Thanksgiving School Projects

An overwhelming number of papers and projects come home with my school kids. We haven't the space the keep them all, so I have taken to photographing some of the cutest things, and a select number of the ones that make the photo cut then find their way into the memory boxes.

Here are a few of Spencer's 1st Grade Thanksgiving projects:


Emma's preschool has been awesome this year. Her teacher is very creative, and she comes home with the most amazing projects. Presenting...Emma the Indian.


Here is her Pilgrim outfit.
*You will note that beneath each costume, Emma is dressed in a tutu. Standard daily wear around here. She changes as soon as she gets home.

And just to round out the preschool pictures, here is Emma from the week that they learned about dinosaurs and pretended to be paleontologists. She dug a dinosaur skeleton out of the sand, used a paintbrush to brush it off, all the while dressed in the hat and vest of a paleontologist. Her toilet-paper-tube binoculars were on hand for closer inspection of the specimen.

Fall Crafts

I'm not the craftiest mom you've ever met, but we do have some standard fall activities that I did as a girl (thanks, mom!) and my kids enjoy as well.

Here we are after having made leaf pictures with two of Emma's neighborhood friends. We went on a leaf walk before that, which was, arguably, the highlight of the afternoon. Collecting leaves is tons of fun. The kids were very creative with their pictures this year, and we had a smiley face/clown theme that caught on pretty strong.


Apple turkeys - another favorite activity. We invited Spencer's pals (both older brothers to Emma's cute friends) to join us for this one and did it the first day of Thanksgiving break. Each child brought an apple, and we supplied the candy. This year, we tried Mike and Ike. They were tasty, but I think we'll go back to something gummy next year since these were a little hard to spear with a toothpick.


Spencer's apple turkey had lots of weapons when it was complete. The turkey had to have 4 hands/wings to manage it all.


Emma made a classic apple turkey with very colorful feathers.


John was very focused on putting the candy on the toothpicks...and eating the candy along the way.

Pumpkinville November 2011

Most folks go to pumpkin patches BEFORE Halloween, but we may have stumbled upon a new tradition. I bought a Groupon super discount pass to Pumpkinville, only noticing after the fact that it was good for the last week of September, Halloween, and the first week of November. Nice. We went the Thursday after Halloween and were blessed with the most exquisite 70 degree day and no crowds. Grammy and Trina joined us for the fun outing, and a good time was had by all.

The Pumpkinville experience starts with an animal farm. John had a good time pointing at the animals and saying "Oh!" repeatedly.

Then it was off to the hay ride.

There are forts to explore, a hay maze, hay slides, and loads of inflatables to play on. To top it off, we always sample the cider and free apples at the end.

Spencer's P-ville highlight: The football obstacle course
Emma's P-ville highlight: The football obstacle course



Emma surprised me by conquering this one. It wasn't very long ago that she had to be coerced and persuaded to get on a moon bounce, and now she can be found climbing inflatable walls and jumping down slides with great excitement. She kept telling me, "I'm a courage girl!" Yep, got that one on video.

I'm dreaming of a white...Halloween??

We nearly had a white Halloween thanks to a cold front that came through the Saturday before Halloween. My boys were thrilled. I played Christmas music to cope. Emma watched from indoors. She'll play in the snow when we get the serious stuff.

This is the first time John has been old enough to maneuver solo in the snow. Give the boy some boots and a shovel, and he is in heaven. Luckily he had Spencer to show him the ropes. That's one good big brother.

Charlies October 2011

For a friend's Halloween party this year, Adam and I were mirror image Charlie Chaplins, complete with a fun little routine for a costume walk-off. No pics of us, but we weren't the only ones who thought fake mustaches were pretty fun.


John was busy making a yogurt mustache and couldn't be bothered with our hairy version. He did, however, think our bamboo canes were great fun. Those have since been hidden to preserve the furniture.

A note from Spencer

*Spencer asked for a paper and wrote this out the other day. This is my kid, alright. All spelling and punctuation is true to the original.

Dear Santa

I love Christmas so mutch that I wrote this note in November.

I am excited to looking my stocking

Sincerely
Spencer

Happy Halloween!

Frankenstein, Samantha (the American Girl), and a little Giraffe sure had fun trick-or-treating tonight.

Spencer and Emma were in charge of ringing the doorbells, and John caught on fast, confidently thrust his little pumpkin bucket forward for treats, sometimes with a grunt. He thinks Halloween is pretty neat. Emma told me later in the evening that she said trick or treat for Johnny; both Em and Spence were good helpers with their little bro. I really wish I had videoed the whole thing.

We spent part of the night running the candy route and the rest of it hanging out on our front porch along with throngs of people. Adam and Spencer had schemed up a pretty great little adventure in which you could choose to do a few "tricks" before getting the "treat." Adam was manning a table with a series of tricks: a crystal ball with what looks like an electrical storm going on inside it that surges when touched, stirring of the witches brew (crock pot full of dry ice, water, and glow sticks), pulling eyeballs out of a witch's cauldron, and reaching into a box to feel the brains (spaghetti). For dramatic effect, fog and a black light. It was a hit! Many kids came through once and then brought friends for a second round. Thankfully, we had Gma and Gpa there to help with traffic control and back-up candy. Gpa even overheard one kid saying ours was the best house, and Spencer had several classmates come through the line. He has already started planning for next year.

Hoping your Halloween was just as Happy!