Give Thanks

This is such a lovely holiday!  I love the smells and I love the food!  The weather has been absolutely fabulous-everyone is enjoying the outdoors and dry, cool air. 

We have been preparing for this special day all week by making a charming bunting from nature finds, poking out leaves using pins for our Fall banner, making mobiles, and writing our thankful lists.  (Marcella's list is at her school in her journal so you won't see it below). 

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family!

Trick or Treat

Check out our 2012 Halloween costumes: Eben-a rabbit, Eleanor-a princess, Theresa-an elf, Marcella- a black cat.  Casey and I were pumpkin heads.

Happy Jack O'Lantern

We carved our first KAUST pumpkin this year.  Our previous two Halloween's were pumpkin-less due to our local store not having pumpkins but this year we they were in stock!  We all had a lot of fun carving and learning along the way.  One of our Halloween books was filled with pumpkin facts and hints on carving the best pumpkin like rub vaseline on the cuts to keep them from rotting and sprinkle spices on the inside to have a nice scent while the candle is burning.

Cheerios Art

Theresa found a cool Cheerios Cookbook at our library.  The book was filled with fun and easy to do recipes and crafts.  We enjoyed doing some of them:

Open House at the Fire Station

Our local Fire Station hosted an awesome open house last weekend.  It was definitely the most interactive fire station trip I've ever been on.  Kudos to our wonderful firemen for making it all possible!  Even the weather cooperated; we had the coolest weather we've had since our return from the summer.  What made it maybe 95 rather than 100 was the air was drier!  On a side note it has felt incredibly hot due to the humidity.  No rain, but loads of humidity.  Anyways, for this event we enjoyed slightly cooler weather.

Portable Toxic Wash Station

Hose Spraying Practice

Uniform Sizing

Portable, Inflating Cast

Fire Extinguisher Fun

Rescue Rangers

Ambulance Exploration

And Our Favorite:

Foam Fun!

The firemen made rainbows using their tall extension ladder and hose.



Surprises All Around

Marcella came home from school with an egg to take care of the same day these three decided to go around having babies!  No kidding!



You can call Marcella "Toothless" now.  In one night she lost both her front teeth-after she had gone to bed!  I'm downstairs after putting the kids to bed and Casey's out jogging.  Marcella comes down with the first tooth.  We get all the fixings set for a possible tooth fairy visit and she asks if she can stay up till Daddy comes home to show him.  I say sure and take my shower.  I come out of my shower and there is Casey.  He says Marcella has something to tell you-she lost the other tooth!

The Borrowers

The two older girls made the cutest little houses inspired by the book, "The Borrowers" by Mary Norton. This was my first Kindle book to read to the kids.  I love Kindle!  It is fabulous for those of us living in regions without expansive libraries and where books add shipping weight.

I read the book to all four kids actually and they all enjoyed it, although it did take a few chapters for everyone to get hooked.  As the chapters go one it becomes a suspenseful little read.  Anyways, about midway through Marcella and Theresa decided to make their own houses for their pipe cleaner people- almost everything was "borrowed" from their dollhouses!