Monday, October 24, 2011

A Painting We Will Go

A painting we will go!
A painting we will go!
Hi-ho the dairy-o!
A painting we will go!
Pumpkin and Princess painted pumpkins once again this year.  
Both have fine tuned this art over last year.

Here are a few pictures from last year.

Here are a few pictures from this year.








We are now ready for the upcoming holiday with long lasting pumpkins!!!!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Pumpkin & The Gingerbread Man

Pumpkin loves gingerbread men!  


Last year at preschool, gingerbread men were the focus for a week or two.  Pumpkin was hooked!  We have a gingerbread man book that we got from the school book club last year.  We have gingerbread man cookie cutters from when I was little.  

Quite often Pumpkin requests that we read The Gingerbread Man (by Jim Aylesworth) at bedtime.  His favorite part is "Run! Run! Fast as you can! You can't catch me! I'm the Gingerbread Man!"

Lately, he has been begging his great-grandma to make some gingerbread man cookies.  Since Pumpkin really is not into REAL gingerbread, my grandma found a recipe for brown sugar cookies and made up a batch for Thursday evening.  

We left Pumpkin and Princess with great-grandma while we went to school for a parent-teacher conference.  While we were gone Pumpkin counted the cookies- 24 cookies total.  Then waited and waited for dessert time after supper.  He had the honor of passing out the gingerbread cookies to everyone at the table.  

Great-grandma then placed the rest of the cookies in a cake pan for us to take home.  Pumpkin insisted that the bag, which was covering the cake pan, should be sealed so the gingerbread men could not run away.  So we had to tape the bag shut to prevent the great escape!

Needless to say, Pumpkin loved the gingerbread man cookies that his great-grandma made for him.  He even shared some with his friends the next day.

Friday, October 21, 2011

The Things You Can Do!



The Things You Can Do!
If You Think You Can!
The Things You Can Do!
Jump On A Trash Can!

The Things You Can Do!
Without A Thought!
The Things You Can Do!
Build a Robot!

The Things You Can Do!
Think A Moment or Two!
The Things You Can Do!
Scream Cock-A-Doodle-Doo!

The Things You Can Do!
From Far and Near!
The Things You Can Do!
Ride A Reindeer!

The Things You Can Do!
Just Try This Out!
The Things You Can Do!
Twist And Shout!

The Things You Can Do!
Are Up To You!
The Things You Can Do!
Go Join The Zoo!

The Things You Can Do!
After You Say Hi!
The Things You Can Do!
Say Good-Bye!

~ Prairie Rose ~

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Wonders of Fall

Just like spring, fall is a wonderful time to get some amazing nature shots.  Take some time and enjoy the beauty around you, until then check out these fun photos.






Saturday, October 15, 2011

Home Grown, Orange Cutie-Pie

This morning, we headed over to my grandma's house.  

In the early summer, we had bought some pumpkin seeds and grandma sowed them into her garden.  For the longest time, nothing.  Then . . . . we discovered just ONE pumpkin.  It grew and grew, but since we are having a drought it did not grow that much.  Then a few weeks ago we got some much needed rain and would you believe it another THREE pumpkins appeared.  So today we went to check out our pumpkins.

The first pumpkin was ready so grandma let Pumpkin cut it from the vine while Princess watched.  They were both really excited.  After we freed our first pumpkin, we took a look at the remaining three.  They still have a bit more growing to do so we left them alone, but they will have to be cut soon before the first frost. 












Pumpkin and Princess really love their home grown, orange cutie-pie pumpkin!  Pumpkin declared as we walked back into great-grandma's house "Let's make pumpkin pie!"  Grandma just chuckled and said "Let's wait a while."  Then off Pumpkin went, to find a temporary home for his pumpkin.

Seed + Straw = Fun !

Earlier in the week the kids helped daddy with a project in the yard.  

The project:  Seed and straw a large barren area of the yard.









Looks like it was fun, huh? In hindsight, I wish that it would not of rained the day before.  It was a muddy mess and it was time consuming to remove the mud and straw off the bottom of the kids shoes. Well, live and learn!

Friday, October 14, 2011

It's Raining Leaves

Isn't the fall a glorious time of the year?  The colors, the fluttering of leaves gracefully raining to the ground, the smell all add to the aura of this time of the year.  

The leaves are really starting to rain down now in our yard.  Pumpkin and Princess had fun playing in those leaves a little bit ago. They were having so much fun that they rarely looked at the camera, and forget about staying in one spot too long.  Well maybe next time. (wink, wink)











We are looking forward to more fall adventures!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Fall Into Fall

We must be having an Indian Summer.  The last few days has been t-shirt and shorts weather instead of the coats and pants weather.  It has been fairly nice and the trees are in the process of getting ready for winter.  

 
So starts the botany lesson for the day:  
The green pigments (chlorophyll) are slowing down as the temperatures get cooler.  Once they stop making food they die off and then the real show starts.  Then we start to see all of the beautiful reds, yellows, purples, and oranges that the green pigments usually hide.  Soon enough, warm days and cool nights of fall will pass into winter hibernation for our trees.  After the green pigments have disappeared, the other pigments will follow suit disappear for the winter too.  But never fear, our wonderful trees will bud out in the spring for another season of wonder.

Fun family activities to do this fall:
1) Press note-worthy fall leaves between pages of a book to enjoy this winter
2) Rake up a pile of leaves and jump right in
3) Make leaf animals with paper, glue, leaves, and your imagination
4) Have fun crunching through the leaves (my kids love this one)
5) Sort the leaves by color, then count how many leaves you have
Have a lovely fall!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Life Is Too Short

There is an amazing young girl we know that has gone through over twelve months worth of treatments for leukemia.  My dad was first diagnosed with multiple myleoma (bone marrow cancer with no permanent cure) at the age of 53.  And my mom lost her battle with lung & brain cancer at the age of 55.  It sort of makes me wonder, who's next?  What it boils down to is life's too short and we need to make the best of it.  


Today we had a family day.  We skipped church and spent some quality time together.  A tent was set up out in the yard and the kids had a blast!  Princess would forget to pick her feet up when exiting the tent.  So we had a few nose dives into the ground, but she sprung back up.  Cheese and crackers were our outside snack.  Once the kids started getting a bit rough with the tent it was time to take it down.  Of course, pumpkin was the ring leader and princess was happy to follow anything that he did.  After the tent was down the kids had hot dogs by request and us adults had chicken salad sandwiches with spinach on top.  I was happy to sneak off and get some shots of some fluttering butterflies.






Once we got back in it was nap time for the kids.  Afterwards, princess and I went on a shopping trip.  We were in search of an object to keep the soap from falling on our toes while taking a shower.  Success was had, but of course a few other objects found their way into the cart.  Princess had those lovely puppy dog eyes and look what we brought home.  But of course life is too short, so spoiling from time to time is worth it.


Princess loves her new Rapunzel doll.  Currently she is in LOVE with purple and I just could not resist those eyes.  Princess's words at home were: "She's wonderful!"  "My Princess!"  Since Rapunzel has really long long hair that reaches her feet can easily get tangled, I opted to braid her hair to keep it nice.  We will see how long that lasts (wink, wink).


Pumpkin and daddy took a drive after nap time and watched the fields being harvested.  Then they went to McDonald's and grabbed some food.  Then pumpkin is enjoyed riding his bicycle in the driveway.  I am looking forward to next weekend's adventures!!