Soap carving....

We have been continuing our project on China, and today we learned about Ancient Jade statues. We looked at many of them online as well and also talked about the more modern Jade Canoe at Vancouver airport - which we have actually seen and had our picture taken with.

As our craft today we carved our own statues out of soap to give us an idea of what it would have been like to carve the Jade statues. Abigail carved a snail and then she carved a face. We watched videos on youtube of soap carving, to see how it is done, and then they went to work!!!

Sam was carving an animal and then his soap broke and he started carving a teepee and then he just decided to carve the soap away totally! He really enjoyed the technique of carving though!!!

At first Abigail found it quite difficult, and her first bar broke in two - but then she got the knack and her second one went really well! Her third one - the face - was REALLY good!!! :)

This was such a great craft and a fun way to pass some time - so cheap too :) The soap crumbs swept up very easily!!

number leaves...

Sam using his number leaves this morning. These are leaf shapes cut out of coloured card stock with numbers written on them. I laminated them. Sam uses them for basic math like number order (forwards and backwards), basic additon. We also play games such as 'hunt the number'. Sam also has a number tree to put the leaves on.

You could do sets of the leaves and play 'snap' or matching games too.

More deer visiting.....

This morning heading through our yard and down our driveway....stay safe little ones....

Borderlines....

Post bound....

Clinging on......

Fallen....

Fall 09....

Snowy Thanksgiving Day walk....

It's been Thanksgiving Weekend here - I LOVE three day weekends! We celebrated yesterday really with our big dinner and family movie and relaxing etc etc as we knew we wanted to go out and about today. Although this afternoon the children went out sledding, and Lloyd and I went for a walk through the snowy woods with my camera. It's been snowing on and off for almost a week. The temperatures are well below average. the coldest Thanksgiving for 50 years they say. But I'm actually enjoying watching it fall and being cozy at home. It has us in the mood for Christmas shopping and comfort foods - baking and cooking and snuggling up with good movies!!! :)

asleep amongst my scraps.....

Kitty likes to sleep beside me wherever I am....if I am sat at the island he will sleep on the chair beside me....and when I am scrapbooking he will curl up in my basket of scraps :) Silly, sweet little kitten!!! :)

Silly Susie pics...

Kitty pics...

Round 2...

Today Lloyd made me two loaves of wholewheat bread.....it is DELICIOUS!!!! Especially eaten warm from the oven!!! :) I think he is really enjoying this new hobby of his!!! :)

Stay safe....

It is hunting season and our land is surrounded by land owned by hunters....we can only hope these deer pass through unharmed. They were beautiful to watch this afternoon as they played and feasted on the land....

Baker in the making.....

Yesterday Lloyd made his very first loaves of bread!! He had a little help from Jamie Oliver and Delia Smith but otherwise he did it all by himself :) The bread was yummy!