No Excuse...

...for my lack of posting. :) Just recovering from the Thanksgiving weekend, and looking ahead to all I'd like to get done before this baby arrives! 37 weeks! (photo by one of my lovely 5 and under assistants).

The kiddos all happened to be dressed in blue for church, so I thought, "why not see if I could get a good photo for a Christmas card?"

Why not, indeed:
Yes, that's a nose-pick. I guess I didn't pick a good word for them to say. Honey just wants to get away.

One out of three with a good smile isn't bad...right??

Happy Thanksgiving!

Looking back, may you be thankful;
Looking ahead, may you be hopeful;
Looking upward, may you find strength;
Looking inward, may you find peace.

(a little quote from a freezer cooking newsletter)

Turkey Time!

We haven't done a lot this week, but we read the historical Thanksgiving account:
From here:

It sparked some good conversation, and a look at the map to see how far the Pilgrims sailed and where we live in relation to where they landed.

Here are some other Thanksgiving themed books we read:

And our Turkey T's! Made from a paper grocery sack, construction paper scraps, and tissue paper for the feathers.

We also have some turkey puppets from years past, to sing some songs with, like:

"There's a turkey on your nose, on your nose.

There's a turkey on your nose, on your nose.

Oh will that turkey stay, or will he wander away?

There's a turkey on your nose, on your nose."

(Substitute other body parts.)

We're also working on our annual thankful chain--strips of paper we use to write down things we're thankful for; then we'll make these strips into our countdown chain for Christmas!

I'd like to get to these cute bubble-wrap ears of corn from no time for flashcards; and these leaf turkeys from dltk.

We'll see. I also need to pack for heading north for some family celebrating with my side.

Have a great Thanksgiving, giving thanks to God for all he has done for you!

Halloween fun

I kind of forgot I hadn't posted any Halloween pictures on here yet! Here is the queen herself with a little ballerina:
Little Quack on a horse:

Speedy was very grumpy when we left the house and I was trying to get some pictures. There was some drama, I can't remember what it was about.

The ballerina and the fairy:

We went to our church's Candy with Character event, there were stations set up with bible characters telling their stories, hot chocolate (there were 2 burnt tongues afterward), and horse rides. Speedy the Duck was brave; Honey tried it, but got scared. Princess did not even attempt it, I'm surprised she got within 6 feet of the horse while she was waiting for the others!

"WHOOOAA!"

...said Honey as Hubby cut into this Boston Cream Pie dessert with the cake breaker. (like a big, metal comb.) I guess they both appreciate the finer side of dining. :) (I finally tried it Betsy, and it was easy and good!) (a Kraft Food & Family recipe)

Hubby carving a pumpkin with Speedy and Princess. (He's SO much better at it than I am!) Princess has only been talking about carving her pumpkin since we got it ten days ago!
One of my kitchen helpers. Yes, letting her do this and then clean her up IS easier than listening to her fuss about me keeping her out of it. Have you had this much fun with flour??
I'm definitely feeling the nesting. :) Simple tasks turn into major re-organizing and sorting efforts, because I can't just shove it in and walk away right now! And even though I was pooped last night, I sat down at my scrapping desk and got caught up organizing and updating baby books for a couple hours!

I'm having a little (or a lot) of mommy brain, too. Tuesday evening, I bought a new toothbrush for Honey. The last place I remember seeing it (still in the package!) was on the kitchen counter. I cannot find it now, I even checked the trash can!

On the plus side, I found a book from our PAT library that I hadn't seen for about 4 months. I had given up--today I spied it between the head of our bed and the wall. :)

Bats, Ghosts & Halloween

PUMPKIN SONG (tune: Have you ever seen a lassie?)
Have you ever seen a pumpkin, a pumpkin, a pumpkin,
Have you ever seen a pumpkin, that grows on a vine?
A round one, a tall one, a fat one, a small one.
Have you ever seen a pumpkin, that grows on a vine?

Pumpkin painting fun! Here's Princess, she painted 2 faces, one rainbow, and one face with permanent marker to carve.

Honey takes her painting very seriously, she had purple & green squiggles on her pumpkin.
We tried a Halloween scene resist with our leftover tempera paint mixed together, but I should have followed my instinct and watered it down. We couldn't see our drawings. :)

Handprint bats! These were fun and easy, I was going to leave Honey out (black paint on a 20month old's hands??) But, I was helping an older kid wash up and turned to see Honey up on Speedy's chair, using the foam brush to paint her own hand. She was NOT going to be left out!
I let Speedy leave his bat head the way he had cut it. Princess cut out her own and Honey's. DEEP IN THE BAT CAVE (Tune: “Down by the Station”)Liz Ryerson
Deep in the bat cave

Early in the evening,

See the little black bats

Hanging in a row.

