FUN Friday and Pumpkin Pecan Crunch!!!

Happy Friday all!!!  Another successful week of school! DONE!!!!!  By successful I mean no major meltdowns and no one getting into major trouble.  Which means we can indeed have a FUN Friday!

Speaking of FUN did you see my poll over to the right?
"What is your family's must have for the Thanksgiving Feast?"
Make sure you enter your answer!! No prize......just for FUN!

Now back to our FUN Friday! 

We are off to Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center.  They have been having a Scarecrow Festival for a few weeks and we have yet to go.  I am anxious to get some cute pictures of the boys.  Plus see Shangri La in the fall.  I have only seen it in the spring time. 

This picture below was in March 2009.  I am going to try to remember where exactly this is in Shangri La and see how it looks in November.  Isn't this picture AMAZING!!  It whispers peace in my ear just looking at it.

Then back home for a little school work to document our studies from Shangri La.  Fridays seem like a free day from school, but we always do a nature study.  Right now the boys are required to draw something they observed in nature that day.  They can use pencil, crayons and or colored pencils.  They then label what they drew and it goes in their notebook under Nature Study.  One of my goals is to expose them to nature daily.  But Fridays are when we really dig deep.  We usually browse the internet or find books here at home and read as much as we can about what we saw. Then they draw. I don't give instructions on how they should draw it. I want to see what they saw with their own eyes by their drawing.  Nature is an amazing gift from God and if we do not show that to our children, expose it to them daily, they will truly miss this gift.

As Charlotte Mason said.....
It is infinitely well worth the mother's while to take some pains every day to secure, in the first place, that her children spend hours daily amongst the rural and natural objects; and, in the second place, to infuse them, or rather to cherish in them, the love of investigation.

 Sorry I went off.  Nature does that to me. 

The fun continues........sleepover for the boys and another FREE night for me and Brant.  You know I could really get use to these FREE Fridays of home projects.

Finally for YOUR FUN Friday or weekend................

I want to leave you with this OH SO YUMMY recipe!!!!  You may remember it was one of my favorites I shared on Monday from blogs I found the week before.  You MUST give it a try!!!  It is a great, somewhat healthy snack for you and your family to enjoy.  A perfect snack for the season!!! 
This week I made THREE recipes of it and all are gone!  That says it is a keeper!

And it makes a sweet gift too!  I simply put some in a jar from my stash (around four dozen Mason, pickle and jelly jars).  Hey, you never know when you might need a jar!  I love jars about as much as I love acorns!
I added scrapbook paper to the top, jute and string for the ribbon, a tag and cute pumpkins.  A perfect gift!
WARNING: IT IS ADDICTIVE!!!!!

Pumpkin Pecan Crunch
(This recipe is actually from Chex and they call it Pumpkin Pie Crunch.  It could easily be done without nuts.)

I hope whatever you do this weekend you get OUTSIDE and have some FUN!!!!