Thanksgiving Meal

Turkey, mashed potatoes, roasted beets,carrots,butternut squash and onions from the garden,
sweet potatoes, rolls,cranberry sauce,brussel sprouts,dressing...it was delicious!!

"doll" food..lol

Regardless of what you put on your table, and who gathered around it,

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving. I know I did.

((hugs)) KateinNJ

Happy Thanksgiving

Dear Friends,

The table has been set, and the bird is in the oven, so I thought I would stop in

to leave a Happy Thanksgiving message for you all. I know that many of you

are not in the United States, and this holiday may have no meaning for you,

but I hope you will grab a cup of coffee and keep reading today anyway.

This is the time of year when traditionally, we offer up thanks

for all the good in our lives. I would be remiss if I did not thank each and every

one of my friends here in the blogosphere, including those of you that I actually know

in real life, for the support and friendship you give all year long.The past year has been

a trial for me, as you all know. Blogging has taken a back seat to getting a handle on

my life as it is now. I am truly thankful for each and every one of you that have hung

in there with me, especially as sporadically as I show up here.

Now, I must get back to cooking..

I have veggies to roast from the garden..beets, carrots (reg and purple),onions,butternut squash and beets.

The veg platter has been set out for Princess along with some peanut butter/yogurt dip

that is her favorite right now. Hopefully this will keep her happy while watching the

parade and she will let me get my work done. ;-)

Happy Thanksgiving Friends !!

((BIG HUGS)) KateinNJ

Note from Kate...I forgot to hit "publish", so this is late. lol

Thanksgiving Already?

It feels like Halloween just happened.

We've been busy here..backyard bowling... Birthday parties for friends..

Of course, we've been snacking...

and making some art..

and eating our meals together..

and sharing a laugh...

or just a quiet moment now and then...

grab an apple from the bowl on the kitchen table.. put your feet up and enjoy an afternoon outside while we still can..Camp Katie Day will be Wednesday here in our little Garden State Homeschool.

Come on back to see how much fun we have.

I have lots of books to write about also, hopefully next week I can start posting

my favorites regularly again.

Thankful Turkeys at Camp Katie Day

This Monday was a Camp Katie Day just like every Monday.

This week's theme..Thankful Turkeys !

First the girls played outside...it was a lovely Autumn day in the Garden State.

Julie and Peanut taking turns on the horse..

Princess and Bella played on the swings.. Fun was had by all!
After lunch, I set them up with the Thankful Turkey Craft..

I made a photo copy of some turkey decorations I had on hand, and Princess

and I had already cut out multi colored "feathers" for the turkeys. We used red,brown and orange,

2 of each color for each girl.

I had the girls start by cutting out the turkeys and pasting them to yellow construction paper..

for the first time in Camp Katie Day history I heard not one complaint..they got right

to work...

I handed out the "feathers" while they cut, and asked the younger two if they wanted

me to write what they were thankful for on their feathers, or I could write it down on

another piece of paper, and they could copy them. Peanut opted for the copying, Jules

was happier to dictate to me. ;-)

I gave the girls the option to use either side of the turkey once cut out. Jules went

with the black turkey, so I cut out an eye for her to color for her bird. The others all chose

to color the turkey themselves, so they used the white side.

Once they wrote what they were thankful for on the feathers they glued them onto the turkey.

Every girl listened to my instruction about where to place the feathers except my daughter,

who went "freestyle". She is all about freestyle in her art right now, and I try not to "force" an outcome in our arts and crafts.

They were all very proud of the finished "Thankful Turkey"

and I was very proud of how many things they were all thankful for..way more than we had "feathers". I was especially proud of Jules, she finished the entire project without saying

"do I have to finish?" lol. No, I never make them finish if they don't want to..in case you were wondering. ;-) After each girl finished she had more paper and supplies to make drawings if she chose to, they all did..mostly for each other. Can you feel the love? Then they went outside for a bit more running around and came in for some reading time.

Have I mentioned how much it warms my heart that all four of them love books???

All in all, Thankful Turkey day was a success here at Camp Katie Day.

I hope you are enjoying your Autumn as well.

Jump Start Escape From Adventure Island

I have been lucky enough to be involved with Jump Start

here in our corner of the Garden State for a little while now,

and we really enjoy their products. Princess received a Wii for

her 7Th birthday in September, and was happy to play her Jump Start

game for as long as I would let her. Recently, Cherie Marino at JumpStart asked

me to review the newest Jump Start Wii game, Escape from Adventure Island.

They kindly provided me with a copy to review.