Now it’s growing darker,

Time to leave the bat cave.

Zip! Zip! Zip! Zip!

Out they go.

One little bat was trying to behave.
He hung upside down from his feet in a cave.
Another bat flew in, and said, "How do you do?"
The second joined the first, and then there were 2!
2 little bats were trying to behave.
They hung upside down from their feet in a cave.
To help pass the time, they sang "Do re me"
Another bat joined the song, and then there were 3.
3 little bats were trying to behave
They hung upside down from their feet in a cave
From their cave perch, they looked down at the floor,
A new bat joined the game, and then there were 4.
4 little bats were trying to behave.
They hung upside down from their feet in a cave.
One little bat zoomed inside and did a dive.
He stayed to take a rest, and with him there were 5.

Happy Heart H's!
Honey and Princess showing off their hand-ghosties (I saw this idea on a blog somewhere). I draped a paper towel (one select-a-size sheet) over their middle 3 fingers, wrapped a rubber band around, and colored eyes.

They didn't really like them on their fingers, so we modified by crumpling up some paper for the head, wrapping the rubber band around, and sticking a pencil through the rubber band for a handle.
FIVE LITTLE GHOSTS (by Jean Warren)

5 little ghosts knocked at the door, Then one flew away and that left 4.

4 little ghosts up in a tree, Then one flew away and that left 3.

3 little ghosts drinking witches brew, Then one flew away and that left 2.

2 little ghosts having lots of fun, Then one flew away and that left 1.

1 little ghost now all alone, He got bored so he flew back home.

Books: Bats by Bibi Boynton; What is a Bat? by Bobbie Kalman; BATS by Amy-Jane Beer

These non-fiction books are not recommended before bedtime! All the bats (except fruit bats) are pretty scary looking. I didn't know that there are fishing bats (they catch them with their feet!) and that vampire bats really suck blood from animals. Eww.

Stellaluna by Janell Cannon is a good one about a lost bat taken in by a family of birds, that eventually gets reunited with her mother. Baby Bat's Lullaby by Jacquelyn Mitchard had pretty pictures, but was kind of lame reading. It's a rhyming song a momma bat is singing to her baby. For what it's worth. :)

Our week

(disclaimer: this is basically a copy of my weekly email, so if you read that, don't spend time reading here!)

One of the more fun things of the week was visiting the pumpkin patch. A group from church went, so the kids saw some sunday school friends and cousins there. Their favorites were the straw bale maze, hayride,

and inflatable bouncers. (though Honey cried inside the bouncers, came out, then went right back in and cried again.) She and Speedy LOVED feeding the goats; Princess didn't want to get too close.

They picked out some pretty big pumpkins. We also got to walk through part of the corn maze--I was glad we had a guide; Princess said it was boring.

Tonight we visited a new cousin at the hospital; Princess was disappointed she didn't get to hold him a really long time; Speedy thought we were there to have OUR baby; Honey wanted to jump on the beds. :)

Other interesting tidbits for the week: Honey has chewed up an unknown number of crayons; Speedy doesn't put things in his mouth, but does like to lick other people and things--this morning he came to me because there was a hair in his throat (he'd licked the carpet.)

Honey was playing in the toilet for some reason again. (yuck.)

And I'm not sure what the kiddos did to the computer, but one day the keyboard quit working, then the mouse; then the next day I went to plug the camera into the USB cord and there was something stuck in the cord so it wouldn't work. Luckily my handy man was home to come to my aid. :)

The topic of the week has been skunks (we smell quite a few as we're driving). And I told the kids about a couple times when we lived in our first house that the dogs got sprayed and killed a skunk out in the country. They are fascinated and have requested the stories several times already. Hubby tells it better, in case you're wondering. :) Oh, the other topic is water treatment plants, because we smelled that stink while driving, too.

