October 31

Julia's gymnastics team dressed up for Halloween. Julia is the pirate in the back left. 

After gymnastics, I dropped Julia off at a slumber party. Kat has 2 basketball games today and then there's that thing tonight the kids are super excited about that involves boatloads of candy...

October 30

 Candy corn math

We visited a butterfly farm today. Since it's too cold outside for butterflies, they have the butterfly house filled with 100 orb-weaving spiders. The kids also got to touch and hold most any insect/arachnid that they wanted. The people that run the farm are entomologists, so they were able to tell us some neat things and answer all our questions.

 

 

 

 

 

We hit up Krispy Kreme for some monster donuts.

 

 

 

We also checked out a new park in town and took a hike (is it a hike if you are on sidewalks?).

October 29

Hulk was tested for allergies yesterday. 50 pokes/scratches later on his back and arm and we find out he's allergic to dust. Dust!?! He's been coughing nightly (and sometimes daily) for 2 months. We just assumed it was an outdoor allergen because he coughs alot more when he is outside. The doctor told me to go home and clean my house thoroughly. I promise you that my house is clean! Ugh! They also suspect asthma. So we are going to try some new meds on him and see what happens. Poor kid was like a pincushion yesterday. Ice cream saved the day!

Clay went to a follow-up doctor appointment for his shoulder and all is well. He's healing up nicely.

October 28

After a crazy day Monday, yesterday was pretty low-key. We did venture out for the girls' piano lessons, and Clay took Kat to basketball last night, but otherwise we stayed home, did schoolwork, and rested. It rained and rained and rained some more.

October 27

 My Human Anatomy class has been learning about the digestive system. Just to reinforce the idea, and because I utterly enjoy embarrassing 10 year-olds, I made the kids act out the parts of the digestive track. Julia is spraying the bolus (food particle) with pancreatic juices.  

 Kat's class learned about how the Ancient Egyptians were overtaken by bows and arrows, so they made miniature bows and arrows.

 

 

And because I have lost my ever-loving mind, we brought home 4 kids from co-op for a play date. Really, they were good kids. But I am worn out!

October 26

 

We carved pumpkins yesterday. It was Hulk's first time and he was pretty excited.

October 25

Friday night, Julia and I had a date night after gymnastics. We went to a Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular at a local park with over 5,000 carved, illuminated pumpkins. It was really amazing. The pictures do not do it justice.

 

 

 

The large pumpkins in this picture are taller than me. The rest of the pumpkins in this picture are average-sized pumpkins. All of them are real!

 

 

 Kat had her first basketball game. She played pointguard the entire second half. Her team won and she had a good time. She was worn out from running full court (in the past she's played half-court).

 Dinner last night- spooky spaghetti

October 24

We got to enjoy another beautiful fall day yesterday on a field trip with our co-op friends. We went to a Native American encampment at a local nature preserve.There were representatives of the Lakota, Cherokee, and Mohawk tribes. They demonstrated a drum circle for us and we got to join in and dance.

  

 

 

 

 

I love the fall.

October 23

Elliott has entered the stage where he now wants to be scary/scared at Halloween. I am not too excited about this stage. Clay thinks it's great. We had almost reached a compromise on a scary Halloween costume, but Lucy was afraid of the picture, so I used her as my scapegoat on cancelling the scary costume. We can't scare your little sister! :P Anyways, now my little scary-monster-loving wee dude wants to go to a haunted house. Well, there aren't any (that I am aware of) that are kid-friendly. Instead, I took him to a street in town that is known for their Halloween decorations. I am hoping this will hold him off on the scary nonsense for at least 10 more years. Ha!

Clay, Julia, and Kat were playing chess in their weekly Thursday night tournament. Nerds!

 

 

 

 

 Look in the windows

 We made Mummy Oreo Truffles yesterday. Yummy Mummy!