All The Halloween Things

I can't believe that managed to get pumpkins carved this year. It always feels like a struggle to do all the steps, and because we don't live somewhere cold, we have a narrow window to carve them if we want them to not be a melted puddle of slimy mold. 

But this year, the stars aligned and we had a free hour the day before, so the kids got to work.

This little guy even did some of the cleaning out. This is actually a big part of why we don't always get around to the pumpkin carving--not my favorite step (and the back of my hands actually break out in an itchy rash, so I have a real reason to not love it.)

Then, we had Halloween science day! I was pretty excited that I was able to incorporate pumpkins into our experiments.

It was all about simple machines. . . and pumpkins.

(We have had such fabulous weather, too! Perfect for doing things outside.)

And finally, the main event! This year, we had a Bilbo Baggins, Ron Weasley, and Katniss Everdeen.  

We met up with a bunch of friends for trick-or-treating.

Ron and Harry :)

Mermaids in Battle

I love the t-shirts that say "Water Polo Players are Mermaids in Battle". That pretty much sums up these girls--part fish, part beast!

Bean is just finishing up her second year of playing and it's been a huge growing year for her. She was chosen as team captain for the JV team, and really stepped up to the fill the role.

Last year was all about figuring out what was going on in the game, and how to handle a ball while swimming. This year, she came in so much more confident and spent some time watching videos to help clear up some of the more confusing rules, as well as trying to learn strategies and skills.

And then she has done her best to help out the other girls who are new this year. She's coached them and encouraged them, challenged them to give the game all they have.

Their team hasn't won many games, but this girl never stops fighting. She's scored goals in most of the games, and probably has the most assists on the team. She's had some amazing defensive moves, too--beautiful steals and blocks.

She's been the sprinter for most of the season. I'm not sure that there aren't a couple other girls who are faster than she is, but she's the one who gives it her all every time. Her dedication to the sport, and her team, have definitely been noticed by her coach--she's played the whole game almost every time, even when she might like a break now and then.

My favorite moment to watch was during one of the only games they won. By half time, they were up by several points and it was clear that they were going to win. Bean had scored 3 goals already, and it was obvious she was having a great time out there. But at half time, she suggested that they try to pass the ball around more so they could help the newer girls who had never scored a goal have a chance. And then she got out there and made it happen. She called for the girls to get into position and she fed them the ball, over and over, until almost all the girls on the team scored a goal that day. There were times that she could have just taken the shot herself, but she showed what it means to be a team player in every way that day.

This girl just has so much fun doing what she loves. It's a beautiful thing to see someone be fully invested in the playing of a sport, but not put everything into the outcome. She's pretty happy after every game, whether they win or lose. She sees the good things they did, choses to encourage rather than get discouraged, and really makes it a fun extracurricular, instead of one more thing to get stressed about. I could learn a lot from her (and wish that my teenage self had gotten to see her example.)

And their team has really focused on the team building aspect of the game. They've had pasta feeds almost every week, polo pals with secret little gifts, and they have gotten together a couple different times for activities outside of practice. They're all such a great group of girls!

(Last two pictures from their scrimmage against the boys' team. It was so awesome to watch these girls be just as aggressive against the boys as they are against anyone else--and while they didn't win, they did hold their own pretty well!)

What a Week!

Even if the temperatures have been in the high 80s this past week, it's impossible to deny that fall has arrived. The colors have been absolutely gorgeous in one of the neighborhoods where I walk dogs.

While the colors have been fabulous, and the weather perfect for long days outside, we've actually spent a big chunk of the week at home because of illness. Peanut and I both came down with some sort of stomach bug last weekend, and while the worst of it was over within 36 hours, it just lingered all week. I could tell Peanut wasn't quite well, despite his denial that anything was wrong, because his crankiness stayed at the sick level for several days. And as for me, I just couldn't shake the queasiness and stomach upset. The couple days I tried, and thought I could just push through at full speed, I ended up getting sick again that evening/next morning.

It really derailed all our plans for this week. I had decided we were going to try a 6-8 weeks on/1+ weeks off schedule this year so I could have built-in planning time, as well as a week to catch up on household, family, and personal chores that are hard to squeeze into our busy schedule. I suppose it was better to miss out on the "break" than a week of school, but I'm now left trying to cram as many of the "To Dos" into the next few weeks as I can. Some can wait, or just not happen (the linen closet mess will still be there whenever I get to it), but some things have to happen now (our weather isn't going to stay hot forever and I've got a couple boys who have outgrown all their pants.)

So what did we do all week?