And lastly, the toothbrush fiasco. The older two got new ones from the dentist, of course, and were excited to use them. So I threw out the old ones (b/c they've got like 3 or 4 each). Princess didn't like her new one and immediately got her old one back out. It took Speedy a day or two to not like his new one; by then the trash man had come and gone with his old one, and it was the end of the world. I looked for his other old Cars toothbrush to console him, but couldn't find that one, either, and couldn't remember if I'd thrown it away or not. A few minutes later, he happened to find the Cars toothbrush behind the jumping couch (I don't know what it was doing back there), but all was good in Speedy's world again. Whew.

Honey's new thing is getting behind Hubby or I in a chair, lifting our shirt and going 'tickle, tickle, tickle' on our back. Except it feels more like 'scratchy, scratchy, scratchy from her fingernails. :) And she is getting in on the knock-knock jokes, too. If the others are telling them, she'll 'knock' her fist in the air and say 'kno-kno' over and over again till someone asks her, 'who's there, Honey?' And bedtime is a mess. Princess and Speedy talk and play--but it's hard to separate them because neither wants to sleep alone. I've been needing naps, and if they fall asleep in the afternoon, it's even worse at bedtime. Oh well.

On the plus side, I haven't found a mouse this week. :)

Pumpkins!

For the curious, here's the start to our theme for the week. :)
We went to the pumpkin patch on Monday, always a fun fall thing.
Here are some books, I'm glad we have a good selection at home, because I could only find a couple relevant at the library that were not already checked out!

Mrs. McNosh and the Great Big Squash by Sarah Weeks (Mrs. McNosh Hangs out her Wash is also a fun one by the same author!); Hayride Fun by Kristine Frankel; Halloween Mice! byBethany Roberts
The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons; Pumpkins by Lynn M. Stone
The Tiniest Pumpkin by Janet Craig (one of Princess' faves for the past couple years!); The Pumpkin Fair by Eve Bunting; and Five Little Pumpkins with pictures by Dan Yaccarino.

There are so many fun crafts I've come across, I haven't really decided which ones to do yet, but I'll add once we do some.

(The following three activities were found on the Hummingbird site.)
PUMPKIN ART Another cute craft is to paint a pumpkin vine (or use die cut) then paint the 'fist' of the child orange between the knuckles. Print down on the paper and it looks like a pumpkin. Add leaves.

I don't know if we didn't have quite the right idea, or if the kiddos didn't have the dexterity to do it, but I wasn't very impressed with how our 'pumpkins' turned out. Honey liked making foam circles for her pumpkins instead.

The Little Orange House

(To do this you will need the story, a pair of scissors, and a sheet of orange construction paper.)

"Once upon a time a very small witch was walking in the woods. The cold wind was blowing the dry leaves all around her. The little witch was frantically searching for a house for the winter. She could not find one. Suddently a piece of Orange paper, blowne by the wind landed at her feet. She picked it up. The little witch looked closely at the paper and then she said, "I shall make myself a little house from this piece of orange paper." She folded the paper in half. Then she took her scissors (she always carried a pair in her pocket) and cut off the two corners to make a roof. (Cut the construction paper as the story indicates). "This will do just fine," she said as she looked at her new house. "But I will need a door." With her scissors she cut a door. Since witches always wear pointed hats, she cut a special door. (Cut a rectangle shape with one end pointed up more towards the bottom of the folded edge.) The little witch walked through the door into the little orangs house. It was very dark inside. She quickly hurried back out. "I will need to make windows to let in the light," said the little witch. She cut a front and back window. (Cut a square shape in the top middle of the paper opposite end of the paper than the door. Cut through both sides of the paper.) Oh, it was a very fine looking house. Her very own little house with a roof, a door, and windows was all finished. But just as the little witch started to go inside for the winter, she saw a tiny ghost floating down the windswept path. As the tiny ghost came to a stop near the little house, the little witch saw that she was crying. "Why are you crying?"acked the little witch. The tiny ghost stopped crying and answered, "It is cold and windy. It is getting dark. And I have no Place to spend the winter." "You may spend the winter with me in my new house," said the kind little witch. "Oh, thank you, " the happy tiny ghost said as she peeked in through the window. "This is a very nice house." "First," said the witch, "I will need to make you a little door of your very own." She took her scissors again and began to cut. She cut a very tiny door. (Cut a triangle on the folded edge of the paper between the big door and the window. Make the longer part of the triangle point up) The two happy new friends went inside. The tiny ghost went in the very litttle door, and the little witch went through her own special door. All winter long they lived happily together inside the little orange house. If you want to see inside their little orange house, just open your piece of paper and Surprise!"

