Last weekend was a stay at home weekend. Asa worked in the morning, and then after I ran some boring-gotta keep the house running- errands, we sat around watching football and such. But the highlight for Hayden was playing 'The Country Game' with Asa. I guess when your 30, your idea of a good Saturday night is when Princess Dora becomes Queen. Or something like that.
Sunday was a bye week for the Bucs, so we got to just enjoy football and not get ticked off. I put out a Taco/Nacho Bar, which I know isn't quite a new recipe, so it doesn't exactly fit in with our October theme. But, there is nothing I like more than putting out food around noon, calling it lunch and dinner, and not having to worry about it while I watch football.
Monday marked the beginning of a New Concept Week for Hayden. Peyton was on a Mastery week, so except for the things we do together (Science, Time Line, Religion), he was on his own with worksheets and computer games and such from his concepts from the last week. I find this set up is really working well for us. Up on the agenda for math this week was teaching Hayden about evens and odds. So, Even Steve and Odd Todd made an appearance to divvy up Smarties.
We had left over Taco Meat on Monday night, and I had picked up all kinds of slider buns (bogo at Publix last week) so I decided I'd make Taco Sliders. We dressed them just like you would a taco, but put them on slider buns. Just like most kids, my kids will eat just about anything on slider buns.
Tuesday we made a long list of even and odd numbers for Even Steven and Odd Todd to display. (Thanks to GiGi for the rolls of adding tape. They are coming in handy!)
We've been doing a planet each day too, for our Solar System Unit. When we got to Earth we made cheese bread for lunch to help the boys learn about the layers of the earth. We have the crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core. They made comments all during lunch like "I just ate my mantle".
I also finally got our hummingbird station all set up. Hayden hasn't earned one in a bit, but I feel like mail is just flooding in and I hadn't set up anywhere to put it yet. In his binder he has a picture of the bird before he sends it out, and then a spreadsheet to label what number stop its on, where it is, and what good deed it's spread. Plus he gets to label the world map, and pin any post cards or things he gets to the poster board. It's getting tougher and tougher to find places for all our new home school things. But, we took the last spare wall in the house.
Speaking of which, I think I can officially say home school has, in fact, taken over the home. At the very least my kitchen (which isn't too big to begin with). Hayden has his flags hanging down off of my utensil rod. The refridgerator is full of his colored state magnets, their PB &J, monthly themes, what week they are on, and if they're a ketchup or a pickle. I've lost two and a half cabinets to just trying to contain it all.
And then of course we had a wall full of poster boards, and Peyton's prime numbers are still on the adding tape on the chalk board. Not to mention the fact the table is always covered with binders and workbooks, and paper. Just out of control. I need a bigger house, stat!
Hayden has really been into learning how to cook. This week, in addition to his waffles, we made some banana bread. He did it pretty much by himself, and he even doubled the recipe! When he went to bed on Tuesday night he was all excited about having banana bread for breakfast the next morning.
Calib has also taken over one night a week to cook. This week, I told him he had to feed us on the budget I usually do (I try and stay between $12-$15 per dinner for the five of us). So I gave him $15 cash and took him to publix. He ended up getting some bacon cheeseburgers from the meat counter, buns, watermelon, and frozen broccoli. He spent just over $12.
I let him use some potatoes I had on hand, and we made some homemade potato chips (in the microwave!) That thing you see on pinterest totally works.
Teamwork Tuesday involved saving Fred the gummy worm, who had tipped over his 'boat' (cup), and lost his life preserver (life saver), and had only his oars (paperclips) to get to the life preserver. The boys worked together, and saved Fred. Then, they ate him and his life preserver.
And just for your daily dose of cuteness, I present to you Grant and Simpson. Grant is totally auditioning for a Cheerios commercial.
Waterstraut Waffle Wednesday this week was cornbread waffles with chili. They were very easy to make (just followed the directions on the jiffy box), and the chili was something I'd already made. It was in the freezer, so I just pulled it out and reheated it.
A new discovery this week: Apparently we have a Hibiscus plant in our yard. Asa picked these for me, they lasted about two days.
Big shout out this week to James. He sent us a thumb drive full of fun little videos and such. My kids are now Dinosaur Office obsessed though, so thanks for that James. Can I just take a second to say how awesome my real life mailbox has been lately though? I mean seriously, we're getting pen pal letters, thumb drives, post cards.. it's just awesome. Especially when you think about how most people are really only getting bills and junk mail. I love it. But, that really means I need to write some people back-- and we have to find some awesomeness to send back to James.
Also big shout out to Mother Nature! Fall has arrived in Florida, and we are loving it! We have windows and screen doors open in the evening, and are doing some of our home school out on the patio. Here's Hayden with his greater than, less than gators (notice how we also used it to show which state is better--- Florida > Ohio)
We took some time out to play mother may I, which the neighbors out on their patio found amusing.
And thanks to the lovely people who make Cheez-Its. We used the scrabble ones to show what letters should be capitalized. There were a lot of 'I's we had to correct, so Hayden kept having to yell at Peyton not to eat the I's. He kept saying 'Eat something we don't need, like Q's, or Z's!"
