Happy Halloween!

I think these pictures pretty much speak for themselves...Happy Halloween!

Halloween Class Party

Today W's class had their Halloween party! The day started with a Halloween Parade around the front of the school. Everyone comes in costume, and the kids get to show off what they're wearing. Since W is a Wild Thing, he roared his terrible roar at anyone who would make eye contact. 

Maurice Sendak would be proud. 

 

 

The class party was a huge success. On the drive home, W told me he had "so much fun". So they started with a craft - every kid created their own pennant and all of the pennants were pinned together to create a banner. 

Such a cute craft. Very unique. The kids were really into it and were very focused. If you need an idea for the future, store this one away. It turned out darling!

 

 

From there, we had cupcakes, a bean bag toss game, and sack races. Oh, the sack races - so much fun. The kids were way more coordinated than I expected and they had a blast with this activity. 

The kids passed out Halloween favors, and the day was done. Very quick 45 minutes! Thanks to everyone for all of the planning that went into the party. It was a great day. 

Here is W - still wearing his sack from the sack races...and the cone. It does look slightly witchy. Points for creativity.

*****

W had karate after the class party. Poor Sensei. She did a great job dealing with these sugared up students. W tested for his next belt stripe and met with success. Here he is having the stripes added to his belt. 

Very proud!

Pumpkin Carving

Last year we had to conduct pumpkin carving waaaaayyy in advance because Jas was away at trial. This year - right on time. Wyatt picked out the pattern that he liked, a scary face, and Jason drew it on our pumpkin.  I was pretty impressed at the free hand artistry Jason produced. Didn't know he had it in him.

Everyone relocated outside. We took turns hollowing out our pumpkin. Ev was NOT a fan of the texture, so then he took turns doing other things - like practicing gymnastics, crying, and tipping over the bowl of seeds and strings. Very helpful.

 

After we cleared out as much of the junk as we could, Jason finished carving and we went inside to roast pumpkin seeds. Wyatt helped me wash the seeds and pull off the strings - for about two seconds. 

 

 

 We roasted the seeds. I've never had them turn out, but these seeds were pretty amazing. A little butter, a little salt and pepper. Wyatt was very into helping get the seeds on the cookie sheet - one by one. So, that didn't take too long...

Ev, of course, wanted his chance on the stool, too. 

Love this part of the season! All of my boys in the kitchen. Lots of messes.

 Happy Halloween!!!

Trunk or Treat

Have I mentioned how much we love our preschool? Greenland Hills Preschool!!! Tonight the Greenland Hills UMC put on Trunk or Treat and the GHPS Teachers sponsored a trunk. Wyatt loved the Trick or Treat practice, and he loved seeing his teachers and his friends. Here are my little goblins in action. Get ready - this week is FULL of events. I'm sure blog overload is about to happen, and I apologize in advance.

Max, King of the Wild Things. Love those toes.

The Wild Thing doing his rooooaaarrr

Wyatt & sweet Ms. Alma

W and Ms. Amanda - getting a front loader tattoo

The cake walk, of course, was a hit. He wouldn't be my kid if it were any other way. He won on the second round and picked the largest cupcake he could find. Society cupcakes were up for grabs, but he picked the biggest, halloweeniest cupcake on the table.
 

Look at the concentration on his face. He is WILLING the caller to say his number...

...and it worked

Friends in a Bounce House.

Johnny Appleseed Day

We celebrated Johnny Appleseed Day on September 26th with an Appleseed Party!! These ideas are all over Pinterest, so we just borrowed the best of what we found and used them for our own party.

Of course, you cannot stage an apple party without making your own applesauce. We got that stewing while we worked so that the delicious smells wafted while we worked. 

First item of business: an apple taste test. Apples come in all colors and flavors, so we had to try a few to find our favorite ones. And, Mrs. C even brought us a lemonade apple - that was certainly something unique! Very citrus-apple tasting - yellow - one step less than crisp. Quite a taste sensation!!

Everyone liked a different type of apple. W's favorite: the pink lady! Is anyone surprised?

After our taste test, we started painting. We had a cardboard box. We put a piece of cardstock in the bottom. Everyone picked their favorite apple colors and I put a dollop of paint in each color on the paper. Then we put a whole red delicious in the box and rolled it all around, through each paint color, coating our paper. After the paint dried, we cut the painted paper into apple shapes. 

Next up, we painted with apple slices. We cut a Granny Smith apple into slices and we painted with the slices and the seeds. That created some interesting art. Everyone had their own style, which ended up being pretty fun to see. 

 

We took a break to eat some pork chops with apple stuffing, cauliflower with pecans and apples, and our applesauce. The kids had roll ups with peanut butter, granola, and apple slices. All good. 

