Halloween Fun

This weekend, we had a great time celebrating Halloween! The kids always get excited when I bring out our "wheel of candy" and let them have a spin.

We went to a fun Halloween party and the kids had all sorts of yummy treats there! They also got to play some fun games and they participated in the trick or treat parade. Our little girl's favorite contest at the party was the pumpkin pie eating contest.

Although she didn't win, she still had a blast eating that delicious pie!

A tradition our family has for Halloween is spending the evening over at grandma and grandpa's house. I am so blessed to have my parents live so very close to us, and so the kids get to see them several times a week. Every Halloween, we go over there and order pizza. When it gets dark, the kids put on their costumes and we take them trick or treating around the neighborhood. Our little girl was a native american and our little boy was a cowboy.

Our oldest, for the first time, decided she did not want to dress up and go trick or treating. I felt a bit sad because I will miss seeing her choose a costume and get excited waiting to go to all the houses. She is growing up so fast. This year, she stayed back and handed out candy with grandpa. I love how close they are and she really enjoyed her job!

As you can see, it was a successful evening of candy collecting. We had lots of fun and can't wait to do it again next year!



Cave Paintings

As part of our Story of the World curriculum, our two younger children are enjoying all the hands-on activities that are presented in the supplemental activity book. Right now, we are studying the nomads of ancient Egypt and the kids learned all about the cave dwellers and how they would paint different things on the walls. We discussed what types of scenes they may have painted, and after a brief lesson on the different styles of figures they would see on the walls, they had a chance to create their own cave paintings!

They both did a great job and it is so much fun watching them work silently on their projects and really learning from what we have studied.



Bread Baking

Fall is such a wonderful time of year! There are so many things I love to do in the fall, and one of them is baking delicious, yummy comfort foods. I think I love baking during the fall, even more than during Christmas time! It isn't as rushed and I can just enjoy the moments with my kids.

Earlier this week, we decided to bake some banana bread. It is one of our favorite breads to bake because first of all, it tastes so good and second, it is very easy to make!

My little ones have gotten pretty good at baking and only need me to supervise as they mix and add all the ingredients. Everyone loved the final product!



Keepers at Home

This week at our Keepers at Home meeting, the girls learned how to make a casserole! They each were assigned different jobs to do, and it was so nice seeing how well they followed directions and worked together.

I am so thankful to have a wonderful bunch of moms here each week to help.

We made Tater Tot Casserole, and each girl was given their own little foil container so they could make individual servings.

While the casseroles were baking, the girls worked on some pumpkin patch sticker scenes, and then they continued working on their cross stitching. Several of the girls have started Christmas projects already!

And here are our finished casseroles!

Don't they look delicious? Well they WERE! My girls gobbled up theirs for dinner and gave my husband and me a nice taste too. The girls really had a fun time and for some of the girls, this was their first time making a casserole. I think they all did great!

Bloggy Awards

My dear friend at Schooling in the Sun nominated me for a bloggy award! Thank you so much to Schooling in the Sun.

So, here are the rules for these awards:

1. Link back to the bloggy friends who gave them to you.

2. List seven things about yourself.

3. Nominate other bloggy friends!

Here are seven things about me:

1.I have always wanted to go on an Alaskan cruise. I am hoping to be able to do it for our 25th anniversary, which will be in 2021. Wow- that seems so far away!

2. I love playing Uno with my husband.

3. I have a sweet Cavalier King Charles Spaniel doggy. He is so spoiled and we pretend he is royalty. His name is Buddy, which is not very regal sounding.  When Prince William and Kate were married, I decided then and there that when we get 2 more Cavalier puppies, they will be named Harry and Pippa. Ha Ha!

4. I speak 3 languages fluently, and studied 2 others for several years in school.

5. I once swore up and down I would NEVER homeschool my children. Another big HA HA! God has such a funny sense of humor...

6. I absolutely love books and last year, I attended a book sale at a school that was closing and came home with 200 (no, that's not a typo!) books. I honestly believe that if you were to count all the books in our home, we would qualify as a library!

7. My favorite food is soup. I could eat soup every day- seriously...

Well there you have it! I know I am not a very exciting person. But now you know some things about me! Now I would like to nominate a few for this lovely award as well:

Otherwise Humble
Raising Little Rhodies
So We'll Know Them by Their Limping

Geography Month

Our H.E.A.R.T. Homeschool Group meets every month at the park. This year, we decided to try something new and have each family choose a different country to study. Every month has been assigned a specific topic. The month of October was Geography Month.

The five countries represented this year are Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and France. Each family brought information, handouts, project boards, and more!

This family dressed as German children and taught us about the different landmarks. They also shared some information about the first day of school, and passed around little paper cones filled with treats, which is a tradition in Germany!

Our family shared basic geographical information about Portugal, and then each of our children created a specific individual project. My girls made project boards on the cities of Porto and Aveiro, and our little boy made a 3 dimensional project highlighting all the different geographical features of Portugal. We also had a lot of manipulatives to pass around such as cork, ceramics, and even a Happy Meal box from the McDonald's that is written in Portuguese! Then our kids passed around euros and chocolate umbrellas brought back from our trip,  for each friend to have.

This family's project was on Switzerland and they displayed the flag, which we learned was one of only two flags in the world that are square! We also learned that Switzerland has a very small population of people, and that St. Bernard dogs are very common in their country and are used to rescue people in the snow.

Next was Canada, where we all sat and learned about the different territories, hockey teams, and main languages. The family representing Canada even drew the map of the country on the sidewalk for everyone to see!

Last but not least, these young ladies gave their presentation on France. Each family received a darling little French box with a puzzle in it and some different facts about the country. We learned about the Eifel Tower and that cycling is the number one sport in France.

These monthly themed park days are so nice and the kids are learning so much! November is History Month, so stick around and see what exciting projects the children come up with!



Sink or Float?

One of my little first grader's science activities for this week was an experiment in what will sink or float. We started by reading the little story about sink and float from his "Read and Understand Science" book.

Next, we gathered some items. We predicted which objects would sink and which ones would float. He was really good at this!

Once he tested all his objects out, he filled in his answers on his worksheet. I asked him which object was the most fun to test out, and he said he liked the brick and the sheet of paper.

Another fun science activity this week was making homemade applesauce. We have been doing several apple themed activities for Apple Month. Both our little girl and boy liked mashing the apples and adding all the tasty ingredients!

Unfortunately, I don't have any good pictures of them making the applesauce, but here is a picture of the finished product! I have also included a picture of the homemade apple potpourri bags we made for our Keepers Club this week. They smell absolutely heavenly!