"Stay at Home" Mom

Another week is completed and is on the books. :0)

Speaking of books, I FINALLY completed my latest "fun read." A friend, shout out to Pam!, introduced me to The Mitford Series. This was my first time reading a fictional Christian novel, and I have been LOVING these books! I tore through the first 3 books in no time! Well, for me, that means 1 book in a week, lol. It's not that I'm a particularly slow reader, its just prioritising my time to make room for a novel. But this fourth book has taken me FOREVER to get through! :0( The book itself was far from dull, it's just that I wasn't carving out the time to read it. I had to renew the book at the library 2 times, which meant it took me about 6 weeks to get through it! :-0 But again, I finished the book this week...so happy. 4 books down...5 more to go in the series. :0)

In school this week, Beatrice learned about the letter "M"...



And so we attempted to make a mouse out of pom poms, or as the kids (strangely) call them, "pokey rimes," lol...



On our nature walks, we found lots of "discoveries"...



And Wyatt opted to paint a discovery...a random piece of wood...



We made a festive craft this week...spider webs. I thought we were FINALLY going to get to use some of the recycled objects I've been hoarding (when you have 10 empty egg cartons, 8 empty cartons of milk, and multiple round pieces of cardboard from the bottom of frozen pizzas, that's considered a "hoarder" right!? LOL) My idea was to make a 3-D spider web, but while I was making this sample during nap time...





I realized how frustrating/challenging this craft was. It seemed so easy in my head. :0( So for the kids, I put away the round cardboard pieces (boooooo!...I guess we will have to make planets with them some day???) and we went old-school with white crayons on black paper...





Beatrice had a great desire to be in the kitchen with mama this week. She helped with the cooking...





And the cleaning...



Wyatt was a bit more random this week. He spent lots of time with his favorite pal, "Puppers"...



And on one morning, when I went to put something on our back balcony, I was surprised to find Wyatt out there...



When I asked him what he was doing outside in the cold, he replied, "Just getting warmer mom." Ummmm...note to self buddy, you get warmer INSIDE the house, lol!

In the busyness of life, we went to MOPS. One of the best aspects of MOPS is the food. Just sayin'...



And I went to a leadership meeting at church, where I got to take an in-depth tour of our new worship building. SOOOO exciting!...



We had a playdate with a friend that we haven't seen in AGES!...



And we got to help out 2-B by watching her littlest...









And, Princess Ariel, and Captain Kirk got to have a Halloween party with our Mommies group...





And I had another Sugar Shack order due...



Somewhere during the middle of the week, I became exhausted. I needed a break. I looked at my calendar, and realized I had NOTHING planned for Friday. I was going to keep it that way! In fact, not only was I not going to make any plans, but I was not going to leave my house...at all! Thursday was a bit jammed packed, because I wanted to get in any last errands before Friday. And it was worth it! But would you believe, I was tempted to break my promise, right from the get go! Of all the people that would call, it would be my bestie...my sister Jenni...asking if we wanted to meet her for breakfast! How could I decline!? :0( But then something genius occured to me..."Why don't you come over to my house for breakfast!?" And so they did...



And because I had gone grocery shopping the night before, I actually had legit food to serve them, lol! After Jenni's crew left, the kids and I got busy...playing games...





And doing puzzles...





Later in the day, after daddy woke up, we carved pumpkins together...



Rick carved Bea's pumpkin (left), and Wyatt carved his own pumpkin this year (right)...



After that, we we gathered in front of the TV, and watched, "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown," while eating our new movie snacks...



It was such a lovely day.

And finally, in our study of the United States, we discovered the 7th state of our nation...Maryland. We are now over halfway done with the 13 colonies. :0) I must admit, this state was probably the least exciting of the 7 states so far. But it was not all a bore...we learned that the first ice cream factory in America was opened in Baltimore, Maryland. In honor of that, we had to make our own ice cream...









Did you know that you will find the world-famous wild ponies roaming the seashore on Assateague Island??? And that an African American orphan from Baltimore became an explorer, and in 1909, he was the first person to reach the North Pole??? And that our National Anthem, The Star Spangled Banner was written by Francis Scott Key, who was watching the U.S. flag still flying over Fort McHenry in the Baltimore Harbor during/after massive shelling with rockets??? We made American flags...





I had also read that the largest crab cake of all was made in Maryland. This single crab cake served 800 people, and weighed 225 pounds...I wonder how it tasted!?

In honor of that Guinness World Record, for our state dinner this week, I made...crab cakes!...and corn...and carrot puddin'...



The crab cakes were AWESOME, and you can never go wrong with corn on the cob...but the carrot puddin'!? When Rick took the first bite, he announced, "Hmmmm...it tastes like Christmas!" WHAT!? How can a food taste like a holiday!? But sure enough, I took the next bite, and wouldn't you know it, it tasted EXACTLY like Christmas, LOL! It must have been the combination of sherry and nutmeg, that gave it the festive taste. But just like Christmas...you can only take so much of carrot puddin', before you are overwhelmed by it. ;0)

For dessert, I made Orange Pudding...



But when the orange pudding didn't look like it was firming up during the day, I quickly went to plan B, and made a back up dessert, just in case plan A was a flop. The orange pudding eventually did firm up, and it wasn't outright gross, but when you have an American Classic sitting right next to it, "bye-bye weird pudding, HELLO HOMEMADE CINNAMON ROLLS"...



