Clara likes water!

I thought cats didn't like water??? well...this one does, as soon as she hears the bath water

going, she jumps over the bath tub edge and goes right in!

My dark side....comes out at Halloween!

I have a confession to make...our favourite holiday is Halloween! We love decorating the house, dressing up, carving pumpkins, roasting pumpkin seeds, and everything about Halloween (the candies don't hurt either, lol). Carving pumpkins is always a fun family activity and even the times that we didn't take the time to carve them, the kids ended up drawing on them or decorating them anyway.

I came across this book at the library, while searching for more Halloween stories to read aloud. It isn't a "cute" pumpkin carving guide...but Halloween isn't supposed to be "cute", right?!

The book is based on a website called extremepumpkins.com, and shows you how to make these scary pumpkins, even gives you the recipe to make fake blood! You can visit the website for pictures of pumpkin carving ideas. So far, our favourites from the book are the drowning-in-a-bag pumpkin, the roadkill-eating pumpkin, and the puking pumpkin. Those names should give you an idea of this fun book...

Books, books, books!

I thought I would share with you a couple of book-related links that I found interesting over the last few days.
One is from Cay Gibson (the creator of Author Fiesta) on her Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks blog. Her post is called Autumn Treasures and Pumpkin Recipes and highlights a few fall theme picture books that include recipes. I have put on hold most of these titles at our local library and we are looking forward to reading them and trying new recipes.

The second link I want to share with you is a blog created by a mother and bookseller. Children's Books: What, When & How to Read Them reviews children's books. You can search book titles by alphabetical order. I also like how she includes the number of pages and reading level of each book. The last review I read from this blog was for The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan and I appreciate how she included suggestions for extra reading on Greek mythology. This is one book that Dragon has asked me to read aloud to him and I am looking forward to it. We have a list of read aloud books that just keeps growing! We are almost finished the City of Ember, and I imagined that the children will want to continue with the People of Sparks, the second title in the Books of Ember series. Dragon has also requested that I read Kringle next. So many books, so little time!

One last link brings you to Jim Trelease's website. I have read (a few times!) his Read-Aloud Handbook and would highly recommend it. On his website you can read parts of his book, including parts of his treasury of read-alouds. His book explains why it is important to read aloud to your children, no matter what age they are, from infants to teenagers and how to do it. He even has a chapter on the do's and don'ts of read aloud, which you can see some of it on the website here.

Music in the air!

The first week is almost finished and I am happy to report that all 3 children are doing very well with their transition to public school. They all have made new friends and are getting used to the routine quite fast. They even seem to enjoy it! Fairy and Dragon have both started to learn a musical instrument. Dragon is learning a song on the recorder. He practiced all evening, only stopping for dinner, and the next morning I woke up to the sound of the recorder being played in the basement! Fairy is learning to play the flute and is also trying really hard. Just making a sound come out of that flute is difficult, she has to position her lips just the right way...I ended up searching on Youtube for her, because I am not a musical person myself and couldn't help her out. I found a series of videos that show a few basic techniques.

Princess is doing well too, she loves taking the bus, and has made new friends too!

Having fun and doing art together ~ "work in progress"

The kids and I took some time after dinner last night to "catch up" with each other. We put some music on and did art together. I had found some neat art books at the library in the afternoon. Dragon and I decided to try to draw an Aboriginal Rainbow Serpent, following the instructions from "Ralph Masiello's Dragon Drawing Book". According to this book, this serpent has been used as a symbol that bridges Australian Aboriginal people's Dreamtime and the real physical world. It connects earth to the heavens and the past to the future.



Fairy chose to continue on with her birds colour by number picture, choosing her own colours since we can't find the legend sheet! Princess spent most of the time singing, talking, and trying to write letters! Our serpents are not finished yet, but we will work on them again soon and I will share our colourful finished work.