{happy halloween}

Eliza woke up with a cough this morning...I was hoping she would still be able to trick or treat, but she ended up getting worse in the afternoon and then she started a fever.  Henry had a school parade and party in the morning.  We went to watch him and he looked so cute...and serious..in his astronaut costume.  

Henry went trick or treating with Chris and I put Eliza to bed early and handed out candy.  It was cold and rainy and the boys came home soaking wet, but grinning ear to ear (Henry did anyway:)).  Here is our cute boy in his Robin Hood costume.  He LOVES a good bow and arrow!

{party, party, party}

We have had such a fun and busy Halloween and Fall this year!

Henry's school has a huge fundraiser every year called SPOOK.  It is a fall carnival with games, food, raffles, a silent auction, cake walk, a photo booth,  a haunted hallway, and more.  We all had a very fun afternoon and Henry is already counting down how many years he will get to go to this event.  We even dressed up in funny costumes that they provided and took a picture...Chris actually dressed up like a clown and the kids thought that was so great!

The following weekend we had our ward's Fall Festival.  The Primary is in charge every year so it is very busy for me getting ready and then the night of.  Our presidency met in the morning and we were there for hours setting everything up.  The kids just ran and played and had a great time together.  When we got home we quickly ate lunch and they both fell asleep!!!  I don't think they ever stopped running the three hours we were there.  That gave me time to make chili and get the costumes ready and everything else that needed to be done!  I had lots of stuff to pack in the van...I brought decorations from home to help decorate cheaply and also brought some of my front porch pumpkins.  I brought chili and paper products and cheese and sour cream and...it was a lot!  Chris made it home just in time to come with us.  We had carnival games for the first 45 minutes and then we had dinner.  We had a chili cook-off with the missionaries being the judges.  We gave out prizes to the winners.  I was in the kitchen most of this time because this year I was in charge of the food and supplies.  I cooked the hotdogs and got everything ready for the table and made sure everything was restocked.  Chris was such a huge help during this time.  He got the lemonade ready and helped get everything ready.  We then did a costume parade for the kids and they had so much fun!  I was the MC and even though I had a microphone it was definitely a wear on my voice:).  I then read a couple of Halloween stories to the kids while the parents went to go get their trunks ready for the trunk or treat.  It was such a fun night, but TOTALLY exhausting!  The kids were so patient while we cleaned up and packed the van.  We did not get home until after 9:00...which is a very late night for our family.

The next night we had TWO parties to go to!  We spent the day deep cleaning our house...it was actually quite rewarding to see everyone with their own rag wiping down baseboards and doors and walls.  Eliza did a little work, but like always tried to get out of it:).  I wish I could remember all the funny things she was saying.  It made me laugh so hard!  It was basically all about how hard she had worked (one minute) and needed a break to read a story.  Henry on the other hand was quite the worker!  He is naturally such a hard worker.  When he gets started on a job he really goes for it and does not stop!  He was a huge help and ended up doing all of the baseboards upstairs.  It is funny how different kids can be.  We for sure all have our natural talents...I am not going to give up on teaching Eliza how to work hard though!!:)  She just really loves to relax and have fun...I am afraid she gets it from me:).
Anyway...
We had our neighborhood party that night.  The kids were excited to dress up again.  They played in the bouncy house and we went on a hayride.  It was so dark and cold and they thought it was very exciting!  There was lots of yummy food (we brought chili) and it was nice to chat with some of our neighbors.  Next we went to the Fencing Academy party.  They had a pinata and some games that you could win prizes and some pretend sword fighting.  The kids had fun, but Eliza started to look tired so we headed home.  It was a very busy weekend, but so nice to do so many fun family activities together.

Henry was really wanting to be Robin Hood...I found a great costume...but later I found an astronaut costume at T.J. MAXX.  He had always wanted one so I could not pass it up.  He has ended up choosing that costume to wear to everything so far.  Eliza is a bumble bee this year and she loves it!  I also found her a little red riding hood costume.  She wore the bumble bee to our ward party and the red riding hood the next night.

Our library also had a really cool evening planned on Tuesday.  They had a genuine story teller who told some spooky stories and sang some folk songs in a dark room with a pretend fire.  The kids thought that was awesome...especially Henry.

 

{a fall dance}

Today we had the first of our leaves on our trees turn red.

Hip Hip Hippo-ray!

(Henry and Eliza love when I say it this way)

I turned on some classical music and Henry and Eliza had a fall dance.

  They twirled and danced and even bowed at the end.

Welcome Autumn!

{bookmarks}

I told Henry we could have some yummy hot chocolate after school to warm him up. 

It felt like a festive fall day!

Have I said how much I love the fall?

I also told him that we could do some kind of craft.

  He decided he wanted to make book marks.

  He cut them out and then glued some squiggly lines on them and then we used glitter to add a little charm.  He wanted to give them to all his neighbor friends that ride the bus with him.  When Chris got home from work we bundled up and delivered all his bookmarks.  It was really sweet.

And here are some pictures of Eliza reading the friend after she finished her hot cocoa.

{a combine}

Oh, how I love having a corn field in our backyard!

I pulled up chairs for the kids and they got to watch the combine at work.

So cool!

{a preschool at home}

I love teaching Eliza at home.

This year has been pretty relaxed and we have not had much of a schedule.  When we have time and what we are interested in tells us when and how and what we do.  In 2014 we will get a little more structured and I will have certain things I will want to teach her, but for now we have just enjoyed the time with just the two of us.  It has been an adjustment having Henry in school.  After we got over the part of missing him sooo much (we still miss him:)) we really have been mostly having fun!  She is only three and what I have learned with Henry and in teaching other children...there is so much time!  There is such a push to teach your child everything as fast as possible...everyone is so worried how smart their kids are going to be and when they are going to read, write, do arithmetic.