All in all, it was a fun week. It appears as though I have not one, but TWO options for a "Stay at home" day this week! We'll see how it all pans out. :0)

Boo!

After I downloaded the pictures from my phone to my computer, I discovered that Wyatt wore his same "Boo!" shirt 4 days this week!!! Geesh. I suppose it makes sense though...we had a very Halloweenie Week! :0)

We decorated a Halloween House...





And also ventured to the pumpkin patch...





It seems we go to a different pumpkin patch every year now...however, I love it when we go to Bates Nut Farm. It is a lot farther of a drive than the other pumpkin patches we have visited in the last few years, but it is my personal favorite. Every single year when I was child, that was the pumpkin patch that my parents took us to. I don't remember them having the pony rides, the hay maze, the "Life of a Pumpkin" story time, nor the hay ride...but there was ALWAYS pumpkins!...and there was ALWAYS a trip into their general store for a bag of candy! This year, we shared the experience with my nephews and niece...





And many other families from my Mommy & Me group...



Wyatt got chosen to participate in the story time...



And then we picked our pumpkins...





This week we also got to celebrate the holiday with our MOPS friends at our annual Pumpkin Party...



That was it for our Halloween activities. But somehow the "Boo!" shirt also got rocked at our playdate with Lindsey's family...





And at my nephew Brady's guitar recital (SOOOO proud of Brady!!!)...





In other wardrobe selections, lol...we had a surprise playdate with our niece/cousin Samantha...









The kids often get to spend one-on-one time with their cousins, but up until this point, it has always been their older BOY cousins. We all LOVED having another little girl in our home! Samantha is such a funny little kid...everything about her is LOUD! When she isn't talking LOUDLY, she is playfully squealing or screaming...she had us laughing constantly!

This week, we put or browning bananas to good use...



We sorted things Big/Medium/Little...





Learned about the letter "L"...





Wyatt caught me working on some homemade Christmas gifts...



I had a Sugar Shack order...



Wyatt continues to go to his Kid Fit class at the YMCA every week...



We found a beautiful bench at the mall that looked perfect for pausing in our tracks to take a few pictures...this adventure resulted in mostly silliness, but silliness is worth capturing on a camera too...







One of my very favorite things we did this week, was read this book...



When I was a young girl, someone had given me the book, "Pilgrims Progress." I wish I could remember who gave me that book, becuase it made such an impact on my life. My copy was a lot smaller, and it was a paperback. I remember laying on my stomach on my top bunk bed, reading this story for hours. I was captivated by it. I remember trying to make the connection between the characters in the story, and the issues I faced in my daily life. A couple of weeks ago, at the MOPS garage sale, one of my friends was going through the boxes of items that would be for sale, and she brought the book over to me, and asked if I thought Wyatt might like it. Tears immediatly came to my eyes, and I was so grateful to have a copy for him! Wyatt can obviously read this book on his own, but I was so excited to surprise him with a new bedtime book for us to go through together...just him and I. Over the last couple of weeks, we have been going through it section by section. We have both been eager to keep reading and reading and reading it, but I had been mindful to pace ourselves. To let the stories soke in. To savor this time together. There have been many instances throughout the time when I have been a mom, that I could not wait to experience something special with my children...only to have them CARE LESS!, LOL! But I am so grateful that things were different this time. I had written a note to Wyatt in the front cover of the book before I gave it to him, and from the moment he read that inscription, he was so THRILLED for the upcoming journey. This experience exceeded my expectation. We finished the book this week. :0)

This weekend we got to travel up to Los Angeles, to celebrate my nephew, Nathan, turning 5 years old!



A clown came to the party, and did some magic...





And then the children waited paitently for him to make them balloons...





Then Buzz Lightyear showed up!!!...



And the kids decorated spacey cookies...





Good enough to eat!...



In our study through the United States, we made it to the 6th state...Massachusetts! What a FUN state, rich in history to learn about!

We learned that the world's first computers were built by scientists at Harvard & MIT (colleges in Massachusetts)...



And that Theodor SEUSS Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Suess) was born and raised in Springfield, Mass. Like most children, our kiddos are huge fans of this rhyming author! The kids chose to write and illustrate books of their own this week...







We also learned that Massachusetts is a leading producer of cranberries. At one time, this state was the world's (not just "country's") top producer of cranberries, but now it is second to the state of Wisconsin. We made lemon cranberry bread for a snack...





With the extra berries, we had read that cranberry farmers bounced the cranberries to determine whether a cranberry was a good one or a bad one. We of course had to try out the theory. Sure enough, our cranberries BOUNCED!...





And finally, we ended our week of learning with the state dinner. It was tempting to make Boston Baked Beans, and Toll House cookies (the accidental recipe was founded in Massachesetts), but instead, I went with homemade New England Clam Chowder...



With homemade saltine crackers (these tasted great, but for looks purposes I would abandon the directions, and try to make them a different way next time)...





And for dessert, I made none other than the Official State Desseret...a Boston Cream Pie...





We are looking forward to another week of fun and learning THIS week (she says as the chocolate ice cream is churning in the ice cream maker...to be continued)! :0)