Saint-O-Lanterns

In keeping with our family tradition, we carved "Saint"-O-Lanterns with the kids to take to our All Saints Party tomorrow night. This, however, was the first year that the boys were able to carve theirs by themselves!! (New categories for the contest prompted this.) I was actually really surprised at just how well they did. All I did to help them was to draw the lines on the pictures they drew to show them where to poke holes, and then helped them scrape the few areas that needed scraping!! There were a few times I needed to help them get their knives started as well... But they qualify for "mostly kid carved". Here are a few pictures... I'll let you know how they do!

The cleaning began -- last year they refused to do this... 

This year they had to, if they wanted to carve their pumpkin! ;-)

This is Rascal outlining his design.

 

The actual carving of the pumpkins, hubby joined in once again with another interesting design.

And here are the finished products:

Captain choose to carve the "Last Supper"

Rascal carved "The Birth of Christ"

I used Twinkle Toes pumpkin and carved a ship,
or rather "The Bark of Peter"
(A ship was a symbol of the early Church)

Hubby carved "Bernini's Colonnade" at St. Peter's in Rome

It was quite fun and actually quite a bit easier this year with the boys carving their own!
And I think they turned out pretty good, don't you?

Reminising

As every one works on Carving their pumpkins, I thought I would do a bit of reminiscing and post a few pictures from last year. Last years costumes were wonderful. They came from Grandma and the kids LOVED them! Chiquita was ESPECIALLY Darling, and won a prize for the best costume!

St. Nicholas, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Pius X

A couple of our pumpkins tied into the costumes and won prizes as well.

The carving of St. Pius X by hub took 1st!

 

Back view and view of one of the "stained glass" windows

My carving of "Our Lady of Guadalupe"

Later tonight I will try and post this years Saint-O-Lanterns!!

A trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Sunday, after Mass, we took the kids to the Pumpkin Patch.

The weather was absolutely beautiful!

Here is Daddy with Snuggles.

The boys, with a couple of their friends, going on a wagon ride.

The boys each got pony rides... We tried to get the girls to get on, but they refused. Chiquita did pet one of the ponies, but Twinkle Toes wouldn't go anywhere near them. However, when it was time to leave she said, "But I haven't ridden the pony yet!" So... Maybe next time.

ALL the kids loved climbing on the hay stack!

There was an area to feed some animals, a corn maze, a sunflower maze and many other things for the kids to do.

Then it was off to find our pumpkins!

The search began.

The deal is, they have to be able to carry their pumpkin...

Looks like Twinkle Toes found hers!

Over all we had a wonderful day!

A Basket of Books!

Today, after months of being closed, our Library opened back up!! So, after school, I loaded the car up with four of the kids and we headed to town to pick up some books. Chiquita was napping, so she stayed home with Daddy. She was VERY excited to see the new books that she woke up to. And dove right in..

Since we had just been to the pumpkin patch, we decided to check out some seasonal books including:

A Bear for All Seasons
Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf
Apples and Pumpkins
Poppleton in Fall
In November
Fletcher and the Falling Leaves
Scarecrow

We also got Autumn: An Alphabet Acrostic since the boys just learned about Acrostic poems. We have been thinking about making a state lapbook, so I thought we would start by reading B is for Beaver.

Now our library basket is full, and we can enjoy some new books during these cozy fall evenings!

A Saint and his Lion

Today, our Catholic Mosaic study lead us to read A Saint and His Lion: The Story of Telka of Ethiopia. The kids all loved the story, and were especially intrigued by the lion that St. Telka befriended.

After coloring their stained glass pictures, from the Catholic Mosaic Coloring companion-Fenestrae Fedei, of St. Telka and His Lion, the kids made these darling paper bag lions, or rather, "Anbassa" puppets from Martha Stewart's website.

Then they headed back outside, to rake leaves with daddy and enjoy more of this BEAUTIFUL fall weather we have been having, while I made dinner.

As we were finishing up the lion puppet I hear Twinkle Toes say to Chiquita,"I'm scared of lions cause they will bite me... their suppose to bite me, Right? But daddy will save me cause he has a gun." Poor thing!! Why would she even have to worry about lions!

The kids will paste their coloring pages into their Liturgical Notebooks on Monday and add a bit of copywork, but here is a picture anyways.

