Trick or Treat

Despite our best efforts to suggest concept based costumes for W, he chose to portray Finn McMissile of Cars 2 for Halloween, and C was more than happy to be Lightning McQueen. Yesterday was the annual Downtown Trick or Treat event in MA that we've been attending since W was a baby. We enjoyed meeting up with friends beforehand at a local coffee shop. It was quite rainy but the event was rain or shine so we went anyway and the boys had fun. Luckily their costumes fit over winter coats! 


Earlier in the day we went to the Singalong at the library, and C had fun. They sing various songs including the Firetruck song, I'm a Little Teapot, ABC's, and the classic The Wheels on the Bus. It is more of a little kids event, so W chose to read books during part of it, but later joined in playing some of the instruments after the noisy parade. We checked some books out so we have plenty of reading material for a while. 

Last night also marked the first snow of the season. It is pretty unusual to see snow whilst still seeing the leaves in various colors on the trees.

Raking Leaves

W asked to rake leaves the other day. I couldn't deny him that, so I went into the dusty old shed and found it. The only problem was that there weren't really that many leaves yet. Boo.

Probably by the time there are he will give up all interest. ;)

C, on the other hand...

Watch out! I've got a rake and no idea how to use it.

falling leaves

W had storytime again today, they read a book about a moose and then made a "ghost moose" craft. Next week they will be trick or treating at the town hall so I will have to remember to dress the kids in costumes that day. I am still working on W's tree I haven't had time to finish but I will have to this weekend. The local Borders also has an event tomorrow so if we have time we may go to that so it is an incentive to finish the costume soon! Next Thursday is our town trick or treat so I am hoping the kids aren't completely wiped out by Halloween, we are going to CT to see the cousins that day.

C clapped his hands together for the first time on Wednesday. He is growing up too fast for me, I am trying to savor all these baby firsts. He loved holding onto a leaf from the yard today, it is so nice how such simple things can keep him happy sometimes. I just had to make sure he didn't try to eat it! :)

We have not been focusing too closely on the themes of the week the past two weeks so I feel like I need to get organized again, although they have been doing a lot of fall themed things lately. The kids have been keeping pretty busy between playdates and library days. It was nice to have all of the cousins over yesterday to celebrate a birthday. The kids had a great time and they all play well together.

We got Hooked On Phonics (PreK) on sale so W has started with that and enjoys the books that came with it very much. I am impressed with the DVD and it is quite entertaining to the younger kids too since it has a song about each letter.

Here are a few of our favorite Halloween themed books:

"Joey the Jack-O-Lantern" by Janet Craig
"Say Boo" by Lynda Graham-Barber and Barbara Lehman
"The Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat" by Stan & Jan Berenstain
"Where is Baby's Pumpkin?" by Karen Katz

frog week & fall

Last week was a busy one! The letter sounds of the week were fr, as in frog and friend. We learned about frogs and W did some fun frog crafts with S and his homeschooling friends at our first homeschool playgroup. He loves the book Little Quack's New Friend by Lauren Thompson, and it was so appropriate for the week since he did meet some new little friends and it also had a frog in the book. The final activity involving frogs was to check out some real frogs at Petco just to visit them, although some day I hope he will be interested in having small pets when he is old enough to take care of them.

This printout used numbers to match the arms and legs to the right spots.

W has decided he will be a tree for halloween, so we bought some faux fall leaves and I am working on making his brown sweater into a costume for him. He will wear brown pants and shoes to complete the look and I am also considering making a hat of some sort to go with the outfit. C is making it easier for me since we found a Winnie the Pooh costume for him already, and it will be nice and warm for him, W usually freezes at our town's trick or treat event.

The harvest season is winding down at our local CSA, I am looking forward to more squash and hopefully a pumpkin although I have heard this season has been rough. We have stopped doing pick your own since it is so late by the time we get there in the evening it is getting dark earlier now, so although W is sad he can't go it is a great way to learn about how things change in the fall.