November Photo Dump

This is home to all of the pictures that really don’t deserve a post of their own…

one of the boys captured Jensyn, busy at play in her bedroom


random parent pictures, taken by kids



This is the first time Max has shown any interest in writing anything besides his own name.  He REALLY wanted to write the word ‘apple’.  I wrote it in black.  His attempts are in green.


She dressed herself…in Max’s Mater t-shirt

hangin’ around

Max in action

Snowy Fun

cheesy grins



Peek A Boy!


hide and seek


our little sleepyhead, refusing to wake up in the morning.
She is NOT a morning person most days!



co-op toddler fun

Max putting away the toys (and himself!) at co-op


Alex’s science class at co-op
(He ducked and missed the picture)

Mommy folding the laundry

playing pirates in their bedrooom…I love their imaginations!
(Jensyn must have taken this picture from the top of the bunk beds,
as I see both Alex & Max in the picture…)

I see a whole lot of Alex in Jensyn’s face in this picture…

BOY DOWN!  (I have no idea what they were playing…)


If they’d just warn me that they were about to take a picture,
perhaps I could actually smile instead of looking like a goofball…


Oh – wait – he did warn me, and this is what I did…

Alex and ‘selfies’…sigh.  My camera is FULL of pictures of Alex lately!


We went out for lunch with friends after church last Sunday.  The kids asked for pictures by this tree, but it was cold & wet & windy…and they wouldn’t pose.  So this is what they got.  It could have been cute if they would have cooperated!

   

Alex was afraid Jensyn would rip up the catalog, so he took pictures of the toys he wants for Christmas. 

Here is Max’s favorite toy in the catalog:

The End

Turkey & Pumpkin Tot School Fun

If you read my previous post, you know that we now have a half dozen or more kids in the house on Wednesdays!  It’s fun, noisy, messy, and crazy! 

Without a little planning, it could get far too chaotic for me to handle.  So…we’re getting back into the routine of themed tot school days!

This week, we did a Thanksgiving themed day.   We started out our day by making “Harvest Muffins”, which is a recipe from an old friend of mine.  Each child got to take turns measuring and pouring in the ingredients, and each child took a turn to stir as well.

Harvest Muffins 1 3/4 C flour 1/2 C brown sugar 1/2 white sugar 1/2 tsp ginger 1 tsp cinnamon 1/8 tsp cloves 1 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 2 large eggs 1 cup canned pumpkin 1 stick butter, melted 1 bag butterscotch chips (I also like to add a handful of mini chocolate chips!) Mix dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Mix wet ingredients in another mixing bowl.  Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients.  Stir in chips.  Bake large muffins at 350 for 20 minutes; bake mini muffins at 350 for 12 minutes.  Enjoy!

That was our only morning activity, as the kids were playing nicely and I hated to pull them from their fun!

After lunch, we made stained glass turkeys before the littlest ones took their naps.  Money Saving Mom linked to this project last week, and I instantly knew we needed to try this at home!

This was a really easy project, fun enough for the 5 – 7 yr olds, yet easy enough for the toddlers!  I cut out the ‘turkey frames’, contact paper, and tissue squares the night before so it would be easy and ready-to-go.

Max took this project VERY seriously, and he filled in EVERY LITTLE SPOT in the whole turkey.  Jensyn was more random with her tissue paper placement. 

(Again, I haven’t asked permission to post pictures of the little ones we’re watching, so I didn’t snap any pictures of them this time.)

(My boys are dressed up as Jake and Cubby, from Jake & The Neverland Pirates…it has nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but it makes them happy, hee hee!)



It’s so pretty when the sun shines through these turkeys. 
(Photos of turkeys on the window courtesy of Alex’s photography! )


(The templates for these turkeys are available to print from HappyClippings.com)

We also used Thanksgiving printables from my own Thanksgiving Pack and from Gift of Curiosity.  We had do-a-dot pages, mazes, patterning pages, letter hunts, and basic addition/subtraction pages to meet the needs of all different ages!

This day was a little ‘simpler’ than last week, but that was intentional.  It also had to make an extra batch of muffins and a big pot of soup, so I needed a little less ‘super involved mommy’ time on this day.  Now I have to come up with something fun for next week!   Wish me luck!