Pumpkins!

I love this time of year. Victoria learned almost everything there is to know about pumpkins. The big kids helped in measuring & weighing the pumpkins. She was very excited and surprised that pumpkins really float! She is also determined to make homemade pumpkin soup. I told her that the deal is that we will make it but she has to actually eat it. She says that she will...and with a smile on her face. We'll see. I'll be sure to let you know on that one. We plan on baking pumpkin muffins using Aunt Kathy's Pumpkin bread recipe tomorrow. She claims that she has never had it before in her almost 6 years of life. There is always a first. Happy Hot Fall!

Pride and Prejudice Ball

Daphne and our friends Rachelle and Emily attended the Pride and Prejudice Ball again. They had a wonderful time dressed in the time period. The dances were all according to the time period as well. Daphne always enjoys the Pumpkin dance. She said that the boys were dancing more this year. Our friends Steve and Chrissy attended. One of these days Kirk and I are planning on going. The time always sneaks up on us with October being an extremely busy month for us.

Witchie Poo

Daphne painted this little wooden witch...I think for herself but I claimed it. A right of motherhood. It is adorable. And the painting is excellent. Done by a true artist.

Bad Dogs!

Victoria really wants the dogs to dress up for Halloween this year. She was browsing through $10 or so "dog outfits"the other day. Knowing that that wasn't going to happen ,I talked her into a 99cent red pillowcase to sew devil wings. It was more appropriate to see devil wings on these partners in crime than something cute like a hot dog outfit or a King's costume. We considered making one an angel and the other a devil but we knew for sure that Henry could never be an angel. And Sam...well he's too sneaky to be an angel. I mean, look at Henry...doesn't he already look guilty for something? And Sammy has the look of...It wasn't me Mom. Either way they look cute and Victoria is very satisfied and Daphne did a great job of turning the wings and stuffing them for me.

You know you homeschool when...

you find fuzz in the pack of strawberries and keep it to observe under the microscope!

Leaves

To get into the spirit of Autumn (in record heat in Phoenix) we set out collecting different types of leaves to study. Due to the fact that most tree leaves in Arizona are no bigger than your pinkie nail we had to search pretty hard. We drove down Central where all of the old houses stand and sure enough we found a variety of leaves. Kaleb was a good sport in escorting his sister in her adventure. They loved being outdoors and even played "piggly sticks" like Pooh bear does in the little water ditch that flows in front of the houses.There are so many cute books about the season. It was hard to decide which books to bring home from the library. Of course "Leaf Man" is always a favorite. We piped our own fall trees with leaf sprinkles. These turned out extremely cute. Instead of cupcakes we made cinnamon muffins. It looked more natural but I am sure it had the same sugar content as a frosting cupcake. Oh well. We tried a glue batik of leaves that I saw on That Artist Woman's blog. Daphne and I traced leaves onto muslin. I poured gel glue over the lines and let it dry overnight. Then got everyone to paint the leaves with acrylic paint watered down. It turned out beautiful. I think we might use it on our table as a runner for Thanksgiving. The really cool part about the project is that all of us were successfull. Victoria even did an awesome painting job. It is amazeing what you can do with just a little direction. I didn't even think to be a control freak with this project. Though we did have to run to Michaels and get more green paint.

Crawling the Walls

Victoria is driving us insane...! She has an enormous amount of energy that I wish I could bottle on a daily basis for myself! Anyway, she was telling me something which I cannot even remember what she was saying because as she was talking she was moving higher and higher up the wall. I was just watching her wondering just how high she was going to go? I am not even sure she was aware that she was doing it until she read it on my face and we were practically eye level. She managed to keep herself put long enough for me to grab the camera. She is one busy little girl. Kirk and I often think about what it will be like when she is 16 and we will be in our mid 50's!!!!! I shutter at the thought!