Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere 10/23/10-10/24/10

It's pumpkin time! Between my and Marc's field trips we got 3 small pumpkins. Each year we usually let the kids paint the small pumpkins any way they want to. It was fun to watch how differently they painted. Marc was very thoughtfully on how he painted his and Samantha just grabbed whatever paint brush was near by an painted randomly.Both turned out great though!
A few weeks ago when we went to Klackles Orchard we picked our big pumpkin to carve. After weeks of waiting, the time finally came to carve it! We drew shapes on a piece of paper and asked Samantha what shape she thought the nose should be. She chose a diamond shape. Marc chose square eyes and we all chose a smiling mouth with a few teeth showing. Daddy always does the carving and I do the cleaning out. This year we had both kids picking through the "goop" to pick out the pumpkin seeds. Marc thought it was gross and was trying to not get dirty....silly! So Daddy had him hold out both hands and he put a blob of it in his hands and said, "Now, you are dirty, quit being a weeny." ;-) Samantha thought it felt cool squishing through her fingers. We wondered how she would do picking the slimy seeds out of the goop. She did great! She probably picked out just as many as her brother did!
We like to make happy jack-o-lanterns and not scary ones. This is how our little guy turned out. Samantha thought it was so cool that Daddy cut the pumpkin apart.
Our front porch look very "fallish" now with all the kids' craftiness.
I love fall and this is just one of the reasons. It is great family together time to sit and paint and carve and sort seeds and make pumpkin seeds. :-)

Picture Day 10/23/10

Today was the day of our family pictures shoot. We booked another shoot with the same person we did the last two shoots with. She is very reasonably priced, we get her for an hour, and we get the disc....oh, and she gets some really good pictures!

We wanted a fall themed shoot this time. We normally get pictures taken the second week in November so they are taken around Marc's birthday. We decided that at this point, taking them 4 weeks before his birthday would be fine and we could get our fall theme in. We went to a place called Schwallier's Country Basket. All morning we were watching the overcast sky and hoping the rain would miss us. I remembered from a previous shoot that Susan, the photographer, told us that a little overcast were better conditions for shoots then bright sunny skies, so I thought, cool! Well, on our drive there it started to rain. :-( By the time we got there, it had stopped raining so we went and checked out the goats while we waited for Susan to get there.

There were vending machines with goat food. You could put in it a cup attached to a pulley system that you then cranked a wheel to send the cup of food up to the top of a ramp and the goat ate the food you put in the cup.
Samantha thought it was funny that this goat stuck his head through the fence for Samantha to pet him. :-)
One of the things they have there is a huge mountain of bales of hay. There is a tunnel through the middle of it that both kids crawled through and then Marc climbed all the way to the top of it!
Another thing they have is a tube slide that was a about a story high. The first couple of times Samantha went down, she didn't pick up her feet so she went down really slow. After she watched her brother a few times, she figured out she went faster if she picked up her feet. :-)
One thing that this place had that I have never seen before is a corn box. It is like a sand box, but with corn kernels. The kids had fun scooping and pouring and piling and having fun.
By the store there were 2 wooden horses for the kids to check out.
By the time we got done with the hour long photo shoot an then some playing time, we were all (the kids especially) were filthy! It was a dirty but free and fun couple of hours. :-)

Yum! 10/20/10

I love fall! One of the things I love about fall is that the chill in the air makes me ready to make our first batch of chex mix! :-) We make it by splitting into half and mixing it in disposable pans. So, since there are two pans and we have kids, each kid gets to mix the ingredients together.Once the kids got the dry ingredients mixed up, Daddy and I take over and get all the seasonings on and cook it. It has to cook for an hour, so in the process, it makes my house smell yummy! The kids were very glad to try to fruits (or chexes) of their labor. ;-)
The first batch of the season turned out yummy! I think it was all the great helpers that took part in making it. :-)

Detroit Pistons Game 10/13/10

Ok......so those of you that us, know that we are at all sports people. But, the other day, we were sitting at Marc's swim lesson when someone comes up and offers us free tickets to go see the Detroit Pistons at our local arena for the following evening. We thought, what the heck, it was free, and we thought Marc might enjoy it, and oh yeah, Daddy says "They have really good nachos there". Glad he has his priorities straight. ;-)