Princess loves it even more than the first game! She has had so much fun with Peanut

and the other girls, creating her Jumpie and dressing her, parading her around in the fashion show...The game will be available at major retailers nationwide for $29.99

on November 17Th 2009. The ESRB has rated it "E" for everyone.

It is aimed at children between the ages of 5-9.

The concept is that there has been an emergency landing on Adventure Island. The kids are encouraged to use all their courage, brain power and explorer skills to repair their blimp and find their way home. They need to collect white sand dollars by completing game missions so they can be traded for helium tanks and fix the blimp.

There is a story mode where you help Frankie fix the crashed blimp by playing different games and (Princess's favorite part), unlocking new clothing and house parts.

In practice mode, you can quickly practice educational games to improve your learning skills.

It covers everything from Alphabetizing to Division and Fractions..Sight Words to Homophones.

Princess and her friends remained blissfully unaware they were "learning" anything. ;-)

Princess and Bella (age 7) had no trouble navigating the game with the Wii remote, but the Peanut and Jules needed a bit more help (at 4 and almost 5 years old).They all had fun.

If you would like a chance to win your own copy, please head right over to Jump Start's blog here http://jumpstarttimes.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/escape-win.jpg

Good Luck!!

Veteran'sDay

Veteran's Day is about thanking the men and women who have served,
or are serving in the military. Do you know a veteran? Call and say thank you.
It was always a special day for Princess and her favorite veteran, Poppa.
She loved drawing him a picture, and giving him a big hug to say Thank You
every year. When he died, I found an envelope filled with the pictures she gave him.
We will call our other favorite veteran, Uncle Paulie later today.
The girls we be here, minus Peanut, who is under the weather, and we will do a coloring page or two..I found some here...
and here
Now, go hug a Veteran!!

Funny Halloween Story

In the interest of full disclosure..I can be absentminded.

I know some of you will be shocked...those who know me..

not so much. Now that we have that out in the open, I am going to share

a story about our Trick or Treat experiences this year.

Princess and I headed out into our neighborhood with my NLCP,

and all around Gal Pal and Co-Conspirator Extraordinaire,Naomi

and her daughter, Peanut and her boyfriend,Rick.

Farmer Dad stayed home in case of Trick or Treaters.

We were a happy bunch at the outset, until Princess didn't like the way

her belt squeezed her belly, and undid it and got tangled in the too long costume that

she insisted on wearing despite many maternal warnings of just such a calamity.

Farmer Dad was called to pick her up for a quick costume change, returned her without a costume, but with his Halloween mask only and "street clothes". Anyhow...

I was trying to roll with it, I enjoy Halloween and was dressed as a Witch, as is my

tradition, we had been walking for while, my hat kept flying off in the wind.

I kept picking it up and Princess kept whining. We called Farmer Dad to pick her up,

per her request, he came, she refused to leave. Right before he arrived at our extremely

top secret location (it must have been we saw not one other Trick or Treater)I noticed my hat was gone...then realized it must have been gone for a while. Two or three blocks actually.

Rick gallantly offered to go walk

back the way we came to find my hat in the now encroaching darkness.

We sat down on the curb (after the girls hit up the houses they wanted to on that section of road) and had a piece of candy. Yeah, yeah...should have had it x-rayed first..I've never had

trouble with candy and don't bother with that rule. Please don't hate me.

Farmer Dad pulled up to drop Rick off, with my hat. We continued on our merry way

to walk another couple of blocks back to the house...pot roast was waiting after all.

When I wrote about Halloween originally, I took the story out to protect Rick's privacy,

and my dignity. Rick was a little bit offended to not be mentioned , there was no snit..he just

appeared a tiny bit hurt to his gf, who reported it to me, so I decided all bets were off on his privacy. Let this be a warning to all who hang out with me in real life, if you complain

(even to someone else) about being "left out" of a story here on my blog, I will find out, and you will become "BLOG FODDER". In case you missed it Rick, this was your public apology.

I really do appreciate your walking back to find my favorite Witch hat without any complaint at all. It is official, you are a nice guy.My hat, by the way is adorable even on me and I never look good in hats.

Halloween Magic

Tell me, did your family get into the "spirit"?

Did you see any black cats?

Was your day "BOO-tiful" ?

We spent a lot of Camp Katie Day (s) getting ready

crafts to make...costumes to be decided upon..I'm not going to lie to you, there was also snacking involved...Clear one minute, raining the next...Didn't stop the Trick or Treaters..The Mom's even had fun...A ripped costume did however, and Farmer Dad was called to pick up and return with a fresh costume....note to self..next time do it yourself....;-)Back home to dinner of pot roast,carrots and potatoes (got to love the crock pot!) and some Mummy pizzas.....Hope your Halloween was just delicious too!