Thursday, October 31st - Halloween!

Halloween finally arrived!!  The kids couldn't focus on much else all day and I wonder how/why regular schools even stay open on Halloween and the day after ;-)  It was all I could do to get the girls to plow through their material!  Lincoln was feeling much better but just not quite back to his usual self.  Jim and I discussed and were on the fence about whether he should go or just stay home for more rest... ultimately though, the poor kid was so despondent at the thought of missing out, so we came up with a good solution: we would take him in the wagon and he couldn't run door to door, but the girls would share their loot with him.  This ended up being perfect, as we kept Lincoln isolated in case he was at all still germy and he still got to experience the festivities.  We met up with a few families to partake in the evening's fun as we descended upon our favorite neighborhood for trick-or-treating!

The kids asked me every 15 minutes from noon onward, "How many minutes until we can put our costumes on!?"  The time arrived and they were all but bursting with excitement and anticipation!  I have wizened up from previous years and knew to take the pictures here at home when they are comparatively calm instead of when we are with friends ;-)  My lovely fairy, James Rogers (Captain America's son), and the pink ninja!

I must have snapped about 20 photos of all four kiddos together and these are the only two usable ones.  In this one, all are looking at me, but Waverly's bottle top hat was squishing her eyes so badly! lol

Of course, it's never truly a family picture until at least one animal comes over and is all, "Hey, what are you guys doing? Nothing important, right, so I'll just stand in front in a way that you can't even crop me out."

These two! My heart can't even handle it :-)

The kids pointed out that I was the only one not in costume, and volunteered that I could just be a witch since "I was already in black."  Thanks guys :-p

We met up with the Young, Phillips, and Cerdas families and after the kids patiently (I use the term loosely) allowed us to take one group photo, they were off and running - literally.

First house of the evening!

It would seem the wagon was a good call, as after about twenty minutes or so, James Rogers declared he was going to lay back for a bit and then he promptly powered down.  He snoozed as soundly as if he was on a feather bed in a quiet room! lol  

Fortunately, Captain America was fully prepared to helm the wagon and did an excellent job pulling him all around the neighborhood loop :-)

All in all, I think we trick-or-treated for just under an hour and a half - the kids had loads of loot and we made it back to the vehicles just in time to avoid getting rained on!  Perfect timing :-)  On the drive home, Waverly was none too pleased about the dark vehicle so we turned her spotlight on.  This afforded me the opportunity to watch her studying her fingers.  It was so precious to see her purposefully controlling each finger - it appeared as though she were counting!  Such a fun stage she is in, discovering new things every day.

Home and washed up, the kids gathered in the living room where we had dumped all of the candy they collected.  Each one was able to select four pieces to eat as they wound down from their big, exciting evening.  Happy Halloween!

Wednesday, October 30th

Lincoln had been feeling a bit puny all week, but seemed to be on the mend Wednesday.  We kept things low-key (as much as they ever are here!) to make sure he could get some extra rest and feel up to trick-or-treating the following day.  The girls did school and spent quite a long time on a sewing project of their own creation.

Jim had a great surprise for me Wednesday morning - the previous day he had been in-town and stopped by Ikea for two things I'd really been wanting to pick up.  One thing was for the office space in our room, and the other was a new Ikea highchair for Waverly!  He put it together and we plunked her down in there.  In my mind, I had imagined her being much tinier in the seat, but nope - she fit great.  At first she was all, "Whoa! What is this?"

A big ol' smile soon followed... 

And pretty much stayed plastered on for quite a while - I think she enjoys the better view and having the tray to whack around on :-)  She definitely says, "Thanks, daddy!"

 The girls need a dedicated sewing teacher - they're so eager to learn but I have already taught them the two things I know how to do!  I think I am going to look into kids' classes at a JoAnn Fabrics or similar, or nag one of my crafty friends to teach a little co-op class.  The girls really enjoy messing around and creating their own little sewing projects.

Just in the nick of time, Jim's Halloween costume came - Lincoln had asked and asked his daddy to dress up like Captain America so that he (Linc) could be James Rogers, Captain America's son (from the movie Next Avengers).  He was just BEAMING when Jim strolled out of his office wearing the full gear :-)

Scarlett's finished dress that she made herself (the sleeves are a red shirt she's wearing underneath the red dress).  She is very proud of it and it is currently hanging in her closet!

Monday, September 30th

Due to the short week for us school-wise (field trips and camping), I wanted to make sure we had good full school days on Monday and ay; I can squeeze in math and reading on the rest of the days, plus we will listen to our history audio book on our various drives here and there.  All in all, we ended up having a truly great time with our school, the kids had fun playing outside for a while, and we ended the day with a good karate class.

