Happy Halloween

We had trunk or treat at church on Sunday night. It was the best one that we had been to. I didn't get a lot of good pictures, because it was cold and I was holding a lot of stuff.

A friend of mine made this backdrop so that the trick or treaters could get their pictures taken. My battery on my camera died just after I took Aussie's picture. So a friend took Ashley and Mason's pictures and sent them to me.



Aussie is a little indian brave.
I really love this picture of Ashley. She has my wrap on because it was so cold. She looks royal here (I think). But when she went trick or treating she HAD to have it off! Everyone HAD to see her beautiful dress!





Mason is Larryboy from the Veggie tales.

Ashley is a princess of course! She got to wear make-up.


For all of you Country Music fans...Yes that is Marty Rowe, the lead singer of Diamond Rio.

Local Friends...

Hello Local friends-

I'm putting an Usborne order in tomorrow evening. On this particular order I don't need to charge for shipping (They will all come to me and I will need to deliver them to you). So if you are interested in buying some Christmas presents, now is a great time to do it.

You can see the entire catalog at www.YourUsborneStore.com and then place your order by calling me (if you know my number) or emailing me at eskimokisses@bellsouth.net .

Thank you!!

OH! Of course!

Me: WHAT are you doing?








Mason: We are snakes and our skin is peeling off!





By the way Mason had on 13 shirts and 2 pairs of pants and Ashley had on 9 shirts.

What do you get when....?

What do you get when you tell a boy to get dressed?

Pumpkin Lapbook

Well we did our first lapbook! It is all about pumpkins. And now my son (guess which one) is completely sick of pumpkins! On the last few days of finishing up the lapbook he begged- Please NO MORE PUMPKINS! But no matter what he thinks, I think they turned out great. Especially for a first attempt. All three did one and they all look slightly different. I will show you one of them in it's entirety, except for the 5 little pumpkin page, which really shows their individuality (at least I think so).

Here is the front of the lapbook: They practiced lacing on the pumpkin and I tried to get them to memorize the poem. But we haven't gotten there yet and with Austin's pumpkin denial- I think I'll just let it go.

Here is the inside:

To the left is where I put all the worksheets they did:

In the middle: They have the 5 little pumpkin picture and poem.

A pumpkin number puzzle, a pumpkin pie with ingredients glued in it. Then when you open the flap: You find out lots of facts about the pumpkin. And a counting book tucked away in a pocket. I have it connected with string so it doesn't get lost.

The outside of the pumpkin has a few questions that they answered about the pumpkin that we carved open:

It says:

1. The outside of my pumpkin looks orange.

2. It feels cold

3. It smells spicy.

I think there is 1 seed in my pumpkin.

(Mason guessed 100 seeds and Aussie guessed 200 seeds). On the inside:

it says:

1. The inside of the pumpkin looks slobbery

2. It feels dirty.

3. It smells a little spicy

4. There were 239 seeds in the pumpkin

And they glued pumpkin seeds and string to look like the inside of the pumpkin.

Then on the Right side: We had a sequencing game where they had to put the order of how a pumpkin grows in order and also practice writing their numbers on the outside of the pumpkins.

On the bottom is the little book of how a Pumpkin Grows. It is attached by a string so it doesn't get lost. And it is put into a transparency pocket. I wanted to be able to see the cute artwork they did on the front.

Then on the back: I put various pictures of when we went to the Pumpkin Farm. I got the picture in the middle off the internet and we practiced math with it. I have little flaps. On one side it may say 3+ and on the other side it says 2=. I had the kids paint pumpkins by each number and then put the correct answer on the inside of the flaps.

As a whole the lapbook was fun. Probably more so for me than them. At first they were really proud of them and then I think they got bored. So I will have to tailor the next one to be a shorter lesson so they don't get bored or just include more topics (such as planets- going into details about each planet.) It was a learning experience and I think I will continue with it with a few minor changes.

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This is Aussie. He came downstairs dressed like this and I said, "Oh are you a pirate?" Offended he said, "Oh most definitely I'm Not!" I said, "So what are you?" He just looked at me and said, "I'm a human being."

Ok then....I think that's enough for one night.

My Surprise Birthday Party

So much has been happening! But I just MUST blog about my surprise birthday party!

