HAPPY HALLOWEEN

October

We made plans with Karen and Keilee to watch scary movies and eat too much. (Seems like a bad combination when I see it written like that:) Cody had an appointment in Birmingham on the 15th. On our way home, we stopped at Cry Baby Hollow to check it out.

Bobby and Cody looking underneath the bridge

The next night, Karen and Keilee came over. We had so much fun! We made spaghetti, garlic bread and salad. Keilee made a delicious strawberry cake. We successfully ate too much.

After we ate, we watched Poltergeist. The kids loved it! It's actually the first time I've seen all of it. Poltergeist II and III are on their way from Netflix. Then we all drove out to Cry Baby Hollow.

It was the perfect night; extremely dark, cool, rainy...CREEPY!

Karen, Keilee, and Britney

We left candy for the baby

When we stopped on the bridge, Bobby put the van in neutral, and it rolled...several times...forward and backward, which was scarier then rolling forward I might add. The weirdest thing about us rolling is that it didn't happen the day before. We tried when we stopped after Cody's appointment. WEIRD!


The kids made a tin can walkie talkie. The talkie part didn't work so well, so they experimented with the string and cans. They turned it into a pulley system so they could transport items for the kitchen to the hallway. My clever kids.

They also wrote their letters to Santa and got them mailed off.

Our 10th anniversary was on the 26th! Wow...10 years! We had made plans with mom for her to watch the kids so we could go camping. Then the camping idea turned into going to Tunica. The weather didn't look so nice this past weekend. It was definitely the better choice:)
Bobby's sister, Elisa, watched the kids for us on Thursday so we could pick mom up in Tennessee. Then we left Friday morning for Tunica. We had SO much fun!
Hey Mom~thanks for watching Britney and Cody!!

I LOVE YOU MR. LACKEY!!!

On Monday, the kids and I took mom to my grandfather's house. My brother said he would take her home from there. Thanks Max:)

Britney climbing the tree I climbed when I was little.

Max showing Cody the turtle

Group picture!

Oh, and I won something from Gretta!! Go HERE to see what I won:) I'm so excited!!!

Bad Blogger

It's been sixteen days since my last post. Sixteen?! What a bad blogger I am!

Learning through play

First, we put up the rest of the outside Halloween decorations. The front porch looks awesome, plus it was lots of fun to do together as a family.

I especially love the two monsters on the steps:)

Cody LOVES to make Flubber and Silly Putty. You know how he is about slimy, gross things:) We got Popular Mechanics for Kids: Slither and Slime and Other Yucky Things from Netflix for him. He really enjoyed watching it and learned A LOT! While discussing the slimy portion of the show, the guy made Goop, so guess what we did after he finished watching it...

Goop is just cornstarch, water, and food coloring
Who knew Chemistry was so much fun?

I don't know why this picture is sideways. I can't fix it!

This is Bob...Bob Goop

We've been playing Poker with Britney. Cody has little interest in learning how to play. He does like playing with the chips, though. Britney has learned three different ways to play; Texas Hold 'Em, Deuces and One Eyed Jacks Wild, and Dr. Pepper (10's, 2's and 4's are wild).
We discussed money, banks, loans, interest rates, casinos, and the different laws associated with gambling.

We've been learning a lot through playing games. We've played Scrabble, Boggle, Sequence, Pass the Pigs, Connect 4, and Triominos. We LOVE learning through play. From those games, the kids worked on vocabulary, addition, multiplication, strategy, fast thinking, shapes, patterns, matching, geometry, probability, etc.

We watched Tango shed from beginning to end (HAHA). It was SO cool! We knew he was going to shed soon because he had gotten very dull looking and his eyes turned a milky color and back to clear. Sure sign he's getting ready for a new outfit. I had gotten him out and was holding him for quite a while and then handed him off to Bobby. Tango started ramming his head into Bobby's hands full force, like he was striking without teeth. To be honest, we had NO idea what he was doing. He did it several times, so we decided to put him back in his house. As soon as I sat him down, he started ramming his log and the sides of the aquarium. Then I figured it out. He was trying to break the skin on his nose so he could shed. I called everyone back to the bedroom to watch. He broke the skin and then circled around the temperature gauge, pinning the skin and then worked himself out. It was awesome to watch him and the way he used his surroundings and muscles to shed. SO COOL!

We used the internet to identify the spider from Florida--The photo I entered in the contest. We found out it's a Venusta Orchard Orbweaver and that venusta means beautiful or lovely in Latin.

Britney loves to write songs and practice her guitar, and she updates and designs her blog by herself. Cody's in love with Goosebumps books, online and video games, and playing Theron's piano. Learning is everywhere in everything we do!

LIFE IS GOOD AND LEARNING IS FUN!

HOMESCHOOLING ROCKS!

Our Week

Bobby and I brought the boxes of Halloween decorations into the house and we've been getting into the 'spirit' of things. Mom also sent a couple boxes of Halloween goodies for the kids so we have lots to do. Here's our start...
We hung the pumpkin lights in the house yesterday. We have bat lights, black lights and a moving ghost for the front porch. Not to mention the various body parts, masks, costumes, remote control rat...lying around the house right now. It's just how it is when you have Halloween fanatics for kids:)

This is a freakishly large, GALLON jar of pickled okra that the kids have finished since coming home from my dad's house. What's it been? Like a week?!

We spent a couple days playing lots and lots of board games.

I was going through our music on the computer and started listening to "Hook" by Blues Traveler. I had forgotten how much I love that song. Okay, you know that REALLY fast part there in the middle? Britney and I now have it memorized and have been singing non-stop for three days! Awesome song about nothing...except the hook...

This brings a whole new meaning to "Monkey on my back"
Excuse the mess...Halloween boxes

Today, Bobby, Britney and I played many rounds of Boggle while Cody colored. LOVE Boggle! Then we played Triominos, and then we couldn't take it anymore. It was absolutely beautiful and we just had to get outside. We went to the Flint Creek Trail off Hwy 67. Bobby and Cody lead the way into the woods, and startled a pair of raccoons! Of course all I saw were fuzzy butts running away, and poor Britney didn't get to see any of it.

I HATE mosquitoes!

Some people were fishing and showed the kids their catch.

The clouds were SO cool. They looked like hand prints.

We stopped at Theron's for a bit. Here's Brit playing fetch with Patton.

I was going to cook some form of chicken for dinner, but Cody was STARVING by the time we were ready to go home. NO way was her waiting for me to cook.

BEWARE OF CARNIVORES

Bobby's fortune:)~

Britney has been wanting to dye her hair red for some time. When I say red...I mean RED. Fire engine red would make her the happiest kid ever, but unless I take her and have it done professionally, it's not gonna happen. We dyed it a couple months ago with a temporary color and she REALLY liked it, but it was temporary after all. She's been wanting it done again on a more permanent basis. She picked up some color last week and we dyed it tonight.

This is her "I just saw my hair for the first time" face

She LOVES it!! She made weird, girlish, squeals of delight while running through the house. I think that's a good sign.

I stole a little of the dye and used it on the very front of my hair. I only left it on for ten minutes so it's nowhere near as red as Brit's. But it's something different...and PERMANENT!