I've lost it.

Humph, I've lost my camera...and right before the Holidays, too. It has to be in this house somewhere, because I don't remember taking it anywhere after the swimming event on Saturday...and I uploaded this swim video. I'm just running out of time to find it before Turkey Day! Eeeeeeee.

Marshmallow Corn

Ah, we used this craft/art project to work on our counting...while eating yummy mallows in the morning. My girl loves to paint! It always makes her feel better. =)

Bowling with Rory and Miss J!

Here is K's bestie boy-friend! She absolutely loves Rory (and his momma says he loves her,too). They play together at school, and everyday K gets in the car and she says, "I play with Rory, mommy." One days just out of the blue she walks up to me in the kitchen says, "Rory nice to me, Mommy." I was told by R's mommy that the teachers said that they play together at school, and when they don't want to do anything they will sit together and just watch everyone else. Too cute!

 

First Snow, Play Dates, and Growing

K totally LOVED the snow. We had it for about three days, and we had to play outside in it EVERYDAY! It was wonderful.

It was a little weird having snow and then having leaves falling on top of it...

These are a some of the awesome prizes we got at D's Turkey Hunt play date. We had a lot of fun, and made a new friend.

Outside at Miss D' house.

K is an early riser, and I try to be prepared (although I'm not usually too successful!) This is one the activities we did before school. I had the crayons glued to the cardboard, and then she held the hair dryer to it and watched them melt. It looks way cooler in person. ;)

We've been working on drawing circles and making the letter K. Here we glued pumpkin seeds over the letter.

Haha! She's exhausted. Fell asleep just like this.

Here is where she is growing up. My baby only needs me to start peeling the Cuties for her, she can finish them b herself,

Some of Novembers work is up decorating the kitchen. =)

Playing, Cleaning, and Crafts

So, I couldn't find a smaller rake for K to use on the leaves. I used the big one, and she used....a broom! (Don't knock it, it worked.)

Yes...K has chores, but we don't force her to do them. Usually when we start a task, she wants to help and will often offer to do it. Sometimes she needs a little more prompting, so we might say, "Hey Katelyn, that window looks dirty. Would you mind washing it for me, please?"

She loves her turkey hat.

Have I read this?

Ok, wow! I guess this book is not being released until Nov. 19, but somehow I've already read it. At least, I feel like I have. I read the excerpt online tonight for the first time, and maybe I somehow managed to get a copy of it, but perhaps the reviews are hitting the nail on the head...and the writing is just getting that predictable. I don't know that it's totally a bad thing for fans to know the characters so well, and after nineteen books, the characters should be a little predictable, in a sense. But, I don't know about that fact that I (somehow) knew what was going to happen... Was there a four chapter preview at the end of the last book? Maybe, I borrowed it from the library, so I'm not sure and I can't check... We'll see once I get my hands on it after the 19th.

A lot...

So, I know this is random and unintentional, but look at the face Katelyn drew! It's better than any profile I've been able to draw. I'm dead serious, and you all know that I can't draw for squat anyway.

This is how we got the pumpkin seeds for our learning trays this month.

She said, "gross, squishy"...I ended up pulling almost all but one handful out.

She did think rinsing them was much more fun, though.

Afterwards, she needed a bath. (I forgot to turn the flash off in this one.)

It was such a gray rainy day out, that we turned the lights off, and tossed a few glow sticks into the tub to brighten things up.

The girl is obsessed with glue work! She wanted to do it at home, and her teachers said it is all she wanted to do in the classroom, too.

Her friend, Dagny, hosted a Parfait play date, and it was awesome...(the mommies got some pudding, too.)

The Game Ball - Stuffed Football Craft -

K's love for Colt football is every bit as big as ours. (Ok, so she doesn't know any different.) She see's a football and cheers, "Football...Go Colts!" My plan is not to post about each of the crafts this month since I made the previous post with the themed crafts that we'll be doing. But, since I did take all these great photos...

 

(Cutting Work)

Discovering the stapler.

