More Halloween

 I went to Red Fish's Halloween parade.  It made me feel strange because I have so many memories of my Mom coming to my Halloween parades. Time just keeps speeding up.  Both girls had very cute little parties at school. 

We went to see Thing 2's costume.  She was a turtle in honor of her Daddy who is turtle obsessed.

 I had a lot of fun painting the girl's faces again this year.  I think I need more face paint.  It makes every costume more fun.

We didn't get a ton of trick or treaters this year.  The girls went out with Two Fish and came home with a ridiculous amount of candy.  I stayed home and passed out the candy.  I was very impressed with how many children said thank you and Happy Halloween.  The kids were the most polite bunch I think I have ever had, even the teenagers.

Painting Night

 Two Fish took New Fish out on a special daddy date (he took Red Fish last week) and I stayed home with Red Fish.  She wanted to paint and draw together.  It was a good night. I love having one on one time with my girls.  New Fish and I have had more time together qhile Red Fish is in kindergarten and we spend most of it reading.  It was nice to have my favorite little red head all to myself for the evening.

Red Fish was painting this picture of me and said: "Let's see your hair is a little bit brown, a little bit blond and a little bit gray."  Ummmmm.... do I need a new mirror?

Pumpkin Time

 We made it to the pumpkin patch to pick up our yearly pumpkins and apple cider.  There wasn't a huge variety left but the girls each fell in love with a pumpkin of their own.

 We carved them Monday night for family night.  Two Fish helped the girls scoop the guts out because they were being dramatic about the goo but they did all of their own carving.  It was hard work for them to saw away with one of those little pumpkin knives.

A Unicorn And A Peacock

 We had our ward (church congregation) and neighborhood Halloween party
.  New Fish went back and forth about what to be this year.  Red Fish went back and forth between a unicorn and a peacock (two of her favorite things) and when she chose peacock, New Fish decided to take over the unicorn idea.  She thought about adding a dress over the top because she wanted to make sure people knew she was a GIRL unicorn but I assured her they would know.

 I love homemade Halloween costumes even though I am not as talented as my Mom is at making them.  Red Fish and I bought a bunch of tulle and peacock feathers to create hers.  Face paint is always a fun addition.  I love Halloween. I love the costumes and the fuss and all of the fun activities.

Fall Fun At School

Red Fish in kindergarten

New Fish in preschool

Ancient Egypt

New Fish

 The girls and I have been reading a lot together lately, mostly because I don't feel like doing much else.  In an effort to create more diversity in our reading material we are stating to read more about different time periods and cultures.  Don't worry.  We still read more than enough fiction and make believe.  We read picture books, poetry and nonfiction science books.  Most recently we have been reading about ancient Egypt.  New Fish has especially enjoyed reading about the pharoahs and tombs and all of the treasures they were buried with.  We read about the discovery of King Tut's tomb and made masks.  We downloaded printables for these masks here.  The kids had a good time coloring them over the last week and it gave them a good project that didn't need close supervision.  I just helped them glue the final product together and put it on.

Red Fish

 We read about the invention of writing and about hieroglyphics and the kids tried their hand at drawing their name as a heiroglyphic with air dry clay.  We also attempted sugar cube pyramids that didn't end up looking like pyramids at all.

 

Annual Spooky Dinner

I love holiday traditions and for the last few years my little family has gotten together with friends or family for a spooky Halloween themed dinner.  My family are good sports about joining in with the tradition and helped make a fun dinner this year.  I don't think I would have been up to it by myself this year.  Here are some of the things we had for dinner.

 Rotten apple punch with gummy worm ice cubes.

 Skeleton veggies

 Gluten free witch finger bread sticks.  Red Fish refused to eat these at first because she said she DOES NOT eat green bread.

 Pumpkin puke guacamole and chips.

 meringue bone cookies

 Bone snacks made from marshmellows, pretzels and chocolate.

I attempted to make Marth Stewart style, bloddy cupcakes with shards of sugary glass in them but apparently melting sugar is harder than it sounds.  At least, it was harder for me to do than I anticipated.

Little Scientists

 My girls had such a good time with the science curriculum we did last year for fun from Sonlight.  We actually did all of the experiments and read the entire Usborne Children's Encyclopedia.  These kids will read anything.  We decided it was worth it to get one for this year as well.  We don't really study the information, we just read and do experiments and have fun with it.  Science is not my forte and Red Fish LOVES science so I need a little help coming up with the information for her.  There are tons of magnet experiments we have been doing testing the force and pulling power of magnets.  This week the girls checked to see if different magnets were strong enough to pull objects through different materials.  They had to do all of the work while I sat on the couch and directed.

