This year, Halloween began on Monday the 25th with a trip to get pumpkins and even though it was just at Wal-mart, Amber thought it was just great to climb all over the pumpkins. We brought them home to gut them out and roasted the seeds. Clarissa loved the messiness of course.
We didn't have time for carving yet, but we finished off the evening with making caramel apples. YUM!!
Thursday, Amber had a Halloween party at Preschool, so I made mummy cookies for the kids.
Amber dressed up for Preschool as a cheerleader.
The kids finally got their pumpkins carved and painted. This is Krystal's pretty pumpkin.
Friday night the whole family got dressed up for Trunk or Treat at church. Our theme this year was a sports theme. Amber, the cheerleader, Krystal the dancer, Clarissa is a soccer player, Jared, a Notre Dame baseball player, Jen, a hockey player and Chris our coach.
Chris passed out candy from the back of the van. Jared's Frankenstein pumpkin is in the background.
Our county voted to do Trick or Treating on Monday since Halloween was on a Sunday. So, Monday we went to our friends house to meet with all our friends for a party and some Trick or Treating.
Also on Monday, our little dancer lost her second top tooth. So, now that Halloween is over she can start thinking about Christmas...all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth...
One sunny Sunday morning we were all getting ready for church when we noticed that by chance we were all wearing matching/coordinating clothes. What a perfect opportunity for a photo shoot.
In an effort to keep the house clean we came up with a new incentive system. For every thing that the kids clean up or put away, they get to pick an M&M or a skittle out of a jar. At the end of the week if the house has been kept clean, we will have a fun family activity. The week of Thanksgiving was the first week we tried this system. It worked beautifully so on Friday night we went bowling. We had a great time.
Math with Skittles. We did sorting, counting by 10's, 5's, and 2's. Adding, graphing, dividing, etc. It was fun and worked for all ages, plus was yummy too.
Our history group is studying Ancient Civilizations. This unit was about Ancient Asia. Since we knew that Chris would soon be going to India for work, we chose Ancient India to study. Jared did his project about the Indian art. The colorful piece on the bottom right is his own creation based on the Indian techniques. Clarissa made an ancient dwelling from clay and Krystal made a bracelet to present to her brother as part of an Indian celebration.
It wouldn't be November without the annual playing and jumping in the leaves!
My calling in the youth program at church keeps me busy with meetings and activities. Chris is always so good about being home with the kids while I'm gone and having fun with them. The above two pictures were taken on two different nights while I was gone. One was with friends over and the other spaghetti night (Yes, he cooks and babysits other people's children while I'm gone.)
The first weekend in November we went to Charleston, West Virginia to visit Grandma Mattson, Chris's sister, her husband and their baby, James. Little Jimmy is just adorable and the kids just love their chubby little cousin.