Stuffing,

Laces out! (he, he)

Ready for the game!

Daddy daughter bonding over football!

First Offical Salon Haircut

She thought the cape was "cute".

"What you doing back there?"

"Ok, cool. Sure, I can look this way."

"Now I have to look at my shoes, really?"

K did an amazing job! We were all getting our hair cut at the same time! Her first (real) cut and she sat there and just looked wherever the stylist told her to like a big girl all on her own. I was in the chair next to her, and Chris came over once he got done.

Time to Think

.@kkoolook

 

“Be brave. Even if you’re not, pretend to be. No one can tell the difference. Don’t allow the phone to interrupt important moments. It’s there for your convenience, not the callers. Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is. Don’t burn bridges. You’ll be surprised how many times you have to cross the same river. Don’t forget, a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated. Don’t major in minor things. Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Helen Keller, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein. Don’t spread yourself too thin. Learn to say no politely and quickly. Don’t use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved. Don’t waste time grieving over past mistakes Learn from them and move on. Every person needs to have their moment in the sun, when they raise their arms in victory, knowing that on this day, at his hour, they were at their very best. Get your priorities straight. No one ever said on his death bed, ‘Gee, if I’d only spent more time at the office’. Give people a second chance, but not a third. Judge your success by the degree that you’re enjoying peace, health and love. Learn to listen. Opportunity sometimes knocks very softly. Leave everything a little better than you found it. Live your life as an exclamation, not an explanation. Loosen up. Relax. Except for rare life and death matters, nothing is as important as it first seems. Never cut what can be untied. Never overestimate your power to change others. Never underestimate your power to change yourself. Remember that overnight success usually takes about fifteen years. Remember that winners do what losers don’t want to do. Seek opportunity, not security. A boat in harbor is safe, but in time its bottom will rot out. Spend less time worrying who’s right, more time deciding what’s right. Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life. Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you get. The importance of winning is not what we get from it, but what we become because of it. When facing a difficult task, act as though it’s impossible to fail.”
— Jackson Brown Jr.

A Ghostly Day

Ok, Not so ghostly, but K had a blast playing with her Colts Inspired Football Bin. It included the blue rice she made previously, a blue sucker, a blue tootsie roll, three blue bead necklaces, a bead necklace with a noise clapper type bell attached to it, white pond rocks, four mini footballs, and a blue marker with blue paper. (5 days later and she is STILL playing with it.)

Here is where the GHOST fun begins....It started with a super messy combination of shave cream, baking soda, and corn starch. (Which she mixed)

After she got it all mixed up, I formed it into the shape of a ghost, and added some blue stones as eyes.

After she demolished the ghost, I gave her some small toys (a glow stick, a little tea cup, and a spoon) to play with.  After a few minutes, she added some of the blue rice from the football bin for an extra element of fun.

Nearly 2 HOURS later, she was finally bored with the stuff, so then I gave her a squirt bottle with vinegar, and an old liquid dish soap bottle of vinegar, and let her go to town spraying the gunk. Now, it's foamy gunk, and she was tickled with excitement. in total we probably spent close to three hours with this one. (Which was great, because for some reason the day was going really slow!)

After we cleaned up and took a bath (next time, remove her clothes and shoes- what-a-mess!) - we made banana ghost snacks with Chocolate chip eyes! Every bite took out an eye, so she had to replace it with another chocolate chip...so our healthy snack wasn't quite so healthy...but that's alright.

When daddy got home he helped make the cotton ball ghost.

I don't think I posted this activity, because it was an on-the-fly thing while we were outside... here we painted with acorns that K collected from Rory's Park. We put the paper in a box, and puddled some paint around the edge, then dropped the acorns in and tilted the box every which way to get them to roll around and create this beautiful painting.

A portion of our October work.

And some of our September crafts.

 

Another beautiful day to visit the park. This time we met up with our girl, Dagny.

K has a small obsession with "walking beams" and building the "tallest tower in the world".

K and daddy made their version of Disney's Monorail. (The train is actually one Chris got in China of the "Bullet")