Story of the World Ancient Times: The Earliest People, Part 1

We read Story of the World: Ancient Times chapter 1 yesterday--- The Earliest People.  It was about the nomadic life in the Fertile Crescent 7000 years ago and the nomads transition to farming.  I'm really enjoying how the book is written in a conversational style and not a typical textbook format.  Part of the story was about a seven year old girl named Tarak and her responsibility to gather food for her people.  She even caught lizards with her brother so her mother could make lizard stew.  Mmmmmm....maybe I should whip some up for dinner tonight.

Red decided she wanted to try a couple of the activities from the Story of the World activity book. One was building a hut either for you or a stuffed animal.  Because the Cobbler did such a great job cleaning up the yard this spring, there weren't a lot of branches left to construct a hut.  He did leave several large branches he had trimmed off a tree under the big pine tree so we leaned those against the tree trunk and I helped her throw some blankets and sheets up over them.  She and Tom Thumb sat out there for a good while in it eating  crackers and (it's a miracle!) not arguing!

Red also tried some map work for the first time.  Here's the map she colored of the Fertile Crescent area.

She insisted on coloring the Red Sea red. :-)  We had a good discussion about how Lebanon is part of the Fertile Crescent.  Her close friend's father grew up in Lebanon so we compared Lebanon's location on the globe to the map she colored.  We're planning on doing a couple more of the activities that go with chapter 1 so I'll do a separate post when we do those.

On a sad note, our crumpled wing butterfly died after 6 days of life.  He was looking more and more withered and tired as time went on.  Red found him dead this morning.  She was sad, but seemed to understand that it was going to happen eventually.  I know it was just an insect, but I'm a bit down about it myself.

And finally---today is my anniversary.  Eleven years of trials and bliss!  Ha ha!  The Cobbler had to go into work at 7AM this morning, but when I came downstairs I found this:

I have been coveting this mirror at Pier One.  Often on our date nights (we go out a couple of evenings each month) we just go up to the shopping plaza near our house that has stores like Target, TJMaxx, Michaels, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Pier 1 and just browse.  I had seen this mirror a few times and commented on how much I liked it, but how I didn't know where I'd put it and that I knew it wasn't really the Cobbler's taste (he is decidedly more conservative than me decorating wise).  I have no idea when he got it, but this morning there it was!  What a thoughtful husband I have...  

Because of the nature of his work this week (i.e. going into work between 6AM and 7AM and getting off between 8PM and 9PM), the Cobbler has a hotel room right up the street from our house at the Hyatt, where the event he is working is located.  The kids are DYING to go swimming in the hotel pool today so I better get ready to take them over there.

Happy Friday everyone!