Happy Halloween!

Trick or Treat Street

Tonight we took the girls to the local high schools trick or treat street. The school did such a fabulous job! Teenagers get a bad rap these days, but there are so many GREAT teenagers doing amazing things, and they should credit for that, too.

The girls were so super excited- even Camille. Audra and Claire took her around the house to practice saying "Trick-or-treat."

Audra has had her costume planned for weeks.

When I asked Claire what she would be for Halloween, she simply said, "It's a surprise." The costume she wore tonight is, apparently, not the one she is planning to wear for Halloween.

Camille chose Alice in Wonderland. She has never seen Alice in Wonderland, but whatever. It was in the costume bin and she apparently likes it.

I literally put zero effort into their costumes. In fact, even buying witch tights for Audra was a bit of stretch in the effort department- way more effort than I want to do.

 Getting ready to go!

 Camille got a little overwhelmed and needed some daddy snuggles. But, Camille would NOT let go of her death grip of the candy:

 The school had the halls all completely decorated with different themes: Willy Wonka, Space, Tarzan, and FROZEN:

It was heaven for the girls.

Least Favorite Night Of the Year

Last night we did our most dreaded tradition: Carving pumpkins.

The kids have been counting down the days to this. They have been checking the pumpkins every day to make sure they were not squishy and getting rotten (that happens sometimes in CO with the hot weather).

Finally, the night arrived. Ben tried to work late to get out of it, but we waited for him to come home- much to his dismay.

The kids LOVED it. Even Camille- who was so cute with her little spoon scooping out the insides of her little pumpkin. She would scoop the seeds out, then pour them back in and start over again. So cute!

We had a lot of difficulty getting the blasted pumpkins open. Ben pulled out the big guns- but it didn't help.

That's hair around Claire's pumpkin face. She wanted Ben to cut that out, but it was too difficult.

Science

One thing about homeschooling is that your house becomes a science lab. Every where you look, there are science experiments! The kids love it, and I do, too.

 This one didn't work nearly as well as it was supposed to. The colored water was supposed to change the color of the white flowers, but after two weeks- they are still white.

 A classic: Sprouting beans.

Here we are mummifying apples. We are talking a lot about Egypt, King Tut, and mummies. We'll see next week which solution makes the best mummified apples.

Worst Parents On the Planet?

I can't decide if Ben and I are the best or worst parents on the planet based on last night's choice of activity.

The girls have been begging us to take them to Monster Mini-Golf. We want the girls to have more of a say in our family activities, and they so desperately wanted to go that we decided to do it.

In retrospect, it may not have been the best idea. It was really cool because there was great music and it was dark with glow in the dark everything- which the girls did, indeed, enjoy.

But, the monsters were pretty spooky. Claire was scared. Audra wasn't, she thought it was all awesome. Camille enjoyed dancing, and we're not sure if she got spooked or not.

Nobody had nightmares last night, so maybe we aren't the worst parents of all time. But, look at these pictures and perhaps you will disagree.

 This was the creepiest:

Mummies In the Morning

The other day we hosted another Magic Tree House book club. I think this is a lot of fun for the kids. It's a good book review for Audra and the others.

We did Mummies in the Morning since Halloween is next week.

We discussed the book- characters, plot, climax, etc. We played a game asking different questions from the book to make sure they understood the plot.

Then, we talked about Egypt and mummies. We watched a short video about pyramids (we are studying a lot about Egypt right now in school, anyway, and it is so cool to be learning so much about this awesome time period! So many cool things to learn about- the girls are loving it!). Then, the kids wrote their names using Hieroglyphs.

 And, the favorite part of the day: Wrapping each other up as mummies! The kids LOVED this part!

 Audra on the far left, and Claire second from the right:

Audra's Playing Basketball!

We finally signed Audra up for a team sport- basketball!

She has been so nervous about this. It's a no-score, just for fun league, but she was still super nervous. I told her coach that she was nervous, and he said his daughter was, too- but that his #1 goal was to have fun. In fact, he said the #1 priority for the first practice was to pick out a team name. That is my kind of coach for this age! I really just want this to be a fun experience for Audra (though I do have fond memories of my dad continually asking the ref if he needed to borrow his glasses).

