This may seem like a strange post……………wildfires and party?!?!?! Well I didn’t want to just post about the wildfires that we have been experiencing in our area, so I thought I would put some photos in with our homeschooling party that we did last week.
We moved down to the mountains a couple of years ago and I thought we were pretty safe from “natural disasters.” I never gave much thought to wildfires in the mountains before. In our little town, we are a pocketed area that received a lot of rain this past summer. If you went ten minutes in any direction, it was considered a drought. But in our little town, the way the escarpment holds those clouds in—it produced much rain. As much as I did not enjoy running outside to bring in my patio chair covers everyday for the daily rain, I am now thankful for that rain because of the wildfires burning in areas 40 minutes around us.
A couple of weeks ago we started experiencing it. When I stepped outside, it smelled like a great big campfire. The smoke was thick on numerous days and the weather people advised us to stay indoors for the air quality. My children have all contracted a chest cough during this time. The fires are burning to the north east and south west of us. This past weekend, my husband and I had to drive down to Table Rock, South Carolina to pick up some wood, and we got to see where the main fire is at.
As we were driving in, it was like one big giant, smoke cloud hovering over top of the region. Our normally blue skies are tainted with this thick, grayish plume.
Table Rock is one of our favorite places to go to in the warm months. We swam every weekend our first year here at the park. It is sad to see it be on fire. The news reported that it hasn’t burned in 100 years in this place.
On the way back, we decided we needed a better view and drove up to Caesers Head, which when at the top, you can see four states around you.
We couldn’t believe how smoky it was up there. In the video clip there is a lake that you can see on the left and to the right there is a little bit of white in the water and that is where the Black Hawk helicopters were picking up water to drop on the fire. It seems like a little water balloon dropping water on it. This is such a remote area it is hard to be contained. 
We are praying for the all the firefighters and police officers that have been on the scene working to put these wildfires out. Many local stores and churches are collecting supplies and meals to donate to the workers. Not sure when they will be out. I have heard many reports that they could burn for months. That is hard for me to comprehend and the fact that some of these are suspected of arson. Sad.
On a happier note…………………….here are some pictures from our fall homeschooling party.
Every month, we try and do something at our local library with our homeschooling group. These past couple of months got a little jumbled with our family moving and dates getting changed but we managed to do something instead of nothing. It is always easier to just say, oh never mind. But then nothing every gets done. We try and plan a craft, a game, and a snack.
Tammy coordinated our games this month. Thanks Tammy! She had them line up into two teams. She gave the first person an ear of Indian corn and they had to pass it to each other without using their hands.
One of the groups, realized it was easy to just using your forearms and pass it to each other:)
They had a good time playing. It was warm, we had 78 degree weather outside in the sunshine.
Then we decided to have them sit down and see if they could do it with their feet. 
She also had them do a memory game. Where you start out by saying, ” For Thanksgiving this year, I want to have ………………” and the first person says turkey. Then the next person repeats it, “For Thanksgiving this year I want to have turkey and mashed potatoes.” Then the next person does the same thing and adds something to it. We had a lot of little ones and they didn’t remember as much, but it was fun.
They enjoyed playing a version of “telephone.” The first person whispered to the next what they were thankful for. By the time it got to the last person, it of course changed. They laughed and had a good time. That is what it is all about, having good times with friends.
We then moved into the library and had a snack. We had cut out cookies and decorated them with candy corn flavored frosting and candies. 
Children and sugar—-always a good thing right?!?!?
Then it was time for crafts. We are thankful for Ashley our librarian who encourages us to be messy and have fun:) We did construction paper trees and had them glue on pieces of tissue paper for the leaves.
The older ones, wrapped the tissue paper around an eraser tip and then dipped them into glue, and then placed them on their paper for a more 3D looking tree.
Simple, easy, and it worked. We ended our party with a quick vacuum and clean up of the area. Checked out some books and called it a day. We love our little Zirconia Homeschooling Group!
Hope everyone has a great Monday! This week will be busy for us, as we are having guests for the Thanksgiving weekend. I will do my best to try and post more things of our life. Remember to take a few moments for yourself, smile for your children, and be thankful for the things that you do have! Be blessed!
