

Perhaps a bit more emphasis on spelling this year?

Or I could just lament about how irregular and inconsistent our language is.

Yeah, that second one.