Reagan's Plimoth Plantation Field Trip

Last week I chaperoned the third grade field trip to Plimoth Plantation.  I loved spending the day there with Reagan, and I'm very happy that I was able to go.  Due to budget cuts, I had to drive my own car instead of riding the bus with the class.  (If all of the chaperons went on the buses, they would have needed an extra bus.)  I did miss that experience!!  As loud and crazy as it is riding the bus with a bunch of third graders, it's amazing what you hear and learn from the kids.

I was assigned four children for the day:  Allison, Reagan, Owen, and Asante.

We began with the Wampanoag village.

 It was smoky and dark in the wetu; I didn't get the best picture.

I was prepared for a very cold day (especially being on the water), but the sun was shining and it wasn't windy, so the temperature was actually quite pleasant.  (I was actually overdressed!)

We spent most of our time visiting with the colonists in their village.

 Reagan tried the 17th century stilts.  A bunch of kids tried them, and she was the only one who managed to get up on them.  She wasn't able to walk with them, but she got up there and no one else could do it!  I'm crediting her awesome core strength from gymnastics!

Reagan has actually read quite a bit about pilgrim life, so she was very prepared for this field trip.  She asked great questions and interacted wonderfully with the colonists.  I was so proud of her!

When I chaperoned Collin's field trip to Plymouth, we stopped to see Plymouth Rock first and this cut into the time we had at Plimoth Plantation.  This year, the buses only drove by the rock and the Mayflower for the kids to see quickly from inside the bus.  The advantage was that we had plenty of time to explore the villages instead of feeling rushed like we did the year I went with Collin's class.  The summer after Collin's field trip, I took Collin, Reagan, and Kate to Plymouth (Plimoth Plantation, Plymouth Rock, and the Mayflower) so that we could explore more on our own; I hope to do that again next summer.

Overall, it was a great day.  I had car trouble on the way home and one of the boys in my group was a bit of a challenge, but I enjoyed sharing the experience with Reagan and I'm very grateful that she wanted me to be there with her.

The Mayflower

Kate's Turkeys

Paper plate turkey

T is for turkey

Shape turkey

Handprint sun catcher glittery turkey

 Pumpkin pie play dough turkeys

 Handprint turkeys

Kate helped me make these pretzel rod turkey treats.

Phew!  I think we've made enough turkeys for Thanksgiving already!

Veterans Day

The first graders at our school complete a Veterans Day project each year that requires them to visit the Veterans Memorial in town.  Collin and Reagan both did this in first grade, and during one visit when we were looking for the names of relatives on the memorial, Reagan noticed that Great Grandpa Paskowski did not have a brick on the memorial walkway.  She said that she wanted to get him a brick, and I said we would work on that.

Reagan is now in third grade, and we FINALLY followed through with the purchase of the brick.  Over the summer, we visited the veterans agent and completed the paperwork.  At that time, Reagan presented Grandpa with a copy of the brick order and a card that she made for him.

The brick was laid and we attended the ceremony honoring all veterans on Veterans Day.

After the ceremony, we went to Jerry Remy's for lunch.

Great Grandpa gave Reagan a nice card thanking her for the brick.

I'm sure this Veterans Day will always be very memorable for our family.

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Collin and Reagan were nominated by Logan Pacheco to take the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in August and they accepted the challenge!  I just realized that I never posted anything about this.

Here are their videos:

Kate was not nominated, but she thought it looked like fun!  Here is her video:

Reagan nominated Tyler; you can see his video here:

Tyler nominated me; here is my video:

Tom was the last to be nominated (by Mark Wilson); here is his video:

None of my children knew anything about ALS, so in addition to giving us an opportunity to donate to an important charity, this also created some awareness within our own family.

Gymnastics and Field Hockey

On Sunday, Reagan competed in her first official gymnastics meet of the season.

Her scores were vault 8.2, beam 8.2, bars 8.3, and floor 8.4.  She earned three second place ribbons and one third place ribbon for the events, and a third place ribbon in the all around.

Reagan is also playing field hockey at Teamworks right now.  It's such a fun sport!

 I took the above picture through glass in an area without much light, but that's Reagan in the white tank top.

Reagan is super excited that Karlie is playing field hockey with her this season.  Karlie is one of her friends that was moved to a different school in the redistricting, so it's great that they can spend this time together every week.

 Addie and Madison are also playing field hockey with them, and I really included these two pictures because I love the photo bombs by Max, and if you look closely you will see Collin and Jack in the background also photo bombing.

Kate's Post Halloween Ghost

Two days after Halloween, Kate decided she wanted to make a ghost.  Sure, why not!?

This craft was the beginning of Kate's current obsession with glitter.  Every day now she asks to make something sparkly!