November Crafts

Matthew has finally decided that he loves to do "projects." This means that I'm breaking out every piece of construction paper in the house, and we're getting to work on Thanksgiving art!



We've made mosaic cornucopias- ripping up construction paper and pasting the pieces onto a print-out. Mine is on the top and Matthew's is on the bottom. I did it alongside Matt so he could see where the different colors went. I think he did an good job for a three year old!

We also made bird feeders out of cardboard rolls, peanut butter, and birdseed. The boys love looking out the window to count the number of blue jays at our feeder! We get a lot of blue jays and chickadees, and an occasional cardinal. It won't be long before the boys will be able to identify all of the various bird species in our neck of the woods!

In Which We Lose a Shoe

Trick or Treat!

Why does Dennis's pumpkin always turn out better than mine? Sigh...

Dennis's jack-o-lantern

A picture of mine, for comparison.

The boys, just before trick-or-treating

To infinity, and beyond!

We live on a street with very few children. The majority are now in middle school or high school, so there are only about 4 children who actively trick-or-treat in our neighborhood. This turns out to be quite an advantage for the candy:child ratio, since most of our neighbors buy a full bag of chocolate, and have to give it to someone.







As we ventured down the block, we found that some of our neighbors had grandchildren visiting. As there are rather few houses on our street, this meant that we stopped inside for a mini-playdate at a few of the houses. Matthew began inquiring at every house, "Where are you toys? I want to play!" He was disappointed if we came to a house with no children present! We came home with quite the stash of candy.

Halloween is over, and now I have to get to the business of consuming all that chocolate removing our Halloween decorations and getting the turkey-related things out!

Time For Your Lobotomy, Jack!

Every year, I have the hope that the children will find great joy in scooping out the slimy pumpkin guts. Every year, the kids reach in, say "EWWWW!" and hand us the spoon. Luckily Daddy was a good sport and did the pumpkin-gut removal for us. The boys had fun playing with the pumpkin lids, anyway!

Preschool Halloween Party

Twenty three year olds in adorable Halloween costumes = the cutest thing on the planet!


Matthew's preschool had a Halloween parade and song before continuing with their Halloween party. The preschool has the children arrive in costume, and they have a parade to the office to "scare" the pastor. Then they come back to the main hallway and have a circle time song, and then take a class picture.





The set-up is great, because the children then remove their costumes before continuing with their day. I can only imagine Matthew's "wings" would have become quite troublesome in in the confines of a classroom! The kids had a marvelous time, and it was fun for all the parents, too!

Halloween Party

A wonderful friend invited us to a Halloween Party. Buzz Lightyear and Duck were thrilled- anything involving food, other kids, and free play in the great outdoors is their idea of heaven. The kids started up by the house, munching on cookies and playing games.




Then, of course, the randomness of childhood dictated that a snow sled was necessary for the festivities. I lost count of how many times they went around the yard in this thing- having the time of their lives! At one point, Matthew got in and two small preschoolers were trying to pull him. They simply couldn't get the sled to budge, and Matthew yelled, "I think we need more friends!"


The party ended with a leaf war, in what might be the world's biggest leaf pile.

By the end of the party, I had two muddy, happy, and thoroughly exhausted boys. It was, perhaps, the perfect day!

Zoo Boo, 2009

While Grandma and Grandad were visiting, we went to the annual "Zoo Boo" at the Erie Zoo. The kids dressed up, went trick or treating, and had an excellent time!

Daddy holds a tired duck.

Grandma cuddles Nolan, who is teething on his costume!

Grandad, Matthew, and Grandma

Duck-Man down!

Collecting the loot

Our costumes are getting a workout this year- the boys have definitely gotten a lot of use out of them!