Happy Halloween 2011

Most years, we gather with friends at the home of the Turpin's (I think this one of Rena's favorite holidays) for food, friendship and the annual trick or treat parade through the neighborhood.

Connor dressed as a wizard. Delaney was a gypsy, Cailin was a soccer player. While Liam and I were out grocery shopping one day a lady came to us asking if he would like a halloween costume. It was his size and after looking at it, I knew he'd love it.....a transformer!, so he was a transformer this year. Before this incident he was going to be Bob the Builder....maybe next year.

"Trick or Treat!"

This house, by far, is the scariest place to go up to and ask for candy. One year, Liam came screaming back to me scared to death about the 'monster' up there. (surprising that he went to bed that year), anyhow, the inhabitants of this home really get into the spirit of things--they dress up in spooky attire and are stone cold silent, until the kids get up close to them. Full of pride in their courage, both Delaney and Liam told me that this year they we're scared of going up the sidewalk to this home. Well done.

Bri wasn't feeling well so she, Daddy, and Ryan stayed home,

munched on pizza and played games.

Yes, this is a real tarantula.... I was fairly sure that Cailin would try holding it, but later that evening (at the ward Halloween party) Ryan told me that he, too, held it! What!?! That's amazing. I really don't think I would have, ew, gross.

The youth provided some of the games for the evening. Here, the deacons, put together a cookie walk for the kids to enjoy. The priest, Josh and Ryan, did a donut on string activity. (sad that I didn't get a photo of that.:(

Having fun with face painting.

5 Children and It--Book Group

We had a lot of fun with this book by Edith Nesbit. Ryan and Cailin were the only ones who managed to read the whole thing. However, BBC produced a TV version that held quite true to the book, so the rest of us knew what was going on from the point that we didn't read.

For our literature lesson I compared recipes of cookies to essential elements of good literature. I pulled out cookbooks for them to find recipes of cookies and talked about what ingredients are needed to make cookies. We then discussed that there are some things that must be found in a book to make it a novel or story--plot, conflict, characters, theme, and setting. These are like the basics of a good cookie--flour, sugar, eggs, butter, and salt. An author can add in other elements, such as, onomatopoeia, alliteration, simile, imagery, personification, hyperbole, irony,....and other such elements to give variety and flavor to their story. In like manner we found many different cookies that used different enhancements too, such as, chocolate chips, nuts, lemon juice, raisins, bananas, oats, and so forth.

We had fun doing this comparison.

Afterwords, we read Peter Rabbit, to help the kids define and recognize what conflict and plot are (our specific topic of the month). Then on to discussing the book....5 children and It. A sand fairy or psaamead, is found by the four older children and he will grant a wish a day. The story is about all the wishes the kids make and how a seemingly harmless wish can turn into a great catastrophe. Our favorites were when their home is wished to be a castle, but the castle turns out to be under siege. Or the one about one of the boys, Robert, who is tired of being picked on by the baker's boy and wishes to be big. He then turns into a giant and gets his revenge, or does he?

They were asked to make their own wish and try to think how the psaamead would honestly fill the wish, but make it so that you wished you never asked for it in the first place.

Delaney wished to be able to read and write better, lucky for her, I can actually help her achieve this one on her own. Cailin wanted to have athletic prowess and strength. I'm sure he'd have fun with that....watch out wonder woman is here.

incorporating the butter for the scones has never been so fun before

The book is set in England and a couple of times the book tells of the kids having tea, so, that's what we had for our cooking snack too.... molasses scones and herbal tea. Amazingly the kids preferred the tea over apple juice, can't blame them, I too, enjoy peppermint tea.

Ryan and Connor prefer to read and discuss more complex books, or maybe they just don't want to be with us, anyhow, they read The Two Towers from the Lord of the Ring series. Barry was originally going to discuss with them, but the bed had too great a pull on his sleepy, weary, working midnight, head and he went to sleep for an extra nap before heading off to work. So I got to steal away from the main group and discuss with them. We had fun. I enjoyed talking with them about the book and listening to their thoughts, insights and perspective of the book and how they felt it applied to their lives. I'm once again amazed at my wonderful boys. I don't need a wish to make my life better, I'm pretty happy with what I've got! (Okay, I could think of a few things, but, I'm not going to press my luck.)

Grapes and Graham Crackers

With me finding grapes on sale for $.98 a pound ( a favorite healthy yummy treat) and finding a recipe to make homemade graham crackers that are soy and milk free, for Brianne.... thus began the letter G, as our letter of the week.

