Thursday, October 28, 2010

Carving Pumpkins

Nat has had to work late the past few nights so we finally had a chance to carve our pumpkins last night.  This is the very first time we have ever carved pumpkins as a family and it was fun!  Adam loved it (although he wasn’t a huge fan of touching the “guts”) and the first he thing he wanted to do this morning was check on his pumpkins.

Tomorrow night is our ward’s Trunk-or-Treat so we’ll get to officially light them tomorrow (in our trunk that is).  Adam cannot wait until tomorrow night!DSCF4233
This is Adam’s “scary” pumpkin that Daddy made.  I guess the scary part are the fangs.  I think he kind of looks like Mater the Tow Truck from Cars. :)DSCF4238
It’s very hard to get a good jack-o-lantern picture with my not-so-great camera but here is our family of pumpkins out on the porch.DSCF4242DSCF4243

This proves just how excited Adam is about the whole Halloween thing.  He was bouncing up and down while I was trying to get his picture!DSCF4246      
We’ll do the Trunk or Treat tomorrow and then go Trick or Treating in my parents’ neighborhood on Saturday and I can’t wait! 
Just for kicks….

Adam the Lion – 2008 2008_11020021
Adam the Alligator (or dinosaur…I never could figure it out) - 2009DSCF1230DSCF1228(Dang it he’s cute!)

Stay tuned for this year’s costumes!  I swore I’d never do what I did, but it makes my kid SO happy…..so I did it.  And he will still be dang cute!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Tot School – Autumn Leaves Theme

- Adam is 34 months old -Tot School Logo

For Tot School this week we focused on autumn and leaves and had a lot of fun! Well, I did. I’m really looking forward to the day where he appreciates the fun, theme-y things I plan.

We read a bunch of books about leaves and autumn from the library, and sang some fun songs that I got from Carisa at 1+1+1=1 on her Fall Fun webpage. The songs all required using fake leaves to fall and blow and Adam loved singing them!DSCF4108

We also used the leaves to work on patterns. Adam had a hard time with this but I think it was because the leaves weren’t cut-and-dry different/the same so finding the next leaf to complete the pattern was a little confusing for him. DSCF4081


He blew through these leaf matching cards I also downloaded from the Fall Fun webpage. I thought it would be a little more advanced because they were all black and white so he had to focus on the details.DSCF4073
I had these leaves from my days of teaching singing for my church’s children’s primary so I wrote the letters of his name and we practiced putting them in the correct order. I think I’ll pull this out several more times in the next few weeks.DSCF4130

Adam reluctantly agreed to color these pictures I got from the Crayola website. He’s just not into coloring these days. I hear it’s quite common for boys to be less interested than girls.DSCF4158
I got this fun “Falling Leaves” craft from Carisa’s Fall Fun webpage (again). This is the first piece of children’s artwork that has graced our home (aside from being stuck to the fridge) and I love it!

We went on a nature walk to collect leaves.


We used our leaves to make sun catchers. I really hate contact paper but I am thrilled with the result! The sun really glows through the leaves and we were blessed with one beautifully sunny day before the clouds and rain set in. Hopefully we’ll get more sun so we can enjoy our pretty sun catchers!DSCF4148DSCF4151

Together we made our favorite fall treat….Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread. So yummy!DSCF4061
Some of the things in Adam’s “Tot Boxes” this week were his foam alphabet puzzle (he really loves to pop the letters out when he’s done)

Color Matching Wheel
He did so much better than he did about a month ago. Last time he had a really hard time pinching the clothespins but this time, he just needed me to hold the wheel up for him. DSCF4132
As always, a favorite was his beads. This time I suggested he use a measuring spoon to transfer the beads to the ice cube tray. DSCF4159


Check out the Tot School links over at 1+1+1=1 for more ideas of what you can do with your tot! Also, Carisa has some really great printables and ideas for just about any theme you could want to do with your kids. And they are all free!

Saturday, October 23, 2010

And She's Off!

Abby is officially crawling now! Out of the blue this morning she took off towards a toy. She's so funny to watch because she kind of scoots both her knees in at the same time rather than moving one at a time.
As fun as it is to see her develop and do new things....I wish this day hadn't come quite so soon! It's so nice having them stay in the same spot you put them in. :)

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Almost Crawling!

Abby is getting really close to crawling! She rocks on her hands and knees and scoots backwards. This frustrates her because she’s trying her hardest to go forward to reach something, only to wind up farther away! DSCF4070
She will also stand for quite a while against something.DSCF3920
She is constantly pulling herself up on anything she can find and loves to climb all over us when we’re sitting on the floor. DSCF3740

And she LOVES her Leap Frog music table just like Adam did!DSCF4063

Yesterday I saw her go from being on her belly, to her knees, to sitting up for the first time! Why can’t she stay my little baby for longer?

Monday, October 18, 2010

Harvest Festival & Pumpkin Picking

Last Saturday we went to the Harvest Festival at Black Island Farms.  What a great Fall activity right?  It was 78 degrees and HOT!!  Although that is better than freezing cold, it didn’t feel like Fall at all.  We had a great time though!

They had some goats, turkeys, llamas, etc. and Adam enjoyed looking at them.  Apparently when you run a pumpkin farm, your animals eat a lot of pumpkins.  ALL the animals were munching on pumpkins!

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There were a bunch of fun things for little kids including a hay maze, tire swings, lots of slides, a cow train, and corn box.  And that’s just the stuff I got pictures of!
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  This is what Abby did….chilled out in her strollerDSCF4036

Then we went on the tractor/wagon ride way out to the pumpkin patch.  There were A LOT of pumpkins!

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Abby was either tired or didn’t the wind and dust because she spent most of the wagon ride snuggled into Daddy. DSCF4050

Picking pumpkins
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We got 4 lovely pumpkins for our front porch and we’ll be carving them next week!  Adam has no idea what he’s in for!

Random note….this farm is about 10 minutes down the road from us.  And look…..there is nothing else around!  It’s kind of fun living in the middle of a city but only 5 or 10 minutes away from nothing but nature.

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A Little Bit of Tot School

I have been less-than motivated the past 2 weeks when it comes to Tot School. Although, we did start a Before Five in a Row book but life kept happening so I decided to bag it and save it for later. So, here are the very few things we did last week.

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You know your kid watches too much Dora the Explorer and Handy Manny when he starts counting in Spanish! I guess there could be worse things to learn from cartoons, huh? :)

We visited my parents one day and after Papa got home from work, Adam had fun playing his "game" with him. Really, it's just matching shapes but that's very Tot Schoolish don't you think?DSCF3961

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Cheesy Abby Grins

Abby has the biggest, cheesiest grin ever!  The only problem is that she hardly ever does it for the camera.  I guess we should feel good that she likes to smile for us and not for camera because it means she loves us!  Here are the few pictures I’ve managed to get of her cheesy smile.  I try A LOT and am rarely successful! DSCF3821DSCF3829DSCF3850DSCF3813