Dummies on Sunday

Sundays are sometimes considered the "boring day" by the kids.  They are limited to "Sunday activities" which does not include TV, Wii, computer games, riding bikes, etc.  One Sunday the kids entertained themselves by making dummies.

They used toy guns, skeleton hands, pool noodles, pillows, blankets, extra clothes, and anything else they could find.  By dinner time there was a whole extra family of unusual looking people hanging out upstairs.

Witte Museum Field Trip

Julia's Kindergarten class had a field trip to the Witte Museum on November 17, 2011.  Since it landed on a Thursday and Blake was at Mother's Day Out, I was able to go and chaperone.  The lower grades tend to have more parent involvement so there was a 1 parent to 2 students ratio.  It was very different from when I went to chaperone Brayden's 3rd grade class at Sea World and it was only me and the teacher with the whole class of students.  

Julia's Kindergarten class with Mrs. Lehr.

The Witte Museum had a special Shipwreck and pirate exhibition that allowed Julia to practice her pirating skills with some friends.

There was a hurricane simulation with winds up to 70 mph.  It was one of her favorite things and probably went in there 10-15 times.  Julia enjoyed being dramatic every time she went in. 

After the museum the class ate lunch and then went to the nearby Brackenridge park to play.  It was a lot of fun and I was happy I could go along and spend the day with Julia. 

If you dare wear short shorts

Brayden is not always attentive.  He had no idea that he had been wearing his 3 year-old brother's shorts until it was brought to his attention.

Halloween

Matt and I like to choose a family theme for Halloween.  Sometimes it is a little bit hard getting all the children to cooperate.  Kylee wanted to be a vampiress and Blake wanted to be a ghost, so we thought it would be a good year to do a "classic Halloween" theme.  

October 28, 2011 - ward Halloween trunk or treat

Matt decided to be Frankenstein, which left me to be the bride of Frankenstein.  We are really good at procrastinating and working on our costumes last minute.  The last Saturday before Halloween (the night of trunk or treat) we went to Goodwill to look for clothes for Frankenstein and we even braved Party City to look for Bride of Frankenstein clothes.  We were putting our costumes together on the afternoon of the ward trunk or treat party.  Kylee even started sewing a new costume just hours before we had to leave.  

  

Ghost

Witch

Luke Skywaker

vampiress

Enjoying all the yummy treats

injas

Brayden saw a friend from school playing with these little plastic ninja figures.  He found out that they were from a 50 cent vending machine at the local HEB grocery store, so he started wanting to go grocery shopping whenever we went.  As he started to collect different colors and symbols the other kids also got involved.  However, they didn't get to go as often as they would have liked because they can make grocery shopping difficult, and the vending machine ended up selling out.  They were pretty excited when we went to Florida and found them in the local Walmart vending machine.  Blake calls them "injas" and has taken over the collection as the other kids have burned out.

kylee costume

This year Kylee and Brayden's Piano recital was a few weeks before Halloween so their teacher said they could dress up for their recital.  Brayden's costume was easy because we found stuff at Goodwill to alter for a Luke Skywalker costume.  Kylee had visions of creating a Vampire costume and had even made a sketch.  Not thinking that she was really going to do it, we didn't ge the material until the night before the piano recital.  I had my doubts that it could be done, but Matt was good about just letting her try.  She started sewing at 10 p.m. and finished at 12:30.  I went to bed at 12 and was sure that she wasn't going to finish it.   Amazingly she did not use a pattern and just looked at the material, roughly measured and then cut and sewed. I thought for sure she wouldn't finish in time, and when she did I thought for sure she wouldn't fit in it when she was done. She tried it on and fit in it, even though there was no zipper.

Then again a few weeks later for the church halloween party she made a whole new costume in a couple of hours.  We are not sure where she gets her talent, but Kylee frequently amazes us.

October Activities

October 1- Grandpa Caldwell and Nana came to visit San Antonio.  We visited them at the RV park where they stayed and the kids did some exploring.  The "time-out pen" in the little dog park seemed like a pretty handy feature.

October 8 - We went to Sea World to do some of their "Howl-O-Scream" Halloween activities.  Knowing that Brayden gets scared walking into Party City during the month of October, we thought we should do the family friendly before dark haunted house.  It still made Brayden scream and jump even though he could see what was around him.  We also went in this cool optical illusion maze that was fun for all ages.  It was a fun way to celebrate Halloween.

October 11 - I celebrated my birthday by taking a special treat to my children during their lunch time.    Matt made me a Cricut machine for my cake

October 13 - I took Blake and Julia to the kindergarten family night at Bob Lewis Elementary.  They had fun with the Halloween themed crafts and games.

October 15 - Brayden and Kylee participated in an early piano recital because their teacher was due to have a baby later in the month and would be taking some time off.  They were excited about the  Halloween theme and the chance to wear costumes, but more excited about the two month break from piano lessons.  Brayden chose to be Luke Skywalker because one of his pieces was the Star Wars theme song and Kylee chose to be a vampire just because.  They did a great job.