Haunted house badge!

Ira declared Monday "unicorn badge day" this will be her second badge.

Her skill for today- building a haunted house.

She dressed her animals up in costumes...


And set up a scary dinosaur exhibit...


She had made these animals into mummies, but liv got upset with her and freed them.


Snake on the lamp!!!!!


I was scared. Badge earned. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

What holiday isn't again?

We skipped the ferry market on saturday because a food blogger convention was in town and we avoid crowds that big ;)

Instead we drove to the farms along the coast.

Pelicans- they got so close to us, but I missed getting a picture because was busy looking with my eyes :)


Bumble enjoying the view...


Ira informing me that the farm fresh strawberries were delicious!!!!








Then we made an impromptu trip to the Santa Cruz mountains--- REDWOODS!!!

They were velvety....












After our little trip we stopped at target and found costumes over 75% off!

Our little garden gnome...


Knight...


How awesome is her face?





Sister wardrobe assistance...





This is the face that Ira said knights make "when they do something cool"





We jumped back into Halloween mode to make treats...








Then they drew spooky pictures...








We ended the night with toy story 3. WATCH IT! We laughed- really hard.... And cried- really hard!
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Thorn in the paw!

Ira put on a little play about a bear with a thorn in it's paw... She drew this flyer for it...






We popped off the dried Indian corn for future necklaces...





Pumpkin carving...











He likes to eat with utensils, but hasn't mastered getting food on to the utensil, so he picks up the food and puts it on the spoon, then eats it.





And if he still can't manage to keep the food on the spoon all the way to his mouth- he just uses his hands.





The BAT!!!!!!











The zebra?
Liv Insisted that she wanted to be a ghost for weeks. Weeks. I made her a costume an she wore it all day.

5 minutes before leaving- she refused to wear it! Jared and I scrambled to find something that he would wear- it ended up being this zebra ear/tail we had in the dress up bin from last years clearance sale at target! I think it was 90cents!





I said "some me your tail!" and she did this!!!





We went to a safe trick or treat neighbourhood that was about a mile walk from us. It was very fun, but crowded and dark- so no pictures.

The collection!





She traded it for organic and gluten free yummy candy...





The pumpkins all aglow.





We bought all thi to hand out an then didn't get any trick or treaters!
I'm only half sad about that ;)





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Spooky Saturday...

Bat banner by Ira......





Skull drawing...











Zombie skeletons...











I particularly love the glitter tooth she added...





Ira glittering her fairy house...





Emers being not a baby....











A Halloween card to me from Ira...





"Fire powers the sun and makes us hot"





Alton brown taught us how to make homemade candy corn... Ira drew me a reenactment to make sure I didn't forget...











Ghost





Decorating outside...











Ira really loves worksheets. It's hilarious to me how MUCH she lives to sit and fill out worksheets-I'm the EXACT same way. As a nurse I loved all the paperwork- most nurses complained and complained, but I would sit at the end of the shift happily checking boxes and writing assessments out.
Anyway- here are a few of her worksheets.
The decoder exercises are get absolute favourite...





I thought this one would be one we would do together, she shocked me by finishing it on her own in under a minute!





It's fascinating to me how learning and reading is a code that unlocks all on it's own if you don't force it. The girls pick up on things I wouldn't have noticed or thought of.
Liv said, "an M is an unhappy W" I loved that. Liv calls out letters everywhere! Having an older sibling seems to really accelerate interest in such things.

This page- the "easiest" *I* thought ended up being really valuable. Ira got frustrated after going super fast and miscounting the spiderwebs. She said "I've never done that wrong" we had a long talk about how doing things "wrong" can often teach us more that always getting them "right". That's sometimes wrong isn't wrong at all, just part of learning.
Then I pulled out worksheets from 8 months ago that were full of "wrong" answers and backwards Es and barely legible Ss and Gs.

I showed her that having fun and doing what you love is important, even if you don't have the right or perfect answers, just keep having fun.

I promised her that to this day I miscount my money if I go too fast and that my handwriting looks just awful if I'm in a rush or jotting down a note.
Funny how this little exercise led to an hour of nostalgia and discussion.






I really love being the one guiding her through all of this. I feel that her love of learning and perfectionist personality could become unbalanced really easily in the wrong learning environment.

Lots of words today! Look at me!

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