Thursday night we had our banana bread with the Italian Wonderpot. You put all this stuff in a pot- Vegetable stock, fettuccine, spinach, tomatoes, garlic, onion, sausage-- and cook. Thats it, and it turns out pretty awesome.
Meet our newest addition to our Disney Infinity family: Jake Skellington. I'm not thrilled with the one person, no play set characters. But, we had prepaid for him, and he's Peyton's favorite. So we had to get him. Peyton convinced Asa to let him pay 20 points to go get him at 8:30 on Thursday night.
Friday Justin came over to watch Indian Jones with Asa, Calib, and Peyton. Hayden and I entertained ourselves in other ways. Afterwards, Asa and I went out to dinner at Red Robin for date night.
Saturday we had to go into Tampa, and so we figured it was a good time to finally make it to the Ybor City Saturday Morning Market. We hauled in a TON of produce for $14.
Not to mention the fact that it was the cupcake festival. We picked up two for $1 each and shared. One chocolate and one vanilla. Both delicious.
We stopped by whole foods to pick up a bucket of wings for the Gators game. They have the best wings- and theres no junk in them, and they're baked not fried.
We had gone into Tampa to pick up the packet for Asa and Calib to run the Bucs Treasure Chests 5k. We even got to go into One Buc Place, and drive behind the gates and everything. The lobby of One Buc Place houses the one and only superbowl trophy they won, the ring, and all kinds of memorabilia.
They got their t-shirts, wristbands and such and we headed out!
Our final Saturday stop was at our library. They were having tween game afternoon. Peyton went and did that while the rest of us picked out some books and read. We were there about an hour before we went home to watch the Gators lost to LSU. The beginning of a very bad football weekend.
Saturday Asa and Calib ran the 5K in the morning. I really wanted all of us to go, but we thought getting Peyton and Hayden up at 6:30 and making them wait during the 5K, then come home for lunch, then go back to the stadium for the game- was just too much for them.
Calib ran the 5K in 24 minutes and 33 seconds. Asa ran it in 30 minutes and 10 seconds. Calib came in fourth place in his age group (13-15) and was just over a minute out of first place. First place got to be on the field for the coin toss, so he has something to shoot for now. How he kept the pace of an 8 minute mile for three miles, I have no idea. Crazy. And, hey, kudos to Asa too. That's pretty impressive! Since I wasn't there though, theres no actual 5K pictures. I'm pretty bummed about that. But just picture them sweaty and gross. Thats how they came home anyway.
After lunch, we headed out to the game. Saints fans were bad, but Eagles fans are not much better. In fact, our season pass liaison called us today to ask us about the game because they had so many issues with complaints about Eagles fans, and Asa had sent a 'fan issue' text about a drunk guy throwing out all kinds of bad words in the family section. It was promptly taken care of, which was awesome. When we got to the parking lot, there were all kinds of Eagles fans and some even came up to our car to 'boo' us. Not cool, Eagles fans, not cool. Then I sat down and saw this. Notice the article entitled " Union: Schiano leaked info". It's just not the Bucs year. At all.
Things went well for awhile, Until they didn't. You'll see that was documented by our expressions. 
Because Asa and Calib were one of the first 500 people to register for the 5K, they got to be on the field during half time. Asa took some cool pictures in the tunnel, while I tried to get some pictures from our seats.
Some might think you should give up on an 0-5 team. Most people around us in our section have been selling their season tickets. But not us. We have to go to everyone just so Asa can collect all 10 cups- a new one at each home game.
After blowing another lead, we lost the game. I go into those games all hoping we Tank for Teddy (arguably the best QB in next years draft), but then I go to the game and the other fans make me want to win anyway. But then we lose, and I'm fully aboard the 'Tank for Teddy' train again. Only with worse flip flop tan lines, and a sunburn regardless of how many times I reapply the sunscreen. The next two are night games though, so by the time we spend another Sunday in the Florida sun like that, it'll be November 17th. We came home to our awaiting pork sliders in the slow cooker. We topped with coleslaw and added some pineapple.
Monday we had an easy home school day, but instead of doing one planet we did two. I had lost our 'Mars' button last week and had to go get a new one delaying our progress. We couldn't possibly move on to Jupiter before we sewed on Mars.
After letting the boys off easy with some time trials and reading, we did a lot of housework, laundry and such. I was on a roll and made us an awesome dinner too. We had balsamic skirt steak topped with grilled onions, roasted garlic fingerling potatoes, red lobster cheddar bay biscuits, grilled asparagus, and pears. Yummy.
This week is Peyton's New Concept week. We started today with our Multiple Monster and Factor Ninja. LCM and GCF here we come. Fun times.
Also going in depth with some similes, metaphors, and hyperboles. He added some fun pictures to the front of his binder to help him remember.
We also just sewed on Saturn. We're getting close to being able to sew our pillows. I need to make sure we have stuffing on hand.
Treasure map reading is still in full swing, too. I couldn't resist taking Peytons picture today while he read in my comfy chair, wearing a snuggie with his rats. He's living the dream.
Next Up: Field Trips and Beach Days!
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