Annnnddddd now we are onto October… and October of 2015 was a doozy. Not only did we have Halloween to contend with (and 5 costumes of which were all somewhat handmade), but a very important wedding. It is not every day you get to be in a THEMED wedding in a park for a friend who is more a sister to you than pretty much anyone on the planet. AND see her looking gorgeous and feel rather pretty yourself to boot. HERE

Halloween this year was the year of all handmade… each and every costume had at least a touch of our personal handy work on it. HERE.

Echo and zombie (?) Alex

October is also Ken’s birthday and Canadian Thanksgiving… both of which we celebrate.

There is the usual, swim lessons at the YMCA thanks to Nana and Baba… and Home Depot…

Homeschool, of course… when are we not learning something new…

October just happens to be the month when the trees in our backyard look their finest. And then when the ground looks its most amazing. I could not resist a full on photo shoot of everyone and everything. You can see the rest of the leaf pictures HERE.

We really had a crafty and active month.

Spiderwebs

As well as some time with games indoors…

Working on our spelling

With company as well…

Evan

Jeffrey!

Fun with Scouts…

And Sunday School of course!

I have to admit, I love October more when we are in Minnesota… the colours here are so… amazing!!!

 Top it off with random images and what a great month!

So this year we had FIVE homemade costumes… I don’t think we have ever had so many to make! Ken and I each had some part in an aspect of each costume. Be it crochet or sewing. I think they turned out rather well and all were done the day BEFORE Halloween!!!

We did a costume try on on Friday in the backyard with out amazing leaves. I was so pleased to see that everything fit well and that the kids were all happy with their costumes.

We have a tiny witch…

Rapunzel…

A triceratops…

An ice wizard…

And a fire wizard…

Ken even made the staffs from the limbs of trees Baba cut down last month.

The hats were all made from the witch’s pattern on crochetspot.com. I have a toddler version up for sale on my Etsy store if anyone is interested HERE.

I used another crochetspot.com pattern for Trinity’s flowers. We sewed those to a fabric headband and then tied ribbons to the back which were braided into her hair.

Ken was 100% in charge of the cloaks! Didn’t he do a great job?

For our resident dinosaur I found a great pattern for a Triceratops hat thanks to Ida Rott HERE. And then Ken made the tail and the gloves with claws. (his overalls outfit thing and Trinity’s dress were lucky Goodwill finds as was Echo’s broom)

I, myself even gave dressing up a go and went as a gamer girl… Ken had to have a photograph… the shirt said Do Not Disturb I am Playing Video Games… I think he just wanted a visual record of the fact I was actually wearing jeans and socks. Men.

We did our yearly traditional trick or treat with the Novaks and then hang out after. This year we came early and had pizza. The kids had a blast and we came home with WAY TOO MUCH candy!

Jacob and Echo

We did not do a full on Halloween unit this year… what with the printer being mean and refusing to allow the ink to last (we think there may be a leak… devastating for a homeschool family…) and the busy busy life we have had I simply did not have the time. However, we did do some great print outs from Activity Village HERE, and read some amazing books… oh and watched a couple films! So I will share that info below!

Free hot chocolate!

Movies:

• The Nightmare Before Christmas
• The Haunted History of Halloween (The History Channel) I have also included a link that has information all about Halloween thanks to the History Channel HERE

Books:

• Halloween by Natalie M. Rosinsky HERE
• Halloween by Mari C. Schuh HERE
• Halloween and the Day of the Dead Traditions Around the World by Joan Axelrod-Contrada HERE
• The Story of Halloween by Carol Greene HERE
• John Pig’s Halloween by Jan L. Waldron HERE
• Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson HERE
• Trick or Treat, It’s Halloween by Linda Lowery and Richard Keep HERE
• H is for Haunted House by Tanya Lee Stone HERE
• Skeleton Shake by Liz Conrad HERE
• Halloween Is… by Gail Gibbons HERE

Gavin chose to do a quick fact list on Mummies so he used to following two books for that:

• Ancient Egyptian People by Sarah McNeill HERE
• Mummies & Their Mysteries by Charlotte Wilcox HERE

Echo and Zombie Alex

Kids with their Halloween treats from Gammie and their popsicle stick and yarn spider webs

Pizza!