Pumpking Carving

Boy's Pumpkin:

He picked the smallest pumpkin he could find at the pumpkin patch.

Every year we draw a picture of what we want our pumpkin to look like. Boy kept telling us he wanted his to have sunglasses. So Princess Sparkley got out the crayons and paper and the next thing we knew, he'd drawn a picture of a pumpkin wearing sunglasses. He's turning into a little artist.

The finished pumpkin.

Boy with the finished project... a small, slightly squishy pumpkin wearing something that sort of resembles sunglasses. (I did a lot of the carving this year and B scooped them all out, so the artwork is not stellar.)

Princess Sparkley's Pumpkin:



Here is Princess Sparkley's drawing and her finished pumpkin.


We tried carving eye lashes last year... it didn't turn out great. So this year Princess Sparkley drew them on with a permanent marker. This is all her own design.

Daddy's Pumpkin:


Daddy's drawing and finished pumpkin.


Mommy's Pumpkin:

Mine is just supposed to be eyes or a mask.


Boy took this picture.

Baby X's Pumpkin:

The kids insisted on a pumpkin for the baby this year. So Daddy carved "Baby X" on it.




The whole Pumpkin family:

All lit up.

Halloween Costumes

Here we are at the ward's Trunk-or-Treat. I was supposed to be a ladybug (Princess Sparkley insisted we all have costumes), but I ran out of time yesterday to cut out black dots to tape to a red shirt... so I wore butterfly wings and antenna. B is wearing Boy's baby costume, a fish, on his head.

As you can see in the one picture, someone actually drove a hearse to the trunk-or-treat and handed out candy from the back.

Red Sox dance

Boy has his very own cheer dance he does for the Red Sox each morning when I tell him they've won the night before's game. Here it is.

not in complete uniform, for the first time in days.

i talked him into putting the uniform on.

sleepiest Red Sox fan

Boy has been a huge Red Sox fan this week. He calls them the Bostons. He's worn his Halloween costume from last year just about every day (except when I finally talked him into letting me wash it). He's slept in it, over top of his PJs every night. And when he wore it to the store the other night with B he made B wear his Red Sox shirt from the 2004 World Series... when they got out of the car he asked B why he didn't have Red Sox pants.


So when the Red Sox won the World Series tonight, Boy was fast asleep in bed. Poor kid. He's missed the end of all the games because they've been too late but each morning asks who won. At least they've been winning each night when he's gone to sleep, and each morning we've been able to tell him that they won. Which results in both kids cheering "Yea, Red Sox!" Followed by a wiggle dance by Boy.

Music Class Halloween Carnival

Here they are at our music class carnival.
Notice Princess Sparkley's many poses.

Boy's Joy School Halloween Party

Here's Boy's Joy School group performing their Halloween songs.

A fairy. A UPS man. Captain Hook. A Ballerina. a random younger sister.

Boy's Costume

I came across a UPS man costume I could buy, but figured I could easily put together a brown shirt, brown pants and a little UPS badge. And he was very excited because he gets to carry a package to deliver.

On the left is his drawing of his Halloween costume that he did while Princess Sparkley was drawing her Halloween costume. He was very adamant that he needed a brown crayon and kept refusing the ones that Princess Sparkley offered him because he needed dark brown. The thing on the left in his hand is a package. Super impressive. All of a sudden he can draw. Before he just drew lines all over.

Princess Sparkley's Costume

Princess Sparkley decided forever ago she wanted to be a candy corn this Halloween. Maybe even before last Halloween. It's her favorite candy she claims. So we found a pattern on ebay and put in a request to Grandma M for a homemade candy corn costume. Here she is next to the drawing she did of herself in her Halloween costume tonight. (She's upset because she forgot to draw arms, but I'd already scanned it in.) Notice that she's posed. She poses for all pictures now.

Red Sox fans

This is our antenna set-up in order to get Fox to watch the World Series. Notice that it's around the corner from our tv, on the floor.

Here is Boy, dressed like a Boston player with his uniform over his PJs. He's posed ready to bat. He calls them the "Bostons."

See the growth.

2005 2006 2007

Pumpkin Patch in years past

This is the Pumpkin Patch our first Autumn in Kansas... 2005. Princess Sparkley getting measured, Boy wandering around in bottom right corner.

2005... picking their pumpkins. Princess Sparkley has just turned three. Boy is about 1 1/2.

2005 again... Boy and Princess Sparkley up in the playground. (Almost the same shot I got this year).

Our 2nd Autumn in Kansas... 2006. I got Boy to stand still this year for the growth chart.

Here they are out in the patch last year picking their pumpkins.



Two years ago they look way young to me. Last year, they look about the same as now.

Princess Sparkley's writing

This is a list Princess Sparkley made the other day sounding out all the words on her own. I assume it's probably my Halloween treat shopping list. :)

This is what it says:
Smarties
Candy Corn
Chocolate
Laffy Taffy
Chocolate Bar
Pecan Pie
Birthday Cake

This is her pretend Halloween Party invitation. The witch is on one side, the invite is on the back. It says: To Emma B. Halloween Party. Whatever time is available.

She also made a sign the other day that said "GOWA[boy]" translated to: "Go away [Boy] and tried to convince me it wasn't mean because he can't read.

the Pumpkin Patch

This is our third year at Schaake's Pumpkin Patch for a music class field trip. I'm going to have to turn on our desktop computer and see if the pictures from the last two years are there so I can post them and we can all see how much the kids have grown.





Princess Sparkley is all about the pose lately. She doesn't just smile (which I guess it's good that she's finally outgrown the big CHEESEY smile phase.), she poses. (ie: see a post from the St. Louis zoo a few days back where she's with the gorilla statue.)

Sounding things out

I wrote a post a little bit back about how much more fun Princess Sparkley's phonics class is now that she's learning sight words and putting all the sounds she knows together to read and write. She brought me this last week. This is pretty much the first time she's tried to sound out words to write. It's supposed to say "Welcome Home" and be for our baby.


She also made Halloween Party invitations today spelling Megan - Magn, Alice - Als, Brandon - Bwthe. On the inside she wrote "PRD AT [PRINCESS SPARKLEY] THE [BOY]S HAWS." Pretty smart. :) She told me she meant to write "and" but accidentally wrote "the" instead. They are both her sight words this week.

Princess Sparkley's artwork

Princess Sparkley loves to draw. LOVES TO DRAW. As in, entire forests are being cut down to keep her paper supply up.

Since we got our laptop earlier this year, it isn't regularly hooked up to a printer/scanner and I have slacked at posting her artwork. Here's to make up for that slack.
For her birthday I got her this book. I can draw people - an Usborne Playtime Series book. Here is her picture of someone riding a horse. Pretty good, huh?

She found a stack of paper in our craft box the other day and went crazy. She seriously drew about 20 princesses, all variations of these two.

For Princess Sparkley's art class through the virtual school, she has been learning about portraits and self-portraits. She's also learned to draw more realistic looking people (ie: football shaped eyes, rather than circles. Oval heads, rather than circles. Lips with two curves on top and a line in the middle rather than just a line. Etc.) This is one of her self-portraits.