Christmas Parade 2013

Since Kaylee joined the American Heritage Girls troop we have had many new opportunities and learning experiences. During Christmas, we went caroling at a retirement community and we were also in the county parade.

The girls were each given a blank cutout of a Christmas tree made out of foam. Our homework was to decorate the tree to carry/wear during the annual Christmas Parade. Kaylee was very excited because this was her first time in a parade.

Each girl started with a blank foam Christmas Tree. Kaylee decided to paint her tree green.

Before today she refused to use the hot glue gun. 

Holding a Christmas ball while the hot glue cooled.

Kaylee's Christmas tree is all ready for the parade!

It was a cold and windy day. All of us had rosy wind burned cheeks. But, Kaylee never complained. We waited an hour by our float for the parade to start. We had to be there early because they closed the roads close to parade starting time. The girls kept busy by decorating the tree that was part of our float. 

We had a quick picnic lunch before the parade. 

Kaylee is ready to go. 

Parade time! 

We like to bake!

Kaylee has always enjoyed helping out in the kitchen. The Montessori Method encourages children to participate in household chores at a very young age. Kaylee has a bin of appropriate sized kitchen gadgets just for her. She has her own rolling pin, mixing spoons, baking brush, spatulas, cheese shredder, slicer, chopper, pie pans, and more.

One of Kaylee's favorite household activities is baking and cooking. She helps in the kitchen almost everyday. She especially likes helping to make the pies and bread during each holiday. It's an all day event at our house. We make everything from scratch.

Spreading melted dairy free butter on our warm homemade rolls. 

Pressing pie dough into her personal sized apple pie pan.

Sealing the apple pie crust with a fork.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Making Kaylee's Halloween Costume

Kaylee really likes My Little Pony. She wanted to be a character from My Little Pony named Twilight Sparkle. We looked at all the local stores and searched the internet. We could not find an affordable and appropriate costume. I decided to take on the task of making her costume. I do not have any sewing skills. I had to attempt to create this costume without sewing.

Kaylee preparing the fabric for Twilight's cape. We then used seam tape to create easy seams. 

Together we made Twilight Sparkle's wings out of craft foam pieces that we hot glued together. Then, we put a clothes hanger through the wings so they would stay open and to make it sturdy.

Kaylee is cutting the fabric into strips for Twilight Sparkle's tail.

The tail is all done. I looped the fabric around a piece of velcro. Then, I opened the velcro and put it around her belt loop.

The costume is complete! We also sprayed her hair with the temporary hair color to match Twilight Sparkle. She was SO happy with her costume that she helped to make.

Pumpkin Carving

Time to carve that pumpkin from our trip to the pumpkin patch!! It's such a messy fun time!

Cleaning out the seeds! 

Concentrating....

Our family pumpkins are all carved and on display! Kaylee's pumpkin is in the middle.

Belvedere Plantation

We went to Belvedere Plantation in the fall. We went with our homeschool group and got a discount. Otherwise, it would have been too expensive for our whole family to go. It was another great day.

It was cold! Brr...notice our hats and coats?

Petting the goats.

Kaylee posing with the straw family. Can you find her?

She found a wooly bear caterpillar while choosing her pumpkin at the pumpkin patch.

Jumping on the giant air pillow! 

Riding a "pony." 

Swinging on a rope swing in the barn.

Leaf Study

In the fall, we studied leaves. I found a great free resource and downloaded fall leaf identification cards.

We went for a walk around our neighborhood and collected different types and colors of leaves. It was a lot of fun.

When we got home, we matched up the leaf to the identification card.

All matched up! It was an easy fun activity to introduce leaves. We also read quite a few books about leaves and why leaves change color.