Happy Halloween!

Our first Halloween activity of the day was carving our jack-o-lantern.  Note the pumpkin "whoopie pies" cooling on the stove in the background.  They are just waiting to be sandwiched with their cream cheese filling.......yum.

With the white sleeves and all, we decided it would probably be best for Grant to take off his shirt so the sleeves didn't end up orange. He wasn't quite sure he liked the feel of what was inside the pumpkin. :)

Grant took these photos with my camera:

Once the pumpkin was carved, and the whoopie pies were finished, we made the 1 1/2 hour drive to Uncle Jeff and Crissy's house in Millstadt, Illinois for dinner and trick-or-treating. After an awesome dinner of salad, lasagna, and garlic cheese bread, we got the kids dressed in their costumes.

Johanna was ready to go.

Pretty Kitty

Is it time??

Julia was admiring Jeff's landscaping

Once we were done trick-or-treating, the kids were very excited to check out, and sample, their goodies.

Grant's first time eating pop rocks

They ate some of their candy there, then they got to choose 7 more to save, and the rest was left out for the sugar sprite in exchange for a little gift.  These are what she left for the kids:

Grant's

Johanna's

and Julia's is MIA.  It is a flower girl, and as soon as I find it, I will add the picture.  The kids have REALLY enjoyed playing with them.  Grant said he would like a lot more so he could have an army.  At $25 a pop, I doubt that will happen.  Sorry G! Uuh, I mean, that would take a long time for the little sugar sprite....

Oh yeah, and our finished jack-o-lantern (design by Grant):

Getting Ready for Halloween

On Monday, we had our walk, sang some seasonal songs and said some verses, did math review with bean bags and dice, and started a new penny whistle lesson.  We work on the same penny whistle lesson for two weeks before moving on to the next one.  Right now we are on lesson 4, and Grant will be learning how to play Old MacDonald.

After all of this I told Grant the story of Saint Barbara and Halloween which came from the Earthschooling second grade curriculum. 

After I told the story, we drew our pictures with block crayons.

Mom's Picture

Grant's Picture

We finished up the morning with some reading.

On Tuesday, man, it was windy!  We managed to get through our walk without getting blown away, and get into the school room to make some Halloween cookies.  While I was getting everything set up, I had Grant re-tell me the story of Saint Barbara.  Then it was cookie making time!

Obviously, the kids had a lot of fun doing this. 

I think the best part of the whole thing was the frosting. 
Can you see how excited Johanna was??

This whipped cream cheese frosting = DANGER.

1 (8 oz.) block cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

In a large bowl, combine the softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, salt and vanilla.  Mix until very smooth and light and no lumps remain.  In a separate bowl, beat the cream to stiff peaks.  Add the whipped cream to the cream cheese mixture.  Mix until well combined and smooth.  Store in the refrigerator for up to one week.

At least I felt a little, no more like a teeny-weeny bit, better eating it knowing that I did my Firm-Get Chisl'd workout this morning. 

Julia takes after her Grandma Cindy, and was only interested in eating the frosting. 

Here she is trying to lick it off without even picking up the cookie:

Here she is licking it off the knife she was supposed to be using to spread the frosting on her cookie:

Here she is finally picking up the cookie, only to lick the frosting off:

I guess eating Halloween cookies put Grant and Johanna in a "scary" mood.

Once we were done with the cookies, I read the kids this book:

The illustrations were awesome, and the kids really enjoyed it.

On Wednesday, we did the usual "warm-up" of circle time, songs, math review, and penny whistle lesson before moving on to the story for today.  I told Grant and Johanna How Witchamaroo Became the Pocket Witch from Suzanne Down's book, Autumn Tales. After I finished reading the story, we made our own Witchamaroos. I got the idea here.

Julia's favorite part was cutting.  She was very excited to be able to use scissors and not have them immediately taken from her hands.

Here are the finished Witchamaroos:

The little witches quickly set up house.



On Thursday, I read a sweet Halloween story from the Little Acorn Learning guide about a pumpkin and a little black cat.  After reading the story, Grant copied the verse from the chalkboard.

Once he was done with that, we made a Halloween craft.  We went  "generic" today and made these: 

On Friday,  I read this book:

Grant and Johanna really enjoyed it.  After I read the book, talked a little about pumpkins and then we drew the designs on our next set of quilt squares for our harvest quilt.

On Sunday, we will carve our pumpkin and then head over to Uncle Jeff and Crissy's house for dinner and trick-or-treating. I'll save that for another post.