Colored by (from left to right) Captain, Rascal, Twinkle Toes and Chiquita

St. Telka of Ethiopia - Pray for us!

Update on Peanut

Well, maybe I should just call my little Peanut, Peanut Butter! Or PB as in Peanut Butter or Paul Bunyon! He had his 4 month check up today, and measured in at the 75 percentile for height!! Now, for those of you that do not know us, this is so ABNORMAL for a child of mine... Most of my children have been falling off the bottom of the charts, with Rascal holding the previous record by barely hitting the 50% mark for weight and only 25% for height.

Maybe its in the genes. I was just looking at this picture of my husband with his family. His siblings get taller as they get younger... (There's Hubby right between two of the Black Robes) I wonder how long it will take Peanut to pass up his siblings in height... Probably not very long at this rate!

More Lincoln Log Creations

Much to the excitement of the Captain & Rascal, we began our study of Jamestown.

We started with reading from Pocahontas, originally published in 1946.

Next the boys got to color a map of Virginia and label Jamestown. This was added to their History Notebooks.

Then, since this was our last subject of the day-- I save it for last, as motivation to get the other subjects done--I pulled out the main source of their excitement.

Our NEW Pohantan Indian Toob and Jamestown Settlers Toob!

We have many different toobs already... But when we were at Michaels a few months ago and I knew we would be studying Early American History this year, I just had to purchase them. The boys were with me and wanted to play with them right away... However, I told them they had to wait till we were studying Jamestown. They didn't forget :)

So during playtime, out came the Lincoln logs once again, and they started making an Indian camp. Here are a couple pictures of the project:

Hummmm...

Mom is wondering if anything can come of this mess!!
Well, look at that! Notice John Smith hanging out with Pocahontas?

And one last photo...


So there you go. More proof that learning can be fun!

Nick-Names

I have been wanting to come up with nick names for the kidlets since I started this blog. Unfortunately, with five, you just can't say "the boy" and "the girl". Plus, we don't feel comfortable using their names online... DS1, DS2, DD1, DD2 and Baby, just seem so cold.

This afternoon school is done, dinner is in the crock pot, dishes and laundry done and put away, the boys are building a Jamestown colony in their bedroom as the girls and baby nap, and I am sitting here with a nice cup of hot cocoa. So, after many suggestions, and much debate, this is what I have come up with:

This is Captain. He pretty much tries to make sure every one is carrying out their duties when mommy is not watching. He can be quite the drill sergeant at times. He is such a tremendous help to me. I love the discussions we have started having as he gets older. He fell asleep in the car the other night, and while I was carrying him in, I couldn't believe that my baby has gotten so BIG!

This is Rascal. Leave it to him to find some way to be mischievous or make you laugh! He is definitely the dare devil of the family, although Chiquita (*see below) is definitely challenging him for this title!

This is Twinkle Toes. She is our first girl, following the boys, and is our little Irish Princess. Daddy nicknamed her Twinkle Toes as a baby, and we just remembered this nickname recently. It fits her, doesn't it?

This is Chiquita. She is our Spanish Princess, as she seems to have gotten her looks from her Grandmother. Isn't she darling! Her uncles on daddy's side call her our little "wet back" and on my side our little "taco." Aren't they nice? However, I think Chiquita is more appropriate. She is our fourth, and is 1/4 Spanish and I've been told, "Well, You got one out of four!" I'm just a tad bit jealous of her tan skin, I don't tan for Anything!

This is Peanut. I am not quite sure why I'm using this. I just can't think of anything else right now, so this might change. He actually has been the biggest and fastest grower of the clan. And his doctor has even referred to him as the "Paul Bunyan" of the family. Anyways, he is my little Peanut just the same.

So there you have it... Our "little" clan! I'm sure this is not so little for some, but it is probably little in comparison to what God has in store for us!

I guess time will tell...

Fall Fun

The kids were having so much fun outside this afternoon I just had to grab my camera and snap a few pictures... Then... I put my camera back inside and joined in the fun! 

Here's a slide show of just some of the fun... Enjoy! 

 Slideshow no longer showing. Updated to remove. :(

Baby Milestones

Just about 20 minutes ago, he did it! The baby rolled completely over from back to tummy without getting caught up on his arms. He has been trying to roll over for a few weeks, but always gets stuck on his side from his arm. He, however, does NOT like being on his tummy, and started fussing immediately.

