First up, last week while I was off on the awesome Peyton Manning trip with Peyton, more was going on here than I told you about last week. I know I complained about how Asa HAD to go into work the day we left, but it was for a good reason. He was being recognized by some big important Verizon guy (The CIO of Verizon), and had to be at the town hall to recieve his award for being the top performing tier one agent. That's a big deal in and of itself, so I was super proud of him. The timing of it all was just not ideal.
But then, he was also promoted up to tier two! Of course it comes with the usual things a promotion comes with, but there are so many days when Asa is taking call after call and other people are doing next to nothing, so it's nice to see his hardwork pay off (in something besides his bonus) Anyway, he was asked not to say anything, and though it was announced in the company quarterly last Wednesday and Thursday, I wasn't sure where the 'don't say anything' time table ran out. So, we've kept it pretty quiet. The promotion became official today with the new work work, so you might have read on facebook about it this morning. I didn't want to be one of those 'I have good news, but I can't share with you yet' people. I find those statuses totally annoying (but really, whatever floats your boat- I just didn't want to be a hypocrite!) So anyway, there you have it some more big news from last week. It was a pretty great week for us! Asa said the only thing that might top it is if something really cool happens the week he graduates next year.
We went out on Thursday night to celebrate, on mom (thanks mom!) It really is a big deal, we're all totally excited about it! (Yayyyy Asa!).
He even ordered 'A Drink Like That', and we never ever order drinks when we go out because of the expense, but it was a special occasion.
And, it was nice to all go out together- I missed everybody!
I can finally post a picture of Asa with his award too!
Nice work, babe! Nobody deserves it more than him. (This is me totally bragging about my hardworking husband)
In other news, we did manage to get the Waterstraut Weekly out on Wednesday. But, we didn't do much else on Wednesday or Thursday, and Friday just saw some prep work for our theme week and lots of grocery shopping for me. (There were people EVERYWHERE, it was awful-- and I heard it'll be more of the same next week as public school is off ALL WEEK-- boooooooo!)
I planned on starting our theme week Thursday, but that just didn't happen- and Friday since I was running around, it didn't make much sense to try and squeeze it in. It's hard for me to know it's a theme week, when it doesn't actually follow a calendar week, but I've got to conquer my OCD and tell myself over the holidays we don't get much in anyway, so anything we do is a win.
Hayden helped me take care of dying some pasta for a couple of projects we have going the next week and a half or so.
We're using pasta instead of beads, because it's really more cost effective. We just did a little splash of rubbing alcohol and a couple squirts of food coloring in a bag with some pasta. Then just squish it all together.
Open the bag, and leave it overnight and the alcohol should evaporate.
(I put a little too much alcohol in a couple of mine, so the next day I let them dry on paper towels.)
But, now we have some beads in all kinds of different colors. And since couponing usually results in me getting paid to buy pasta, this was SUPER inexpensive.
I planned on using our chalk board as usual for the theme week, but I thought a map would be best for the visual since we're studying Native Americans by geographical area. That's generally how they are grouped anyway, since they lived off the land. I don't think my free hand of the United States is too bad.
I also color coded it, so no matter how crazy it gets, the boys will be able to tell what goes with what.
First up, we studied the Northeast Woodlands Native Americans.The boys did a couple of worksheets on the two tribes. We focused on the Shawnee and Iroquois.
First up, we talked about how they lived in both longhouses and wigwams. Because we'll be building plankhouses later (very similar to long houses), I decided after we read about wigwams we would build some of our own. Each kid did theirs a little differently. If you need a refresher, wigwams were round dwellings that were good in any kind of weather conditions. They were made from arched wooden poles, and usually covered with bark. The tops could be covered with deer skin, grass, bark- really lots of different materials were used. Woman usually made the coverings, while the men constructed the structure. Wigwams weren't generally not portable.
Hayden used some mini planters I had for seeds and used some pipe cleaners to show the wooden poles that would help hold up the wigwams.
Peyton used some play-doh and pipe cleaners to give his the round shape. Calib did something similar, using a cut up cereal box for the structure. They both before used a brown lunch bag cut up to cover the wigwam
Hayden's all complete, he even made a campfire out of pipe cleaners.
Calib's wigwam (look for these later in next week, as I have a wrap up project they might end up using these for)
Peyton's all finished- I like the door on his.
We'll be talking about how the Native Americans in each geographical area got their food. Some were better at farming, some were better hunters, some were better fisherman. The Northeast Woodland Native Americans were good farmers. In fact, they relied heavily on what they called the 'three sisters' (corn, beans, and squash). I had picked up some dry beans at the dollar store and gathered up some old CD cases from around the house. We spread the one side of them with glue and then made designs in them with the dried beans.
I let the boys have free reign on whatever design they wanted to do.
Hayden made a warrior with his.
Calib made a random design, and Peyton's was a spiral. Once they were dry we closed the cases. They look pretty cool all completed.
We also talked about how different Native American tribes wore different head dresses/bands. The Northeast Woodlands wore headbands, usually with one or two feathers stuck in them. While they didn't usually have a special meaning (unless you had an eagle feather), different shapes of feathers denote different accomplishments. The boys each picked one from our list. Hayden's feather means he killed an enemy.
Peyton struck four blows at his enemies. (There headbands also have drawings that mean different meanings)
Calib, meanwhile, has been wounded several times.
We also worked on some dream catchers. While used by many tribes in many areas, they are said to have originated Chippewa, who originally hung them on cradles in order to give their babies good dreams.
We took a paper plate, cut out the middle, made some hole punches, and then the boys weaved yarn and beads through the hole punches.
To finish it off, we added some beads and some feathers to the bottom.
Hayden hung his in his bed (please excuse his bed, we were doing laundry)
The worksheets were all put in a file folder for the boys. At the end of the week, we will three hole punch it and tie it all with yarn. But, each new geographical area has a cover page that I printed for them. At the end of the day they drew on the cover page some of the things they had learned about.
Even though there is mandatory overtime at work this week (so much OT between that, an extra overnight shift Sunday and working over the holiday- we're going to have a BIG paycheck in December!), he still wanted to cook us all dinner. I picked out some recipes for the theme days and let him decide what he wanted to cook.
For the northeast woodlands he selected squash bread, and succotash (going along with that three sisters theme).
He served it along with some chicken, and it was all delicious.
Then for dessert he made Indian Pudding. We garnished it with some ice cream and caramel syrup.
Peyton wasn't too sure, but it ended up being really good too.
Today we set out a Taco Bar and got ready to watch the Bucs lose. Because, thats what you do on Sunday if you're a Bucs fan. You laugh at all the misfortune, you sigh and say things like "hastag it's a Bucs life" when your team is 3rd and 28, and you talk about which quarterback you want to draft in April- while you eat and drink your feelings. Calib ate a taco for every point we lost by. (That's eight in case you're wondering). Good thing I used ground chicken and mixed in some corn-- at least they weren't too bad for you.
We're crossing our fingers for the Broncos too, they're behind, but Denver is only down by 3 and Peyton Manning just got the ball. You know, me and Peyton Manning, we hang out. :) I have faith he can pull this out! *please oh please*
Next Up: More Native American Week- hopefully I'll be back Tuesday with two days worth, but we'll see, otherwise you'll get Pie Making Wednesday and Thanksgiving too!
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