Random stuff we've been up to

I love the internet. Especially sites like Pinterest where you can get totally sucked into all these ideas of things to do with the kids. I have to admit that I now spend a fair bit of time looking for cool things to do for homeschooling. Here are some of our hits and some misses too!

After Maddy's question about getting an iPhone because she wanted to play Angry Birds, I remembered this idea I came across from a 'Science for Kids' blog. We still need to tweak our catapult a bit, I used hair elastics this first time, but have since replaced them with real elastics. Much better. The kids are still experimenting with the proper angles to pull back on and Ethan is still working on figuring out how the catapult works. It's pretty funny to see him pull back, and then just throw the ball weakly to the ground. Haha.

A bit hard to see, but there is the little bird sitting on the bricks.

This next picture is to document our 'miss'. It was supposed to be an experiment with baking soda and vinegar. The chemical reaction between the two was supposed to cause the gummy worms to appear to float up and down on their own. In hindsight,  I think the worms were too heavy. We will try again with smaller worms, but one thing mommy won't do is to dump more baking soda mixture in the bottle of vinegar (It was Maddy's suggestion when nothing was happening to the worms). Let's just say that the kids had a good laugh and mommy had a lot of mopping up to do. I won't forget Maddy exclaiming, "Now THAT'S a science experiment!" just after the explosion happened.

A shot before. All still looks calm and under control.

With Ethan joining us on Mondays, I try to some activities that are more hands-on and something that the kids can do the same activity, but be working on different learning outcomes. Ethan was working on just recognizing the numbers and Maddy was adding dot patterns on dominos. Both of them had to search for specific numbers in the bowl of rice. They really liked this activity so it'll go on my list of things to do again.



Another hit was the Rainbow painting with salt. With Maddy, I was trying to see if she could write numerals between 20-100. For Ethan, I started with the idea of having him try to write the numerals 1-3. That quickly changed to just doing circles and lines. He was pretty happy when at one point he connected the two together and said, "Look Mama, Q!"

 

 Finally, with the shorter days and yuckier weather we had our very first "Family Game Night". This is an idea I've been looking forward to for a while. (Must be all those Milton Bradley commercials) It was a fun treat to have popcorn after dinner and to play a few of our games together. We're hoping to add "Movie Night" to the mix soon too. Just waiting for a weekend afternoon where we don't have anything to do.

Sparks

 

On Halloween Maddy went to her first Sparks meeting. (Sparks is part of the Girl Guides of Canada program. It is one level below the more popular/well known Brownies) There was a bit of a mix up with communication, so we didn't attend any of the other meetings. Since her first meeting was a Halloween party, she loved it. What's not to love: game and yummy treats to eat. Tonight was her first official 'regular' meeting since we were away for Disneyland and then we had the long weekend. Maddy was so proud to put on her uniform and she insisted on wearing the full 'shebang'. I don't have any experience with the Girl Guides program (except for buying their cookies) so it's all new for  of us. We already have a fundraising event this weekend...and so it begins.

Fall Pictures

With the extended summer we enjoyed this September, I had been waiting and waiting for the leaves to change and to snag the perfect opportunity to get our fall pictures done. By the time they changed and fell, we were into the wet weather so I was beginning to think that we would have to forgo the fall shots this year. Luckily, after we got back from Disneyland we were blessed with a few dry days in a row. The leaves by this time were already turning brown, but at least they were dry!!! We also needed to clean up the backyard area before the wet weather was here to stay, so we tried to do both at the same time. Here's what we got:

So after all that, we still had to clean up the backyard. Luckily, the kids are still at the age when they are willing and begging to help out.

Judging by the recent weather we've been having, I think that was the last of the dry weather. A week later and  more leaves have fallen. Blah! Oh well, we had fun and the pictures are done for another year.

The worst that could happen...

Well that depends on who you ask, but according to Ethan the worst thing that could happen is you could get a cankersore. At some point on our Disneyland trip Ethan bit the inside of his cheek while eating. It turned into his very first cankersore. The poor guy was miserable because every time he ate anything he'd aggravate the sore spot. He'd want to try and eat so badly, then be in so much pain that he'd scream out crying. Then he'd insist that we keep the food so that he could try it again later on. We even had to take a day old hot dog and put it through the airport security scanner because he wouldn't let us throw it out. When we got home he insisted that we put a bandaid on it and after explaining that we couldn't put a bandaid on the inside of his mouth, he settled for a bandaid on his cheek. Tonight he decided to try oranges (one of his favourite fruits) again. No go. My poor little boy. I've promised to buy all his favourite fruits as soon as it heals.

Disneyland with the Blommesteins

This year marks the 40th wedding anniversary for Josh's mom and dad. To celebrate, they treated the whole family with a trip to Disneyland!!! Thanks again, mom and dad. We had an awesome time.

We lucked out with some unusually hot weather even for Anaheim. Luckily our hotel was right across the street, so for most days we went back to the hotel for a swim in the pool, lunch and a nap. After that we were ready to hit the crowds once again and stay up late for the evening festivities. There's so much I could write about our trip, but instead I'll just quickly include a few highlights.

• seeing Ethan wave his little hand off during the Mickey Soundsational Parade. He loved the whole thing so much we watched it twice.
• the kids LOVED the breakfast with Minnie and friends. We got to meet: Minnie, Winnie the Pooh, Captain Hook, Cinderella's Fairy Godmother, Chip and Dale and Tigger. We also met a few other characters in the park.
• Maddy's "dream come true" of seeing real fireworks. Though, this was during the Fantasmic show. Luckily, the fireworks came after the 'scary evil Disney characters' part. (Both kids were crying and screaming in that part.)
• Maddy's pride in herself after she came off of the Big Thunder Mountain rollercoaster. 
• Ethan's driving on the Autopia ride. Oma caught it on video and I still laugh when I see it!

I hope you enjoy the pictures. We had a blast.

 

Halloween 2012

I like these pics with the kids hamming it up. Usually Ethan is more reserved when we are out.

After 5 years she's now ok with touching the guts.

Maddy had very specific designs in mind for the pumpkin's mouth

She was very proud that this year she got to do some carving all on her own.

Thank you to the Kai's for hosting a great party.

Ready for trick-o-treating.

Thank goodness the weather held up. It was a downpour during dinner.