Veterans Day

A tattered flag flapping in the wind along Magnolia Boulevard this morning.

They need to replace this Old Glory, pronto.

IN REMEMBRANCE: We started our morning talking about Veterans Day. The kids are certainly familiar with what it's about, but it never hurts to reinforce the ideas, right. So, we watched History.com's video about Veterans Day.

Afterward, the kids completed a couple of Veterans Day worksheets from EnchangedLearning.com. On one, they used 12 Veterans Day-related vocab words listed to finish sentences. Next, they arranged 10 Veterans Day words in alphabetical order (from army to valor).

Then I gave them a choice about the type of poem they'd like to write about Veterans Day. CJ chose to write an acrostic poem, using the word Veteran as his word starters. He wrote:

Valor
Endure
Tough
Excellent
Ready
America
Navy, Army

Bee chose to write a diamante poem (subject, two adjectives, three -ing words, four nouns, three more -ing words, two more adjectives, subject). She wrote:

Veterans
Brave, defenders
Marching, standing, fighting
Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines
Honoring, serving, remembering
Family, friends
Soldiers

We'll be putting those poems in a box that's Afghanistan bound. Rick's best bud from first grade and onward is in the Army, serving in harm's way over there. According to the USPS Web site, if we mail our box tomorrow, it should reach him by Christmas.

WE'RE BLUFFING: We decided to get our exercise with a view today. We ran along Millionaire's Row (Magnolia Boulevard). It was mostly cloudy, but we did catch Mount Rainier with some sun on it at least for a couple of moments.There's no "play park" along the bluff, but there are several open green spaces with benches, and the kids are always able to make a game out of that. Today, CJ decided he was The Bench of Wisdom. As people sat on the bench, he would tell their fortune.

When Christian sat down, The Bench of Wisdom told him he was going to have another baby. Christian laughed and told The Bench that wasn't happenin'. When I sat on the bench, the Wisdom told me, "You will get a black Wii." That made me LOL. Talk about projecting (as it's a well known fact in our house that The Bench of Wisdom himself wants a black Wii).
GIVING THANKS: Last week I bought a turkey breast on sale (tis the season). This morning, I realized that Rick, Kennedy and Christian all had the day off (a rarity) decided to do a full on Thanksgiving dinner. So today I made turkey, stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn muffins and a strawberry margarita cheesecake. Mmm, mmm, good.