ALL SEATS $35 With $5 Going Back to Susan G. Komen
$5 of every ticket purchased via
www.medievaltimes.com/komendallas
will be donated to Susan G. Komen Dallas®. This $35 offer is valid for any
Sunday through Thursday show thru December 31th, 2015. Tickets must be
purchased by December 31, 2015. Offer only valid online.
Experience The Excitement of Medieval Times! A Four-course feast awaits as you watch the pageantry and thrills
of an authentic medieval tournament come to life inside the walls of the King’s
11th Century Style Castle. Six armor-clad Knights of the realm compete in
thrilling games on horseback as the pageant unfolds and cheers of the King’s
noble guests fill the arena. Skill and strength are measured in the
combat. Discover which of the Knights shall become champion.
Includes:
-A hearty four-course meal prepared by His Majesty’s master
chefs
October is here and the temperatures are finally cooler. Fall is in the air! There are lots of pumpkin patches around the Dallas-Fort Worth area at this time of year but our favorite place to visit is the Dallas Arboretum. The Arboretum has continued their Texas theme through all of their exhibits this year. This Texas state mosaic is the perfect fit in their Autumn display.
The Dallas Arboretum is more than just a pumpkin patch. There are fun things for kids to do and explore and of course, wagons to climb on!
With signs of fall all around, the Arboretum is truly the best place to snap those seasonal family portraits!
My little hams even come up with their own pumpkin poses.
There are an amazing 75,000 pumpkins, gourds, and squash to be seen! Many of them form adorable buildings in the Pumpkin Village.
We visited the Post Office where we saw these crazy wanted posters! My kids loved this!
My favorite building was the Sheriff's Office and Jail. It is made of beautiful Indian Corn! Each of the buildings have a description posted near it that teaches a little about Texas history.
Somehow my hooligans ended up in the jail house! But they made a quick escape out the back of the jail and through the hay bale maze.
My son was even inspired to be the photographer for a while. I love his pictures!
He even had his little sister pose in the carriage for these great shots!
Do you see why I love to take pictures at the Arboretum? You can't help but take great pictures in such a beautiful place!
I had to steal my camera back to get this shot.
There is a wonderful display that show names of uniquely shaped pumpkins and gourds that is very educational. My daughter just enjoyed playing with the little gourds and she even found one that looked just like a swan!
My kids rarely stand still and quiet for this long but they do make for some cute scarecrows!
I hope you can take advantage of some of these great discounts and bring your whole family out to enjoy the Arboretum:
$1 off General Garden Admission
presented by Tom Thumb:
September 19 - November 25
Tom Thumb offers $1 off general garden admission tickets
during Autumn at the Arboretum. Discounted tickets are available for purchase
at area Tom Thumb locations.
Buy One, Get One Free (BOGO)
Wednesdays:
September 23 - November 25
Buy one, get one free admission. Valid for general garden
admission only. Limit one per customer. Tickets can only be purchased onsite.
C.C. Young Senior Thursdays:
September 24 - November19
General admission tickets on these Thursdays are $11 for
those 65 and older along with a 20% discount that day at the Hoffman Family
Gift Store. Tickets can only be purchased onsite.
September 24, October 22 & November
5, 9 a.m. - 11 a.m.
Presented by C.C. Young, these days feature special
activities for the senior community.
State Fair Ticket Holder Discount:
September 28 - October 29 (Mondays -
Thursdays Only)
Present an admission ticket stub from the 2015 State Fair of
Texas and receive $2 off admission, Mondays through Thursdays.
Red River Shoot Out Week:
October 5 - 9
Wear Texas or OU gear and receive $5 off general admission.
Family Fun Weekend Discount:
October 24 - 25
Fun for the whole family, adults dressed in costumes pay
children's admission prices.
Dallas Food Bank Discount:
November 2 - 6
Each can of food brought in is $1 off general admission, up
to $5 off. All food will be donated to the North Texas Food Bank.
Veterans Day Discount:
November 11
Any veterans, active duty and first responders with
identification receive free admission on Veterans Day. Offer available only on
site at the ticket booth.
Reduced Price Parking:
If purchased in advance online,
parking is reduced to $8.
Free Admission for Teachers &
Educators:
Complimentary admission to the main garden and Children's
Adventure Garden is available to teachers and educators with a valid picture ID
at the ticket booth. Educators can also purchase a Dallas Arboretum membership
and receive a 10% discount for the first year with their valid ID.
Group Ticket Discount:
Guests receive a reduced price for general garden admission
when 15 or more tickets are purchased in one transaction. Tickets must be
purchased in advance. For more information regarding discounted tickets for
groups 15 or larger, contact groupsales@dallasarboretum.org or
214-515-6520. About the Dallas Arboretum: The Arboretum is located at 8525 Garland Road in Dallas. Closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day). Regular admissions prices are $15 for adults, $12 seniors, $10 children age 3-12, and free for children 2 and under. Parking is $15 or you can get a discount online for just $8. Memberships are available as well as the great discounts listed above. For more information, please visit the Dallas Arboretum website or follow them on Facebook at Dallas Arboretum or Twitter @dallasarboretum
A while back I picked up this neat Ancient Arts Jewelry (*affiliate link*) making kit at a used homeschool book sale. It is a great kit that comes with instructions and all of the supplies you need to make jewelry from Egypt, Rome, Native America, India, and Africa.
