Ah! Reminds me of Frank and Ernest: http://www.amazon.com/Frank-Ernest-Alexandra-Day/dp/1595834249 One of my favorite children's books! Diner 101. :)

I love Ox-Cart Man too! Been a favorite since childhood. Cannot get enough Barbara Cooney! We've been reading a lot of Bill Peet this year, and I've found some new titles via the Memoria Press read-aloud lists. Most are well-known, but there are a few that were new to me. Andrew Henry's Meadow, for example, was perfect for my seven year old! That's him. :)

My current five year old had a speech delay. He used to speak on the inhale rather than on exhale. He's caught up now, though. He can read read digital and analog clocks (the latter to the quarter hour). He's reading CVC words (AAR 1). We don't really do screens much, but he can build simple snap circuits, play several pieces by ear on the piano, and can work the stops on the organ, lol. He plays a lot with Legos, brick-a-blocks, trains, unit blocks and trucks. He builds forts and likes to swim. He loves jigsaw puzzles, and writes short books on a regular basis. He can ride a two wheeler, swim, and climbs over the backyard fence (joy of joys). He loves all levels of read aloud. He'll sit in on his younger brothers' board books as well as older brother's Story of the World and C.S. Lewis. His favorites, though, are Beverly Cleary. Your little guy sounds wonderful! We love those Read and Find Out books too!

All of these plus: *In November- Cynthia Rylant *Molly's Pilgrim- Barbara Cohen *Tapenum's Day- Kate Waters *This is The Feast- Diane Z. Shore (for slightly younger) *Over the River and Through the Wood- illustrated by Christopher Manson *Turk and Runt- Lisa Wheeler (very silly) *Three Pebbles and a Stone- Eileen Spinelli *The Plymouth Thanksgiving- Leonard Weisgard *Mayflower 1620- National Geographic *1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving- National Geographic *When the Frost is on the Pumpkin- illustration by Glenna Lang *Coming to America- Betsy Maestro *Across the Wide Dark Sea- Jean Van Leeuwen *Cranberry Thanksgiving *You Wouldn't Want to Sail on the Mayflower! *Pilgrim Cat- Carol Antoinette Peacock *Thanksgiving- Gail Gibbons (also for slightly younger)

I will have a ten month old this Christmas, and between that and his birthday in February, he's getting a ride-on car, a Bla Bla knitted cat, a Community Playthings truck (wood, but those are amazing, and even someone who isn't into natural toys would love it!), FAO Schwarz dinosaurs and a ball track (again, I'm doing wood, but there are plastic options). We bought our oldest a piano for his first birthday, everyone has adored it: http://www.amazon.com/Schoenhut-25-Key-First-Piano-Red/dp/B000IGEEC6/ref=zg_bs_tab_pd_mg_3 Fisher Price has reissued some of their vintage toys like the pull-along xylophone and telephone, milk truck, record player, etc. I bet those would be a hit! Have fun! ETA: My parents gave my oldest a latch board (ours was a little different, but same idea) when he turned one, and all my boys have loved it! http://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-Deluxe-Latches-Board/dp/B000NVBE1A

Keep us posted! That is disappointing to hear about shipping. My two older boys like to build but not play too, and while DS5 is a creative builder, DS7 is very by-the-book and always interested in building new sets exactly as written. That's why this appealed to me too.

If she can deliver on such a machine, I'll take it for the mountain of Legos we already have!

Potential losses stop me too. That, and having to pry sets away from them to send back!

This site just popped up on Facebook, and it seems interesting. I can see some drawbacks, but it might also be fun for a gift! Anyone try it? http://www.pleygo.com/

I was going to suggest this as well, or making a turkey breast in the slow-cooker rather an entire bird (which I see you aready do). My other thought is to buy boneless, skinless turkey breasts and cook them with stuffing in the slow-cooker. I've seen recipes like that on Pinterest. Add baked potatoes and a squash and you're done. Recruit the kids to make the pies. Or make apple crisp and a pumpkin custard to avoid fussing with pie crust (I have also seen organic/natural premade crusts, though!) But...I'd really consider the grocery store option. :thumbup1:

CWD Kids has some traditional, but also off-beat Christmas pajamas (like these with skulls and crossbones! http://www.cwdkids.com/servlet/quagga/boys/product.jsp/_qprm_/browse?groupId=13329&itemId=S220&cat=boys-shoes), but they are on the more expensive side. We get ours from Hanna Andersson, and our favorite theme is big kids in Santa suits and littles as the elves. I also like their Fair Isle prints. Again, also pricey unless you happen to have a coupon or they're on sale.

I'm not a professional, but I've had several midwives tell me not to take the test fasting. I wonder if that's why your test is "high" while under regular circumstances it's low/normal. If you're eating a balanced meal with protein/fat, your blood sugar won't spike. I've always had a high protein breakfast before taking the test. I also drink grape juice instead of the glucola, since it has the same amount of glucose per ounce (plus you avoid the arificial gunk). I'm not sure what the protocol is for the three-hour test, but maybe you'd be able to have some eggs and cheese beforehand? Best of luck!

