Remembrance Day

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada, a day to remember all those who have fought for the freedom of those who can't protect themselves.

This past week we have been studying the subject, and the boys have worked at memorizing "In Flanders Feilds."  Silas is pretty sweet, isn't he?

While I didn't want to dwell on the horrors of war, I did want to be honest about what it was like for the men and women that we are remembering.  The boys decided that they wanted to do a poster to show what they learned.

Here's Eli's.  He cut out everything so carefully and thoughtfully.  He also copied the entire poem on a separate piece of paper to put with it.  He is so wonderful.

And, here's Silas's.  I have to tell you, it is very interesting to me to homeschool two different children of two different ages.  As we started off making the posters, I kind of wanted both of the boys' posters to look like Eli's did.  But then Silas started cutting and pasting, and he knew exactly what he was doing, and he was just so cute. Then, when he cut out the big blob in the middle of the page, I was about to put a stop to it, thinking he was about to ruin the whole thing, and he said, "No, Mommy, it's the poison gas!"  That boy amazes me.  We'd talked about some of the awful things that the soldiers endured, and poison gas was one of those things.  Sometimes I think Silas isn't catching a word, but he got that.  I love him.

Anyway, I just wanted to say, that I am extremely grateful to the people who have fought for freedom, and for their mothers who are left behind.  Bless them all.

Halloween 2013

If there were a holiday I could do without, it would definitely be Halloween.  I'm a total party pooper, but seriously?  I just don't like it.  Which is why, when Eli planned on being a mummy for an entire month, I broke it to him three days before the big day that he had to pick a costume from the dress up box.  And when Silas wanted to be a vampire bat more than anything, I convinced him he actually wanted to be a knight, which he may or may not have been the last two years.  I did get a little creative when Eli came up with a "Coon skin hat" and a musket, and made him a Davey Crockett shirt (out of a tunic and a old curtain I bought at Value Village).  He doesn't know who Davey Crockett was, and neither did anyone who saw his costume, but he felt cool all tasseled up.  And hey, they got to eat ton of candy, and the Halloween fairy and "Dr Evans" took care of whatever was left after Halloween night, so they were happy in the end.

Here they are in all their costume box glory!

Of course, on Halloween night they needed costumes they could wear their snow suits under, so here they were in their revised costumes then:

And this one, because Aaron is amazingly creative, and everyone needs a little Aang in their lives: