Dad is 40!

Tom turned 40 last week, and we had a great celebration at home.  He loves quesadillas, so that is what I made, and Reagan insisted on buying him his current beer of choice.

Tyler, Collin, and Reagan made the banner that is hanging above his head.  They each wrote and drew things that he loves, that he says, or things that they associate with Dad.

Dessert was a homemade chocolate chip cookie cake.

Here is our birthday song video:

Tom asked for this shirt, so that was an easy birthday present!  The gift wrap is so funny only because Tom is not big on celebrating birthdays for adults, and for as long as I can remember he has always said, "Hooray, you were born" or something similar when talking about adult birthday celebrations.  When I saw the paper, I knew he would love it.

Tom decided he wanted to celebrate this milestone birthday by running a marathon.  With a lot of help from family, Tom and I were able to sneak away to Burlington, Vermont for two nights.  He ran in the Vermont City Marathon while we were there.

Uncle Paul ran the marathon too.  They both did great!  Burlington was a very beautiful and super cool place.  I hope to go back soon.

Happy 40th Tom, I hope it's a wonderful year!

Champ - the monster in Lake Champlain

Our final project for our Vermont state study, was to make a painting of Lake Champlain.  Lake Champlain is the largest lake in New England, and it is located in Vermont.

C and R each made their own painting.  They used large pieces of poster board for their canvas and painted using brushes, rollers, sponge brushes, and bath poofs.  They had fun using different items to paint.  I knew that if I wanted them to cover the entire surface, I had to make it interesting.  It worked.

Some people believe that a monster named Champ lives in Lake Champlain, so C and R made their own monsters to add to the lakes.  Here is R's monster in her lake:

Here is C's monster in the lake he painted:

I learn so much doing this states project with my children.  I have never heard of Champ before and I live in New England! 

Green Mountain State

Vermont is the Green Mountain State, and C and R painted the Green Mountains using watercolors.

R prefers abstract art!

To learn more about our Fifty States Project, click here.

Treats from Vermont

We are currently studying the state of Vermont as part of our Fifty States Project.  Our state studies always involve food, and Vermont = maple syrup and Ben & Jerry's.

I was so proud of C.  He is not a fan of anything sticky and usually only has powdered sugar on his pancakes, but he was a good sport and willing to try sticky maple syrup for the sake of geography!

He thought it was delicious!

Ben & Jerry's Phish Food ice cream - always a delicious treat!

Fifty States Project - Vermont

Our next state for the Fifty States Project is Vermont.  For this state study, we are reading:

M is for Maple Syrup, A Vermont Alphabet by Cynthia Furlong Reynolds - I love this series of books.  We only read the simple fact that follows each letter of the alphabet, but the longer text explaining how each fact is significant is great for older children.  We will definitely revisit this series as my children get older.

From Maple Trees to Maple Syrup by Kristin Thoennes Keller - This is a great book for young children to learn about how maple syrup is made.

Maple Syrup Season by Ann Purmell - This fictional book follows a family through maple syrup season.  At the end of the book, there is information about the legends of how maple syrup was discovered, and there is a maple syrup glossary.

To learn more about our Fifty States Project, click here to read about our method of learning about our beautiful country.