They had their first practice last Thursday, and then Saturday was her first game.

I know I am her mom, but I was quite proud of her! She did great! She is more of a defensive player, but she has the defensive shuffle down incredibly well.

After the game she said, "I wish I could have shot the ball." But, she is very unselfish. Plus, she follows the rules. So even though all the girls double dribble, or forget to dribble for 10 feet at a time, Audra knows she can't double dribble, so when she stops the dribble she throws the ball. All the other girls just keep the ball, but not our little rule-keeper.

She ended up having a great time! She said she really likes basketball. Ben is going to go out and work with her a bit (even though I played varsity in high school, Ben is actually the far better player. Plus, he is pretty excited about teaching her how to play).

 She is so cute out there!

 The girls don't really know each other yet, and they also don't know how to high five. After a score, they clap their hands and say "YES!" but they don't give each other high 5's, which is super cute.

 Camille didn't like the noise, so she burrowed her head in Ben for about half the game. Then, she got used to the noise and became a handful. We aren't sure if we should bring her to future games, but neither of us want to miss the games, either.

Sewing!

The girls have been so excited to start sewing! Seriously, for months they have been asking to learn how to sew.

Finally, I signed Audra up for a sewing class at Jo-Ann's. It is hand sewing.

She came home super excited and now wants to sew ALL. THE. TIME.

She is "teaching" Claire how to sew. In fact, she said, "Mom, now you don't have to sign Claire up for 4H. I can teach her how to sew!" She also said, "I love teaching Claire how to sew!" She is convinced she knows it all.

 The orange cat on the left is the purse Audra made at her class. Then, she sewed together a snowman and a doll bed.

Below is what Claire made. We'll just call it modern art:

The girls inspired me to finally finish Camille's baby blanket. It has been complete except putting the back on since before Camille was born. But, now it is finally completely done- now that she is almost 2 1/2:

Anderson Farms

Today we loaded up the kiddos and made the hour long trek to Anderson Farms- a pumpkin patch north of us.

The girls have been so excited to go! They have been counting down the days. There was a great disappointment, however, because we originally intended to go last Friday. Unfortunately, the weather interfered with our plans. We let the girls choose whether they wanted to go in the rain, or wait a few extra days to go when the weather warmed up. As anybody with children knows, it is really hard for kids to postpone something they are greatly looking forward to. I was very proud of them for choosing to wait.

It paid off- the weather today was perfect. If anything, it was a little too hot.

Get ready for a bajillion pictures...

They had some go-karts which was a blast:

 Barrel rides:

 As you can tell by her expression, Camille really enjoyed the rides. It was super cute, too, because her little head didn't quite pop up above the barrel:

 This is how a picture with Camille looks:

 And without:

 We went in a corn maze. They had a "mystery" for the kids to figure out. There were different stations with pictures which showed a weapon, suspect, and place (like Clue). You crossed off what is in the picture until you narrow down who it was.

 Here's the duck races. Claire took this race VERY seriously.

 Then, we made our way to the pumpkin patch. We have actually never taken our kids to a pumpkin patch to pick out their own pumpkins. It was really cool.

 We told them they had to pick out a pumpkin that they could carry. It worked out well.

 Ben picked out what he thought was the perfect pumpkin for Camille. He put it down right in front of her and said, "Look, Camille- isn't this pumpkin perfect?" She said, "No!" So, he would move the pumpkin over a few feet and say, "Look, Camille- isn't this pumpkin perfect?"

I call this next picture, "The Negotiation:"

 The pumpkin she is holding is NOT the one Ben picked out for her.

This next picture I have dubbed, "The Result:"

 Camille won the round.

 Claire started out by pulling the wagon, but quickly realized it was much better to be pulled by the wagon!

It really was a great day. However, we learned a few things:

Next time I think we should leave a little later in the day. Pack a lunch, and eat it when we get to the farm around noon instead of getting there right when it opens at 10.

There were a lot of school kids there, but by 1 they had pretty much all left. By the time we left at 3, the farm was completely empty. It would have been nice to stay later. If we arrived later in the day, we could stay later.

We can then leave when it closes at 6, stop for dinner on the way home. We would still miss traffic.

Definitely a good day...even if we are EXHAUSTED!!!!!!!