So, the next night, we piled in the car and drove downtown. Of course, any time we are at an event at the arena we have to get snacks. ;-) Marc chose cinnamon sticks and Samantha shared my popcorn.There was a company out in the walkway that was giving away pens, crayons, mini-coloring books (which came in VERY handy with Samantha) and sets of boom whackers. Marc had fun banging them together and Samantha had fun trying to whack Grandma. ;-)
Our seats were way up in the nose bleed section, but hey, they were free! We kinda liked being up that high. We could see everything that was going on in the whole arena.
It was a fun evening. My Mom and I didn't see a whole lot of the game, we were busy trying to keep Samantha occupied. She watched for a little while in the beginning. She looked down at the court and told us to look at the monkeys down there. ;-) We left right after half-time so Marc could get to bed a decent time since it was a school night, but it turned out to be a very enjoyable evening.

1st Grade Field Trip to Klackles 10/12/10

This morning we headed off to Klackles Orchard for a field trip with all the other 1st graders. :-)
When we got there, we all gathered under a tent to learn about how apples grow and the proper way to pick an apple. After we learned our information, we all piled on some wagons and headed out to the apple orchard to pick some apples.Marc with his student teacher, Miss Moran.
Marc with his teacher, Mr. Steinbacher.
After every one picked their apples and got back on the wagons, we headed out to the pumpkin patch.
After everyone picked pumpkins, we once again piled onto the wagons and headed back to the entrance. When we got to our assigned tent, we found YUMMY donuts and cider waiting for us. They even had enough for us parents to have some too! :-)
After cider and donuts the kids had about 45 minutes for some free play on all of the tons of things to do there other than apples and pumpkins. The plan was to have everyone stay and eat lunch together. But, one of the families we drove there had to unexpectedly leave early (before lunch started). I felt really bad about Marc having to leave early, so after I took the family back to the school to get their car, I took Marc to McDonald's for a special lunch.
We got to Klackles once or twice each year in the fall. It was a lot of fun to see what it was like going with 85 other 1st graders and their families. :-)

Harvest Festival 10/9/10

Three years ago we started heading down to Rockford for a weekend of their Harvest Festival. We usually go down there the day they do trick-or-treating around down town. It just so happens that that weekend also coordinates with the day that some of the local preschools put on a Young Fun morning. The preschools that want too pay to have a "booth" can bring a craft or activity for the kids to do. This year there 10 stations. They were: 1) making a paper plate shaker instrument, 2) making a paper bag pumpkin, 3) a bean bag toss game, 4) apple painting (we didn't do, didn't want to get Cinderella dirty), 5) making a noodle/straw necklace, 6) making a book, 7) playing play-doh (didn't do, too many people waiting and since we have it at home, we skipped it), 8) making a noodle sculpture, 9) playing bucket bonanza game, and 10) making a mirror image leaf painting. I would say we spent a little over an hour there. It was a fun, free hour! :-)After we left Young Fun we headed to get some lunch. After we got done eating we had a little time to kill before it was time to trick-or treat. The Rockford school district mascot is the ram. Many of the local schools, students, and businesses decorated a ram and there were a couple dozen of them on display on the dam. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a picture of the kids with the Meijer ram. :-)
We had a little more time before trick-or-treating so we went and checked out the police car.....the kids were excited to sit in the back seat! We told them that this is the only time we had better ever see them in one! ;-) The kids also got to "drive" the fire truck (pictures on our pictures website and Facebook).
The weather today was untraditionally warm. The normal average high temperature for this weekend is about the about 65ish (give or take a few degrees). Today's high was 76 degrees! The costume Marc has this year is a thick, furry Sulley costume. We thought it would be great at keeping him warm while trick-or-treating on Halloween. Since it was so warm today, we waited until right before trick-or-treating started to get him in his costume. Marc was Sulley and Samantha was Cinderella. :-)
My cute kiddos walking around the block trick-or-treating to the local businesses. It is so nice, the block makes a square and there are probably 30 businesses in that square. Not all participate, but a lot do. So everyone just makes a big line and walks around the block collecting goodies. :-) Samantha did great. She said "trick or treat" before they gave her her "candy corn", and thank you after they gave it to her. Great practice for Halloween! :-)
After we trick-or-treated, we took a hay ride around downtown. It cost us $12, but it was a fun, fall thing to do. :-) Another family was nice enough to take our family picture on the hay ride, and it actually turned out cute! :-)
The parking lot we parked in was right next to the local ice cream shop. We figured they would be closed for the season but it was a convenient place to park. To our happy surprise, it was still open! So after a very warm afternoon in the sun, we stopped for some yummy ice cream before we got back in the car.
A friend of mine (who also happens to be a kindergarten teacher) gave me the idea to have the kids guess how many pieces of candy they thought they would get. I decided to try that this year. Samantha guessed 1 piece and Marc guessed 50 pieces between them both. After we got home, he counted how many they actually got. They got 65 pieces all together. Not bad guessing for an almost 7 year old! :-)
The kids got some really yummy candy! Here's to hoping they share with Mommy. ;-)
It was a very beautiful weekend with great weather, great activities, and great fun with a great family! :-)