The boys fully immersed themselves in Harry Potter. Bug spent hours rereading the 4th book, while Peanut started listening to the audio version of the 1st book (he's my only kid who's willing to listen to the awesomeness that is Jim Dale reading these--the other two insist that it will ruin the voices as they hear them in their heads. I'm glad that I will have years with Peanut that we can listen to these books on repeat.)

Over the course of a couple days, they watched the first two movies, and then built Hogwarts out of blocks. And Peanut has run into my room about 117 times exclaiming, "Remember when Harry did [insert a 30 second description of some event from the 1st two books]? Wasn't that awesome?!" To say he's obsessed would be an understatement. He told Daddy-o at bedtime the other night, "It's all I can think about." That's pretty much the truth. He's determined that when his 11th birthday comes around, he will be getting a letter and leaving us for Hogwarts (and he's not even a little bit sad at the thought--the adventure is calling his name in a big way!)

As much as I would have benefited from staying in bed all week, we did have a few things that I didn't have a choice about. Because no one was actively sick by Tuesday, we still carried on with art classes, piano lesson, swim lesson, and park day.

Tuesday was a busy day for Bug, and I could tell he was feeling wiped out by the end of it (and that was my first relapse--pushed myself to do too much that day.)

Thursday was science classes, all day. Luckily, I felt better that morning than I had all week. Didn't feel so hot the next morning, but I made it through the classes.

 I had some dog walks scheduled, and I kept thinking I was well enough to handle this, so I went ahead and did them all. By Friday, the time outside was welcomed by the boys.

We also had a meeting with our Education Specialist from the charter school, so that meant a trip to the library (and new reading material which we all needed by then!)

And then, Friday evening was Bug's birthday party. Luckily, it was not a planning-intensive party, or there is no way I could have pulled it off with the week we had. But a quick trip to Costco for the pumpkin pie and a few items for dinner, and a quick pick up at home, and we were good to go. The kids played Life while I fixed dinner, and then we ate quickly and headed out

to the corn maze! We haven't really done a lot of fall-themed parties for this boy, and I'm not sure why because this was such a fun, easy party. Kind of the pool party equivalent for summer birthdays. Just add food and you've got a party.

The teen/tween crowd all ditched us, and apparently had a fabulous time scaring each other, and other people as they ran through the maze over and over. Daddy-o and I stuck with Peanut and his friend who came along.

I couldn't get any non-blurry pictures, but these two had a lot of fun in the maze, figuring out where we were on the map, and answering the clues to get hints which way to go.

Back at the house, we finished the night with pumpkin pie.

It was a fun way to end a week that was dragging on. I had another bad morning after our busy day Friday. As much as I wanted to get things done to make up for the lack of productivity this week, I've listened to my body and decided Saturday and Sunday were both going to be rest days. I'm hoping that this will be the healing that my body needed and I'll be ready to hit the ground running tomorrow. We've got too many things to do to spend another week lying around.

Get Outside

That's been my motto lately. You would think since we homeschool, it would be easy to just take everything outside, but our days get busy, running from lesson to activity, and even when we're home, the effort to move a lesson to the backyard feels unsurmountable at times and we end up on the couch once again--cozy, but not fulfilling our needs for nature.

But this fall, we've spent a fair amount of time hiking and walking dogs, and just being outside.

We've spent two different mornings at Sycamore Grove Regional Park--the first, for an early morning read aloud by the stream before collecting leaves I needed for science class later that day.

And the second--to fulfill a Cub Scout Trail Trekker requirement by doing a 5 mile hike there in the park. 

We got lucky that morning and saw 5 deer, including 2 bucks, woodpeckers, a red-tailed hawk, squirrels and ground squirrels, 

along with lots of insects and other birds.

We made a full morning of it--read aloud by the creek again,

stopped for some exploring,

did some nature journaling.

It was a beautiful morning and felt like just the right balance of hard work, peaceful rest, and play.

These moments are a big part of why we homeschool--just having the space to do things a little differently. We can learn things that don't make it onto the standards lists for public school, and we can learn things in different ways than we could with a class of 30 kids. We can follow the rhythms of the seasons, and the rhythms in our family, to take advantage of perfect weather and beautiful surroundings.

Singin' in the Rain

It's not every day that you get to flashback to the 1920s to celebrate a friend's birthday, so we had to go all out.

These kids loved getting dressed up for the big night. And the props they had for photo ops were amazing. The birthday girl's dad did an amazing job building everything.

Good thing they had a photo from the movie by this lamp post so these kids knew how to pose, hahaha. I think we should watch the movie now.

Maybe we missed our decade. The 20s are pretty cool.

The birthday girl :)