 They also made little boats out of metal tacks, corks and paper sails and drove them around the bin of water with their magnets.

The Darn Dog

Once upon a time, Blue Fish was our baby.  When other people told us about funny things their kids had done, we told them about our puppy.  When people told us how darling and witty their children were, we told them about our puppy.  We were those people.  Fast forward six years and our dog is ill-behaved and noisy.  He's lucky we love him.

 He puts up with daily mauling from the girls and gets dressed up in tutus and hats against his will.  He has had his toenails painted.  He sits still for "vet appointments" as long as he has a chew toy.  He gets laid on and read to and has his ears and tail pulled.  He is nice to the girls despite their best intentions of loving him to death.  He is incredibly hard for me to deal with right now though because he weighs too much for me to pull on him.  He's lucky we love him.

We love this darn dog even though he is a pain.

Costumes

 When I was a kids we loved playing in the costume box at Halloween time.  I even used to take the box with me to babysit when I was older and the little kids would go crazy over the ninja turtle mask, witch costumes etc.  I let the kids decorate the house for Halloween the night before my surgery and they had a great time trying on some of the costumes.  There are few things they love more than dressing up.

Daddy Date

My little girls LOVE their Dad and he is so great with them.  He took them on a special little date to the local Hollween fair and let them ride rides, play dressups and have a great time.  New Fish got stung by a bee because she is absolutely terrified of them and always manages to get stung somehow, even in October.  She has been stung by bees more times than I have and she is only four years old. 

Reading to Pop Pops while he was in the hospital.

 The girls have been on a big reading kick lately.  I've been spending a lot of time laying around and they are happy to read to me and snuggle.  It's fun.  It also makes up for the fact that I reflexively picked New Fish up and hurt myself.  There is nothing better than having a little snuggle buddy.

On The Field Of Life

 Just a few pictures of the end of New Fish's first soccer season. She spent most of the time running around holding hands with her friend and having fun (which drove her coach crazy.)  It's all for fun and an attempt and explore what she likes.  I want my girls to play team sports but fear they might have inherited my lack of athletic skill.  (They did do pretty awesome at skiing last year and they are great swimmers.) I just really loved playing volleyball in high school (1A I would have had no shot in a bigger high school) and it was such a great experience for me in every way.  I never had a big interest in sports growing up and then suddenly desperately wanted to play volleyball and asked my Dad to buy me a ball so I could try out for a sport I didn't even understand. He spent hours hitting the ball to me in the backyard trying to draw out some tiny shred of ability.  I worked really hard to get on the team by my sophomore year and gained a lot from the experience over the four years of high school.  It was a character shaping experience for me.  It will never be one of my greatest talents but forever something I will be happy I did.

She liked being goalie or "Queen of the kingdom" as her little friend defined it.

I have spent a good deal of time debating how much time to put my kids in activities and still ensure that they get a rounded experience, get to try new things and seek out what they love while still making sure they get to be little kids and that they get to PLAY.  It is definitely a delicate balance and my girls really enjoy being involved in a lot of things but they need to just be kids.  I've also spent a lot of time lately thinking about how to make sure they both get to do their own thing and shine in their own little spotlights.  New Fish wants to do everything that Red Fish does and vice versa a lot of the time.  It's great and it's fun and I'm inclined to go with it most of the time but I also fear the competition it sometimes breeds between them.  I want them to feel like they are free to have unique talents.  New Fish has been reading up a storm lately and it has caused a bit of strife with Red Fish because she is worried New Fish will catch up with her at everything.  They are both very smart little girls and they are so close in age.  Red Fish gets to play piano already and a few other things but New Fish is always right on her heals and gets the benefit of watching Red Fish and learning from her.  I think we may need to try some separate activities and see how it goes but inevitably I will hear a lot of "it isn't fair!"  How do mothers try to be fair and address the individual needs of their kids and teach them to be friends and that it's okay to be unique and all of that?

Scuba Babies

 Just a cute picture of the girls trying out some gear with my Dad. This was taken while Two Fish and I were in Hawaii last month. Something funny to be remembered- my Dad tried to practice piano with Red Fish and they both happen to be pretty stubborn.  Eventually he got frustrated and gave up and my Mom ended up finishing with her.  When I got home Red Fish told me: "Pop Pops was practicing with me and he just QUIT on me.  He just GAVE UP.  Can you believe it?"  Hilarious.

Red Fish is really good about practicing but will dig her heels in if anyone tries to help too much or differs from the approach her teacher took.  She will practice on her own without being told just to avoid me "helping" too much but will ask for help when she knows she isn't playing it right (unless she is convinced that she is playing it right.)  It's pretty cool actually.

Also cute of my brother J playing with Red Fish while we were gone.