Thanksgiving school days

   For my dad, who has held to his guns and not joined Facebook, I give you this post....

  The kids have had a busy week enjoying school.

  At the little girls WONDERFUL preschool, they learned about Thanksgiving and read and made stone soup. They even made homemade butter to go with the cornbread!

Violet and Saphron

Sadie the Pilgrim

  Daylon and I got to come for their feast and really enjoyed ourselves. We love Mrs. Rogers!

  Caleb had his Thanksgiving feast today, which was supplied 100% by the great Kindergarten teachers. The feast didn't resemble the first Thanksgiving much (pizza, chips and fruit) with the exception of the pumpkin pie. Caleb was proud to announce to his sisters that his class got to be, "the aliens!!". I think we need to get his hearing checked. Hahaha!

  Their was an awards ceremony today at school as well and the three little ones and I were able to attend. Keira received two academic awards. We're so proud of her!!

  As the mother to all of these children with the chaotic schedule, I'm seriously  looking forward to Thanksgiving break! Nine whole days of no school! A WOO-HOO and pass the turkey!
  
     Enjoy your week!

Halloween

Our initial plan for Halloween was to dress everyone up as Phineas and Ferb characters but after the Daylon ended up with an infection and then the kids sick, I ran out of time. Only half the costumes were finished so we had to resort to plan B (next yr maybe we'll try it again).


Keira wanted to be a witch and I have something to tell you all: SOMETHING is wrong with the world. She wears a little girls size 7 or medium. Size 7 fits 7 years olds, right? Then someone please, please tell me why every witches costume I found was either slutty or scary Gothic? Seriously. Something is wrong here folks. Where the cute witch or even just the Plain Jane witch? I found a really sweet witch's dress at target.com and Keira, Brian and I all really liked, but when it came in the mail, it was a devil's costume. Cue the crazy mom. I tried returning it but with only 3 days before Halloween, they couldn't get us the right dress in time. I think the lady thought I was crazy when I said that, "No, can't make the devil costume "work". I don't want my kid dressing up as Satan." thankyouverymuch. We went to party city and settled on a Candy corn witch. We found out on Halloween morning that it is a bit more "grown up" looking than we wanted, but it was cute all the same. Caleb took to Frankenstein's monster this season, so he naturally picked him. Sadie Bug wanted to be a Lady Bug again for obvious reasons and Violet loves everything Keira so she opted for her big sister's old costume. Cool, cool. I love saving money! Daylon was batman...and a pretty cute one by the way!
 
   I give you, our trick or treaters...

Brian sold his car that day so he took the train home. We picked him up at the station in Corona and then went trick-or-treating in my parents neighborhood. This was our first year to go as a family, Since Daylon's been born he's always been too sick to go so he and I stay home. It was such a blast! Daylon loved it too and didn't even notice he wasn't getting any candy (he can't keep sugar down)! He drove in his little car on the sidewalk with me while Brian and the kids ran to the doors.  Our last house was my parents. They were really surprised to see us and enjoyed visiting with the kids for a few minutes. We were all looking forward to our first time trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood, but there's always next year. We all had such a great time!

grandpa wearing a tutu...That's not something you say everyday.

Welcome Fall- checking our list twice

     As silly as it might seem, something that I have been especially thankful for the last month is to have one of the only trees on our street with season changing leaves. I love coming home and seeing Fall right in my yard. It's such a great feeling.

   

     Since Daylon was born (and we began living a not so ordinary life) we have made an effort to make sure we enjoy each season or vacation. We typically refer to it as "Summer Vacation- Woohoo!" (the woohoo is crucial) or "Spring Break-Woohoo!" (that typically has a bad connotation come to think of it) but since Fall encompasses two holidays and not much vacation time, we just call it "Fall". Kind of a downer without the "woohoo!". Anyway, one request the kids had to make Fall fun is to have a Halloween themed dinner once a week. I only took pictures of 3 of the four weeks I think because I can't find the fourth dinner. Anyway, here they are:

Chili and Cornbread Coffins

Stuffed Shells Snails

Salami and ricotta calzone Snake

chicken and bacon alfredo calzone SLUG



Eyeballs -thank you Family Fun spooky and tasty dessert are always a crown pleaser!



We also had make pumpkin bread with chocolate chips. Check. ..And pumpkin cupcakes. Check

Go to the Pumpkin patch. Check.

decorate the pumpkins. Check.

Daylon's

Sadie's "Girl" pumpkin

Violet loves Minnie



Caleb's take on Frankenstein



Keira's pumpkin is everything scary: lots of witch warts, Vampire teeth, evil eyes and angry eyebrows

Ready for Halloween

 Carmel apples (see previous post)

repeat photo

Some of the other things that I don't have photos for are: make Carmel apples (see previous post)
Write Santa letters, homemade soup and bread each week all Fall (this one has been fun and the kids love when it's there week to pick which type of soup we eat- this week, homemade cream of broccoli. Mmmm) and 1st rainy night have cocoa and a hot treat (we had the pumpkin muffins).
  Somethings we still need to do are: visit Oakglenn (we're going the week of Thanksgiving), jump in a pile of leaves (I need to find enough leaves. Missing Minnesota right about now), try out a new trail by our house, pumpkin pie, go to the Turkey Bowl and have our traditional muffin breakfast Thanksgiving morning.
  
   I've always loved Fall, but the kids always make things so much better!! One day I'll post the "Summer Vacation- Woohoo!" post. One day.


  Happy Fall!!