Happy Halloween!

This year's festivities were reminiscent of last year's celebration. We met up with friends, ate pizza, then the moms took the kids trick or treating while the dads stayed back to pass out candy. It was a different group of friends and a different neighborhood, but we still had a blast. The kids this year were much more excited and braver about going up and knocking on doors. Between houses they ran as fast as they could yelling "trick or treat!!" They also made it to a lot more houses, which means a lot more candy for Andy and me to sneak out of their pumpkins!

Carving Pumpkins

We had a lot of fun carving the pumpkins that we picked at Buckelew farm. I used a carving kit that my mom got for the girls when she was here in September. It was so easy and the pumpkins looked great when we were finished! Sophie got into scooping out the guts way more than Zoe, who mostly complained how "disgusting" it was and how it smelled "sour" and how she needed to go wash her hands after each scoopful. My children are so predictable sometimes:)

Buckelew Farm

Last weekend the weather finally cooled down enough for us to venture out to Buckelew Farm for some pumpkin picking. This was our first time there and a good time was had by all. Grandma Laura, Papa Chuck and family friend Muriel joined us. The girls had fun picking their very own pumpkins. Other highlights of the day included riding on the wagon out to the pumpkin patch, feeding the animals at the petting zoo, and playing the games set up for the kiddos.

Baby # 3!!

Here's the latest addition to our family!

Spa de Sophie

Times are tough, so everyone is expected pitch in around here. Sophie is trying out her skills as a nail artist. I was her first client, and when Zoe woke up from her nap, she immediately said, "I smell something!" When she found out it was nail polish, she was ready for her turn in the chair. Sophie did a great job, and you too can get a manicure by Sophie for just a small price. I hear she takes cash as well as candy:)

Happy Birthday Mylah!

Happy 1st birthday to Mylah - baby sister to the girls' friend Rylin!

Desert Museum

This past week our playgroup made its first trip to the Desert Museum. If you've never been, the Desert Museum is part museum, part zoo, with all of its animals and exhibits being desert related, specifically the Sonoran Desert. It was a beautiful day with temps in the low 80s (yes, the kids look like they are dressed for winter) and the kids had lots of fun. The highlights were: close encounter with a mountain lion; digging for fossils, walking through the "cave"; and seeing a javelina in the wild, as opposed to in one of the habitat areas. Sophie's favorite part was the mountain lion, and Zoe's favorite was the otters. We had such a great time that we are considering letting our zoo membership end and instead buying a membership to the Desert Museum, especially since it's about 25 minutes closer!

Bye Bye Word Wall...

...Hello art wall! Today we took down our word wall in the playroom and put up a line of string so that we can hang the girls' arts and crafts projects. As most readers know by now, I love to do craft projects with the girls. The featured crafts were done this past week. The pumpkin craft was done by tearing pieces of orange paper and having the girls glue them to a paper plate, then adding a torn piece of green paper for the stem. The apple craft was an improptu idea after we cleaned out the garage and I found some supplies from my classroom. I asked the girls to describe apples using their five senses by prompting them with questions like, "What do apples look like? What do they smell like?" Etc... I wrote the answers on the big apple, then let them paste the apple to the paper. The fun part for them was using the apple stamps to decorate the rest of the page. I promise I won't post pictures of every project we do, but expect to see occasional posts about our new art wall!

Fall Crafts

I've been trying to teach the girls about the change in seasons from summer to fall, but it's pretty hard when most books just focus on the changing of the leaves. So instead we've turned to the fall holidays and some stories from the bible, and then we make a craft. It's a good formula: read a story, make a craft; read another story, make another craft. I put up some examples of what we've been doing. I was very impressed with Zoe's trees that she made after reading a story in her children's bible, and Sophie did a great job making the face on her pumpkin. The pumpkin craft is simple: stuff a paper lunch sack with newspaper, tie the top with string, paint the bottom orange and the stem green, then draw a face with a sharpie. We read the story, "The Five Little Pumpkins" first and talked about the different shapes that made up the pumpkin faces. Zoe did a great job painting but didn't quite get the concept of drawing the face. Oh well, she is only two!

Dress Up

The girls love playing dress up, so the other day I took advantage of Halloween coming up to purchase some cute outfits from a thrift store. For just $20 I got two princess dresses and a hairdresser coat with hair styling tools. This morning Zoe did Sophie's hair for her wedding later today. Too cute!