Rachel pulled out the Ancient Egyptian craft and was excited to learn that she could make a scarab necklace!
She used tweezers to place little plastic beads in the metal scarab form. It was a tedious and time-consuming process but she loved it. She enjoys crafts and enjoys sorting and organizing things in just the right way so this was a perfect project for her.
I offered to help but she insisted that I take out the two beads I put in so that it would be entirely her project!
Next she put her scarab in the oven to melt the plastic beads. How pretty!
She is very proud of her scarab necklace and has already worn it to the grocery store for all to see :)
Note: This post contains affiliate links to Amazon.com. If you purchase a product through these links then I will receive a small percentage that goes back into paying for this blog. It does not affect the price you pay for the product in any way.
The kids have been learning about the different layers inside the Earth. I found this cute activity on Pinterest in which they can make their own model of the Earth's layers!
I bought different colors of Crayola Model Magic clay. Model Magic is easy to work with, comes in lots of great colors, and air dries. We love it!
They started with making a little ball of clay to represent the Inner Core. Then they covered that ball of clay with another color of clay to make a bigger ball. This represents the Outer Core. Then they wrapped the Outer Core with another layer of clay. This is the Mantle. Finally, the wrapped it all in brown clay for the crust of the Earth.
They decorated their Crust with continents and oceans. He's got the whole world in his hands.....
After a bit of play with turning the world upside down and throwing it to each other, they used some dental floss to cut a cross section of their Earth model.
It is so beautiful!
Rachel was just amazed and squealed when she saw her creation!
We love science but especially when I can find cool projects like this to bring it to life for them.
We have continued our journey through the book of Exodus this week as well as our amazing assortment of history books. The kids learned all about Ancient Egyptian pharaohs who were treated as gods. They have learned about pyramids. The Egyptians believed in the afterlife so they filled pyramids with food and treasures so they would be available to the person if needed. They learned about the embalming process and how mummies were made. The kids have been fascinated by it all!
For co-op this week, they made their own mummies! They started with action figures and dolls from the dollar store. They covered them in oils, spices, and natron (a type of salt), all of which were used in the mummification process.
Then they wrapped them in bandages!
They did neglect one important step of the Egyptian mummy process. They did not remove the brain from their noses or put their other organs in canopic jars! But they were quite pleased with the mummies anyway.
They even painted sarcophaguses for their mummies.
It's fun doing school projects with our friends!
Next we gave the kids plaques made from Plaster of Paris for them to etch and paint tomb paintings on like they might find in an ancient pyramid. I made these by simply pouring the Plaster of Paris in a styrofoam tray like the kind you might get deli meat or sliced fruit in at the grocery store.
They first etched their drawing with some clay tools that I have.
Then they painted their plaques. Nicholas put a map of the Nile River on his tomb painting.
The kids have learned about how the Israelite slaves had to make mud bricks for the Egyptians. It was hard and messy work. But our kids loved trying it out for themselves.
I found an small inflatable pool which is hard to do in the fall when stores are no longer selling summer items. We broke up about 2 pounds of clay and let it soak in water over night. I may have made a mistake in letting Rachel add the water to the clay because it seemed to be a little heavy on the water.
The kids got in the pool and squished the clay into smaller pieces and mixed it all up with their bare feet. Eww!
Next they added the straw. The straw was an important ingredient to help hold the bricks together. This week the kids read about how pharaoh would punish the Israelites by not providing them with the straw they needed and forced them to harvest their own straw and still make the same amount of bricks that they had before.
Some of the kids were less enthusiastic about the messy project than others.
Water, clay, and straw...all mixed up. And a few messy kids in the batch too!
They added the final ingredient, sand, and continued mixing it all up. As we were planning this project, I knew we would need some way to mold the mixture into bricks. I thought the rectangular boxes that butter comes in would be perfect. So I stocked up! Fortunately butter freezes well and we won't need to buy anymore for the rest of the year!
The butter boxes turned out to be a great size and the kids worked together to hold the boxes while another one filled it with the slurry.
Eventually the boys moved on the light saber battles but the girls got even dirtier as they sat down in the mixture and continued to make the mud bricks! That is the totally opposite way I had expected this to go!
We finished filling all of the butter boxes that we had and sprayed the kids off with the garden hose. What a fun way for the kids to immerse themselves in what it was like to be an Israelite slave in Ancient Egypt.
It took several days for the mud bricks to dry but eventually we got to unmold them.
They were a bit rough looking but the definitely could be used to build something in the desert.