I needed to get some groceries and we had so much fun finding P's at Walmart, that I tried it again as we gathered groceries for my grazing group.

Later in the week we pulled out the recipe and tried making the graham crackers. They had fun rolling out the dough, but that was it. They didn't

like the taste of the dough, raw or cooked and we ended up throwing it out. Even Brianne didn't like them. I'd hand them to her, she'd put them to her mouth try one bite then throw the cracker to the floor. Bummer.

We had fun playing games of dominoes and Candy land. We played and worked some in the green garden, and even found a "genius" (in embryo) grazing, gazing and going around the house!

It's time for Soccer

The cool crisp snap of fall weather can be felt in the air....that means, pumpkins, apples, gorgeous colorful leaves falling from trees and fall soccer. Cailin, ever the mover and goer, couldn't wait to join and lucky for me, (because I missed the sign ups in July) was able to get her on Chris Mattson's team, the Flames.

She had a great time and improved in skill and tenacity. She never wavered or shied away from trying to get a ball from the opposing team.
Two of the games were played in cold rainy weather, but that didn't stop them from having fun and playing hard.

Cuddling up and keeping warm on a breezy Saturday morning game.

This was coo-old day. Why Delaney is without a jacket, I don't know, that girl seems to be impervious to cold temperatures.

Cailin's thoughts: First of all--THIS IS NOT THOUGHTS!!! This is me telling about soccer. So, ha.

I liked this year more than the others. My Tigers year, when I was seven, was...fine. I was seven. I hardly remember it. My Bumblebees year was good. Except that we lost EVERY GAME!!! Then, in my Hurricanes year, I was TOTALLY ignored by the coach. I was always put in defense. And that is not because I was good at it, either.

But the Flames year was different. I don't know how it was. It was partly because I had moved into 11-13 year old tier group, and everything changes. Can't explain how. It just DOES. It was also partly because Bro. Mattson was my coach, and because I know him, it changed, too.

My favorite part of soccer was playing on offence or midfield.

Presentation Group, formally known as history group

This is our 4th year gathering with our friends; to hear a formal oral report about the different things they have been discovering.

In the past, we've focused the presentations on one specific subject or time period within history. However, this year, due to the different goals and emphasis' that we all have for our families, we've chosen to ditch this and open the playing field and let the child decide what they want to present.

During a piano lesson, Cailin learned a little about minuets. After some more research she learned that what she previously thought--which is, a nondescript name given to all music if the composer had no other idea what to name it-- really is. She's played many minuets in flute and piano lessons and couldn't tell why they were given that name. Now she knows...and she played one for everyone to hear. (Reason: minuets are musical arrangement that are in 3/4 time. During the colonial period in life in France and America, they were quite popular to dance too. They were also used to teach youth social etiquette and formally introduce them to the opposite gender. George Washington probably danced these type of dances.)

We will spend some time this year learning about key figures in our american history. This year we've learned about Christopher Columbus. Delaney shared with the others all she could remember from our discussions.

Amber and Krystal share about castles--what was inside of them.

Castillo de San Marcos. After spending 4 wonderful weeks traveling through the state of Florida with his parents, Daxton shared what he learned about this fort from the 1500's in our history.

I wasn't going to require Connor to participate in these gatherings this year, because of the big work load he has with CC, but he couldn't wait to share about his passion---SCIENCE! He shared with us all about Albert Einstein and his discovery of E=MC 2 and then about it formula itself. At the end of each presentation, the audience is allowed to ask question. He had none....dead silence....till a mother said, "Connor, the reason there are probably no questions is because this is over our heads...at least my head!" Mine too.
Janet shared about volcano bunnies and her big sister, Beryl talked about the Berlin Wall.

Jared shared his knowledge of medieval weaponry.

Liam, every spunky, got right up and without hesitation started reading a story about the letter T. He stumbled and I helped him, but he finished off the speech by telling all about the family tree he and Delaney had made.

Keagan shared with us about golden retrievers and introduced us to his new family pet, Ranger.
Clarissa's presentation was about medieval games--slipper, slipper, who's got the slipper...
Going through two arms of children, held up high like a bridge, the kids would run through until a song was finished and the arms came crashing down. The 'one' caught, would then choose with color team they wanted to be on for the next game. They would continue to all the kids had chosen a team and then it was on to the next sport, which for us was....

tug-o-war, the game is on!

Bobbing for apples....

Got one!

At the end, Janet and Beryl's cousin came home and shared some of his medieval gear from his reenactment costume. Below, Cailin in the head gear.

A Fall Photo Shoot

My Girls

A Fall Photo Shoot

A Fall Photo Shoot