Pumpkin Carving 2013

Our entire family LOVES carving pumpkins! We have done it every single year since Adam and I met. Not only have we taught our children how to do it, but we also taught our exchange students how to years ago.

We have each of the kids draw a few options on paper before they get going on the actual pumpkin. Once they have the design they like best, they draw them on the pumpkin using a black Sharpie marker (or as the kids call them "Mommy markers").

Adam and I are made to cut the top off the pumpkin and scoop out the "guts". Honestly for scooping we have found that a metal soup spoon works the best. All the innards go into a big bowl where we can later roast the seeds. (We like leaving a little of the flesh on the seeds while roasting, they turn out the best that way!)

We then give the kids the Pampered Chef kid safe knives to carve out the face shapes. These are the best for the job! We don't have to worry about the kids accidentally cutting themselves and they saw through the pumpkin with ease.

D's pumpkin

My pumpkin

L's pumpkin

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Fall Library Fun! October

This month at the library was another fun filled one! Lego Club, Magic Tree House Club, Science Club, Halloween craft day that I put on, and trick or treating at the library!!

L is picking up on our Dr. Who fandom and created what he thinks the Tardis should look like.

This month, the book we read for the Magic Tree House was Dolphins At Daybreak. The kids had a blast doing fun activities, one of which was making deep sea diving masks. Here they showed them off for me.

This month for Science Club we learned about bats! They had this neat experiment showing us a little about echo location. Using paper towel tubes and a pie pan, each friend takes turns whispering into the tube angled at the pan while the other friend listened. They also made little paper bats to hang up at home. Both of my kids kept them in their science notebooks.

Our annual Halloween craft day! We had toss a dice monster drawings...

Thumbprint spider webs...

foam mummy ghost bookmarks, along with potato stamp ghosts, and spider play dough.

And lastly one of the libraries had a great Halloween afternoon. The kids got to come in costume, make crafts, listen to stories, see a puppet show, and go trick or treating to stations from local companies. A great time was had by all!!!

Trunk or Treat 2013

Every year we would participate in a trunk or treat with the mom's group we were a part of. This year, a few of us close friends are no longer part of the group (aged out), and still wanted to carry on this fun tradition! So we used what we did in the past and invited friends from everywhere. All of our kids go to different schools, so we invited school friends, and any of our remaining friends from the old group. We had a fantastic turn out!!! There were all kinds of goodies that were handed out. We started with a costume parade, the kids then went car to car, then we all headed to a picnic shelter for a pot luck lunch. After lunch the kids were able to go a run all that sugar energy out on the play ground!

D's 1st grade zoo field trip

Every year the 1st grade class gets to go on a fall field trip to our local zoo. D was really bummed last year when she was in kindergarten that she couldn't go with big brother. I reminded her that she would get to go this year with her own friends. So the time came for the permission slips to come home for this year's trip and she insisted that I had to go with, like I wouldn't anyway. It turned out to be the perfect day for the trip. In October, you never really know what the weather will bring here in Northern Indiana. Last year for their trip to the pumpkin patch it was rainy, muddy, and bitter cold. As you can see from the pictures, some of the kids were wearing shorts!! Summer just didn't want to give up this year. D's teacher has not lived in this area for years now, and is finally back. Well she was unfamiliar with the changes to the zoo, so D, another mom, and I helped her out with our knowledge of the zoo. We have been here so many times over the years that we really have learned things that most people have not heard before. 

We started out by meeting up with the classes, and finding our children and their partner. Each buddy gets a clipboard, highlighter, and a sheet with different types of animals. They are to color in a square every time they see an animal.

Trying to get the class together for a picture.

Take number 2! Like a friend has said, "It's like herding cats!"

After the walk around the zoo, everyone heads to a large picnic shelter for a picnic lunch. After lunch, all the kids head over to a fenced in playground area. They were super lucky too, because when they got back to school they had the privilege of going to a bounce house party in the gym as a reward for the fundraising sale we had this year.