"The orange paper is cut into a jack o lantern. The big door is the mouth, the tiny door is the nose, and the windows are the eyes. The cut roof gives the paper an octagon shape, making it more like a pumpkin. I know it may be hard visualizing the directions of where you need to cut each piece while you read the story but hopefully you will understand once you know what the finished project is supposed to look like. The kids really love to see that the house is really a jack o lantern. Good luck "

"TISSUE PAPER PUMPKIN these little pumpkins turn out really cute and all have their own personality. Take a handful of poly-fil fiber and smash around in hands until shaped like a ball. Lay a orange piece of tissue paper on the table, put ball of fiber fill in center and pull edges up around it. tie off with what is handy for you. Trim to a nice stem length, take a green pipe cleaner and twist around and shape like vines. You can also add some curling ribbon for a prettier look. Let the children cut out jack o lantern features from black construction paper, and glue on. It is so cute, and the kids just adore their own jack o lantern."

We focused on the letter 'P' and painted them purple and pink. :)

Here's a cute counting rhyme I found at preschool express:

TEN LITTLE PUMPKINS
A number rhyme, felt board story

Ten little pumpkins all in a line,
A monster took one, then there were nine.

Nine little pumpkins peeking through the gate,
An old witch took one, then there were eight.

Eight little pumpkins (there never were eleven),
A green goblin took one, then there were seven.

Seven little pumpkins full of jolly tricks,
A white ghost took one, then there were six.

Six little pumpkins glad to be alive,
A black cat took one, then there were five.

Five little pumpkins not one more,
A pirate took one, then there were four.

Four little pumpkins, a jolly site to see,
A dinosaur took one, then there were three.

Three little pumpkins with nothing to do,
A ballerina took one, then there were two.

Two little pumpkins having lots of fun,
A spaceman took one, then there was one.

One little pumpkin, now all alone.
I picked it up and took it home.

Ten little pumpkins in a patch so green
Made everyone happy on Halloween!
Author Unknown

Cut ten pumpkin shapes out of orange felt and place them on a felt board. Remove the shapes one at a time as you read the story. You could also have your children help you act out the story. (We don't have a felt board, but may try to act it out somehow. My kiddos really seem to enjoy acting out stories and rhymes right now.)

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

I didn't think we'd been spending THAT much time outside lately, but compared to being STUCK indoors ALL day for 2 straight days, with more rain on the way...Whew. What's a tired momma in her 3rd trimester to do??

Here's some randomness for the week: our minivan is getting a new transmission. We're not sure if it's the right decision to pour more money into a vehicle with 150,000 or so miles on it...but too late now, so we'll make it work. Hopefully it will be ready to pick up tomorrow. Wouldn't normally be a big deal, as Hubby can have an excuse to ride his motorcycle every day. But--the rain. Our area is approaching record-setting rainfall for the year. Thankfully, the basement hasn't leaked again.

Saturday I made the mistake of thinking that walking (10-15 min) to our city's fall fest parade would be simpler than driving, finding parking, and waiting in the traffic to get home. Next time I'll think twice. Can you feel the cooperation from this picture?

Speedy whined, screamed, and/or fell down in a heap on the street most of the walk there and back. Princess had to go to the bathroom as soon as we were 2 blocks from home. Honey ate 3 suckers and some tootsie rolls (in the wrapper) in a very short time. Princess had to hide behind my chair from a couple characters dressed up on floats. Not surprisingly, they talk about the parade favorably.

Mousecapades: we'd caught the one, by accident. Then Friday night I was minding my own business doing dishes, when I caught some movement by my foot. Followed by spotting a long skinny tail and shrieking as it ran under the fridge. Loud enough shrieking, that the kiddos (doing shrieking of their own in the bedroom), came running to see what was the matter. They were disappointed they didn't get to see the mouse. I found another glue trap, baited it with some peanut butter, and stuck it under the fridge. Sure enough, early the next morning, I heard some squeaking. Brave Hubby pulled it out for me, and to entertain the kids, he pulled it off the trap (this is more humane than a traditional snap-trap??) and put it in a glass jug for the kids to watch. He told them it would probably like a TP tube to play in, his gerbils always did. I mentioned hearing how his gerbils were always ESCAPING. He kind of shrugged and left for football meetings. I found a TP tube and took the jug out to the screened porch for observation. Did I mention it was a baby mouse? How many more in the family??? Princess was worried the mommy and daddy mouse would be looking for their baby. I don't think I gave a very good answer--I'm not very sympathetic about rodents in the house! It almost makes me ready to have a cat again. Almost...then I think about the flea issues we've had in the past...

