Butterflies, Rudolph and Fingerprints

This is a different kind of school week for us. Because we are getting ready for the big holiday, and I still want to do school. We will be doing half days of traditional school, and then half days of fun stuff.

Today, the kids both had to do Math, and Caitlin did Head of the Class, and DJ did his Virtual School Science. If I had my way they would do Math everyday.

The second half of the day was dedicated to Arts and Crafts. DJ and Caitlin designed their own Advent Calendar this year. Drawing and coloring Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. They then made 25 circles in the center of his nose. Each day a colored pom pom will be glued to a circle, so his nose won't actually be red, LOL! Then I wanted to make thumbprint reindeer ornaments. So, DJ went first, and for some reason he put his thumbprint at an angle instead of straight up and down. So, I decided to add another thumbprint and make those their ears, then paint on the faces and horns. You can see the results below. It is actually hard to see the thumbprints in the pictures. My one eye ran so my reindeer is crying, or her makeup got smudged. O got the idea from Pinterest, and you can find it on my board with the original website and project there on my Artsy Fartsy Board.  There is a thumbprint Christmas Tree craft too, and lots of other adorable crafts. The final project was getting out all the Christmas decorations from the closet. Caitlin had a good old time arranging the stockings and various Santas I have collected over the years. We don't actually decorate until Thanksgiving night. That is our tradition.

The few minutes that it was warm out, and the neighbors were not burning, Caitlin went out to play in the backyard. Since she is doing a butterfly book for 4H, she has been doing a lot of observing of butterflies. Today she saw the one shown below. We have never actually seen one of these in our yard, or anywhere else. It is an Eastern Comma Butterfly and it migrates south for the winter, or hibernates up north. Habitat is said to be with Elm trees, deciduous trees and wet swampy areas. We definitely have none of those things in our backyard, LOL! So, I guess he was just taking a rest on his journey elsewhere. We do have a Cypress tree that does shed its leaves, but not technically deciduous I don't think anyways.

What did you do today? What traditions does your family have on Thanksgiving? Please share.