Hi 5 for Friday

Another busy crazy week behind us. 

my little Ava gravy :)

One///I somehow managed to have all three of my children within two weeks of each other (not really by my doing but their doing - this little one came over a month early!!) and did I also mention my husband's birthday is within two weeks of that too? 

This makes July, August and September crazy birthday time!  Factor in the age differences and we're almost always having separate celebrations even though I would love to throw them all into one.  I still haven't figured out the right birthday combo for a 40, 13, 9 and 2 year old I guess! 
Three down and one more to go!




Puss Caterpillar

Two///This horrible dog tail looking caterpillar landed on my chest leaving Target the other day.  I was just minding my business strolling to my car parked in the nice shady spot under the big oak tree when WHAM! this guy and a small nest of baby spiders fell on me.  Luckily, I saw the spot on the news informing the Tampa area of the poisonous nature of the Puss Caterpillar.  No worries though, my son batted him off of me with a frozen loaf of garlic bread as I was screaming and wailing for someone to call 911 and to tell my husband that I loved him!

Three///Cross Country is in full swing which means waking up at 5:00 a.m. for practice 2-3 times per week.  This along with meets almost every Friday have me feeling blah! 

I would like to thank the Florida heat and especially the humidity.  It just wouldn't be the awful same without that rotten humidity. 

Actually, it hasn't been too horrible now that I can get iced pumpkin spice lattes. :)


Four///Getting super excited for our upcoming vacation.  We now have one week before we leave!!!!  We will be gone 10 days, splitting our time between Williamsburg, Va. and Washington D.C.  We are doing a White House tour this time since last time we did the U.S. Capitol Building tour.  We will also be visiting the Bureau of Printing and Engraving $$$.  The kids were so small last time and we went during the cherry blossom bloom season (is that how you say that?) so this will be a totally different experience.  More to come!

 

Five///Fall everything for sale and on sale!  And, yeah pumpkin everything too. Enough said!

Constitution Day

Today is Constitution Day!  I love special days where we can escape our normal everyday course work.  Today we are taking on the Constitution and it's three main parts. 

Are you wondering how I knew it was constitution day?  Well even if you weren't, it is my segue to pointing you in the direction of what I consider a fun resource. :)  The Scholastic.com website has a great teachers section and every month I head over to their site to print out the monthly planning calendar.  It is fantastic and fun and colorful and...!  It tells you some special fact or observance for each day and provides links for printables, lesson plans and more.

Here is a sample of the monthly calendar:

You can find this at the Scholastic website under the planning calendar tab along with other resources.

As you can see on 09/17/2014 it lists Constitution Day with a link to Scholastic.com/constitution.   Today we are using printables and activities from the link to discuss the PREAMBLE, the ARTICLES and the BILL OF RIGHTS. 

Since we will be focusing the greatest on the Bill of Rights, we will take some time to talk about Patrick Henry (my son's fave).  It was this quick tempered delegate from Virginia that helped fight for the Bill of Rights so America wouldn't be ruled by another King.  Thanks to the contributions of Patrick Henry and many others, The Constitution is the ruler of the land and not a king!  Yay Constitution Day!

School Is Back In Session

After a nice summer break, we are finally back in session.  Our first official day was September 2 and that whole week was an adjustment period for sure.  Our schedule is packed!  The biggest issue for me is my son's cross country practice.  It is Mondays & Wednesdays at 7:00 a.m. but this means we (baby included) are waking up at 5:30 a.m.  This makes our day feel soooooooooooooooo long!  Despite being tired, we managed to fit in our first field trip of the school year.  Yes we at least waited for a whole week of school to pass. :) 



Tampa Theatre glory days - from the Tampa Theatre website

 


We toured the Tampa Theatre in downtown Tampa.  It was gorgeous!  The theatre was built in 1926 as one of America's most elaborate movie palaces.  The building was designed by architect John Eberson and makes you feel as though you are outside in a Mediterranean courtyard.  It still has a working Wurlitzer organ that rises from the floor to play some show tunes during the tour.  The tour is informative and takes you back to a period in time when the big movie houses were owned by the studios and were the most ornate "palaces" in America.  There are also a few ghost stories to go around.


If you are in the area and want something interesting to do with or without kids, this is for you.  They operate tours twice a month for a small fee and they also told me they are more than happy to set up tours for school and homeschool groups.



I will be posting more on what our weekly schedule looks like as well as what we are loving this year!