October 2012

Rob arriving from Namibia was the highlight of the month.  The boys were thrilled that he got here right before Halloween so he could see them in their costumes and go trick or treating with them.

The end of soccer for both boys.  Here is Ryan playing one of the warm up games with his teammates.



Raking up the pine needles!  The leaves came later.

Bags and bags of pine needles!

The boys needed winter hats so I let them choose out their favorites.  Angry Birds was the winner hands down.

This was Justin's favorite part of the Mobius Children's Museum.  He loved to move the panels to different positions to divert the water and move the boats.

 

The boys had fun creating flying toys and out of control bubbles over a sideways fan.



Playing in box fort complete with garage for the trucks.

Still warm enough to play baseball.  Good pitch, Justin.

We read The Button Box and then sorted some of my Grandmother's old buttons.  We even found a Mr. President button like in the book.



Climbing all over Dad.  The boys were so excited when he arrived from Namibia.



I love the ghosts the boys made out of paper plates and tissue paper.

We played the game "Don't Eat Pete" and it was a winner!  Have one person walk out of the room.  Place one piece of candy on each character and choose one to be Pete.  The person walks back into the room and begins to eat one candy at a time.  If he tries to take the candy off of Pete, all of the players say, "don't eat Pete!" and that person's turn ends and another person is chosen to leave the room.

On the tractor ride to find the perfect pumpkin.  It was the windiest day we had experienced all month.

I think we walked up and down a million times before we found the pumpkin that was just right for each boy.



Our jack o'lanterns and painted pumpkins BEFORE the deer came and had them for a snack.

Justin made some Halloween themed pictures.





The boys had fun making a polka dot pumpkin with the drill.  Papa helped supervise.





I thought these skeletons were cute.  We made a simplied version of a design I found online.

Riding around as a police officer at the children's museum.

TP mummies. 



BIG leaf






Ready for trick or treating!  The boys got quite a haul.




Kitty game.  Ryan is the owner, Justin is the pet cat.  Ryan set up paddle balls, jump ropes, and a few other things for Justin to bat at with his claws.

 

Painting little birdhouses.

October Activities

October was a month of warmer weather.  We had a lot of fun getting ready for Halloween.  A lot of the books we read were the same as last year's.  Since my camera is not working, I didn't take pictures of the books that were new for this year.  We also had a good family vacation to the Kalahari Desert area of Namibia as well as a few outings in Windhoek.

We went to a museum.



We sipped hot chocolate in the Kalahari Desert during the early morning hours.



Ryan is putting candy in treat bags that we were making for people.  I would give him enough pieces to put one in each bag.  After he would finish, I would refill his bag so he could go another round. 

Justin was much faster putting candy in the bags and even started tossing them in.

These are the jack-o-lantern faces that we stapled to the front of the treat bags.

Ryan used a bit more glue than Justin.  He hasn't mastered the "just a dot" rule yet.

We made a Halloween book patterned after "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" and called it "The Trick or Treaters!"  Justin and Ryan chose the pictures.  I wrote most of the text, but Justin wrote in the I and me parts.

The boys LOVE stickers.  They went through about 700 Halloween stickers.  Good for working on fine motor skills, right?

Justin put our poem in order and Ryan would put the ghosts in order from 1 to 10.

Ryan at Bush Park early in October.

Justin at Bush Park earlier in October.

My cute little monsters.  They love little projects like these.

Here are some of the pumpkins we made.

We painted some pumpkin pictures and then the boys did their own thing.  Not sure what Ryan's is supposed to be, but Justin said his was a Christmas tree with big decorations on it.

We played with Imaginext a lot.  The boys manage to find unique ways to combine their toys.  Here we have play food, Ty Beanie Baby Wonder Pets, Imaginext figures, wooden blocks, and Fisher Price car.

We did Five Little Pumpkins on the flannel board.

My boys managed to fight, wrestle, and play without any serious injuries this month.



We made and labeled our skeletons.  We watched a DVD of "Dem Bones" about a million times. 




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 We wove strips of paper through some pumpkin cut outs.

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Justin labeled rooms in the house so guests would not get lost.  He added pictures in case they couldn't read. 



And of course, trick or treating. :)



Monday, October 18, 2010

Did the whole calendar routine and then read a few books.  Showed the boys my finished copy of the pumpkin book and then let them color their own copies.  Ryan is cute "reading" his.

We put ghost stickers on black paper.

We also made spider webs by lacing yarn through holes in paper plates.



Justin completed some patterns and I don't know what he thought he was doing with the crayon.