November 3-4

Our first weekend without Nana and Baba while they are on their Mexican vacation… of course Ken and myself ended up sick. BUT we managed to make it a rather memorable weekend… This was our first go at the Home Depot monthly kids’ activity. The age range is 5-12 so I kept the girls home with me where we made our own little craft using some of the Halloween colour themed craft supplies. Lots of glue and paper and of course some sparkly cupcake stickers!

Sisters crafting together

The boys went with Ken to the Home Depot nearby and did their first craft. They got an apron with their name on it and a pin for the craft. Each time they go back they get another pin for their apron! This month – turkey themed napkin holders.

Oops Emanuel’s eyes were closed!

They had a blast making them! When they got back I retired to the bedroom for a 3+ hour nap… totally meant to just lay down for a few but apparently was not in the cards! I did manage some cleaning, laundry and a completion in my crochet though after I woke up! Sometimes you just need to stop for a while, even though it DOES go against the grain!

Sunday was another lazy day for us. Ken and I needed to get over our colds and really we needed to stay in one place and just RELAX for a while. Oh and clean… bedrooms, sunroom, school corner… I am still on the hunt for Thanksgiving this and that and hope to send Ken and a kid or two to the library this week for some books. 

Couldn’t resist a picture

Miss Echo DEMANDED Ken put her costume back on cape and all and ran around for half the day all dressed up. Did you know that Death loves fruit snacks??? Cuz this one does!!

She just LOVES this costume

Death eating… fruit snacks???

Amazingly enough after my 3 hour bath (oh yea combo of cold and taking a day off I mean REALLY CHOOSING TO! CRAZY! I feel so lazy!!) 4 of the kids took initiative and coloured some fall pictures we are going to mail to friends and family this week… while Zander (#5) did some cleaning and found his missing US map (thank you Gammie).

Colouring!

So now, we have TWO maps up in the boys’ room – Emanuel’s Little Passports map waiting for its first adventure and Zander’s US map. I am debating starting a new unit study across the US… You can check it out HERE. I just need to budget in the funds to purchase! This who no funding thing is certainly something to  get used to! 

Little Passports

Ken and the US

So with Echo sleeping away in her costume and Trinity still hacking a lung I am keeping fingers crossed for a decent Monday. We are starting to talk about Thanksgiving, going back to our dinosaur a day AND trying to finish that Halloween book! I am just glad that the boys are starting to actually get excited about new projects and ideas! Especially about sending notes and pictures to the friends and family back north! 

Speaking of friends up North… here is Echo chatting with Aunty Esther!

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!