October happenings 2010

On October 19th Faith had crazy hair day at school. This picture hardly does it justice because in real life it was even more bizzare, sparkly and had crazy curls you could see from the back. She said that the kids in her class dubbed her hair the craziest!

It must be "fire prevention month" or something, because here are the kids with yet another fire truck. This one was at Faith's school and the kids even got to try on a helmet!

Buddy took this pic of me at the dentist on the 21st when I had a temporary crown removed and the real one installed. He thought it was really creepy that I was missing a tooth for a few minutes.

That afternoon I was going to take Christian to Black Island Farms to meet up with Joy and her girls for Sierra's preschool field trip there. Unfortunately, Lily was sick and I instead picked up Sierra to take her with us. I'm glad I got some pictures of the harvest festival, because I didn't go with both my kids this year (Tammy took them on the night of her sleepover). As usual, the slides rocked!

fun in the corn box

the train

making some music

little hay maze

We got to go on a hayride into the fields where Sierra got to pick a pumpkin. Christian seems happy with the broom corn and carrot he was given on the ride when a farm hand was explaining what they grow there.

feeding the animals

cool horsey tire swing

ropin'

After all the fun, we dropped Sierra off at home and did a little shopping at WalMart. Christian and I went all out on lunch and split a McDouble, small fry and cup of water.

Christian loves using my craft supplies in his 3D art. this paper/felt/pompom masterpiece is of "ghost Mickey." I think the incorporeal Mr. Mouse is giving it a thumbs up!

I've been doing a lesson/craft/game type thing once a month in Faith's classroom which they call "Fun Friday." A different parent does it each week and one chose "favorite authors" as a theme and another "math games." I'm not sure on the other theme, but I just chose "science" so that I could choose all kinds of topics. In September I taught about the water cycle and had a reader's theater, an experiment where we made clouds that rained in a vase (kind of like this), showed water vapor with an ultrasonic humidifyer, and played a game. It was basically "duck, duck, goose" but I had the person who was "it" say instead "evaporation, evaporation" and squirt the intended person with a spray bottle of water when they said "condensation." It was really fun! For October I decided to do a whole lesson of spooky science experiments. Faith took photos while I taught and Christian looked on.

I started with making a witch's brew by putting a block of dry ice in some water in my cauldron. I let the kids feel the water vapor created as the dry ice sublimated into gaseous carbon dioxide.

Next, I made a string scream by putting it through a disposable plastic cup and then running a wet piece of sponge down it.

Then the kids' favorite--making a jack-o-lantern barf with yeast and hydrogen peroxide making foam out of dish soap.

I made a tissue paper ghost dance with the help of a balloon and static electricity.

I taught about the unusual viscosity of a cornstarch/water mixture "ooze" by pouring like a liquid but then slapping it and showing how it acts like a solid when force is applied.

Lastly, this hand "came alive" with the help of some vinegar and baking soda in the cup.

My lesson was a huge hit! The teacher later remarked that she wished she would have filmed it to show to her class each year. I was just glad that everything worked, since I was doing some experiments for the first time, myself! I compiled all the ideas I found into this document to help me teach the kids, if you would like to be awesome like me, feel free to download and try them yourself ;)

First half of October 2010

Christian got ahold of my camera again and took lots of pictures of himself. This one may look a bit obscene, but it's just his belly button!

Soccer game on October 2nd. Faith is still loving it and doing great.

After the game we stopped by Home Depot to do the project (fire boats) and got to see Smokey!

Next we went to Gardner Village with Lana, Tammy and Tina.

Pony rides were a favorite, as usual.

The face painting was extra awesome!

We saw lots of witches, ate lunch at Archibald's and made sure to stop by the candy store. Unfortunately, Christian was still tired from the sleepover with grandparents and Tammy the night before and cried off some of his Batman mask while throwing a fit shortly before this photo.

He fell asleep on the way home and was feeling much better, as you can see, when we started his facepaint removal. He actually was in a good mood, and he LOVED how he looked "evil" with this leftover black paint!

I believe he was also in a good mood the next day when Faith took this picture at my mom and dad's. I had a whole slew of "angry" pictures of both Faith and Christian on my camera when I got it back from the kids that day.

And good thing they returned my camera because I was able to get a shot of this cool double piggyback!

Still not completely caught up on his sleep that weekend, he conked out on the floor at Tony's parents' that night. At least Crumpet was kind enough to keep an eye on him.

Some more of Christian's favorite garden outputs: SWUGS.

He quite liked the produce as well.

At the Farmers' Market on the 7th we got to hear some bagpipe music.

This Lowe's project on the 9th was a favorite: funhouse mirrors.

That afternoon we went to Frightmares again. This was inside the "Spook-A-Boo" where the kids get to trick-or-treat. Look at all the creepy things for "dinner" in this exhibit!

It was way too chilly to get wet in the fountains this day, but the kids tempted fate anyway (and luckily stayed mostly dry).

The kids love the Halloween decor.

September 2010

On September 2nd we picked some strawberries at Day Farm,

and then stopped by the farmers' market where we splurged on some balloon animals.

On the 4th we saw Eclipse again, this time at the Kaysville discount theater. Christian was to see it for the first time, but fell asleep! Tony's not too happy about having to pose for a picture in the shirt I made him :)

Christian's not the only one who loves petting our bunny-furred little (ha, ha) kitty.

On the 6th we spent some time at Barnes Park.

Christian learned how to cross this chain bridge and LOVED it. He now calls this "chain park".

Buddy and his buddy.

Back at the park on the 9th, this time we remembered the bread.

I went to a fun Relief Society activity where everyone brought stuff from their house that they didn't need anymore and then the ladies could "shop" for free. I got a big Rubbermaid storage drawer thing, the Star Wars trilogy on VHS, some play clothes for Christian, and a pack of these vampire teeth!

Made dog leash holders at Lowe's on the 11th.

On the 12th we picked our first pea pod! We planted very late and figured the two little pea plants that we got on clearance sale would probably just shrivel up in the heat. They pretty much did, but managed to stay alive enough to stage a tiny comeback in the fall. Unfortunately, the pod was not fully formed and only had one pea in it, which Faith dutifully cut in half and shared with her brother :)

Our insurance finally covers Kaysville Pediatric Dental so the kids got to visit on the 13th.

Buddy with his fountain again.

Faith learned about perspective in art class and drew this cute picture of herself falling backwards into the water. Love that the hands and feet are bigger because they're closer to the viewer!

Having lunch with Faith on the 17th.

I love finding pictures that Buddy took when I download from my camera!

I know I already have two Dusty pics, but I had to include this one because you can see his addictively fuzzy belly ♥

On the 24th we finally got around to cleaning out our basement toy storage. Of course, the kids helped by getting out everything I put away and playing with it, especially the items with a zillion pieces.

The kids built a fire truck (the same one we'd done previously, but they were REALLY in the mood to construct something) at Lowe's. The Layton firefighters brought out their trucks for everyone to see up close.

I had to get a pic of this eerie sight at the store later that day. If you look at the left pic closely, you can see that the pins even show Faith's eyelashes!

That evening was our first visit of 2010 to Frightmares at Lagoon.

After soccer practice on the 30th, the kids and I treated ourselves to Zeppe's with a buy one/get one free coupon that was about to expire.