  All I can say is that there is time!

  They do not have to experience everything and learn everything that the world has to offer by five years old!!!:)

In saying this...when my children read this later on they will probably wonder what I am talking about for I love education and value my role as educator in our home.  I am always trying to "teach" them throughout our day.  When I had just Henry we read so many books and talked about so many things and played on the floor and I tried to meet him where he was at and teach him what he wanted to know.  I will try to do the same with Eliza...but I am not in as much of a hurry with some things I think.  I have realized there is so much time.  I am still learning so much as an adult.  I finished reading Henry a non-fiction quite technical book about the Wright Brothers and their many attempts and inventions having to do with flight.  It is really cool that he now knows so much about this subject at such an early age and I know it will shape him and how he thinks about things...but I am 34 years old and I feel grateful I was able to learn something new and think about things in a different light.  I am starting to really ramble now...I get very philosophical at times:).

So children when you read this later on
 and you are wondering what to do with your own children at home.
  Here is my advice as best as I can say....

LOVE them...and with this goes along

TOUCH (hold hands, hug, cuddle, stroke their hair, kiss them on the cheek, squeeze their shoulder as you pass). We all need a loving touch...it is a connection of who we are and who we belong to.

READ to them as often as possible (not just about anything, but about important things like friendship, love, sharing, manners, gospel subjects, human anatomy, how things work, dinosaurs, weather, counting, rhyming books, storms, space, cowboys, inventors, silly fiction, poems, fables, fairy tales, nursery rhymes, music, nature, etc...I could keep going on for a while:))

CREATE things...(paint, draw, glue, staple, tape, mold...)
Sometimes all you need is a good pile of play dough and a plastic knife!:)

TALK about the world and explain things about our world through out the day (in the car, on a nature walk, at home, at the doctors office).  I have had some interesting conversations about the different parts of the eye and the diseases you can get just while waiting for Henry's appointment.

And while you are doing all these things WORK together.  I can teach about pairs and matching and colors just while doing the laundry.  Kids feel so good about themselves as they accomplish a task around the home.  They feel included and important in their role in the family.  Eliza loves to get her step stool and help me pour the soap and then put the clothes in the washer.  She feels so proud that she "helped our family."  We all know the benefits of learning how to work...benefits that will bless your whole life through.

SING...silly songs, primary songs, hymns, children's songs, little ditty's you made up about the colors of the stop light.  There is also something so magical about singing around the piano with your little ones.

 MUSIC is powerful!  Listen to music in the home and dance, listen to music in the car and learn (Henry your favorite CD is all about the states and what grows there and what they are famous for and their capital cities/all set to music...you love reciting the Pledge of Allegiance along with Eliza).

EXPLORE...your home, your neighborhood, your city, your parks, your nature trails, your museums.  We have learned so much by just going for a hike or visiting our local museum and planetarium.  We have even explored the field in back of our house and made a great game out of old corn husks.

With all of this said there is always room for a really great alphabet puzzle, a workbook, an educational movie (we love the Letter Factory by leap frog), doing sight words and reading BOB books and learning about money and time on the clock and shapes and....it goes on forever.
  I guess I know all of these sorts of things will come later on through me and through their teachers at school.  What I don't know will come later on is another time when we are laying on our backs outside and see the perfect bunny rabbit made out of a cloud, or the still moment in the car when either of you ask me an important question about Jesus, or the time we watched the potato bug conquer all!
 Live and love and learn through out your day...love your little ones, they grow up so very fast!

Know you are really going to mess up sometimes.  That sometimes you will not want to read a book to them and you do not want to explain for the umpteenth time about a certain law of gravity.  You want them to go and play and let you fix dinner in peace (which reminds me it is great to cook with your kids:)).  Life can be a struggle and raising kids is hard work and sometimes it feels overwhelming and you wonder if you are teaching them anything...is it working, is it worth it?  You will have to repent for losing your temper and apologize for your behavior to your kids.  Pray hard and start over the next day...even when sometimes you want to run away.  It will not kill them to watch a movie and you go in your bedroom and read a book or cry or call a friend to vent:).

The journey of parenthood...so much to say...
I think I will now post the pictures that I was meaning to before getting caught up in all of this...:)

We invited our friend and neighbor over to have preschool with us.  I have a big canvas that I bought awhile ago to teach preschool with.  It is for circle time (calendar, letters, rhyming words, colors, shapes, gumball counting, weather, etc.).  We did that and then went for a nature walk and talked about the wind and bugs and leaves and how things grow and dew drops and all sorts of other things.  We collected whatever we found that was interesting and that we wanted to talk about. We came home and wrote about what we learned and wrote what we wanted to know more about.  We looked up certain things on the internet to learn more about them...like what exactly happens with the creation of dew drops.  We then glued our objects onto paper.  This is Kate and Eliza.  They are too cute!

{general conference}

I love General Conference!

We have to watch it in this tiny claustrophobic room with four people so sometimes I don't get all that was said...but I still love what I do hear.  I also love teaching my children about how important and amazing it is to watch and learn from apostles and prophets that are on this earth.

  We are so blessed!

Henry and Eliza love Conference for the most part, but Eliza did get a little tired of watching the same thing over and over...her words not mine:)

We all love purple cows.

Eliza likes hers seperate...just like Uncle Jaron did.