Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!  This morning has already been out of sorts- so very Halloween.  It's always an exciting day when kids can wear their costumes!  Every child who enters the house gets greeted by other excited children and they congratulate each other about the costumes.   It's great!  We were running a bit behind this morning.  Just as we were trying to get everyone organized with coats on for our bus walk, Smudge brought in a bird.  He brought it to me!  My best beast is so scary on Halloween!  I had to catch him before he dropped it somewhere.  Outside it went and the other two kitties immediately took over the destroying of the bird.  They are all so happy right now!   We rushed out the door- LATE LATE LATE- into the pouring rain without umbrellas!! 

(Insert witch laugh HERE.)

Ethan snapped a photo of my costume for me. :) 

The jack-o-lanterns are inside the play room and ready for a spooky dark story time. (No monsters, though.)

 We posed for a photo!  This will be my preschool group for the day- Mike The Night, a Nascar driver, a devil and a princess on a unicorn!  We will pose for another photo when the older kids return from school. 

Look at all of these treats!  If Adam were here, you could bet that we'd have all sorts of tricks happening, too. 

We are going to play pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern! 

More photos tomorrow. 

Happy Halloween!  Have a fun and safe night tonight!

♥♥♥BOO!♥♥♥

Frankenstein

When I told the kids we were going to paint a green monster, they were a bit hesitant.  When the subject of monsters comes up, I just try to remind them that Elmo, Cookie Monster and their favorite- SUPER GROVER, are all monsters too.  That usually helps them feel more secure that there are no scary monsters at Henle House.  If someone gets worried I will ask them, "Wait a second- are monsters REAL?"  They end up reassuring me that they are not and I shouldn't be scared.  It usually works to ease whatever fear they are having.  I did find it comical that they were a bit scared of their green monsters before they began. 

To prepare, I cut out these shapes before we began.

Paint paint paint!

The pieces were glued on.  None of the kids recognized Frankenstein.  All of the figures from my childhood are unrecognizable to them. (Bugs Bunny, Frankenstein, Care Bears, Wonder Woman, Cindy Lauper.) 

After the monsters were dry, the kids drew mouths on. I think they look pretty cute, don't you?

Stephanie carved her jack-o-lantern. :)

Tomorrow is the big day!  I'll be honest- I like the weeks leading up to Halloween more than the actual day.  I think I'm ready to move into November.  You?  But for now, it's almost the last day to be able to listen to this excellent version of 'This Is Halloween' by Marilyn Manson.  Must play it LOUD!

♫Enjoy the light show! It's prettier than Marilyn Manson's face. ♫

Giant Maple Tree

It was so beautiful outside yesterday! Just when I think the beauty of Fall couldn't possibly be MORE beautiful, God surprises me.  I should've known.  There is no end to the beauty of Fall!

The leaves just keep changing!  This tree turned from red to orange to yellow.

Our "Abbey Road" moment.. Look at the kids all on the same step!  We took a walk down the street to see the giant Maple tree. Those of you who are regular readers of this blog may remember that we visit the tree several times each year.  We like to see the changes that happen to the tree in different seasons.

There it sits in all of it's glory!  A magnificent giant! I remember when we looked at our house for the first time and I noticed this tree.  What a joy it would be to live on a street with a tree like this!  Even more wonderful is that it sits on a church property, we can go visit it anytime.♥

My heart sank when I saw the nice man mowing over the leaves.  He knew what we were up to, though, and moved to another place to mow so we could play.  Awesome!

 Hooray!!

Look at the size of this!  They began to show me their treasures.

"Look Cole!"

 We started to collect some leaves to carry back home.

Leaf bouquets!

Off we went.

"Bye tree!  Thank you!" 

The leaf play continued at home.  It was a glorious day!

♥♥♥Happy Tuesday!♥♥♥

Pumpkin Carving

Saturday I carved pumpkins with my boys.  We enjoyed a lot of time together over the weekend.  Sometimes it is nice to focus on one child and give them the special attention they need.  I felt the urge to do that with the boys.  We carved pumpkins, and got all hyped up and ready to go the The Haunted Farm at Forest park petting zoo.  The ad said ages 8 and up- but we got all of the way there and it was clearly way too scary for the boys.   Instead, we went candy shopping and purchased a lifetime supply and some hot chocolate to go. :)  It was nice to spend time with the boys.
Aiden was happy to wear his costume at the store.

Ethan carved his by himself last year for the first time.  He is really good at taking an idea, drawing it on and actually making it work as a carving.  He even scooped his own goop.

Here is his masterpiece- a fiery skull!

Aiden wanted a creepy smile on his.  He drew a picture of what he wanted me to carve.

I carved mine to be scared of the other jack-o-lanterns.  Aiden got a kick out of that!

We have been enjoying dry weather here in Washington- the kids have enjoyed playing in the leaves!  Adam and I managed to get some yard work done yesterday and the leaves were mowed up, so we might take a walk down the street to see the giant tree in it's Autumn glory.  I am excited to show the kids the GIANT treasure trove of leaves it drops every year.  They are perfect for playing in.
♥♥♥Happy Monday!♥♥♥

Ghosties

Who doesn't love a good ghost story around Halloween?  I know I do.  These kids are too young for a ghost story, but we can create some fun ghosts instead!

To begin, you need a black piece of construction paper, a paper plate, a piece of chalk (any color will do) and a ghost cut out of sturdy card stock.  I use manilla folders for my ghost shapes.

I told the kids that something kind of magical was about to happen but I needed their help.  They got busy coloring the ghost shape completely with the chalk.  The more chalk, the better.

The next step is to firmly hold the ghost shape on the paper.  Using a kleenex, drag the chalk from the ghost shape onto the paper.  Be very careful not to let the ghost shape move.

Most of the kids were able to do this without my help. 

They repeated the process until they each had three ghosts.  Adding facial features is a nice touch!

 

 Just for fun, here is a photo of my family.  I think the beautiful young girl to the left (looks just like my mother as a child) is my sweet Grandma Audette.  I could be wrong.  What a great celebration this must have been.  The one thing I keep seeing in the photo is the ghostly image of a man floating above the window.  Angel? Click on the photo to get a closer look.  See him?  Boo!

♥♥♥Happy Friday!♥♥♥