Halloween preparations

Our preparations started with a family trip to a nearby pumpkin patch. We have gone every year with the Fane family, and every year the weather is cold and blustery. After a quick tour through the pumpkins, and some hot cider and popcorn, we made our way back indoors. We usually have the girls dress up for this event, but due to the weather and the nature of Tara's costume, we opted out this year.

Speaking of costumes, Aislinn and Tara made

their choices this year, luckily Aislinn choice a

very easily put together costume since Tara's

required a bit more of a unique approach. Pics of

the final result coming Sat. night, but for the

moment, here are the girls working away, with

some technical help

from Jeff.

Some of the crafts we attempted this week, and Aislinn's melty bead creations. I actually love the small sizes, and we have plans to create tree, candy cane and ornament patterns to use as decorations on the table for our Christmas celebrations. We are also hoping to make some Halloween themed garden stakes for the front walk tomorrow. (and get them varnished in time?? :)

Today we also jumped into carving our pumpkins and I was amazed at Aislinn's skills with the carving tools. I don't foresee her needing any help at all next year. She wields a knife very handily! lol

And finally, with pumpkin carving, comes roasted pumpkin seeds! Lightly seasoned and smelling delicious!
And treat bags ready and waiting. Anyone else hoping the rain will be past?

Fall...

So, I have to take a moment to comment on how things are going around our house this fall.
In one word, fabulously!
The girls have just been incredible! The have gained so much Independence this year, and are getting along beautifully with each other. They have become very self motivated learners, amazing conversationalists, hold their own socially with both kids and adults, and are helpful, respectful and engaged!
We also seem to have achieved the perfect balance in our schedule which is absolutely shocking, and I fully expect it not to last!
The girls spend two afternoons a week with friends and one afternoon with friends at our house. We have started swimming lessons once a week, and the girls are participating in two evening programs. A Kids Club at a local church, and a St. John's ambulance program that Jeff is volunteering for.
We also have the chance to sleep in every single day (except me on Saturdays), so our mornings are calm and leisurely. The girls will often pick up math resources in the mornings, and work away on their own, or climb back into bed to read or look at books. In the evenings we are now spending time reading chapter books together, or the girls and Jeff try their hand at multiple rounds of Uno... my favorite sound coming home from work is the giggles and laughter echoing from upstairs as the 3 of them try to thwart each others chances at a win.
Everything is going so smoothly that I am trying to soak it all in... we have some pretty major changes still yet to come, as Jeff plans to head back to school in the next month, but I am hoping, with just a little manipulating, we will be able to keep our schedule on this wonderfully even path we have found; right through into the holidays!

Wishing you all a wonderful fall as well!

Egypt Day

Today was our official Egypt day and a great way to spend a rainy afternoon. The 7 kids participating were fantastic and even with the busyness of multiple activities with only 2 moms, they all handled themselves beautifully!

We started by trying our hand at making "papyrus".

As we did not have real reeds to work from, we made up our own flour paste to soak and press our "reeds" together. It was quite a messy situation but with a great final product. I think we will decorate ours with the hieroglyph symbol for papyrus.

Next the kids moved on to making mummies of their favorite stuffed animals, and transporting them with their worldly belongings into a duplo pyramid. (Unfortunately I was trying to contain the mess in the kitchen and forgot to grab pictures of this one :)

Next on the list was to map out Egypt and the surrounding area using play dough. The girls really enjoyed this one, and are excited to add some props... pyramids, nomads, farmers, the crowns of upper and Lower Egypt!

The kids also had a chance to search out their names to figure out whose was whose that had been prepared with these cool hieroglyph stamps... (forgot to ask where you found those A?)

And finally, we tried our hand at paper beads... I think this will be a fun thing to revisit when the girls are just a little bit older... they turn out quite cute, but are not the easiest to maneuver at this point.

The kids than took a break and listened to the next chapter of Story of the World on cd, and finished off the afternoon playing with lego, reading books on Egypt, showing off their skills in Tai Chi, Akido, gymnastics, etc, etc, and just enjoying eachothers company.

This might be our break from Egypt now for a little while... but we will return! For the moment, we will have lots of new pictures for the binder!

The House...

The siding is going on!!!

No pictures yet, as I am waiting to give the full effect, red brick, to strapped, to bright yellow spray foam insulation to vertical board and batten siding!

I actually love the process probably as much as the final result, although I am starting to long for the end!!! (It has been a crazy summer!)

On a side note, the house is much warmer! Maybe visitors this year will be rewarded with a temperature of 65 degrees rather than last years 62! :)

Fall Fun

On the day of our missed hike, the girls were still keen on doing a fall craft. They planned this one on their own, painting a tree trunk and adding real leaves, so we rushed out to explore the fallen foliage on our block before the rain set in.
Then I pretty much left the girls to it... just setting up the paper and paint, and came back to this result. They will be going up on the window as a start to our fall tribute. Now if only the weather would cooperate so we could get out and enjoy it!

The Little White Horse (The Secret of Moonacre); movie review

So, we have finished the book "The Little White Horse", and loved it to the very end.

The girls were so excited to watch the movie, that we carved out some time the next day (a cancelled hike due to rain left us with some free hours). Manned with popcorn, we cozied up for the movie, quickly discovering the twists Hollywood throws in in order to create conflict. The most noticeable difference was the harshness they built into each character. The author of the book so artfully describes each character to give you a real understanding of them, and in the book the characters have a real softness to them, so even as their weakness' are described, it gives you an enhanced sense of their qualities. (great lesson for the girls)

The movie missed this entirely and many plot changes were made... I suppose a movie can never cover all that a book can, and as a stand alone the movie would probably have been ok, but we were in agreement, the book was far better!

Since that one, I found this book at the library and was surprised as I hadn't know Tolkien had written it.

It is actually really great...is about 5 chapters long, and tells the story of a little dog that is turned into a toy by a wizard.

The plot is quirky and fun and it is quite an easy read.

We are a chapter and a half in... I can give a full review at the end!

I also picked up these books at the library which we read last night as an addition to our ongoing discussion about our bodies. The girls have known the ins and outs of sexuality for a year or two now, but we usually come across it every couple months, and it gives them the chance to delve further if they are interested.

This book below "Changing You" lays it all out there quite matter of factly. It's probably my favorite book on the topic so far and I enjoyed the basic approach it took. The illustrations could be a bit better but overall not bad.

The "Human Growth" book, was quite good as well for the younger age range. Covers how our bodies grow and the things it needs to stay healthy... the basics, but presented well in my opinion.

Can you tell we hit the library again... Currently have about 50 books out which is about our norm, but this week we are getting through them fast... better plan another trip!

Egypt continuing

This week, the girls spent some time at their friends house exploring hieroglyphs, and having the opportunity to make their own names in clay. The girls came home excited to tell me about the new "Egyptian" language they could write in! I think they turned out fabulous! The girls also worked on time lines, (that I forgot to get pictures of -coming soon) and spent some time figuring out how the dates work with BC and AD. They mapped out the Nomad, Farmers, Jericho and Egyptian dates they are familiar with as well as Jesus' birth, their birth dates, parents and grandparents. It really does help put it into perspective. These pictures, are some of the sheets we have created for their history binders. It really gives them a great reference for the time, as well as real pride when they see the pictures of the activities they have done. I am thrilled with this system as Aislinn routinely pulls hers out and has even started reading through it on her own.