*Picture was taken this evening. Don't you just love his smile? I wish you could hear his laugh!

Completed Columbus Lap Book

Here are the photos I promised of one of the boys' Lap Books on Columbus. I was really happy with how it turned out, especially being their first one!

Front Cover:

Inside View:

Flap with Acrostic Poem folds up to show even more info:

These are the Land & Water Form Cards that we made to insert into the pockets on the left side of their Lap Books.

I didn't realize there were so many different names for land and water bodies! I was learning right alongside the kids!

Sean was impressed... He's been checking on me lately, by asking the boys what I taught them in school... Today they were able to show him :)

Update: You can find links to what we used here.

Lap Books

I have been wanting to try to make a lap book with the boys for quite some time. 

Today, since we were wrapping up our study of Columbus, the boys were to prepare a presentation for the family. I decided this would be a great opportunity to create a lap book. But how? I have seen tons of cool pictures of lap books on other blogs, but I was unsure how to start. Are there special folders that are needed? Needless to say, my search began... 

I found this awesome link (update: removed) that was very helpful in showing us how to create our lap book. ALL you need is some card stock and plain ol' file folders. Both of which I had lying around. Pretty colored folders would be nice, but the tan ones I had on hand worked just fine. 

Then as I was searching the net for some activities for the boys to include in their books, I dipped into my leftover home-schooling budget and purchased a subscription to Enchanted Learning. I am constantly running across this site and the pages I am usually wanting to print are for members only. Well... NOW I'm a member :) 

We started with a Color by Adding Numbers activity page of Columbus' three ships. They had to add the fact, and use the sum to find the correct color on the key. Math and art combined, I like that idea! 

Next they learned about Acrostic Poems. They each made their own Acrostic Poem for "Columbus" using this printout. I have a feeling we will be doing more of these in the near future since we all enjoyed creating them VERY much! 

From there the boys learned of the different types of land and water forms, making cards from and online glossary. We then moved on to a Geography Review based on Columbus' travels that was added to their lap books, along with envelopes of their land & water form cards.

We added a couple fun activities from Enchanted Learning to fill in the gaps and that was that! Their first lap books are completed! 

The boys had a blast, and I liked that I was able to combine: History, Handwriting, Poetry, Art, Geography, Science and Math all in one little lap book. 

Here were the kids responses when I asked, "Did you guys like making these?" 

"I liked learning about Columbus so MUCH!! It was so MUCH FUN!" DS1 

"When can we make another one (lap book), Mom?" DS2 

"I want to eat more cookies." DD1 

"I WANT COOKIES!!!" DD2 

"Who said ANYTHING about Cookies?!" Mom 

We are now turning the page to the next chapter of our history study... The founding of Jamestown! But right now... I think it might be time for some cookies! 

Stay tuned... I will try and post some pictures later tonight! (It is also time for me to come up with some nicknames for my little ones... DS1, DS2, etc... is getting annoying!)

The Lookout Tower

The other day, Grandma left a comment in regards to the Lincoln Log Village that her oldest grandson wanted her to see. In it she said, "I guess you can watch for forest fires from that lookout tower." Well... Daddy and the boys decided to build a real lookout tower. Here is the result:

The creativity never ends!

Oooohhh!! A Book Walk!!

I am so excited!! Cay is hosting a Book Walk tomorrow over at Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks. The book that will be given away is none other than "Christmas Mosaic!" I can't wait to participate. Christmas Mosaic is on my list of "books to buy" and will be released at the end of the month. The publisher describes it as follows:

This sequel to Catholic Mosaic features study guides for 30 Christmas-themed picture books. It includes a booklist of over 200 Christmas titles and 87 of them are annotated. We've also added recipes, craft ideas, essays by some of your favorite Catholic-mother authors, and a little Christmas poetry. A Christmas literature treasury!!

SO, if you have a spare moment tomorrow. Hop on over to Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks and send Cay an email. Maybe one of us will be the lucky one to win the book!!

Animals at the Zoo...

This is what DS2 drew yesterday, in an attempt to find "something to do."
Includes: 1 Lion, 1 Tiger, 1 Flamingo, 1 Turtle, 1 Monkey, and 7 Bees.