Fall Crafts

We took a break from rowing last week to focus on the basics and do some fun fall crafts. I'm definitely not a very creative, crafty person, so I turned to the internet and some of my favorite blogs for ideas.

                             We made paper strip pumpkins

                                      Bean leaf mosaics

Paper towel roll fall trees

And falling leaves

On Saturday Daddy and the kids had fun decorating their pumpkins from our hay ride with Mr. Potato Head pieces

The kids had a lot of fun doing crafts with their very un-crafty mommy and we now have some great fall decorations.

Muffin Tin Monday

I've known about muffin tin monday for quite a while now. I always thought it looked like fun, but never seemed to get around to it. So today I decided why not? I threw something together and the kids were thrilled! I'll definitely have to try to make this a weekly thing. This week's theme was Halloween. Here's what I came up with:

PB & J pumpkin, banana ghost (with mini chocolate chip eyes and raisin mouth), apple jack o lantern, swamp creature (green beans with googly eyes), dragon eggs (grapes and grape tomatoes), cookie

I only had a twelve muffin tin on hand, so Buzz and Boo shared, which is why there's two of each item :)

How to Make an Apple Pie

Two weeks ago we rowed How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman. Buzz, especially, really enjoyed this  book.

They colored flags for each country that the girl visited in the story (from here)

We watched an episode of Reading Rainbow where we learned about milking cows and what can be made from milk. Boo loved this and decided she would love to milk a cow. Buzz thought that touching a cow would be gross :)

We made our own butter by pouring heavy cream in a tupperware container and shaking for a LONG, LONG time. I ended up doing most of the shaking.

Of course we finished off our week by making our own apple pie. It may not have been the prettiest pie ever, but it was yummy!

3 Months

Bean is now 3 months old! It feels like the time since she was born has flown by, yet I can't really remember what life was like before her arrival. She is a cuddly, smiley, adorable girl and we are so thankful that the Lord has given us this little blessing to raise. Happy 3 month birthday Bean!

Farm Fun!

Today we took a field trip to a farm with our homeschool group. We saw sheep, chickens, goats, donkeys and a pot bellied pig. We also took a hay ride and the kids each got to pick a sugar pumpkin and got a goody bag with gourds and indian corn. Buzz's favorite part was the corn maze. He went through it twice!

Hay ride

The farmer who ran the hay ride stood up on the tractor and danced the whole time

"Take a picture of me as a pumpkin head mom!"

Wordless Wednesday

Madeline

This week's FIAR title was Madeline. It is one of Boo's all-time favorite stories, she can recite most of it by heart. Here's what we did:

We took a walk each day at half past nine (smiling at the good and frowning at the bad)

We learned about germs from an episode of Reading Rainbow

We used critter counters to arrange the "twelve little girls" in groups of 2, 3 and 4 and of course, two straight lines

We learned about good handwashing habits. I gave Buzz and Boo each some vaseline to rub all over their hands and sprinkled on pepper to simulate germs

Then we headed to the bathroom where they saw germs being transfered on to the soap dispenser and the faucet. They learned that they need to wash their hands very well to get rid of the germs.

And when studying Paris, you have to make crepes!

We also had a fun time with our homeschool group this week learning about trains. One of the fathers is a train engineer and he gave a great talk all about modern day trains and answered tons of questions. The kids learned a lot, and so did I!

Wordless Wednesday

Finally Fall

I love everything about fall, the cooler weather, the changing leaves, trick-or-treating, everything! And nothing says fall to me like apples and pumpkins. Now that fall weather has arrived I've decided that I'm going to make at least one pumpkin or apple dish each week, leading up to Ruben's amazing pumpkin roll at Thanksgiving. Buzz, Boo and I kicked things off today by making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and next week we'll be making apple pie when we row How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. Yum!

Lentil

We are big Robert McCloskey fans around here. One Morning in Maine is one of Boo's all-time favorite stories, and who doesn't love Blueberries for Sal? We own this book and read it almost daily. So when the kids found out that we were going to row Lentil, they were very excited.

We learned about fractions with measuring cups and what else? lentils!

And we divided paper sandwiches

We listed to harmonica music, learned a bit about the other instruments in the story, and learned the words to "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain" The kids then pretended to play instruments from the story while we sang.

Their favorite activity of the week was soap whittling. They both wanted to pretend to be grumpy Old Sneep, complete with cotton balls taped behind their ears to look like his "messy hair"

Buzz decided to make a raft and Boo cut hers into pieces and called it a soap puzzle.

We enjoyed our week with Lentil, up next is Madeline!

Home Depot Day

In our family the first Saturday of the month is known as Home Depot day. That's because the first saturday of each month Home Depot holds a kids workshop from 9 am to noon. Our family has been going every month for quite some time and the kids love it! Each child is given an orange apron (just like the one that the Home Depot employees wear). After they complete each project (a new one each month) they are given a pin to add to their apron. The workshops are recommended for kids 5-12 years old, but both Buzz and Boo started attending well before they turned 5 and were able to complete the projects with help. So if you have young kids, I definitely recommend checking out a kids workshop sometime soon. Oh, and did I mention it's free?