Hello autumn! It felt like it took a bit for it to get here, even though it was cold and rain here and there, all the sudden this week our leaves have changed, we made pie, we did our first few fall traditions like pumpkin patches and designing costumes- I am so ready to sit down with a book and a cup of tea for the moth of November, ha ha. One more week of vegetable harvesting, and then I turn my energies back inside the house. We have plans to start working on our big science project of the year, reading a few chapter books, and getting back to our history lessons starting in November!
We had an extremely fun pumpkin patch for all our veggie customers, but we also saved many pumpkins for ourselves! We made pumpkin pie from scratch, roasted the seeds, and still have some left for muffins at some point! We also cooked down a big pot of apples into sauce and made some yummy apple pie as well. We had a fun variety of pumpkin this year called "Naked Bear" which had hulless seeds. Meaning we did not have to shell the pumpkin seeds, we just roasted and ate them! They were SO good and gone very quickly!
Avery carved his first pumpkin! We are waiting until Halloween weekend to carve the rest, but Avery just couldn't wait that long!
Board games we played this week: Chess, chess, and more chess! Ticket to Ride London, Robot Wars (a pretty awesome coding game), The American Civil War, and Michael led his DnD campaign with Super Nanny's son.
Football!! John and I are alumni from OSU and we enjoy watching a few games on tv each year, but my brother has had season tickets since we all graduated and happened to not be going this weekend. We decided to take the boys for their first big sports experience. Michael was engaged the entire time, Emmet was somewhat engaged, and Avery and I took a very long walk to find popcorn in the middle of the game because we was bored and done about 45 minutes into the 4 hour game. Ha ha, almost, we are almost there where all the kids can sit and focus for four hours. :D
These guys melt my heart so very often. Days that I work in the garden, they get to do their workbooks while I am outside. The older two help Avery SO much with his workbooks, like reading the questions and helping him sort out the solutions if he doesn't get it right away. One morning I had extra time and did their workbooks with them and snapped this photo of Michael nicely explaining to Emmet how to solve his problem, because Emmet didn't quite get it. As I write this they are having a ring-tailed fit over who has to turn the light off in the hall; however, life IS all about balance.
Our co-op day went well, but was also short! It sounds like everyone loved the craft and then everyone ran off to play, but instead just quarreled- some days it happens! So it was a do the project and then go home day. Emmet made a fox to go with Avery's wolf. Michael made an owl, but it got forgot outside for a few days in the rain and has fallen apart.
Halloween Town!! The cute Disney movie was filmed in Oregon and each year that same town decorates their town square like the movie set. We took photos, played at two parks, the older two and I did the haunted house, and we also saw places where the Twilight movies were partially filmed as well! A super fun day!
The boys found another awesome science project to try in the Steve Spangler Science book. This one involved the stove, so I participated with them. You place a small amount of water in an aluminum can, heat it, then immediately flip it over into a bowl of cold water. The heating causes the water to start evaporating, pushing the air out of the can and filling it with evaporated water, which has expanded as it heats. When you flip the can over into the cold water, the change in temperature immediately condenses the evaporated water back to droplets, shrinking their size, and causing pressure to drop drastically in the can. This drop in pressure coupled with the air and gravity pressing on the outside of the can causes the can to collapse in on itself. This happens extremely quickly with a loud POP. The boys loved it! We did four cans before they wandered off to do something else.
I have been attempting to do a "morning basket" but is more like a "once a week basket", which turned into throwing a few new books and a game at them once in a while. HA! Once this last week of veggies are over my brain can get back on track with homeschooling, nothing like trying to live like a 1800's farmer in the 2020's!!!
On Sunday my brother came for our monthly family DnD! We have a lot of fun and boys are learning how to be involved in a game for long periods. Michael has expressed interest in playing in a group his own age, and I think I have found a handful of kiddos to join him. Looks like Michael will be leading the group as the DM too!!
We hope you are staying dry!
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