Halloween Night

We had a WONDERFUL Halloween night. I hooked up the fog machine with a timer and had Manny put in a red light on the porch, so with the decorations and jack-o-lanterns plus the new Bones the skeleton our house looked pretty cool. Skyler wouldn't go outside when the fog came out so I had to turn it off for picture taking. I even made extra special treat bags for the trick or treaters this year filled with toys and stuff.

Here are Shayna and Skyler going trick or treating. Notice Skyler is holding BOTH treat buckets. I LOVE this photo!

Skyler walked to maybe 3 houses, and after he ran into the 3rd house and cried when we took him out Manny got the stroller for the rest of the night. Luckily it was warm, no gloves or coats needed.
Shayna and her gamey pumpkin. By Halloween night the pumpkins we carved Friday night were very gamey. Monday Shayna and I were joking about it and Shayna said that if a robber comes to rob our house the gamey pumpkins will keep them away.
Shayna in front of a cool house on our street:

We actually made it to Sarmiento this year- i.e. three streets. Every year Shayna begs to do a little more and since it was so nice we added a little more to the walk. Now what will we do with all this candy???!!!

Blue Angel

We took the kids to the Adventure Aquarium and Children's Garden today (sunday). They were having a halloween event (as about every place does, we had planned on going to the Counts halloween spooktacular at Sesame Place saturday but it was too cold). Shayna got to wear her costume for the 2nd time, this time we just had her own hair with blue spray & streaks. I got some artsy photos of her....

1. She really looks like a blue angel with the blue lighting in the shark tunnel:
2. I thought this double image was pretty cool:
3. We stopped for a snack in the cafe and the sun was very low, I thought Shayna looked very angelic with the light shining on her like this:

angel and devil

There was a little maze in the garden. This is the first time I ever saw Skyler scared. He wouldn't take the candy from the monster in the coffin: Checking out the fish:

Peace loving little devil

Skyler decided to pass up on the story time in the barn to go and check out the flowers: he didn't want to wear his devil horns but liked holding his devil pitchfork. he also would get in character and say "rarrrrrr!"
can you see his tail?

Pumpkins: the finale

The jack-o-lanterns are all ready for Halloween 2006!!!

Skyler loved the pumpkin that Manny carved for him, he kept growling.

Pumpkins Stage 4

Friday night we did the 4th stage in making the jack-o-lanterns, the carving. Manny carved Skyler's pumpkin for him. here is the art work in progress: The final result- 3 different jack-o-lanterns:

Pumpkins: Stage 3

Thursday we did the 3rd stage in making our jack-o-lanterns. We cut out the tops and then scooped out and scraped the insides. We used some of the kit we got in the haunted geo cache and also the electric pumpkin carving knife/tool.

Here is the start of my pumpkin:
Shayna scooping out her pumpkin. She loves doing this. She scooped out hers and my pumpkin.
When Skyler saw what was going on, he wanted his pumpkin opened up too. He also liked looking inside the pumpkins:
Here is skyler scopping out his pumpkin:
All done!

School Projects

Shayna has two school projects in the works.

The first is for her regular 4th grade science class, in which they have been studying geology, focusing on rocks & minerals. They have an optional project they can do, which lists about 10 different types of projects. She is going to try "interview a geologist." Today she e mailed a geology professor at U. Penn. Hopefully he will read and respond, and if he can't do an interview (via phone or in person) maybe he will pass it onto one of his co-workers in the geology department. if she does get to meet him it will be a huge honor, as he has an extremely impressive resume on his home page:
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/earth/giegenga.html

The second is for art class (special). She has to do an art research project/report and needs to choose an artist. She is leaning towards choosing Salvador Dali.

She has also been leaning about art appreciation in her SIP/ gifted class....learning about art history from the beginning, the progression of art, and now impressionism. They are also learning about Pompeii. They had previously studied Japan and learned about Hiroshima. which led to tonights thought: would you rather have been in Pompeii during the volcano Vesuvius explosion or in Hiroshima when the bomb dropped? She had coincidentally gotten a Discovery Kids magazine about Pompeii, and said she didn't fully understand what pumice was until ms. Welch explained it.

Pumpkins: Stages 1 and 2

The week before halloween is sacred to me, like the week before christmas is to some people. I am busy* with preparing the pumpkins, ordering for goodie bags, getting the school treats planned out, finalizing the outside decorations, making plans for lots of halloween themed activities, and perfecting the kids costumes. This also includes watching as many halloween TV shows and movies as possible and reading ghost stories out loud (this is something new I am trying this year). if it was possible, it would include going to quite a few scary haunted attractions as well- and if not being able to go to them, at least knowing about the very best (as in the one in NYC, Nightmare and Universal Studios Florida). I will vent this desire out later when the kids are older.

