Pumpkin Patch

Pretty Pumkins

Today, we visited one of the many local pumpkin patches. This was my first time at this particular place, and I was pleasantly surprised. It boasted a huge hay stack, complete with four separate slides, climbing wall, and a corn pit (full of dried corn kernels) for the kids to jump into. More hay bales surrounded a long zip line for the older kids and a shorter one for the younger group. A small hay bale maze sat next to another corn pit with a small climbing toy for toddlers. Behind the shorter zip line lay a corn maze for those brave enough to enter. The facilities also included a set of old fashioned pumps set up in front of half-pipes, down which plastic ducks would race with the water. Behind those pumps sat an area for a variety of farm animals, including turkeys, goats, sheep, ponies, ducks, chickens, pheasants, pigs, and more.

All of my children enjoyed the various activities, and I had to gather them together like a mother bird gathers her brood when it was time to pick out our pumpkins and head home. Perhaps we will be able to go again sometime this fall before the weather turns cold.

AJ taking the leap

K jumping with style

A black pheasant

Someone was done sitting on K's lap

A proudly showing me her pumpkin

A Busy and Surreal Day

My hubby took the two older boys to a ranch for the weekend. That left me home with my daughters and toddler. I was not planning on doing anything special or unusual. In fact, housework was really the only item on my to-do list. Despite that fact, today provided some rather unexpected events.

I decided to go to the library this morning to return some books and videos and pick up a couple of books I had on hold. While there, I noticed people setting up for an event. After some investigation, I discovered that our library would be hosting a Culture Fest, with tables from various countries around the world. They were just setting up at that time, and I was not going to hang out for an hour with a baby and toddler. I chose to go home instead. I did, however, return after picking up K from ballet. We visited the various tables to try the delicious food of the various countries. Some of the countries represented included Russia (I tried borsch), Peru (I tried some pudding-like dessert and chicken in a sauce over potatoes), Ecuador (They were serving hominy and pork, but they ran out of the pork. The hominy had good flavor, though.), Nepal (They were serving a coleslaw-type salad), Egypt, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Mexico (I tasted their chicken with molé). I told K that we should host a Sweden table next year.

After visiting the tables, we watched a short program with Mexican dancers, it was fun to see them swirling their skirts around, and S seemed to enjoy the music. He sat through the three or four dances without any issues. Little A watched intently as well.

On the way home, we stopped at a craft fair that a church was hosting. We perused the stalls, and K picked out a Broncos apron for Christmas. S chose a wooden helicopter that I am hoping will withstand the abuse of a two-year-old.

We finally arrived home for an early dinner. Then I was able to finish some housework before bedtime. While nursing A, I sat down to watch House Hunters International, and lo and behold, there was one of my teachers from high school. I thought she looked familiar, and I finally placed her. When I heard her last name, it confirmed my strong suspicion that I knew this lady, even after 20 years. It was so bizarre.

After a full day, I am ready for bed. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Homemade Xylophone

K was required to build an instrument for her Prims group. She thought of making a simple drum out of paper and cardboard, but I encouraged her to step it up a notch. That is when she suggested a xylophone.

I looked online and found some simple instructions using readily available materials. Timo bought the pipe and wood at a local home improvement store, and I found the foam at Hobby Lobby.

Grant it, K had some help on this project. I did not expect her to be able to cut the pipe. She did help cut the foam and assemble the whole instrument, though.

K sawing some hard foam. We ended up using something else, but this was good experience in measuring and cutting.

K playing her new instrument

Top view of the xylophone

I am happy with the way the xylophone turned out. Not only do we have an instrument that she can actually keep and play, but I hope K learned that if it is worth doing, it is worth doing well.

Easter Eggs

We took yesterday off from school. I wanted to focus a little on Easter and share in some Easter-related activities with my kiddos. I boiled 31 eggs in the morning, and we dyed all but the four that cracked during the boiling process or due to mishandling by a certain two-year-old. This provided my kids with nine eggs each to dye.

K dissolved the tablets in vinegar, and we added water. Then the kids gathered around the table to add color to the egg-shell palates. They worked well together, and they seemed to really enjoy the process.

One of the best parts of the process was that they wanted to eat some of the eggs when they were done. This gives me hope that we won't have a fridge full of hard-boiled eggs that no one will eat. We are down to 19 eggs, and we haven't even held a hunt, yet.  

Jellybean Jars

I saw this link online about a Lent activity for kids using jelly beans and jars. Each color represents something different, and they have an opportunity to earn one of each color each day. White represents the grace of God, and it cannot be earned. On Easter they will find the remainder of their jars filled with white jelly beans.

I thought this would be a great activity to do with my kids over the next few weeks, so yesterday, I bought a couple of bags of jellybeans and some small canning jars. We sorted the jellybeans by color, and the kids were very curious as to how they could earn jellybeans for their own jars. Today, they went out of their way to model the appropriate behavior for each color, earning jellybeans for forgiveness, kindness, sacrifice, and more.

Although we started this craft a tad late in the season, I am looking forward to the discussions and behavior this activity will inspire.

Ice Cream: Shaken, Not Stirred

Last weekend, I bought the ingredients to make homemade ice cream in a bag. I thought it would be a fun little activity to do with the kids, and they approached it with much anticipation. We started off happy and excited, but as the bags were shaken and shaken (and still not done), the excitement waned rather quickly. Timo ended up shaking most of the bags, and we used kitchen towels to keep our hands from freezing.



"I don't want to do this any more!"



Trying hard to smile for the camera



H was perfectly happy since this was about as close to shaking as he got.



Once the kids were done with theirs, I made mine with the ice/salt mixture from one of the kid's bags, and it worked much more quickly. This was due to the fact that there was much more liquid present in the bag than when we started with the kids' ice cream.

Overall, we were happy with the results, and the kids claimed it was the best ice cream they had ever had. They chose chocolate (we used Ovaltine) with vanilla extract. I chose chocolate with almond extract, and I was extremely pleased. I would do it again, but I think I would let the ice and salt melt together a little bit before shaking.

Something to smile about

 

Tasting the final product



That's one happy boy

My sweet AJ enjoying his ice cream