Truck Stop Lunch

You might remember Truck Stop Christmas Lunch… [here].

My cousin, Cathy, and her husband, Dave, are from Alberta, Canada.  They traveled out to Newfoundland for a week and then flew back to Kingston, Ontario, Canada.  Since three hours away is as close as they were coming to our house this year, we made plans to meet at a delicious half-way point in Parish, NY.  It is RIGHT off 81 on Route 104.  If you are ever in that vicinity we can not recommend the place highly enough.  The food is amazing.  The prices just right.  The customer service is bar-none. 

The company was priceless.  (Sorry, that I can’t guarantee for your potential trip.)
Aunt Betty was there, too.  But she didn’t make it in the photos…

DSC_5247DSC_5251

Dave is in the Royal Canadian Air Force.  (Yes, Canada has an Air Force.  Really.)  He monitors and maintains helicopters – is that really cool, or what?  That’s a cool job.  I’m not sure WHY Canada has an Air Force… They’ve explained to me that Russia regularly sends aircraft over Northern Canada and that they often have to send Canadian aircraft to chase them out of their air space.  This is VERY IMPORTANT because Russian aircraft really annoys polar bears and arctic seals. 

DSC_5252DSC_5257

Ok – really – we are prayerful that Dave will be able to secure a post in Borden, Ontario, Canada.  Which is MUCH closer to us than Alberta.

That would be really REALLY cool.
I hope we’d still find reason to stop at Mapleview Restaurant every few years. 

P.S.  My children were HIDEOUS on the drive home.  H.I.D.E.O.U.S.  I am sincerely questioning whether or not I am willing to go to Florida next year.  It. Was. UGLY.  A really special kind of bad.

Here is a map of Canada because if you are like most Americans (myself included) you have no idea the layout of Canada.  And it’s really ok.  Because most Americans don’t know the lay out of the U.S.A.  Sure, lots of people from other countries know their country’s geography inside out and backward.  But most countries can fit in Texas, so it’s really not THAT remarkable.

She was just too tired…

After a feeding she dozed through her burps and stayed put.
School continued, albeit much less aggressively for a few minutes.

DSC_5236DSC_5239

Yeah – that’s a cupcake on her bottom.  Stewart noted, “Mom, I thought you didn’t like it when people had writing on their bottoms.”  I decided that for the under 12 months crowd it is ok.

Home SUNDAY school

For the last few years we’ve been doing Daddy-led Sunday school at home.  Why?  Enh – a bunch of reasons.  But it works for the most part.  We decided to do some fun-geared review.  Two teams.  Two dry erase boards.  A few questions.

Stewart and Tabitha won the first round naming the 12 disciples the most quickly.  Both teams got stuck on one each.  We let them use a LIFELINE.

They then won the second round naming the 12 sons of Jacob.

DSC_5233

Marie and Nigel won the third round naming the judges from judges.  They should have gotten extra points for naming them in order, but I didn’t think about that at the time.

DSC_5234

Then all points were forgotten and laughter ensued as we played Bible story charades.  Marie and Nigel acted out Abraham offering Isaac as a sacrifice.  Stewart and Tabitha acted out Daniel being found praying and then being thrown into the lion’s den.  They decided they’d like to work together to make one up for Mom to guess. That became two.  First one was hysterical as Tabitha ran into a “tower” and threw down a pillow on Nigel.  He pantomimed something to Stewart and Stewart slew him.  (I couldn’t even catch my breath from laughter to answer before Tab yelled out, “I threw a millstone!!”)  Judges 9:53 – Abimelek is hit by a millstone but demands that his armor-bearer kills him so he doesn’t die at the hand of a woman. 

Next Nigel baptized Tabitha and then Marie and Stewart came and grabbed him.  Stewart then cut off his head.

Experiment–6th grader

Question: How does a polar bear’s black skin help to keep it warm?
Hypothesis: “It soaks up the hotness from the sun.”

Ice in plastic bag inside socks – one white, one black. 
On cookie sheet in the sun.
Young scientist predicts the ice in the black sock will melt quicker.

DSC_5187DSC_5188

Yeah… just barely.
😉  But we got a lab report out of it.

Boy, do they BUG me around here…

Marie and Tabitha are studying bugs (insects) for science.  Why?  Because the ABeka book I bought to read to them to satisfy our science requirement has bugs as their second unit.  Had I known this…

ANY Hoo  – – – –

We read about bugs and what makes them a bug.  We also read about their body sections.  I decided to do a art/science-two-fer and we made bugs.  I had enough Styrofoam to let Hanny in on the action. 

DSC_5179

DSC_5185DSC_5186

Art for a homeschool

We’ve usually found ways for our homeschool art classes to be covered within activities we do.  However, a friend of ours uses artprojectsforkids.org and I really liked some of the projects on that site.  We’ve managed to do three, as of this posting (9/3).  These pictures are from 8/27.  Marie wasn’t happy with having to stop playing to do art.  I must say.  It’s not really her thing.  She’s good at it, but she doesn’t ♥LOVE♥ it.  But I’m okay with that.  So many other things ARE her things.  🙂  Tabitha, on the other hand, is all over the projects.  🙂
DSC_5169DSC_5170DSC_5171