Happy Halloween

It's become a fun Halloween tradition for Jenn and family to come over and trick or treat with us.  It's fun to see how the kids have grown up and changed over the years - here is 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010.



Our first stop was Ms. Patty's house - she is a teacher at Karsten's school and we discovered earlier this year that she is our neighbor!  Small world!


Liam didn't like the mask when we first tried on the costumes, so I wasn't so sure he was going to wear it for trick or treating.  He surprised me by wearing it the whole time.


The mask made it tough for him to see steps and obstacles in front of him.  Unfortunately, he fell down when he was trying to run and keep up with the big kids.  He was ok, he did scrape his fingers up a bit - and then he had to show each and every house he went to that he got a boo- boo.


We went trick or treating before dinner in the hopes of getting home before it got too cold.  It was in the upper 40's, so it was chilly, even before the sun went down. Once we got back, we were all getting grouchy and were ready for some pizza!  Jenn made these adorable pumpkin bowls from oranges.  They were the perfect holder for fruit!


The fun continued and Jenn and the kids spent the night.  Jenn brought a Halloween book that everyone enjoyed.

Class party

I love going to Karsten's class parties, it's fun to see Karsten interact with the kids in his class and meet the kids he talks about all the time.

I got to his school a bit early, so I got to see them finish playing Halloween bingo.  One of the kids got bingo and yelled JINGO, then all of the other kids started to say, 'I want Jingo', 'Can I get Jingo?' One of the other moms and I were cracking up!


The first game was to create a spider web with a ball of yarn.


Then they have to figure out the best place on the web to hold the stuffed spider.  As they were doing this, I was trying to figure out how the teacher was going to get them out of the tangled web, but it was very simple - they just stood up and the yarn fell to their feet.


Unfortunately, we didn't see the treat signup until it was already full.  Now I know where it will be so I will be on the lookout for the Christmas party.  One of the mom's brought these adorble donuts - they were a huge hit with the kids!


Two of Karsten's teachers were dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2 - this is Mrs. G, his primary teacher.  She was being a good sport and getting turned into a mummy.


Next, the class sang three songs for us - adorable!


Finally, it was treat time.


It was a fun party - can't wait for the Christmas party!

Pumpkin carving

I'd like to say we waited to carve our pumpkin to the last minute to ensure optimal freshness of the pumpkin, or because we were perfecting the perfect design.  Honestly, we forgot the weekend before and weeknights are so busy we didn't squeeze it in until the day before Halloween!

Karsten was excited to cut into the pumpkins - these were thick pumpkins, so it ended up being a team effort.


Liam wasn't so interested in the pumpkins at first, he had more fun being silly with me.




When Karsten started to draw on the pumpkin, Liam got interested.  He said 'I draw punkin too?'


Karsten's design may have been a bit more elaborate than my pumpkin carving skills, but I did my best to honor his design.


Finally, Liam got his turn to draw.


I cut out the shapes of the face and it was Karsten's job to smooth it out and make sure there were no more hanging pieces or chunks left over.


Karsten and his pumpkin - ignore those extra maker marks, as I said, I did my best. :)




The finished products - I think they turned out well!  Just in time for Halloween!

Wordless Wednesday - Where'd they go?

Breakfast crew

I'm a lucky gal to have these three guys cook breakfast for me! The were all working together to make pancakes - delicious.

Final apples of the season

We made our third and final trip to the apple orchard this weekend.  They said there were still apples, they were just small and higher in the trees.  We were hoping for enough apples to make more applesauce to freeze and more dried apples.

The boys watched the bags and found all sorts of sticks on the ground while Scott used the apple picker to get apples high in the trees and I scouted other trees for apples.  Karsten did double duty helping us make sure Liam didn't pick apples up off the ground and eat them!


Karsten really wanted to help using the apple picker, but it was a challenge to get the apples because you had to maneuver between the branches.  Scott was the only one who did it well.


When the boys went to the orchard with Linda and Leland, they learned that there was feed for the ducks.  When we were feeding the ducks, there were fish right at the shore trying to beat the ducks to the food.  Do you see the fish right in the front?


We made dried apples, froze apples for use later, applesauce and apple crisp.  Delicious!

Learning

I think I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it many more times, but it's so cool to see Karsten learning and enjoying the process.  He's sounding words out, asking how to spell things, asking why i and e can sound the same, trying to learn to add - and I'm sure there's five more things I'm forgetting!
At the consignment sale this week, I was flipping through the books, and I found this math workbook.  For 50 cents, I was willing to take a chance that he would enjoy it.  This weekend, while I worked on getting clothes off hangers to wash them, Karsten did math problems.  He was off to a strong start and got frustrated when he started counting items with a total greater than 10, but we worked on it a bit, and I think he figured it out.

I can't wait to continue to watch him learn and grow.
 

Omaha Visit - Day 2

Our plan on Sunday was to check out the Children's Museum, have lunch in Old Town, go to Fat Brain toys and head home.  When we pulled into the parking lot at the Children's Museum, it was empty and the lights were off.  Uh oh.  With a sinking feeling, I pulled out my phone to check the hours again.  Turns out they list their hours Sunday - Saturday, and I looked at the last entry, assuming it was Sunday, and was very wrong on the time.  We showed up at 9am and they opened at 1pm.

A quick Google search found a nearby park where we could explore for a bit and figure out how we were going to reorganize our day.


There wasn't a playground in site, but the kids didn't care because they were too busy chasing the geese.


It was a beautiful park with several paths around this lake.


The kids were excited to be able to run and explore.


The fountain had several different sprays.


Right before we left the lake, we saw this rainbow in the fountain!


I think Liam has a future in basketball, because he is very skilled at blocking.  When he's tired of walking, he plants himself right in front of you saying 'care me Daddy/Mommy'.  Somehow he can block and almost trip you if you try to keep walking.


There were bridges over the railroad tracks, so the boys were hoping to see a train, but no such luck.


Then we went to have lunch and check out Fat Brain Toys.  After some playing and scouting out potential birthday and Christmas presents, we were off to the Children's Museum (again)


The air pipes at Wonderscope in KC were Liam's favorite exhibit, and when he saw this giant air pipe, he was excited.  He played here for a long time, putting the balls into the different tubes and watching where they flew out.




I think Scott liked it too - he says someone had to show Liam and Karsten how it worked.  Uh huh, right. :)


There were elaborate ball games to play.  There were ball cannons, ball ramps, and this thing where the balls would fly up if you stomped on it  Karsten was getting frustrated that he couldn't get the ball to fly up when he was jumping and stoming on it, so David helped him out and snuck his foot on there to make it work.


Karsten turned himself into a policeman.  This was pretty cool - kind of like virtual paper dolls, but with your own face.




The auto shop wa a big hit with Liam and Elam.  They worked here for quite a while - the tires were especially entertaining and got changed many times.








Before we moved along to something else, Liam wanted to make himself into a policeman, just like Karsten!
 

Our last stop was the climbing area and market.  Liam played quite a bit on the firetruck because he didn't discover until the end of our visit that climbing into the jungle gym wasn't as scary as he thought it would be.


He had fun grocery shopping and was very intentional with what he was putting in his cart.


Choosing the perfect meat.


Grocery shopping all done!  If only grocery shopping always went this quickly!
 

He had fun picking and planting the garden - 'like daddy'.


After a fun afternoon at the Children's museum, it was time to head back to Kansas City.


We had two very tired boys - I'd say this is the sign of a fun weekend!