October 30-31

The day before Halloween was the best day for us to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas. I was surprised… Trinity watched it one and a half times! Even Echo sat through most of it. They giggled, they wiggled along to the music… it was great! I really need to get my hands on a copy of The Corpse Bride.  The kids decided the front needed some Halloween decorations and went out and did all this wonderful art on the sidewalk without telling us as a surprise!!

I think this is the haunted house

Jack-o-lanterns

Zander’s skeleton

What else did Tuesday have going for it? Well, we worked on our pictures from our Lego and birthday party sticker sets… the kids did their spelling and such as usual.. Emanuel coloured a child in a DINOSAUR costumepicture instead of learning about a NEW dinosaurs…

In dinosaur costume

There was also that SECOND pumpkin to spiffy up. This time everyone but Trinity put their hands in (or spoons at least) and got it cleaned out. We did a ghosty, vampire face on this one! I think it turned out rather neat!

Group effort

Gavin trying carving

Pumpkins together

And then to top off the day we took the kids out in the front yard for a trial run of the costumes! I will definitely redo the ones of Trinity and Echo, Trinity with face paint and Echo to get the BEST image we can of her with the Death of Rats (seriously we love Terry Pratchett can you tell?). In fact, that feltie is my idea designed by Ken and stitched by yours truly! 

Death and her Death of Rats!

Our very own Chococat

Batman (Zander) and Spiderman (Gavin in ACTION POSES

One of my all time favourites… PENGUIN !!!

The 5 together

We took the advice of Art for Kids and did our own water colour resist using crayons and black water colour paint. You can find instructions HERE. They had a blast drawing their spooky pictures and then painting the black over. I am not sure where all my water colours went as I am rather sure I had some small packages BUT Gavin was nice enough to share his set! 

The painting

Our finished art!

Now HALLOWEEN! Well, it was a wonderful day! I slept in way more than I expected to… this bug had me looped and I was up late the night before working on Echo’s Christmas present (photos  to come), thankfully Ken was able to continue his application code and job search and let me sleep while the kids had fun with Legos and toys and things. We have recently done a clothes sort for the season so it SHOULD be easier for the boys to keep their room clean with less clothing in the drawers. Note I said SHOULD. We did work on some pictures I printed from Activity Village(my go to place for so many crafty things) and enjoyed the sunshine at the kitchen table. 

Playing with goo

I have yet to let the twins know but as of Halloween they BOTH met their 20 sessions of reading and earned their pizza coupons! So now we have to determine when they can use them.  I took some time and baked some chocolate cakes and as per Darcy’s request we covered one in ORANGE cream cheese icing (sorry no picture). I actually found a nice and simple recipe for it as follows (ok not the cake, that was a box mix!): Quick and Easy Cream Cheese Icing Ingredients:

Once all of that was done, Ken showered and the kids prepped to go we packed our pumpkins up and headed out to the Novak’s. When we got there they were having an impromptu dance/carving party so our pumpkins fit right in. 

Carving

Our pumpkins came along for the ride

Since Andrew and Anthony were not ready for their plans Ken and I took Aidan (and briefly Alex before he headed back to wait for his ride) and our 5 and started trick or treating on the street the Novaks live on. We made it all around and back to wait for Darcy while she dropped off the 3 big boys for their groups. Darcy got back and we piled into their van and headed to a newer neighbourhood to round off our fun with a couple more streets.

Trick or treat!

The 6 we took out all together

After that it was back to the house to eat some candy and play some bingo! 

Bingo!

We hung out until nearly 10 when Echo was definitely in need of bed and all of the Novak boys were home (well except Big Andy who ended up with truck issues).

The whole group!

