Halloween Party

We've been sick this past weekish so I haven't taken pictures of our activities (you're welcome). However, this past Friday was Bungie's Halloween party and we were all feeling up to going, if a bit leaky still. But first! We had to carve our pumpkins :)

First we wash them (scrub scrub scrub!)

I made the mistake of pulling out some nitrile gloves for myself. The kids then concluded a) they needed them too and b) whatever we were doing about pumpkins was gross and they didn't want to touch them. Sigh.

Once the pumpkins were properly scrubbed, each kid got a magic marker and drew whatever they wanted me to carve. Avy covered hers with A's.

Ellie put an actual face (dots and a smile) on hers and everyone else had random shapes all over. I finally carved a jackolantern on Theo's just because.

Since we had gotten sorta messy from pulling out pumpkin guts, we all had a bath! See Theo's face? I took 30 pictures. He held that face through all of them.

The girls had some screen time so I could finish Ellie's requested ghost costume. I love how they choose to snuggle close and show each other their screens.

Getting ready for the party! The kids had made their own trick-or-treat bags which the littles were baffled by initially. I didn't get any pictures of the trick-or-treating but suffice to say Theo went through the realization that he could eat a bunch of candy and then take home a bunch of candy and then his bag became his most favorite thing in the world. We had to really work to convince him that taking the bag in the bouncy house was not a great idea ;)

Oh yea, and Ellie's not a ghost. Change of costume plans last minute, now she's a unicorn dancer fairy. But she's loaning her unicorn-ness to Theo who didn't want to wear a costume but apparently a unicorn horn is good for pictures. So many choices, not enough parties!

Speaking of... this is the first time the littles were really big enough to enjoy a bouncy house. This is them throwing themselves full speed at the walls and bouncing off, to their great delight.

Math

We do regular math as a part of school but it comes up organically all the time now too; the big girls are hugely into counting everything. And it's not just numbers 1, 2, 3, 4; it's "2 groups of 5 is 10!" and "8 into 4 fair groups is 2!" (we're big on fair these days.)

Ellie: "Can I have two by two tangerines? I love two by two!"

Avy: "Can I have four tangerines too?"


We have a ton of duplos now thanks to an especially successful thrift shop haul, and the kids have been spending hours building towers, bridges, castles, and cars. And then Ellie called to me, "Mom, what's 12 groups of 10?"

Me (coming out to see): "12 groups of 10 is 120 dear."

Ellie: "Ok. I hypothesize that 12 groups of 10 is as tall as this room."

Me (looking at the pile of 10s she had amased): "I don't know sweetie, I think the room is taller."

Guys, after she finished stacking the piles she was off by 1.

#stuffthebabiesdo

Laundry is a family affair - they help me load, swap, and put away (there's not much folding at this age). Theo loves putting away laundry; he would do it all by himself if I'd let him. However he's not quite clear yet on where stuff goes. This is why I find his jackets in his pants drawer, his pants hanging up on his coat rack, and his shirts stuffed behind our rocking chair.

It's a work in progress. At least the heart is willing!

Sewing lesson

The mending pile had gotten tall enough for me to actually do something about it, and that prompted requests for me to teach the big kids how to sew. Cue our Sunday morning activity!

The babies aren't big enough for needles quite yet but they had a blast examining buttons.

I'm taking them all to a Renn Fair one day, and we're going to be so decked up...

Brr we're outside but it's *cold*

Like, start the heater, yell at the kids to close the door cold. I'm wearing socks.

I did laundry, did some other stuff, and stumbled on Theo helpfully moving the laundry basket back upstairs to where it belongs. I love the innate helpfulness!

"Mom, don't take my picture! Swing me!"

Avy has the "strike a pose" thing down.

I took 200 pictures of Ellie. This is the only time she slowed down enough ;)

He was holding onto my sweater and trying to spin me around and avoid my picture taking. HAH! Got you!

Man I love these kids.

Indoor painting (what was Mom thinking??)

Heh. No, they were great, but for the rest of the day I did keep bumping into random paint spots around the house ;)

Theo was quite proud of his progress.

As was Lily.

Avy perfecting her country singer look.

Theo just radiates happiness.

A sunny but cold day

Fall peeked in here, said hello, then dashed off and let winter come in on its heels - it's been cold. Through no particular consensus we decided to stay indoors, and thus began our "winter activities"

I lay tape in a street grid on the floor for them so they could build a town. Ellie worked hard on her bridge.

Lily godzilla'd the first Aldridgeville, but after I tied a ribbon to her elephant and asked her to walk it they were able to peacefully rebuild.

A 'smeariment! We haven't done one of these in ages. We were testing the tensile strength of spaghetti - one stick? Five sticks? Fifteen sticks? The girls were shocked at the results.

"Mom! It's bowing!"

#stuffAvysays

Avy: "Mom, my tummy hurts and I already tried going potty. Can you think of another alution?"

<solution>

I love how more and more they're using great communication. So proud :)

#stuffElliesays

Ellie: "Mom, what will it be like when I grow up? Will it be more complicated?"

Oh sweet, innocent child....

Enjoying nature

We live in a wonderful area for wildlife: many of our parks are built into trail systems so you can play and hike in the same morning. In this case we intended to hike but met a new little friend who could keep up with all four kids and was also equally fascinated with nature. This is how we ended up with all five kids taking turns holding and petting a fuzzy Woolly Bear caterpillar:

No great pictures of them actually holding it as the kids were so tightly clustered around the bug, but they were enjoying the experience immensely.

We popped into the local ranger station building to use the restroom (right next to the park) and ended up staying for an hour while two very patient rangers answered all of the kids questions about paw prints, skulls, scat, bears, shells, raccoons, spiders... you get the idea ;)

We got home a little late but it was totally worth it. Here's a rare moment of Theo resting; he was pretty tired at this point.

Ok, for those of you not liking bugs, you can stop here, no more pictures of kids.

This guy landed on our window with an audible "THUD". I sadly couldn't get a good shot of him but he was easily 5-6 inches long. He stuck around for a few minutes; it was very windy so we got a good look at him while he took shelter.

Turns out "he" is a she - a female Giant Ichneumon Wasp. That tail isn't a stinger like the kids and I originally thought - it's an ovipositor used to deposit eggs in wood. Super cool!