Discovering Lost Treasure

One morning I woke up to some rustling in the bushes near my bedroom window. Something was in my backyard!

I went to the window scanning the area for the feared black and white stench bomb that too often frequents our yard. Thankfully there was no skunk, but I was in for another surprise. Trimming our bushes was the two cutest baby fawns and their mama. 

Because our neighbor's house is elevated from ours, fawns often get stuck in the yard as they can jump in but they can't jump out. I got up and opened the gates for them, while taking note to keep the dog inside.

They didn't seem to be in a hurry to leave. Instead, they made their way to the garden to eat what remained there. I cut the last pumpkin off the vine and made a peace offering to the doe. Another deer had already taken a bite of of it earlier in the season and it was destined to be deer food anyway. 

As the sun rose the deer bedded down in the shade of our tree. 

We enjoyed watching the deer from our windows while we held school inside. We put on some classical music for all present to enjoy.

Eventually, as the deer began to stir again, A1 and I went out and collected wormy apples- also destined to become deer food- to offer them. They came back and enjoyed a feast of apples and pumpkin. It was an amazing morning that felt kind of like living at a Disney cottage. Now if we could only train the deer to clean the dirty dishes, we'd be all set.    

Some other pretty amazing highlights of this week was J received a letter back from one of her favorite authors who she wrote a letter to last year in school. A reply came back in the summer and just got to us this week.

We then learned a lost piece of Mozart was recently rediscovered. We were able to listen to the piece being played for one of the first times in known history, over 200 years after it was written.

 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-lost-mozart-composition-hasnt-been-heard-for-centuries-now-you-can-listen-to-it-180985123/

In other historical news, an original Rembrandt, an original Picasso, and and 1 of the 8 originally signed Declarations of Independence were also recently found. Check your attics people, especially if you live in a really old house. 

Other fun things we did, was K and A2 went to story time at the library and did some fun experiments.

We then went back for craft club. Dragon eggs.

This prompted J and A1 to finish painting their baby dragons.

These will go perfect with K's castle, which he finished this week.

When K started this castle, he actually didn't know what Hogwarts was, so we decided to watch the movie. Next we will read the first Harry Potter book. 

This week, we  took a drive to enjoy the fall leaves.

We also took a hike above the prescribed burns happening in our area to escape from the smoke.

As we woke one morning, the smoke had settled in the cool of the night and found its way into our home. We decided this would be a great time to discuss fire safety and a fire escape plan.

For health, we learned about the importance of sleep and what happens in your brain and body while you sleep. A1 was particularly fascinated with the concept of sleep walking, so we dove into that topic a little bit more.

The kids continued with Math, LA, science and history.

For art, we channeled our inner Rapunzel and painted the walls. It's a great thing to do if you happen to have massive amounts of packing paper laying around.

We also did puzzles.

This puzzle was so challenging,
the principal decided to come help with it

For PE Dad took the younger kids on a bike ride while Coach took  J and I rucking around the lake. For those that don't know, rucking involves putting on a weighted backpack and walking around. It's just as safe as walking, with many more health benefits. I carried 25 lbs, while J carried 8. The goal is eventually load my pack with 35 lbs and J's with fifteen.

Coach took a swim, too.

Saw a crane

While walking across the rocks, a turkey vulture circled ahead. That was fun to watch. We told the bird, we ain't dead yet. It flew off in search of a real dinner.

Now we're just enjoying a relaxing weekend at home.