On the ride home we had 4 of 5 kids ASLEEP in the van (Echo went back and forth, I think she is getting closer to potty training and was annoyed that her diaper was wet… sadly with all the goings on we have been doing disposable more now). We stopped off for the closest thing I could get to a slurpee – fountain pop… and then home we went.  Definitely different from our previous Halloweens but in a good way. Our kids had fun, they spent time with special friends and basically family and Ken and I got to spend time with not only an amazing friend but our godson too. The kids really look forward to their time with the Novaks and when they ARE all together it seems like they do nothing but have fun. 

We had soooo much fun!

Education.com is a favourite resource of mine for print outs and crafting activities. Well, recently they came up with something called Wonder Box for the preschool/Kindergarten age. Sadly I was unable to test the product when they were first setting it up as it could not be shipped up to Canada. I figured it would be a wonderful thing to get for Trinity. I was especially lucky and won a box in a draw on The Adventures of Supermom site! So here goes!

Wonder Box

The boxes come with a theme and our theme was Mad Scientist with some crafty bits, magnets AND a baking activity! 

I love the packaging, even cloth bags

We started with what quickly became Trinity AND Echo’s favourite project. The I Spy Bottle. I love the little blurb that came along with it: Shake up some science with this twist on the classic game. Kids make a portable treasure hunt using two liquids  that don’t like to mix. Challenge your child to find a letter or a sound as you show density in action, then shake it up and start again. 

This activity came with a bottle around half full of corn syrup, some colourful letter beads and some sequins. First we went through the letters and spelled out Trinity’s name and then picked a few of her favourite letters to drop in. Then some of the sequins… top it off with water and shake (with the lid on). I am hoping to find some more bottles and make a few more of these as Echo absolutely LOVES it. Though we did find the beads float right up to the top rather quickly. Someone else linked me something called a time out bottle that totally reminded me of this craft. That is my next project… once I get my hands on glitter glue and clear tacky glue! 

Checking out those letters

Dropping them in

Thus entertaining the baby sister very well

Our next activity was Magnet Magic. You have a “magic wand”, some magnetic chips and a couple bingo sheets with a colour dice. First we scouted out all the magnetic things we could find in the kitchen. Echo was right down there for that. 

Magnetic??

And then we played colour bingo using the wand to clean up our sheets after. Trinity was quick to catch on that we needed metal items to have them stick to the wand.

Collecting the chips

Our third activity was a mosaic one. Three cards with different shape outlines in varying colours on the image with a corresponding sticker sheet. Each of the three cards had some neat scientific fact. Trinity was more than willing to allow a very enthusiastic Emanuel to help! 

Mosaic

The final activity in our Wonder Box was a baking one! Bubble Bread!!! Very hands on and lots of fun! I will share the recipe:

What  you need:

• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• raisins or other mix-ins (optional)
• mixing bowl
• large cup
• mixing spoon
• round greased baking pan

What to do:

1. preheat your oven to 400 degrees
2. mix milk and vinegar in a cup and set aside for about 10 min. The acid in the milk will react with the baking soda. Don’t worry, the bread will still taste delicious!
3. Add the flour, salt, baking soda and raisins (if desired) to the bowl
4. Stir in the milk and vinegar mixture into the dry ingredients and mix them until smooth. As the dough stiffens, little hands may need some help with the kneading
5. scrape the dough out of the bowl and onto a floured surface
6. Shape the dough into a disk about 1 inch thick, and place it into the greased pan
7. Bake about 15 min, and keep an eye on the bread as it rises. Science in action!

Since we couldn’t see through the window in the stove well enough to really see the growth we opened the oven door a few times so that the kids could marvel in the rising! And then when we cut it open – BUBBLES in the bread! They were very impressed and it didn’t taste half bad! 

Working with Mommy

Maybe a little more flour on the counter??

Bubbles

We really enjoyed our time with the Wonder Box.  I am hoping I can get one right after Christmas for Trinity again. So if you are looking for a fun activity box for the little ones in your life AND live in the USA… Wonder Box is a TERRIFIC option!! I am so thankful we received this one. 

Three children thoroughly entertained!!!