Visit To The Grotto

Hey, Slow Down A Little!

Look at him gripping onto that chair!  Do you see what he is trying to do?



Yes, he has been pulling himself up onto everything for the last week or so.  And, he is even starting to cruise along holding onto things. 


 

He is not even 8 months old yet!   Mommy is in big trouble.



All Saints Day

On All Saints Day this past Monday, we did another craft!  I took a piece of poster board and cut it into five crowns, then I had the kids decorate their crowns with stickers and markers.  They were so excited and I kept hearing things like, "This is the best day I ever had!"  (Maybe I need to do more crafts.)



Here is St. Anthony.




St. Dominic, St. Joseph (not looking so saintly at the moment), St. Catherine, and St. Anne.  Or maybe I should call them all Saints In Progress.  :)



Trick Or Treat!

The kids were all ready to go trick-or-treating, when Mommy and Daddy made them pause for a picture.



Now you can see we have Joseph, the doggy; Dominic, the knight; Catherine, the princess; Anne, the clown; and there in front is Anthony, the fat little penguin.




Then it was time to hit a neighborhood in a nearby city.  Anthony rode in the wagon most of the time. 




When it comes to trotting up to houses and getting candy, there are no shy kids in this bunch.




After an hour of trick-or-treating, we returned home and it was time for a candy fest.  Woo-hoo!




Poor Anthony only got to chew on a candy wrapper.  Next year, little one!



If You Are Somewhat Lacking In The Arts And Crafts Department...

...then invite over your sister-in-law(who has more creativity in her little finger than you have altogether!) and her kids for a Halloween Party.



I supplied the gourds and the drop cloth and she brought all the rest: the paints, the brushes, the Halloween story game, the pumpkin game, the general crafty know-how.




The kids all loved it




They painted away.




Some even painted themselves.  Hence the shirtless 2 year old. :)




Then we had a party with yummy snacks and punch and a Halloween Story Game, where each child contributed to the story.  Then there was lots of playtime.  Followed by a pizza party (five of our students are enrolled in the Pizza Hut Book It program).  A great time was had by all.



Jack-O-Lanterns

When the knife doesn't do the job...

...it's time to get out the power drill!

Anthony kept busy crawling around the deck, getting into things, thus keeping Mommy busy.

Joseph wanted a scary face.

Catherine dug right in, scooping out all the innards.

The final four.

Daddy carved these last weekend

It Seems Rather Ridiculous...

...to be picking buckets of tomatoes at the end of October.

Pumpkin Patch, Part II

After some barrel train rides, the kids and I took a ride out to the pumpkin patch.

I told the kids they could pick whichever pumpkins they wanted, as long as they could carry them!

How about this one, Mommy?

Here's my little pumpkin, fast asleep even on the super bumpy hay rack ride.

The kids loved doing these duck races and played there for a long time.

Can you tell he likes to swing?

If you look close you can see a little tooth there on the bottom.  He's working on tooth number six these days.

Dominic gets ready to shoot down the rocket ship slide.

Joseph rides on one of the large trikes.

It is always interesting trying to take a picture of all the kids by myself, but here they are with the loot from the pumpkin patch.

Anthony was having a good time playing with gourds (and no, Joseph did not throw that pumpkin!).

Pumpkin Patch, Part I

One day last week, I took the kids to the pumpkin patch with our homeschool group.  Oh, we had a glorious time!  There were lots of neat things to play on, like this giant slide.






Hey, big brother, you look funny. 



Catherine took a turn on the zip line.





Catherine and her friend, Anna.




They had lots of fun on the enormous jumping pillow.




I somehow managed to capture all the kids at once in a picture.




The boys loved these neat diggers in the large sandbox.  Joseph would have stayed there all day, I think. 




Lunchtime!




Then they rode on the barrel train.




Over and over again.



Homeschool Science and Art In One

In our 5th and 6th weeks of school, we studied the human body and at the end I had each child in turn lay on the easel paper and I traced around their bodies.  Then they got to color and decorate them. 



As you can see the boys did not color theirs very much, but they sure had fun with them, and were excited to hang them up from the mantel.  Dominic drew in his face up on the top of the head, which looked really funny.  Anne liked coloring her hair and fingernails.




Catherine spent several hours one afternoon and drew in some of the organs and blood vessels.  The long sheets are no longer hanging up, but I can't bring myself to throw them away yet.  I'll have to do it secretly anyway.