A Ninja and an Airforce Solider

Nolan is behind the Ninja mask (a costume he takes seriously)

Cody a solider and peace maker.

Meeoowwww

Logan's Halloween Costume

My finished project

I had a great idea come to mind....make silhouettes of the children! Besides planning and purchasing supplies the whole project took less than 2 hours to complete. I used acid free scrapbooking paper. I purchased a patterned paper with tans in it for the background and used classic solid black for the foreground. Now I am going to try to get more creative and do our animals all together, something artsy and fun. I will let you know how it turns out.

Halloween Craft

In the spirit of Halloween and All Hallows Eve the kids painted these cute decorations. These adorn our front step planters.

Just wanted to share their creative, artistic abilities with you!

Failed attempt at pumpkin picking

I had a great plan to take the children to pick pumpkins after they completed their school work. School was a struggle today (lots of whining). We finished and ate lunch, dressed Logan in her hip Halloween Kitty Outfit, grabbed the camera and left for the pumpkin patch. During the drive Logan managed to destroy her hair, Nolan and Logan got into several fights (punching and screaming). The first rule of the car is when my work phone rings EVERYONE must be silent. There was no silence, only more fighting. I quickly found the first driveway that I could find to turn around in. We headed back home and I ushered the kids to their rooms to change into old clothes and sent them outside to weed duty. For 45 mins they weeded the beds in the front yard. Nolan has had to do this before for bad behavior so he already knew that he hated this task. Woah at the whining and crying now. I think that they would have rather had a spanking! After they finished they had to spend an additional 30 mins in their rooms for quiet time. What a waste of a great afternoon for them. I am glad that I got these pictures to remind them, when they are adults, of how they used to torture each other and me!

First camper camping trip

Finally we got away for the weekend. We took our camper to Andrew Jackson State Park in Lancaster, SC. We enjoyed fishing, throwing the frisbee, baseball, hiking, playing at the playground, visiting the old school, and reading. We had to throw some learning into the trip too. Besides learning the proper way to collect kindling, or the stack logs we took the kids to the pioneer school at the visitor's center. We learned about school in the late 1800's. Children did not go to school 180 days a year, their school was scheduled around farming seasons. Female teachers were unwed, once they married they could no longer teach. Children usually carried their lunch to school in a pail, they ate apples, block of cheese, a biscuit from the morning breakfast (my kids liked this lunch). Cody and Ryan learned about the dunce cap. Nolan read a few McGuffy Readers and Dick and Jane books while we were there. Logan drew rabbit pictures on all the chalkboards.

The kids are pretending to be bears running up the hill?!?!?

Cody caught a catfish...he caught the only fish! We were not sure what to expect on our first trip with the camper, but after two nights we really wanted nothing more than to stay longer. We are more than thrilled to take the camper on trips in the future. The campground was so quiet and peaceful. A perfect weekend...

The Wig

I thought it would be fun to purchase a wig (I was shopping for Halloween items with the kids and found a cheap one). The wig has been so much fun. All 5 of us, and the dog had to have our photo made with the wig. (Eat your heart out Amy!)