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Monday, November 24, 2008

Fun Facts about Thanksgiving


In a survey conducted by the National Turkey Federation, nearly 88 percent of Americans said they eat turkey at Thanksgiving. The average weight of turkeys purchased for Thanksgiving is 15 pounds, which means some 690 million pounds of turkey were consumed in the U.S. during Thanksgiving in 2007.

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According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest pumpkin pie ever baked weighed 2,020 pounds and measured just over 12 feet long. It was baked on October 8, 2005 by the New Bremen Giant Pumpkin Growers in Ohio, and included 900 pounds of pumpkin, 62 gallons of evaporated milk, 155 dozen eggs, 300 pounds of sugar, 3.5 pounds of salt, 7 pounds of cinnamon, 2 pounds of pumpkin spice and 250 pounds of crust.

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Though many competing claims exist, the most familiar story of the first Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth Colony, in present-day Massachusetts, in 1621. More than 200 years later, President Abraham Lincoln declared the final Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving. Congress finally made Thanksgiving Day an official national holiday in 1941.

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Originally known as Macy's Christmas Parade—to signify the launch of the Christmas shopping season—the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade took place in New York City in 1924. It was launched by Macy's employees and featured animals from the Central Park Zoo. Today, some 3 million people attend the annual parade and another 44 million watch it on television.

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Snoopy has appeared as a giant balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade more times than any other character in history. As the Flying Ace, Snoopy made his sixth appearance in the 2006 parade.

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The average age of the Mayflower passenger was 32. The oldest Mayflower passenger was 64.

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There was no milk, cheese, bread, butter or pumpkin pie at the original Thanksgiving Day feast.

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Contrary to popular belief, the Pilgrims did not have big buckles on their clothing, shoes, or hats.
Buckles did not come into fashion until the late 1600s – more appropriate for the Salem Witchcraft trial time period.

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The cranberry got its name because the pale pink blossoms on the plant resembled a crane’s head and neck. The name craneberry stuck, eventually becoming cranberry.
Fresh cranberries are ideal for cranberry sauce. Cranberries of the highest quality will always bounce! (If you try this at home, please wash the cranberries before eating.)

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President Abraham Lincoln established the original date for our National Thanksgiving Day celebration in 1863.

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President Thomas Jefferson scoffed at the idea of establishing a national “Thanksgiving Day.”

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Congress did not declare Thanksgiving a national holiday until 1941.

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The average person consumes 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving Day. (Now that's a lot of turkey!)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The First Thanksgiving lasted for three days.

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Fun Facts on the Turkey

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Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be our national bird.

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Domesticated turkeys cannot fly, however wild turkeys can fly up to 55 miles per hour over short distances.

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A turkey under 16 weeks of age is called a fryer. A five to seven month old turkey is called a roaster.

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Turkeys can drown if they look up when it's raining!

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Quick History of Thanksgiving

The Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock on December 11, 1620. Their first winter was devastating and by the fall they had lost 46 of the original 102 people who sailed on the Mayflower. However, the harvest of 1621 was a bountiful one and the remaining colonists decided to celebrate with a feast, so they invited the Native American Indians who had helped them survive their first year. The feast lasted three days and included wild ducks, geese, venison, fish, boiled pumpkin, berries and dried fruits. It is not certain that wild turkey was a part of their feast since the pilgrims used the word “turkey” to mean any sort of wild fowl.
However, this first Thanksgiving feast was not repeated the following year. In fact, it wasn’t until June of 1676 that the governing council of Charlestown, Massachusetts proclaimed another Day of Thanksgiving to express thanks for the good fortune that had seen their community securely established. However, much like the original Thanksgiving in 1620, this day was also not repeated the following year. Instead, October 1777 marked the first time that all 13 colonies joined in a Thanksgiving celebration and yet again, this was a one-time affair.
In fact, until 1863 Thanksgiving Day had not been celebrated annually since the first feast in 1621. It was Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor, whose efforts eventually led to what we recognize today as Thanksgiving. She encouraged President Abraham Lincoln to establish the last Thursday in November as a day for national thanksgiving and prayer, hence, Thanksgiving Day.
Today, Thanksgiving in America has become a tradition of spending time with families, watching football and parades filled with floats and marching bands, feasting on turkey and other home-cooked food, and giving thanks for everything received in the past year.



Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for.
In the midst of cooking, baking, eating, laughing with friends and family, don't forget that the reason for thanksgiving was to give thanks.
Psalm 69:29-30
"But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.
I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. "
We will be celebrating our Thanksgiving at home this year, only without my grandma. For us, having her come is the highlight of this holiday. She is too sick, too weak to travel. I am greatly disappointed but am thankful that we have the opportunity to go visit with her on Friday. No shopping for me on Black Friday- haha. I've NEVER been shopping the day after Thanksgiving.
* Yesterday, the children's choir sang songs of thankfulness, gratitude and good food. Beforehand, they passed the microphone around and said something they were thankful for. Rebecca said she's thankful for Christian friends and family. Emily said she was "thank you for" everything.


