Halloween Finally Arrives

The COLD weather put a huge dent in the Halloween plans. Camille refused to put on any warm clothes because it would cover her costume, so she mostly just huddled up next to Ben crying (according to him- my job is to stay home and hand out candy).

They still made a huge haul. I think because there were so few trick-or-treaters because of the weather, everybody just handed out handfuls of candy. We only had about 15 trick-or-treaters this year. It was kind-of sad, but when Halloween lasts a full week, I understand staying home the cold night.

Here's Audra's pumpkin- hers the only one that survived until Halloween, as the freeze at the beginning of October caused them to rot pretty early.

Trick or Treat Street

Is Halloween over? Oh, wait- it hasn't even started yet.

Tonight was Round 3. Trick or treat street at the local high school. They always do fabulous with this event.

We got there 25 minutes early, and the line was already long- and it just got longer and longer. But, once you get inside the line moves quickly as it is just a single file line that goes through the school. It is so well organized! The girls really had a great time!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

If you look very, very closely, you can see a yellow jersey kneeling down to get the ball. That is Camille playing goalie.

She played goalie a grand total of twice all season. For her lasy (YAY!) game yesterday, she was promised she could play goalie, and she was so incredibly excited. All week she talked about playing goalie.

I was at Audra's game so I couldn't see her play, but I got a text from one of the moms that said, "Camille is an AWESOME goalie. Did you coach her?"

No, I did not coach her. But, according to Ben, she is fierceless in the goal- which is what being a goalie is really all about, being fearless.

After the game, they did a little awards ceremony for the team. Camille got the "Youngest Player on the Team and Best Goalie."

Perhaps she is more like her mom than she cares to admit!

Halloween: Round 2

Our neighbors hosted a Halloween party, so we headed over and had a great time. We were glad to get to know our neighbors a little better.

Ben and I even busted out costumes to match Claire's.

It was fun dressing up as a theme! If only Audra was fries and Camille was a hamburger;)

Halloween Season Begins!

Claire was incredibly excited about being a hot dog. She latched onto this idea and would not let it go. I have no idea how she got the idea, but she was ready to pay $30 of her own money to get it. Thankfully, I found one on Craigslist for $5. Her greatest dreams were fulfilled!

They somehow convinced me to carve this pumpkin like this. Thankfully, it turned out. We even won 1st place at the trunk or treat. Granted, we were the only entry, but I'm going to take whatever prize I can get. We also won first prize in the pie contest! Our chocolate pie won- yahoo! Two first prizes in one night??? Greatest night of my life!

The pumpkins that we got from Anderson Farms had been frozen. We knew that, but bought them anyway. Claire's went completely bad and had to be thrown out. Audra's is going bad so she couldn't carve it, but could paint it. And, Camille's so far is surviving so we carved hers.

Ben took Audra to a Halloween party of one of her dear friends.

We went with the family of Claire's best friend: Kendall. They had a great time!

It was a Harry Potter theme- it was pretty incredibly, actually. It's a good thing that I am not in any way in charge as I would just have some Little Caesar's Pizza and call it good. They had catered Olive Garden- it was fabulous!

Our trunk. Ben bought these fun lights the other day- they were perfect for our trunk.

1/4 Done

Last week we finished up Week 9- meaning we are 1/4 of the way done with our 2018-2019 school year. I know I always say this, but it is always true: Time flies. These girls are getting older. Sigh.

A couple weeks ago Claire had this math problem:

Mr. High went to work at 8:00 AM and came home at 4:00 PM. His work was 13 iles from his house. How far did he travel in one day? How far would he travel in 5 days?

This was her answer: "The answer is 0 because he is retired and doesn't go to work."

Oy, vey! What do you say to that? I told her it was her Uncle Matt High and he needed to go to work and she needed to do her problem, which she did.

Then, yesterday the Claire and Camille had a New Testament scripture study assignment where they needed to write and perform a skit about some of Christ's miracles.

They spent over an hour preparing. My type A personality wanted to stop them so that they could back to their other school work, but I stopped myself because they were being so incredibly sweet working together. It was actually beautiful to watch them working together to come up with their script, costumes, and everything else. They took this very seriously, and loved every minute of it. It was incredibly sweet.

 Even though Audra had no part of this, they insisted she wear this fun costume to be one of the guests at the wedding while they turned water to juice.

All this is to say, life is good and homeschooling for us is awesome.

It took us a couple of weeks to figure out how to incorporate Camille, but now it is seamless. She fits right in, just like I knew she would. Math is probably the hardest part to juggle because they all need me at the same time for completely different things, but it works. Then, Audra and Claire do independent work while I work one on one with Camille for things that she needs. Then, in the afternoon, we all do our read-alouds  together.

I love having all three of them at home and not having a school schedule to follow. That doesn't mean our school day isn't rigorous! On the contrary, Audra and Claire are doing grammar, writing (I LOVE our writing curriculum), science, spelling, geography, reading, handwriting, vocabulary, scripture study, daily devotionals, music, art, home ec, with co-ops, recess, and a bajillion other things thrown in.

So, 1/4 of the way in with our first year of Camille at home: Huge success so far. We have such a blessed life- I am very grateful.

Anderson Farms

Ben really wanted to try and new farm this year. But, in researching others, none of them had nearly as much as Anderson Farms. So, off to the same farm we went. And, we loved it- just like always!

 

They had a new jumping pad and some new slides which was fun for the girls:

Camille still loves the peddle carts. She could play on these all day long: