The Rest of the Fall Season
We fit in one more camping trip right after my parents left to Kankakee River, IL with our friends the Ricks!
The boys were hoping that they would catch some fish in these waters, but they didn't get one bite!
But Trevor did teach my kids how to skip rocks! He is quite the rock skipper!
We went on a lovely hike
which we later found out according to Wikipedia is a: Maclura pomifera, commonly called Osage orange, hedge apple,[1] horse apple, monkey ball,[2] bois d'arc, bodark, or bodock
Also in October I helped out at a fundraiser for a little girl in our ward named Hallie (go to www.helpinghallie.com to learn more about this sweet girl) who has many medical/health issues and their family is in a lot of debt paying for the medical bills their insurance won't cover. For months before I made crayon rolls,
craft aprons (with permission of the woman who created the pattern of course, she actually gave me many items to sell from her company Vanilla House Designs)
Halloween banners (these were gone fast!)
many little girl maxi skirts ranging in sizes of 2T-8 yrs
and little boy bowties
and I also made a pink turning twenty twin size quilt to auction off at the silent auction. Mama Jody machine quilted it for me and Grandma Bonnie also donated a queen sized quilt that she made to sell at the auction. I was honored to be the "silent auctioneer"
The event was a success! There was also a 5K going on that morning with proceeds going to the family. We raised over $10,000!
Near Halloween we went to a pumpkin patch with rides,
Ian just though it was so funny feeding the animals
Next came Halloween, this picture was taken after our ward party, the kids were worn out!
Madelyn and Ian colored their pumpkins with markers
and Rylan carved his pumpkin all by himself, he did a pretty good job!
on actual Halloween, Ian changed his mind and decided to be a bear, Rylan was Indiana Jones, and Madelyn was spider girl. It was pouring rain when we started, but the rain slowly stopped towards the end of the night. We trick or treated in our neighborhood then went to the Fox's house for dinner and more festivities.
Rylan did a biography report on Aaron Rogers at school and he made him out of a pumpkin!
I swear Rylan picked out his outfit for picture day! Isn't he so cute!
Because mom didn't register him in time for flag football (oops sorry) Rylan chose to try fencing:
Rylan is on the left
He also started playing the trumpet in his school band. He is loving it, and has caught on to it pretty quickly thanks to a dynamic band teacher who is teaching the kids to love music and to read it, not play this piece 1000 times until it is perfect. He wants the kids to write their own music and find joy in their creativity.
The other thing that takes up time in Rylan's little life is school, he has to really put forth a lot of time and energy in his classes. They really have high standards here in Illinois. We work on homework usually 1-2 sometimes 3 hours a night! After talking to his teacher we have figured out that he has a hard time focusing in class which explains why he comes home and doesn't remember what he has learned which is often why homework and studying takes long. We aren't concerned about any ADHD issues, but rather he just can't stop thinking about Legos, Star Wars, and Minecraft, they are way more interesting than fractions and the Revolutionary War! His teacher says that sometimes Rylan will be sitting at his desk during a lesson and he will be creating comics, or mouthing out play scenarios and moving his hands like they're battle ships or airplanes. *sigh* We can tell when he is interested in a subject because he doesn't need to study it as much. We are working on it!
Here is a picture of Scott out in the hammock with Rylan studying, they had to get away from the loud younger siblings. I love this picture with their little feet dangling.
Speaking of the hammock, we love it! It was our little hiatus in the late summer and fall. I should mention it can hold up to 300 lbs! We loved this one so much that Scott bought an additional one that we took camping with Grandpa and Grandma.
Madelyn loved her ballet/tap class, here they got to dress up in their Halloween costumes,
I have perfected the ballerina bun.
Madelyn also got to try dog-sitting for an afternoon.
Hugs at Costco!
One Saturday we ventured out to Cantigny which is a 500-acre public park left by a Coronel named Robert R. McCormick. They have a fabulous war history museum, beautiful gardens which we didn't get to see, and these:
Scott was asked to teach Rylan's cub scout pack about the American flag. He taught why we should respect it, what it means to us, and how to properly fold it.
I am continuing my quest to have my own little preschool with my kids and although the lessons aren't as huge as they were at the beginning of our school year, we are still having fun and learning together when time allows. We had a Thanksgiving lesson with a special guest Giselle. We talked about the first Thanksgiving and how helpful the Native Americans were, then made these classy headdresses with what we are thankful for written on the feathers. The kids wore them for about 45 seconds.
and last but not least I cut my hair back to the sassy cut I had and loved last year!
Pretty random post of our Fall events!
Comments