Friday after co-op we had to run lots of errands. I took the kids to Pizza Hutt. There were two birthday parties going on. Ashley sang Happy Birthday to the birthday girls and one of the girls gave her a balloon. Of course this caused lots of turmoil with the other two. They thought if they sang they would get balloons too. (But I had to explain that it doesn't work that way.) Anyway... since we had been gone all day the kids said they didn't have time to play. So when we got home I said they could have an hour to play and then we would go to bed. I went upstairs to look something up on the computer for Greg.

A half an hour later....

Ashley: Mommy what are the ingredients in a cake?

Mommy: flour, sugar....why? Your not making a cake are you? I don't want you getting any ingredients out.

Ashley: Ummm....don't come downstairs!

Mommy: Ashley, have you already gotten ingredients out to make a cake?

Ashley: Ummmm....well....."I" have not gotten any ingredients out.

Mommy: Maybe I should come downstairs.

Ashley: Well....I didn't get the ingredients out...Mason got them out...but it's for a surprise for YOU!

Mommy: OK well maybe I should come look just in case.

Ashley: Wait! Don't get Mason in trouble- we are working really hard for YOU!

Mommy: OK.

[Downstairs]

Mason: We are making a cake for your birthday! It's a surprise!

Mommy: Wow! (surprised that there really wasn't a big mess)

Ashley: I told Mason the ingredients.

Mason: and I cracked the eggs ALL BY MYSELF!

Aussie: We worked so hard for YOU!

Mommy: So what did you put in this?

All of them: We put in 3 cups of this (bread flour), and 1 cup of milk and 2 eggs. We did this all for YOU! (bouncing off the walls)

Me: Well that is so nice thank you.

Ashley: We need some vanilla and chocolate pudding for the cake.

Mason: I'm making the cake and Aussie is in charge of 4 ingredients. He has to do the sprinkles, chocolate and icing and I don't remember the 4th thing, and Ashley is in charge of the decorations and presents.

Ashley: I was in charge of the balloons and presents.

Me: Well it is bedtime so let's finish this up tomorrow.

Aussie: [wagging his finger] Uh uh uh...no no no! Sorry Mom but we have to finish the cake.

They all chime in: Sorry Mom, we have to have the cake!

(If you remember a few posts back, Austin was angry with me for "controlling" his birthday. So I'm thinking this is their way of getting back at me---So I play along.)

Trying very hard to figure out exactly what they put into the batter, I got out a cookbook and added more ingredients, hoping it would come out ok. The kids added sprinkles to the batter.

So I put it in the oven at 9:00pm. And while it baked the kids gave me my presents. Ashley had gathered things from around the house and wrapped them in blankets. Now here comes the real fun...They took the pictures!

Here's my first present:

Here Mommy. It's a hair bow!

Oh and my FAVORITE !

Mason: Hey that's my rain stick!

Me: Thank you so much! This is the BEST birthday party I ever had!

Ashley: We were trying to work so very hard for you and we are SO excited for your birthday!

Ashley: Ok Mom, I'm going to take your picture.

Ashley: Now ACT like your excited about your birthday party.

[Cake is ready] OH no we don't have any candles- But it is a MUST! So I find a candle and put it in a bowl.

Mason: But I wanted to put the candles in the cake!

So he had to push the whole bowl down into the cake

All of them: Make a wish!

Ashley: Now THIS is the da_nger_ous part. We are go_ing to eat on the couch.

Me: No we are not.

Ashley: Sorry Mom that's the way it goes! I need 3 kid plates and 1 adult plate.

Mason: Everybody needs to thank Chef Mason!

all of us: Thank you Chef Mason!

I was thoroughly enjoying this even though it was LATE! It truly was the best party and they did it all by themselves! I called my Mom giggling telling her what they were doing for me. Austin gets on the phone and Gramma asks him if the cake was good and he said, NO! We all laughed. But actually he is the only one who thought so because it actually was pretty good! I think the bread flour made it a little lighter tasting, but it was really good! I think he would have liked it if it was covered with icing.

So up to bed we MUST go! I was tired and had planned to go to bed when they did around 8ish. Ha! Did they ever have different plans for me. So at 10:00 I say we must go to bed. And Mason says, but we haven't done the crafts yet. This time I insisted we go to bed, but I sure am curious to what the crafts were going to be!

Ashley: Wasn't that the BEST birthday Ever?

Yes it really was!!!