Pumpkin Creations

Dh is the king of pumpkin carving around here. I am always amazed at his creativity when it comes to things like this, and this year was no exception.

Each child chooses the design for their pumpkin (picked fresh from the patch), and somehow, daddy makes the design happen...

First up, is Abby's "dog"

This is Ryan's choice, I don't think it had a name, just a design that he chose...

And finally, this is Caleb's little pumpkin with hair (see the holes on top...)

Reading with the kids

I really need to update my "Reading with the kids" widget on my sidebar. We finished Charlotte's Web eons ago. Following our Sonlight Read Aloud Schedule, we've also completed Homer Price and Mountain Born. This week we've started reading The Year of Miss Agnes.

One of the reasons I am loving our Sonlight curriculum is that is has introduced us to some great read-alouds, ones that I would probably never have considered reading (and never read myself, until now).

Crystal Grottoes Caverns Field Trip

Last week we took a tour of a nearby cavern with our homeschool co-op. I figured this field trip was too good to pass up - I knew my kids would have a blast exploring a cave...and I was right!

This is a crystal formation on the rocks inside the cave...

The tour guide told us the names of all of the different rock formations, but between trying to grab a few pictures and making sure that none of my kiddos got lost in the cave - I wasn't able to pay as much attention as I would have liked :)

We exited the cave from a mine-shaft type door, into the bright sunshine. It was indeed a beautiful day for a field trip...



Afterwards we headed to a beautiful park that was just a few minutes from the caverns - the kids ran and played, we enjoyed a picnic lunch, and then hiked a short distance to an overlook.

Pumpkin Patch Fun

We were finally able to make our annual trek to the pumpkin patch. I wasn't sure that we'd be able to make it this year, with all of the rainy weekends we've been having...

This year's seashore books

On our first family vacation at the beach I started a tradition; instead of picking up a cheap souvenir to commemorate our trip, I picked a book to help us remember our time at the beach. At the time we had one 18-month old child and I was pregnant with baby #2. Our then 18-month old discovered the joy of collecting seashells - so I chose this book.

At every trip to the shore since then, I have added another seashore book to our collection. Our collection has grown to include these favorite books:

The Seashore Book

The Burgess Seashore Book for Children and Pagoo

This year I had a hard time choosing just one book to take home, so I had to settle for two :)

Underwater Counting is a book that combines counting by twos and fun facts about fish - a great book for my k'er and 2nd grader

and Over in the Ocean in a Coral Reef which I knew my almost 3-year old would love.

On the way home

One last picture of our pathway to the ocean.One final family picture before leaving the beach.But the fun wasn't over yet.

Digger's Dungeon (home of the famous monster truck Grave Digger) is on the road that we travel home on - and we have made a tradition of stopping to grab some pictures ~ the boys (dad included) especially enjoy this tradition.

After a quick stopover, we continued our trek home.

At the Beach - Days Five and Six

Our trip to the beach ended on a rainy note. Days five and six were cloudy and rainy ~ so most of our time was spent indoors. But, that doesn't mean we didn't have fun...

We played with cars,

worked on crafts (thanks to Daddy's shopping trip),

and did puzzles together...

We did venture out a few times - and braved the windy, rainy conditions.

The hot chocolate that we purchased at the end of this morning out warmed us up quite quickly.