Halloween 2010

Working on the pumpkins!

Jack's pumpkin

Alice's pumpkin

Jack got to wear his costume to choir. He said it was bad, though, because it was hard to sit on his tail.

Alice was a ladybug. My sister made this costume when my niece (now 8) was a baby. Alice was not keen on the headpiece, but it was really cute.

Jack was a dragon. He ditched the wings after the second house and the mask didn't last much longer.

Alice's first house for trick-or-treating!

Jack kept at it the whole time and had a completely full bucket by the end of the night.

Alice worked hard, but she wore herself out and didn't make it through the whole evening.

Happy Halloween!

It's Official: We're Hicks

A couple of months ago we had these giant mushrooms in our yard. Some of them were about the size of Alice's head. No kidding. Today we were on our way to the mailbox when we noticed more of them--not quite so large this time, but still good-sized, which lead to our latest pastime...

Mushroom demolition. I like to pull the mushrooms (There is something so satisfying about the give when you pull it out. It's like fungal therapy or something.) and Jack likes to destroy them.

We went all over the yard searching for mushrooms until the lawn looked like a foam factory had exploded. It was awesome.

To top off the fun, our neighbor came over and told us all about the hunting he's been doing this season and the coyotes in the driveway. Yep, we're country folk now!

The Circus

A couple of weeks ago we got a flier about a circus coming to town and I got excited. We would row Andy and the Circus! And then I saw that Amazon had one copy and it was over $100.00. (Now, though, it looks like they have some for much less, in case you're in the market.) Then it occurred to me that we already had Andy and the Lion and there is a circus in it, too, so the choice was clear. It's also clear that people named Andy go to a lot of circuses.

Anyway, we got tickets and headed out on the cold rain so Jack could see his first circus. I was a little hesitant because it was kind of in the middle of nowhere and I wasn't sure what to expect. It seemed like this might be one of those situations where I learn not to hype things up too much because they might very well fall flat.

We had front row seats! See all those red and blue seats behind them? They stayed empty the whole time. I don't know if that was the weather or if that's normal for a little circus.

We passed the time until the show started by eating uber-expensive snacks.

Jack thought the dogs were great!

They also had "bigger" acts, like these acrobats on giant wheels. It made me kind of nervous. I have watched enough 80s mystery TV to know that someone always messes with the safety equipment in order to knock off a rival performer, so I was worried about what my child was going to witness. (I've also seen Elmer Gantry, so I checked out the exits when we got in the tent.)

He seemed to be concerned, too.

Lots of acrobats--and they must all get along well since no one was offed during the performance.

At intermission, Jack got to ride an elephant.

Note to self: Make sure there is never more than one skateboard in the house. (That's probably more of a concern for Alice than it is for Jack.)

Ponies!

Did you know elephants are crazy fast? I was wondering if the front row seats would lead to our tragic demise. (I seem to have an issue with circuses, don't I?)

It turned out to be a great time! A clown had me toss a hoop to him and I got this giant balloon in return. Throwing well is not a skill I possess, so I really had to work for that balloon, which promptly exploded in the car on the way home, deafening us all temporarily.

Andy and the Lion

Last week we rowed Andy and the Lion.

We used some of the pages from HomeschoolShare. Jack enjoyed the openers activity--We read openings from different books and talked about if they were interesting or not and what made them interesting. We also talked about how the ending ties into the beginning in Andy and the Lion.

I made a chart about the Dewey Decimal System. It was way too much for a six year old to do in one trip to the library, especially when there is a baby running around and trying to pull the books down all around, but he got the gist of it.

We found the lions at our zoo--not doing too much this day.

Learning to look up books at the library.

We talked about the lions in front of the NYC library and actually saw them (or cartoons of them) two or three times during the week. Our library has a statue, too, but Alice is really nervous about statues, so we didn't stay too long.

Pictures of our other field trip will be coming soon!

Guessing Game

We rowed Andy and the Lion this week and we took in a little show tonight. Any guesses? I took 151 pictures, so I'm going to need some time to whittle them down and make a post!

One Year and Two Ovens

We've been in our house for one year now. Before we moved in, I told Jay I wanted to have everything unpacked and pictures on the walls and everything by one year. Ahem. Turns out it's not so easy to do when you've got kids and jobs and life happening. There were a couple of times that I thought life might run us right back into the city, but now that we've been here for an entire year, we have a better idea of what to expect and hopefully can deal with it a little better. We'll see.

So why the month old picture of my messy kitchen? A) I had an idea for a post in my head and never got around to it so I'm doing this as I eat dinner in my pajamas and B) This picture shows two of my most favorite things about our house--the two ovens and the under cabinet lighting. I could definitely give up square footage, wood floors, or a big bathtub, but I think I may die if I ever have to live in a house with one oven and dark counters. It is divine.

The ovens were also the first thing Amber noticed when I posted this picture of Jack and his new haircut. I'm still laughing about that. Hint to husbands: Girls like ovens. Maybe some day I will get some pictures up of the kitchen when it's clean!

Deja Vu All Over Again

With my sincerest apologies to those (like my husband) who are grossed out by missing teeth, here is a picture of the latest gap in Jack's teeth--that's the third one in the last month. Rumor has it that the Tooth Fairy is going to have to take out a loan if she visits our house too many more times.

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World

Our latest row was How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. This is a really fun book that we will probably use again next year, too.

As you have seen, we had lot of fun with this book. And we (meaning the kids, of course) ate a lot of apples!

We used a few items from HomeschoolShare along with the FIAR Fold & Learn. One of the things Jack really enjoyed was the saltwater experiment. The last page of his book was a sad face because he said he didn't like the salt.

It looks like Alice would have drawn a happy face if she had a book!

The Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch today--the real one, not the Simpson's-esque place we went last year.

As soon as we saw the camel, Jack had to ride it.

He had a great time feeding all the different animals, too.

Alice just wanted to watch from a distance.

I thought she would be okay with having her picture taken here...

...but it turned out she wanted to keep her distance from him, too.

Jack loved the horses, of course.

Alice wasn't so sure (I know you're shocked), but we were the only ones there at the time, so the man let her sit on the horse and pet him a bit and she finally warmed up to him enough to ride a few laps.

Jack's favorite thing was this hay house. It was pitch black inside and the two times I went through, I cheated and used my camera flash to light my way. Jack went through it so many times he could run through it (there were several turns) and be out the other side in the time it took me to walk from the entrance to the exit.

Headed to check out the pumpkins!

They both got to take one home!