Spiders!

This week our theme is spiders! We checked out books about several different kinds--there was a huge selection! (Did you know there are fishing spiders??) We're talking about the letter S, the number 8, and the color black.



Here are some of our books, activities, crafts and songs (look here to see where most of my ideas are gathered from):

Spider's Lunch by Joanna Cole; The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
The Jumping Spider by Alice B. McGinty; The Eensy-Weensy Spider by Mary Ann Hoberman.
8 Spider web lines hanging down; with a thumbprint spider and 8 legs on each one. (most of Speedy's have 8 legs, anyway; he doesn't like help.)
Cheese! And spiders.
Watercolor resist web: we drew webs with white crayon on white paper and watercolored over it. Plain black would have been too boring, as you can see!

Handprint spiders: I traced the kiddo's hands on black paper, then we cut them out and cut the thumbs off. Glued the palms together (so the fingers are spider legs), then glued on googly eyes.

Here's our twist on marble/acorn rolling painting: we used some of the seed ball thingys from our sycamore tree. We rolled the balls in a bowl of white paint, then rolled them in our pan on top of the black paper.
Here were our S's! Princess is doing a great job cutting her stuff out. Speedy likes to try sometimes, sometimes just wants me to do it. :)

We used some black pom-pom fuzzies to be our spiders for singing 'The Itsy-Bitsy Spider' (english and spanish), 'Some Spiders like to Crawl...', and 'There's a Spider on Your Nose...'

Some spiders like to crawl, (x2) Spiders, spiders, everywhere; some spiders like to crawl. (Add in any other actions spiders do: run, jump, hide, fish, etc.)

Spider On Your Nose by Jean Warren (to tune of 'If You're Happy and You Know It')

There's a spider on your nose, on your nose. (x2) There's a spider on your nose, Let's see where else it goes. There's a spider on your nose, on your nose. (keep singing with other body parts.)

In the School Room this week

Here's some of what we're doing in 'school' this week:

We're reading these books:

A Grand Old Tree by Mary Newell DePalma

The Nutty Nut Chase by Kathryn White

The Leaves are Falling One by One by Steve Metzger

Autumn Leaves by Ken Robbins

Clifford and The Big Leaf Pile by Josephine Page


We're painting on these leaf spiral crafts:

We're pretending to be leaves, dancing and twirling to music.

Maybe we'll do some leaf rubbings; find pairs of matching leaves; or groups of 7 leaves.

We're working on the Letter L (for leaf) and the number 7.

We'd like to make these Adorable Acorns:

The kids are holding their acorns, and their Leaf L's are hanging in the window behind them.

Some fingerplays and rhymes:

I stood beside a tall oak tree, I felt a gentle breeze.

I tipped my head and looked up high, to see the colored leaves!

And soon the tree began to sway, The leaves came swirling down...

Red and yellow, orange and brown leaves...Landed on the ground!

By: Jane Kitson

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb; Mary had a
little lamb, who's fleece was white as snow.

Everywhere that Mary went, Mary went, Mary went; Everywhere
that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.

It followed her to school one day, school one day, school one
day; It followed her to school one day, which was against the rule.

It made the children laugh and play, laugh and play, laugh and
play; It made the children laugh and play, to see a lamb in school.

Cobbler

There's a cobbler down our street, Mending shoes for little feet:

With a bang and a bang and a bang-bang-bang;

With a bang and a bang and a bang-bang-bang!

Mending shoes the whole day long; mending shoes to make them strong;

With a bang and a bang and a bang-bang-bang;

With a bang and a bang and a bang-bang-bang!

And a Spanish song we've been working on:

Lava, lava (sung to: 10 little indians)

Lava, lava tus manitas. (pretend to wash hands)

Lava, lava tu carita. (pretend to wash face)

Lava, lava tus dientitos, (pretend to brush teeth)

Todas las mananas. (every morning)

Peina, peina, tu cabello. (pretend to comb hair.)

Ponte, ponte tu ropita. (pretend to put on clothes)

Calza, calza tus zapatos. (pretend to put on shoes)

Todas las mananas.

By: New Eton School Staff

If I haven't mentioned it, No Time For Flashcards is a great preschool activity blog that someone turned me on to! (Thanks, G.B.!) It is crafts that you will actually have supplies on hand for, and that keep it simple! Yahoo!