Jack-o-lanterns 2010

Here are the pumpkins for 2010. I had a kit that I bought last year with the new little saws and templates. I didn't even use one template that came with the kit but I decided I would let the kids decide what they wanted and look for one online. In that endeavor I found success. Margie had Dora, Emmy, Snow White, Josie a cute ghost, Georgia a horse, and Dad the Dallas Cowboys helmet. The helmet was a surprise for Dad when he got home from work. They came out really nice but it did take me 3 HOURS TO DO IT! NEVER AGAIN. The darn saw knives, whatever you want to call them kept bending in half as I cut, the template poker all of a sudden lost its poking ability and it was surprisingly hard to find something around the house to take its place and I was pretty close to crazy after doing just a couple. The only good thing about it was that we were able to gut and carve the pumpkins outside so that saved me from cleaning a big mess inside! Have a great one tomorrow! xo

What is it?

I saw this bird a few days ago and can't for the life of me figure out what it is. I took the pictures from the house in the pouring rain. There were two of them. I didn't see them fly but Brad said he saw them since this day and they were flying. They looked like a big bodies bird with fluffy feathers (saw one shake itself out), and a weird almost beaver looking tail. Of course the tail only looked solid it may not have been. At first glance I said oh a young turkey is coming into the yard. Then after I came to my senses I knew it wasn't a turkey. Then I thought it was chicken, but soon saw its head and noticed it had what looked to be a bill like a duck. We have some people down the road that raise fowl. Maybe something got out. I'm thinking that I discovered a rare new species or perhaps one that was thought to be extinct only to be very, very elusive and only my expert bird watching eyes have spied. :) Help me!! Sorry about the picture quality. I zoomed all the way in and cropped some so it lost some of its clarity. Like I said though, it is from the house through pouring rain.

Fall Luminaries

We made some more luminaries. I like this set better than the ones we made last year. Our Church's Harvest Dinner is coming up and during the dinner we host a "Country Store". I think I will donate these for the sale. We used all real maple leaves with a tinge of orange and red. They are held and painted over with watered down glue. With wet glue over top of the leaves we glued down small squares of white tissue paper. They come out very nice.

St. Paul of the Cross

Our tribute to St. Paul of the Cross! We learned that he made a journey barefoot across Italy. He did this as a sacrifice to Jesus and the suffering he endured. I told the girls to run out side to take care of a couple things for me, barefoot. They thought I was nuts. It was a chilly day with wet yucky grass. Look, they didn't even wear coats.
There they are. Maybe they will always remember St. Paul of the Cross. Of course, the awesome stories of his miracles were enough to remember him by.

Sacrifice Beads

We ordered some sacrifice beads from The Little Ways after celebrating Saint Therese of Lisieux's feast day. They arrived, and we didn't waste any time putting them together. I attatched a clip at the end so that the girls can clip them right to their pants to have them readily available and in sight all day long. The best part about these beads is guess what.... they are working!

Fire Safety Lapbook

For our fire safety studying this month we had an actual fire girl. Yep Fire Girl Emeline came to teach us about fire safety.
We also made this fire safety lapbook.

It is full of all the basic information needed to stay safe during an emergency such as our plan, meeting place, who to call etc. According to the kids they had the heeby geebys a few times while learning this subject. Better to know the info than not to know!

Brendan's 3rd Birthday Party

Brendan's third birthday party was the past weekend. He had a superhero theme! Look at him as spiderman!!
This is during a freeze dance game.

Then Stacy had a parachute to play with.

Keep the balloon on the parachute kids.

Poor Stacy, being the wonderful host that she is, didn't have any time to take pictures thus the photo heavy post.

Little kids, sit under the parachute and we'll lift it up and down over you now.

Sorry about the red-eye. I forgot.

I think Margie wants to help. She had already helped someone lick a little frosting off one (or maybe 3) of the cupcakes while sitting there by sticking her little fingers into them.

Army guys.

Russell is a bug caught in a web. Wrap him up Georgia.

More more more more more....anybody got any tape now??

Shoot the silly string at the bug game!

Emmy wants in (or maybe out).

What a GREAT party Stacy. xoxo

Fall Festival at Nature Center

The following pictures are from our Fall Festival trip to the Nature Center. Some you may have seen but I recently had to purchase more picture space in the virtual internet world and wanted to get all of these in my virtual album so am posting them here to do so. :)
Up and over the bridge. VERRRYYY exciting!

The scarecrow making consest was awesome. We'll take part next year.

How big is your wingspan?

Margie hugging a tree when our hike just was getting underway.

Don't do it Georgia!!

Bus ride