Swim lessons are fun! |
Working on the different ways to float. |
Lap Swimming
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Swim lessons are fun! |
Working on the different ways to float. |
Lap Swimming
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The chocolate cake. |
Ronan signing the card he picked out. |
Watching the cake come out with candles on it. |
The boys decorated pumpkins for a grocery store competition. They made 3D affects for spookiness! |
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Can you believe it is now October and Halloween is just weeks away? I know we cannot, even though we have been getting our decorating groove on. I have included first pictures from the decorating process of our pumpkins and squash, an update from last week’s blog post of the Pumpkin patch. We also spent the weekend in Clinton, IL for a Pork & Apple festival. It was a beautiful sunny day out for the festival and we had a lot of fun eating pork, ham, and apples! We also enjoyed a live rockabilly band, the Swamp Tigers, which I highly recommend. We made rope, saw vintage farm equipment, and watched how different crafts are made. All in all it has been a great week and perfect start to Fall! Enjoy the photos. |
Our pumpkins and Squash for Halloween (L to R: Mummy/Vampire, Jack, Ooogie Boogie, and Boo) |
The boys and I started by choosing our first ‘victim’ and taking their ‘Before’ shot. |
My son, Maddox, made a Mummy Vampire with felt facial pieces and white crepe streamers for the bandages. |
This is my Jack, from 2010, that I carved out of a white pumpkin for Halloween. |
Here is a final look at our main pumpkins and squash for this year. Looking good! |
We went to Clinton, IL for the 44th annual Pork & Apple Festival for food, fun, and music. Maddox is pictured here making his own rope. |
Close up of the tools and simple machine needed to make a rope. |
Ronan and Maddox showing off their ropes at the Pork & Apple Festival in Clinton, IL |
The Swamp Tigers |
The Swamp Tigers |
Vintage farm equipment and apples for sale. Of course we had to buy some to eat too. |
Showing how the corn is processed and vintage license plates on display inside the barn. |
How glass beads are made and a vintage washing machine. |
Watching different tradesman in how they make their crafts of both wood and metal. |
Last but not least the boys have some fun before bedtime with their ‘parachuting man’. See you next week! |
My boys at the farmer’s market at the pumpkin patch. |
My homemade Apple Pie, the first time making one. |
My boys trying honey sticks at the Farmer’s market in Champaign, IL.
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Ronan in his wagon at the Pumpkin Patch. |
My sons had fun checking out all the interesting pumpkins and gourds at the Pumpkin Patch. |
Maddox at the Pumpkin Patch. |
Running through the maze at the pumpkin patch. |
With it being the final week of Summer I have favoured the last of warm weather to wear our shorts and summer tanks. We are still unsure about when we are coming home to England so I have been finding things to keep our days fun. What better to keep their interest than fun food! Today I made them ‘Octopus Speghetti’ for lunch with Turkey hotdogs and whole wheat spegetti. It was pretty simple to make. First I cut each hotdog into four sections. I wanted the octopus to have eight arms so I punctured the noodles into the center until the ‘arms’ were even on each side. Once the water had boiled I put the Octopuses into the pot and as the noodles started to cook they sunk down far enough to cook evenly. Once they were cooked and drained I covered it up with some leftover sauce and voilà! It was definitely a huge hit with my boys.
——– This week we started it off with a cookout with friends of the family at the park. Another time for hot dogs, this time grilled over a fire pit. My boys do not eat a lot of hotdogs, so they were much more excited about the dessert: S’mores! We had fun roasting the marshmallows and trying not to catch them on fire. Better yet pairing them with chocolate and putting them in between two graham crackers. Its been a great week and I look forward to Fall starting tomorrow! |
‘Octopus Spaghetti’ made from turkey hotdogs and whole wheat spaghetti. |
Before & After of the cooking process. |
Roasting hot dogs over the fire pit at the park. |
Roasting marshmallows for S’mores. |
My S’more |
Here I am roasting a marshmallow for my sons’ s’mores. |
The boys playing with the Playmobil© toy lot found at a yard sale this last week. Its been a huge hit! |
The boys got their very own library cards this week and we checked out quite a number of books. It is really convenient being a short walk away and we will probably go at least once a week. The boys found out about a new book series called ‘My Weird School’. We are going to see how far we can get into the series because the library is having a party based on it. Next month they will have a Scooby Doo party. Its nice having things for the boys to look forward too while we are here. One thing we have been looking forward to is having Maddox’s cast taken off. Maddox got to keep his cast and we celebrated by having celebratory pancakes for breakfast afterwards.
Maddox before getting his cast taken off. |
At the Doctor’s after getting his cast off. |
Library finds! |
Movie Date! |
The boys went back to school this week and started our new journey: The Adventures of Home Education. We are not sure when we are going back to England, so being able to home school will help keep us going through out this transition period. The boys and I have already had a lot of fun and I look forward to the rest of the school year. We started the week with taking our ‘Back to School’ photographs. Enjoy!