Happy October!

We LOVE this time of year!  My kids have always been into Halloween, especially Samuel.  He used to watch Mickey's House of Villains every day when he was 2 years old.  :)  Anyway, I ♥ this time of year, as well so we all feel like celebrating!  Oh a whim, I decided to make a sensory bin with some Halloween goodies I found at Dollar Tree and the $ section of Target.  I also made orange play dough with black sparkles in it.  I surprised the kids with this tub on Monday (October 1st) and it has kept them busy all week!

We took advantage of the final warm days (that we could see) and got our leaf walk in.  There is arboretum near by and it's one of our favorite places to go.  This time of year, it is just gorgeous!  I found an Autumn Scavenger Hunt on Pinterest so I took that with us to keep the kids busy on the trail.  The funny thing that happened was a woman stopped me and asked if this was a daycare.  I said no, they were all mine.  She said she was envious so I figured she had wanted more kids but then she went on to say all my kids were just so pretty.  That made me wonder if her kids were ugly?!  Just kidding!!  :)  

Eventually, the clipboards were tossed aside to climb!

Nathan was done walking about 1/4 through the trail.  I brought a stroller but I had to force him in--he wanted me to carry him.  :)

Samuel found (and loved) a yellow tree!  He said he wishes he was born there and that he's going to plant one at his house when he grows up.  He loves yellow!!

Nathan is such a stinker.  I gave him my phone to try to calm the crying down in the stroller.  He insisted on keeping it with him--under his chin, of course.  He likes to thump his chest like Tarzan and jump off of things so that's what he's doing here.

Samuel started his new handwriting this week and LOVED it.  It seriously took me by surprise that he loved it that much.  The wet-dry-try method is his favorite but we also have the capital letter wood pieces that we use, as well as the workbook.  I think he's catching on!  

I took a basket of foam dice out today for Samuel's math time.  Next thing I knew, Nathan had stacked all the dice by color.  I was impressed!!

Not great pictures of the twins but I do what I can.  We played Rolling in the Money {a Learning Resources game I found at Marshall's for $3!} for Friday's math time and it was a lot of fun.  I think we'll be playing this a lot.  Both kids had math quizzes this week...Hunter got 88% and Lily got 91% so I'm very happy with that.  I feel like Hunter is getting back into the groove with math since the summer break.  I need to make sure he doesn't have such a big break next time!

We were in Thailand this week, our last country in Asia!  We made floating boats today but this picture is just bad.  I didn't want to leave them out, though.  :)  They were not impressed with the child's life we read about--he was learning to be a Buddhist monk so no toys, TV once a week and only 2 meals a day--plus, he didn't live with his family.  It was interesting to read, though!

We finished Pollyanna (finally) and enjoyed the movie this week.  I was amazed the kids sat through it and watched it.  They have even asked to watch it again!  It is very different from the book but it was fun to see, anyway.  We started Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle as our next read-aloud.