Saturday, October 18, 2014

Week In Review: October 13 - October 17

The kids got in some great time running around outside, coloring lots of Halloween pictures, and ending the week stretching their imaginations (and keeping me in stitches all day long). Take a look at our week:

The kids decorated their own Halloween stickers. I found these at Michael's (a pack of four was $1.50). I did not let the kids color with the markers that came with the packs and had them use Crayola washable markers instead. I've learned in the past that most of the color-your-own packets that come with markers don't wash out of things the easiest. I take away the markers before the kids even know there were other markers there.



The kids worked hard on Halloween decorations this week! Read more about our decorations and a few tips and tricks for decorating with kids around: http://ashlen-kidspert.blogspot.com/2014/10/halloween-decorating-with-kids.html

The kids have LOVED learning about pumpkins and how they grow. When we went to Frey's Pumpkin Patch (http://ashlen-kidspert.blogspot.com/2014/10/halloween-decorating-with-kids.html) we found a few pumpkin flowers still on the vine and of course Harrison grabbed one. After we read our book, we passed the flower around so the kids could see how the pumpkin starts. They touched, sniffed, and asked numerous questions about the flower.
The kids kept busy one morning building their own train tracks.
Max built his own light saber and showed it off. He also attempted to explain electricity to the kids (it didn't go so well).
More Halloween cookie cutter paintings (black cat, tombstone, and Frankenstein's head).

A special lunch of Halloween mac n' cheese thrilled the kiddos. Halfway through lunch they asked why it didn't taste more like pumpkins!
The kids "helped" clean out the toy storage shed to get ready for winter. This brought about more questions such as "when is snow coming?" "When will winter be here?" "How cold will it get?" "Will the toys get hurt?" Questions were brought to a halt when the ball pit made an appearance, along with several other toys that have been buried at the back of the shed all summer.
The kids colored Halloween masks.
We used Crayola Model Magic to make our leaf imprints. These didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. The Model Magic was incredibly sticky and I had to add in flour so the leaves wouldn't stick in the dough. The imprints turned out okay, but not as well as previous years because we weren't able to press the leaf down as much as I would have liked.
Pumpkin "sand" was a hit and even ended up in my kitchen at the end of the week. Learn how to make yours here: http://ashlen-kidspert.blogspot.com/2014/10/pumpkin-sand.html

I moved the cornbox back to the mud hole it came from. There were tons of worms left where the sandbox was on the patio. The kids spent a good part of the morning watching the worms move across the patio.
We got the stomp rocket out one morning. All of the kids took turns. Their favorite part was chasing the rocket down after it landed.
The Hubs gets all of the credit for this creative game with the hula hoop and tee ball base.
The hit snack of the week: Alpha-Bit cereal. It took them an hour and half to eat their small bowls because they ate each letter one at a time, first asking me "what letter is this? What sound does it make?"
We had to ban the stomp rocket from the playhouse because someone attempted to shoot the other kids as they ran by.
The kids have been obsessed with "Curious George Boo Fest." 

We made Halloween Jello and then ate it for afternoon snack.
There's soooo much excitement on Friday mornings between the garbage trucks, recycling trucks, UPS deliveries, and neighbors mowing. So many squeals, giggles, and "ooohhh, look!" throughout the morning.
The kids made ghosts. This wasn't as sticky of a mess as I thought it was going to be.
They painted their little pumpkins and numerous pictures. To get an idea of how much paint was used, these little pumpkins are still drying after 36 hours.
The kids had a fruit tray with yogurt dip for afternoon snack.......and pretty well demolished it.

As they ate the fruit tray, they watched old Disney cartoons. When "The Three Little Pigs" came on, the kids got super excited because we had just read the book that afternoon before naps. We had to re-read the book after the cartoon was over just so they could compare the two.
My favorite part of the week came Friday morning. Not just because it was Friday morning (that's pretty awesome anyways), but because of how well the kids played. Their imaginations were in full gear, they were getting along, using their words, and demonstrated excellent problem solving skills. My couch was turned into a tent, a hospital, a nursery for the dolls, and a race car. We got to very few of our planned activities for the day, but I was amazed at how these two, three, and four year olds thought and played with each other. The activities can wait for another day.

Next week we'll be making up a new batch of pumpkin snow using different ingredients, having a Halloween cupcake day, we'll put together our nature collages, and get out the dress up costumes for a day (hopefully) of fun creativity.