Saturday, November 22, 2008

Simple Machines

* oops *
*This was supposed to go on the homeschooling blog but it didn't make it over there. *

What is a simple machine?
It is anything that has a lever, wedge, pulley, inclined plane, wheel and axle, or screw to make a job easier for us. That is what the girls have been learning this week in science. To reinforce the topic, we took a trip to the science museum to see all of these different types of simple machines in action.

We were side tracked by the rats playing basketball,


the dissection of a cow's eye,


the dominos,
building the arch,
and so much more.


Here's the wheel and axle in motion.They saw first hand all of the other types of simple machines but I didn't get any photos of those.
It was a great day of learning and we were glad to share it with our fiends, the Cravey's.

Gem Mining

One of the recent field trips the girls and I went on was digging for gems. It was cold, muddy, and a bit fun. We had our pals, the Cravey's, there as well, making it all the more fun.
There is an actual gem mine less than 30 minutes from here and I've always wanted to take Rebecca but never made it a point to go. The owners of this mine are retiring and selling the land. They are only open for school field trips so when another homeschool mom set up a trip out there, we jumped on it. There might not have been another opportunity to go.

I'll admit, I was not completely thrilled about going. If Darla wasn't going too, I probably would have backed out due to the cold weather. Darla, however, was loving every minute of it.


The girls and Andrew


Emily sitting a hole that someone else had previously dug up.


Rebecca has a garnet!

Emily watching Daniel dig under the roots of a large tree.

Below is a bag full of our findings. The girls really enjoyed the sluicing but the water was ice cold. We brought the rocks home to wash up in the warm water.



We found a bunch of amethyst, a garnet, those green rocks, lots of different types of granite, marble (a huge slab leftover from a counter piece!), and lots of mica.

Rebecca has an extensive rock collection with a jewelry box of mica. She was so excited that there was mica everywhere- just ready to be picked up!

Here is just a few rocks that we washed up. The rest will have to wait until spring when we can do it outside. It'll be more fun then, right?

This photo doesn't do this one justice. There is an amazing purple color inside this rock. It's the largest piece of amethyst that we found.

I forget the name of this one but I believe it's schist

Some of these pieces were so clear that they looked like chunks of glass.


Here is a huge chunk of mica. I love how you can see the layers in it.


These are amazonite feldspar.

I can't wait to polish them up in Rebecca's rock tumbler.

Quartzite a metamorphic rock.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Great Minds Want To Know:

I read this and thought I'd share
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GREAT MINDS WANT TO KNOW:
Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a change!

JOHN MCCAIN: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

SARAH PALIN: From where I live I can see the chicken crossing the road.

HILLARY CLINTON: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure right from Day One! that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun?

COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken. What is your definition of road?

AL GORE: I invented the chicken.

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

AL SHARPTON: Why are all the chickens white? We need more black chickens.

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his current problems before adding new problems.

OPRAH: Well, I understand that this chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed access to the other side of the road.

NANCY GRACE: That chicken crossed the road because he's guilty! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART: No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No bird gave me any insider information about crossing.

DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain, alone.

JERRY FALWELL: Because the chicken was gay! Can't you people see the plain truth? That's why they call it the "other side." Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you may become gay, also. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless phrases like "the other side." That chicken should not be crossing the road. It's as plain and as simple as that.

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why a chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

GRANDMA: Amen!

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it had experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

FLAVOR FLAV: Say what?

JOHN LENNON: Imagine all the chickens crossing roads together.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken 2008, which will not only cross roads, but will integrate with those that lay eggs. Henhouse Explorer is an integral part of eChicken 2008. This new platform is much more stable than previous versions.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road pass beneath the chicken?

COLONEL SANDERS: Which way did he go?

Monday, November 17, 2008

For you mom

Only my mom and Misty will get this.
Jay has been asking for me to fix this so I did and Emily liked it.
Didn't know what you started all those years before boxed Hamburger Helper came out, did you Mom?
*Sidenote: the corn is on the side. Jay never liked corn mixed with it. It's a veggie. Funny both my mom and Misty noticed the corn was missing.

more pics of Disney on Ice

Pixie Hallow
*See ya real soon!* from Mickey and the gang

Disney on Ice

Jay surprised the girls with tickets to see Disney on Ice. Thanks to a friend of his, he was able to get us great tickets in the first row (excluding floor seats). We were all pretty excited and it turned out to be a very good show. The costumes were fabulous. It was taken right from the movies. And the only one who fell during a difficult move was Ariel.Emily sporting her Tinkerbell hat.

The show was broken up into 4 parts: Cars, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King and Tinkerbell.

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Cars

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The Little Mermaid

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The Lion King




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Tinkerbell