As far as I know, they only come in sets of 32 and 100 (plus the DX which has the specialty pieces). Honestly, if you can afford it I'd go with the 100, especially with two older kids. The set of 32 isn't really big enough to do much but very basic building. We started with a 32 and within hours I'd ordered the bigger set.

Definitely Magnatiles here. We have five sets! I think they're great for really young kids. My second and third sons started building with them well before age two. Simple cubes and towers at first, but now at five and (nearly) three, they create elaborate designs and structures. We also had SmartMax sets, and while we liked them, we decided to streamline and stick with Magnatiles. The Magnatile DX sets are a fun addition if they take off!

How about "Over the River and Through the Woods?" Many people don't know it's a Thanksgiving poem/song, and not Christmas! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_the_River_and_Through_the_Wood P.S. The woodcuts in this book are my favorite! http://www.amazon.com/Over-River-Through-Wood-Thanksgiving/dp/B005IV1EW4

I don't use MOH, but our classical academy does, so I joined as well to check out the schedule. It's a public group, so no approval required. If you go back and check, you should be a member. Thanks for the tip about the schedule, OP!

In the interest of full disclosure, I have a MLIS and am a former school library media specialist. My mother spent over 30 years in the same career. BOTH of us have libraries we avoid because of obnoxious professionals. If angers me because of the collective bad name it gives to people who choose library and information science (as noted by one PP). That said, I have had TWO people in the last week lecture me about the importance of reading to children. In both cases I was out with just my youngest (7 months), and I'm sure they assumed I was a first time mom and needed the "information."

I'm still working on the oldest (maybe some star-gazing binoculars or a microscope), but here we go: DS7 Lego Technic (he wants the logging truck, I'm thinking motocross bike!) Horrible Histories & Horrible Science collections A game or puzzle TBD Science encyclopedia and Titanic sticker book (Usborne) DS5 Tape center from Lakeshore Learning Lego Creator Fagus truck Board game TBD Various Usborne books DS3 Fagus truck Duplo train Various Usborne books Puzzles TBD Baby (10 months by then) Bla Bla knit cat Klean Kanteen Moover truck Board books Stockings are in process. St. Nicholas Day I usually do ornaments. For my husband I"m thinking a new tablet. He has an original iPad that's wearing out.

I am...I have a spreadsheet going with ideas/costs for St. Nicholas Day, Christmas/stockings, family gifts, and my fall/winter birthday kids. I'm going to follow along with ideas for a 7/8 year old. Mine is getting a Lego set and some books, but I don't have any other ideas yet. Maybe Settlers of Catan or another game. He already has science kits and Snap Circuits galore.

I reference this now and then for my young kids: http://www.amazon.com/Terrific-Projects-Based-Favorite-Picture/dp/043922263X

We are a musical family so... My DS7 falls in the "especially talented" category and spends several hours a day on his music. Not all is focused practice. He spends a lot of time playing for fun, writing music, etc. My husband is an organist and played several other instruments as a child. He started playing full church services at 14. He said 45-90 minutes per instrument, more during heavy concert or liturgical seasons. I am an average pianist and fairly skilled flutist. I spent 30 minutes on piano and around an hour on flute from age 10. I once heard to double lesson time for each practice session, but not sure if that's widely recommended. My son's piano teacher does an hour lesson and expects 15-30 minutes per day for the average students in his age range.

Directly from the manufacturer or Diapers.com and Amazon lately. The 1-2 day shipping both places has spoiled me for life!

Yikes! Our 2500 sf house and five acres in that county was under $5000. Here in our current district/town/county it's $5300 (for 2000 sf and 1/3 acre). Why in the world is it so much higher for you? (Unless you've moved?) Edited for typos...

Oh gosh. *Read alouds (I'm assuming they are reading broadly from library books, but I'd also choose from a range of literature and subject areas as well.) *Writing *Math *Music Well, shoot, now I want to think about this further! It sounds much simpler than our current line up.

We have several thousand children's books (my mother and I are both former school librarians and had large personal collections for teaching), and I keep them all out minus seaonal titles. Those I have sorted in book boxes in the schoolroom closet. Also in the schoolroom I have most of our nonfiction titles, early readers, and some series books (Magic Treehouse type). Otherwise they are are on shelves in the playroom and living room. I have them organized by reading list, author, awards (Caldecott and Newbery), series, etc. Library books and current read alouds are in baskets that are supposed to stay near the couch but they migrate. :-D ETA: I forgot to mention that we do have one small display bookcase, but I wish we had more. Ours is in the younger boys' room and displays all our nighttime/bedtime themed books. We don't have the wall space for rain gutters, but I love that. I'm a fan of living in a library. I've seen pictures on Pinterest of spice racks used to display books and I think it's a great idea too. Oops, forgot a link! Here is ours: http://www.amazon.com/Steffy-Wood-Products-Toddler-Display/dp/B008FLAA88