Mapping Project 10/2010

Marc spent a couple of weeks learning all about mapping. He learned about north, south, east, and west as well as what a legend is and what a compass rose is. He was given a homework assignment to create a map of his bedroom. He was given complete freedom to do what he wanted as long as he included a compass rose and a legend.

He knew right away that he wanted it to be put in a box. The idea I suggest to him was to take pictures of his actual room things and glue them to look like his room. He liked that idea, so off we went to make his room.

I cut yellow construction paper to fit along the inside of the box (the walls) since his walls in his room are painted yellow. We also cut tan paper for his carpet. The only box we had that was about the correct size was a diaper box. He said he didn't want to be picked on by the kids for using a diaper box, so we covered the outside with blue paper.
So, after we got all the papering done, it was time for gluing the pictures in to make the box look like his room. The final product was very cute and Marc was very proud of it!
The day he turned it in was a day that I took him to school, so I walked in with him. When he gave it to his teacher, his teacher looked very impressed. :-) Here's to hoping for a good grade to reward his hard work! :-)

Red Flannel Festival 10/2/10

Every 1st weekend in October, Cedar Springs has their Red Flannel Festival. Every year we head down and go to the craft show, for some lunch......
usually a midway ride or 2 (we didn't this year we didn't because it was cold and raining off and on), and then we watch the parade. Samantha loved the marching bands this year. Every time a music group cam by she started marching.
The parade was right smack in the middle of nap time, so she decided to have a nap with Daddy instead. ;-)
This year seemed extra cool and windy, so, even though we had fun, not quite as much as some years past.
After the parade we came home for some thawing out. ;-) Samantha had to check over the candy loot from the parade. ;-)
It was a fun, cool, windy afternoon. We look forward to doing it again next year, just maybe with some warmer weather. i wonder if anyone has ever thought of moving it a few weeks earlier for a better chance at nice weather? ;-)

Fall Fun at Klackles 9/26/10

Every year we head to Klackles Orchard at least one time. All the way there Samantha talked about apples, apples, apples. So the first thing we did was get on the apple-picking wagon and go get some apples.
We got LOTS of apples!! We each get one of these bags to fill with apples we pick included in our entry fee.
After we got done picking apples, we headed to the store and got some cider and donuts to eat. YUM!! I usually take a picture of the kids eating their donuts, but we were being swarmed by so many wasps that i wasn't able to get pictures of that part. :-( Luckily no one got stung!
After our yummy snack we headed back to the Family Fun Farm part. This apple ruler is a yearly picture ritual.
Marc has always loved riding the barrel car train. We were excited that Samantha was big enough to ride it with his this year! :-)
As soon as we got done with the apples Samantha kept asking abut the "punkin ride". So after some fun in the family area we boarded the Enchanted Pumpkin Ride.
Do you think Samantha was excited to be on the pumpkin ride? ;-)
We thought an almost empty pumpkin patch would be a good spot for some cute pictures.
We usually get 1 big pumpkin to carve and a few smaller pumpkins to paint. Well, I am going on a field trip next week to a pumpkin patch where I will get a small pumpkin and in a a few weeks Marc is going ( and I am accompanying) to a different pumpkin patch where we will both get small pumpkins. So, since it looked like our status on getting small pumpkins was good, we just picked the big pumpkin for carving.
It was a cool, breezy day, but a very fun, fall-filled afternoon! :-)