We read the book Apples by Gail Gibbons, which shows pictures of different apple types and talks about the process of growing apple, and Johnny Appleseed's role in getting things rolling. 

 Any excuse for a party, right?

Fall Activities

Soooo - maybe you know that fall is my absolute favorite time of the year. I love the colors and the (ahem!!) weather change and the pumpkin everything. I incorporated my favorite things into some games for W to play. The gourd sorting idea I adapted from Mailbox magazine. W and Ev both got into the whole thing. At first, I had labels so W had to sort them how I wanted it. After our initial sorting and discussion of the different types of gourds and pumpkins, I set the boxes on the coffee table and, low and behold, every couple of days I will see W getting the boxes out and sorting gourds according to something in his head. Ev wanted to play too, though I cannot discern his patterns.

 

For our second activity, I borrowed an idea from W's teacher, Ms. Amanda. She was working on patterns when I dropped W off at school one day. I thought...what better to teach patterns with than candy corn? It would sure motivate me to learn...Pattern: one for the activity, one for mama, one for the activity, one for mama, etc...

That activity worked pretty well. I had to help W figure out the pattern by repeating it and pointing to the pictures over and over. He eventually got it, but it was definitely a concept that we will need to continue to work on. Also - the template was easy to make. I just used Word and Clip Art.

Then we went back to something slightly less challenging - sorting  - of a different ilk. I gave W a bowl full of the autumn mix candy corn. You know the kind with Indian corn, candy corn, and mallowcreme pumpkins. First I had him sort the mix into three different containers- easy. Then I had him pick one kind and count out the pieces. We also did a taste test. Since the items looked different, we were interested to know if they tasted any different...and they do. We described the look, texture, and taste of each.

 

For our final activity, we painted a candy corn pattern using corks from my favorite beverages.I don't have any pictures from the finished product. After drinking two bottles of wine to round out the supply list, mama went to bed. Not really....we were just all covered in paint. 

Again - this is just a word document and a candy corn clip art. Nothing fancy.

 

Those are our fall activities so far. We are working on our fall bucket list and it is almost completed. I borrowed that idea from a friend and can't wait to debut our plans!

Happy Fall!!

 

Happy Birthday, Ev!

Hard to believe that one year ago today I was recovering from a c-section, resting in bed. Katie and Jason were there. Aunt Sue answered the call to arms and was at our house with W and the dogs. Thank goodness for Aunt Sue!!!

Ev was asleep in the little plastic bassinet that they wheel into and out of your room (mainly out because I knew it was my last chance at sleep). Just one year ago. 

And I have to admit that Ev's baby book is a far cry from W's baby book. Poor second baby. W's baby book is very detail oriented and photo intense. Ev's baby book looks like this: 

Ev was born.

I jest. I have kept a journal of Ev's first year. It is less detail rich than W's, but I'm working on it!

So - here are the highlights:

This time last year, Ev arrived (three weeks early, though I'm not complaining about that)...

6:16am

7lbs 4oz

19 inches

8/31 rocking you to sleep tonight, I noticed that you were rubbing your ear -just like Wyatt.

9/1 first college football game

9/17 Today W said that Everett will always be his best friend 

(ha! We must revisit this now that toy "sharing" has started)

9/20 first smile

9/26 first time Aunt Katie watched both of you alone while we went to dinner

10/2 slept through the night (you were amazing about sleeping. I appreciate it)

10/15 first State Fair with Gabby & Aunt Sue

10/20 first party in your honor - Aunt Katie & Gabby threw a Sip & See

10/23 first laugh - with Gabby

12/23 first food - Royal Riviera Pears

1/4 first meat - chicken

1/26 first 5k!

1/29 first double bath with Wyatt

2/26 first double ear infection. poor baby. 

3/12 first word - started saying da-da (thanks for nothing)

3/18 first wave

4/1 first tooth popped out

4/26 first crawl 

5/6 had to lower the crib - you pulled yourself into a sit

5/30 first experience with finger paint. proud that you didn't eat it.

6/20 pulled to a stand on the kitchen windowsill

6/22 first trip to the beach - you LOVED it!

6/25 you FINALLY said ma-ma today. It wasn't in reference to me, but you DID say it. 

7/23 first real fight with W over toys. I am pretty sure that you won. 

8/7 first birthday!! first cupcake!!

So - all of that happened. Now you're one. I can already tell that you're going to give us a run for our money. You're super loud. You won't take "no" for an answer. You laugh in the face of discipline. You are the poster child for second born children everywhere. 

...but, you're pretty sweet, so we're probably going to keep you.

Happy 1st Birthday, Everett.

Emily Mulkey Photography