Pumpkin Patch 2010

Saturday afternoon we took our annual trip to the Pumpkin patch.  This year New Waverly had it's very own patch so we did not have to drive far.  Here are the pictures from our photo shoot.

Gotta love 'em!! This picture pretty much sums the kids up right now. Hannah trying to be as cute as possible, Abigail being a little difficult, and Samuel running

And... where DONE!

Homemade Donuts

Trey had class today so I tried to do some fun stuff for/ with the kids. 

My girls are such Daddy's girls, especially Abigail, that when he is not home on days that she is used to having him (or "break days" as she calls them) she tends to be a little weepy; especially if he is not home at bedtime.  Doing special or fun things tends to take our mind off how much we miss him.  So to try and make the morning a little less sad, as Daddy walked out the door, I decided that I would surprise the kids with homemade donuts for breakfast.

I had never made homemade donuts before, but had been wanting to give it a try.  I figured how hard could fried dough be.  And with my new old school mindset, that anything homemade is better, I was bound to be successful.  I  had been looking for a recipe, so that I could check donut off the make from scratch list.  I came across a fairly simple recipe in an issue of Better Home an Garden Magazine and it is the one I decide to wip up for my first try. 

I prepared the dough on Friday night before bed and it chilled in the "ice box" over night.  *Side note:  Abigail actually called it an ice box the other day.  I was a little proud :) Maybe she will end up getting something from me. 

Then this morning, while waiting for my coffee to brew, all I had to do was roll out the dough and heat the oil. I used my new candy thermometer for the first time.
They turned out pretty good for my first time and MOST importantly the kids were very excited.  They LOVED them. 

"Yummy!"

"DOOOOONUT!!

Hannah admiring  the sprinkles

Finger licking good

This was my first time to submerge anything in a pot of boiling fat. Serious question..."What do I do with all the leftover oil?"

I like donuts as much as the next guy but ,WOW, that was a LONG post about donuts!

leaf rub and flower pressing

Fall is officially here and this week we did some fun fall activities.  For science the kids gathered leaves and drew their favorite find in their journal.  Their math activity for the week consisted of them counting and sorting their bag of leaves.  For some Friday fun we did a leaf rub and pressed the flowers that we used for our flower experiment a few weeks ago. 

Hannah working on her leaf rub

Abigail creating her leaf rub

placing the flowers inside the book

/st/

We had another great week of school with our /st/ sound. We read the old book, I Know a Postman. On Friday we took a "field trip" to the New Waverly Post office and Abigail mailed some letters that she wrote. She was so excited to put them in the mail she had been waiting for several weeks.  I was hoping that we could take a tour and see how they sort the mail but, one more way the world has changed since 9/11, they are no longer allowed to let us behind the counter. Her are some pictures of her smiling face at the Post office. 

Abigail putting on the stamps and return address labels.

wohoo, she is really excited!

Into the slot they go.

Renaissance Festival

October 9th we headed to Plantersville Texas to the Renaissance Festival with our neighbors.  We were very excited because it was supposed to be Octoberfest  weekend.  It did not seem to be very German but we still had a great time.  It was a fun and different thing to do with the kids for our "Saturday the Fun Day." Here are some pics from our day.

Fl /ow/ er week

October 4 - 7 we talked about the /ow/ sound like in flower.  A sweet friend told me about an experiment with carnations and colored water.  It sound to neat to pass up so, here is our flower experiment.

Hannah looking at the stem with her magnifying glass.

Abigail checking out the flower stem with her magnifying glass.

We placed the carnations in glasses of different colored water.

Next the girls drew what they observed in their journals and made predictions about what would happen to the flowers.

Hannah, "The flower will drink the red water through the holes in the stem and the flower will turn red." Hannah's prediction was correct.

Our yellow carnation.

Green carnation.  It was hard to see, but some of the very tips turned a light green.