I had to take a quick snapshot of the island counter, because as I was laying out the ingredients for a yummy breakfast scramble I did a double take, noticing the large toy assault rifle nonchalantly resting there.  Ah... life with boys ;-)

Lincoln almost has all the letters in his name mastered!  Today he worked on "O" - I had thought this would be the most difficult letter for him (out of his name) due to the two curves inside of the limited space.  However, he didn't struggle at all with it and "C" remains his nemesis.  He gets so frustrated when he can't write "like mommy" and I'm like, "Buddy, you're THREE.  There's still room for improvement." haha

We spent some time doing bears - I'd put the first part of a pattern together and he'd repeat it two times.  There are bears of several different sizes in the bin, and without me mentioning it he made sure that all of the bears he place matched not only the color pattern but size as well.

When I was pulling out manipulatives, Linc asked if we could get the colored size worms out.  When we'd finished his other work, I let him just play with them and he spent some time sorting them all out by size.  He had different "worm teams," as he explained.  So funny!

The girls did their one-on-one school work with me, and it was definitely time for a tea & story break! 

Our library books for this week - having an abbreviated amount of school days, as well as having a stack of books on Russia (the next country we'll be studying) that we'll be working through, I only pulled seven story time books for us:

"Down Buttermilk Lane"

"The Stranger"

"Too Many Pumpkins"

"The Little House"

"The Lonely Scarecrow"

"Ox-Cart Man"

"Kids Camp! Activities for the Backyard or Wilderness"

During Lincoln's one-on-one time, I often do a separate story time with him.  He really wanted to read "Too Many Pumpkins" and loved it - several times throughout the day he (repeating the book) said, "I really, really HATE pumpkins!" and would laugh.  Then together at tea time we all read "The Stranger" and "The Little House" - as we read the latter, Scarlett said, "Hey, this book reminds me of the Mike Mulligan book."  Very observant!  They have the same authors and illustrators and both the pacing and vernacular are similar.  It was really a good book and the kids felt so sorry for the little, sturdy house.

History time!  We moved on from the first farmers to begin studying about Egypt.  The kids loved learning about the Nile flooding every year and how the two kings of Egypt had an epic battle to determine who would rule all the land (later becoming the first Pharaoh). I thought they might have trouble remembering Upper vs. Lower Egypt since they are seemingly backwards to our mentality with the upper in the south and the lower in the north, however the book so clearly and succinctly makes it known why they termed the kingdoms in that way and the kids grasped it easily.  We did some map work, tracing the Nile and highlighting the Nile Delta, then we read "Croco'nile" which was a charming little book about two ancient Egyptian kids.

While I was reading the story book, Scarlett was busily drawing on the back of her map.  When I was finished, she came to show me her free-hand drawing of the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Nile, and the two kingdoms (see the crowns on the left? one says Lower and one says Upper - next to Upper she wrote "Wun" as in, that king won the epic battle).  She also drew a king sitting on a throne  smiling and wearing two crows, and the defeated king frowning and bowing down to the other king.  I was impressed!  It was like six-year-old note taking, or a nice little summary of the lesson via drawing. 

Once finished up with our school, the kids hurried outdoors and got themselves organized into some sort of farming game.  Scarlett was digging holes while Lincoln and Victoria were finding things to "plant."

Please note that the small black blob is actually a cat sitting on the middle of the pool cover.  I wonder if the cats spend all summer wondering why they can no longer walk on water...? ;-)

Pixie's new favorite place to be in the backyard, because... cats are weird.

The kids came back in after a while and I had forgotten to put the box of BoB Books away, so Victoria decided she was going to teach Lincoln to read while I played pat-a-cake with Waverly.  They stayed in this weird position on the sofa for a long time.

Since he wasn't mastering the concepts quite to the speed Victoria wanted, she figured she should probably go over sight words with him and pulled out the sight word cards and bears for him to match things up.  This ended up with both parties a little frustrated, as obviously Lincoln could not find the words he was being quizzed on ;-p

But Victoria is an incredibly patient teacher, and took him up into her bed to practice some more :-)  Lincoln picked the book to work on ("Frogs") and Victoria would go sound-by-sound and then blend the word.  She could probably actually teach him to read if she put her mind to it.

I had started wondering if the Halloween costume we ordered for Waverly was ever going to arrive!  Finally, it came in the mail and I couldn't wait to put it on her, but she was taking a nap.  I should note here that I put it to all the kids regarding what the baby should dress up as and Victoria thought about it for a minute and said, "A baby bottle!"  That tickled me and so we looked to see if such a costume existed, and of course!

Oh.My.Word.  Too hilarious and cute!  She was not amused :-)

Finally, the kids had a terrific karate class.  They found out that the testing to possibly receive their next belt is on October 24th - they are all excited about this and hopeful that with enough practice they will pass and be able to get their orange belts.  We will see!!