Today we did parts one and two in making jack-o-lanterns. We went to a local farm market to buy the pumpkins. Then Shayna did part 2- cleaning the pumpkins. here is Skyler posing with our pumpkins. Can you guess which one is his and which one is Shayna's?



*note- this is in addition to all my normal tasks, both at home and work/business related- so I am one busy woman this time of year!

New words this week

Skyler's new words this week:

ewwwwww (mainly used when referring to nose snot)
eye
dog
Sky (referring to himself)
cheese
button

he says "meow" for cat and "choo choo" for train and "beep beep" for car

not this week, but he has been saying "sissy" for a few weeks

There may be a few others but those are the main ones I can think of right now.

Haunted Cache

We did a 3 step "multi cache" today with a halloween theme.

For step One, we had to go to the GPS coordinates given online. Once we found the micro cache, it would give us the coordinates for step 2. It was on Haunted Lane in Bensalem. Since it turned out to be by the side of the road, Manny went first and then we pulled up the car closer. There was a clue (given online) which we had to decrypt. The clue said "First stage: where are the hands when the clock says three o'clock?" This led us to the sign below: Behind the sign was the magnetic cache- the next coordinates were inside:
We drove to the next place that the coordinates took us to. It took us to a cemetary in Rt. 13 in Croyden. We were told to look for a "heavenly object" with a plaque. Here is what we found: We had to use the letters on the plaque to get the last 4 digits of the 2 coordinates needed for Step 3. The "LEO" and "FINM" gave us those numbers using the chart given to us online (i.e. L=9; E=6; and so on). The rest of the coordinates were given to us online (with blanks for the missing numbers). OK- now once we had those coordinates we could now go onto Step 3 and actually LOOK for the haunted cache.
We took a short walk through the old cemetary, to a small wooded area. Since there was no clear path to the exact coordinates, I volunteered to look- I had on hiking boots. Shayna came in after me a few minutes later. I found it inside a part of what is the biggest tree stump I have EVER seen (at least 10-15' diameter). It was well hidden in the top covered with bark and foliage. This photo is after I moved the bark aside that was covering it:
Shayna and Skyler checking out the cache after I brought it out into the open area:
Some of the goodies inside the cache:
We took the pumpkin carving kit and left a halloween slinky and dracula teeth. I signed the log book before placing the cache back into its hiding place:

Halloween Costume 2006 Premiere

Shayna had her first outing in her costume for 2006: a blue angel.May be hard to see in the pic, but she has a silver halo, blue glitter make-up around eyes, blue make up on lips, blue nailpolish, blue bracelet, and blue heart shaped locket necklace. we ordered the costume & wig online- luckily they both arrived today. we also got skyler's devil costume- no dry run with him yet.
we ran around for a few hours after school trying to find all the accessories:

1. devil pitchfork: check (halloween adventure store)
2. blue lipstick: no luck- will keep searching
3. white ballet slippers: check (payless)
4. blue glitter make up: check (claire's)
5. skull cap for under wig: check (halloween store at mall), we were not looking for this but found it
6. blue nailpolish: had it already in bathroom cupboard (have a thing for blue nailpolish)
7. blue make up: check (halloween adventure store)

For her next outing (probably next weekend) I will add on a blue heart on her cheek.

If anyone knows where to find blue lipstick please let me know!!!

This is Halloween

We went to see the re-released Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D tonight. The music has been playing in my head all night.

Go here to check it out- its a cool website. Check out Jack on the first page as you move the mouse cursor around:
http://adisney.go.com/disneypictures/nightmare/index.html

Flute

Shayna brought home her flute today. She started lessons at school last week but got the flute today. She also got a lesson book (comes with a CD-Rom and DVD) and music stand. She has lessons once a week at school and has to log all her time spent practicing for each week. She practiced for 90 minutes today!! This is even with going out shopping, doing all her homework, and eating dinner. The flute is through a "rent to own" program, which means we own the instrument in few years. She can also take it to Florida, since the company is national.
Shayna is now in the school band, since she plays the flute. She is also in the school choir. Both choir rehersal and the flute lesson take place on Wednesday.
Above photo: Here is Skyler hanging out with Shayna while she practices. he was saying "mom" just as I took this photo.

It was my idea for her to take advantage of the free school music lessons. partly for all the obvious reasons, and that she was already self teaching herself piano, etc. But also in homage to my grandparents, Ben and Freda. They believed learning to play an instrument/music was very important. I know if they were still here and 100% lucid they would be encouraging thier great grandchildren to play musical instruments. BUT, Shayna also seems to really like it (so far!) and wants to learn. She even was saying she wanted to go home already so she could practice more while we were out shopping.

New foods and new words this week

Skyler had Pillsbury chocolate chip pancakes for the first time - he really likes them. he also tried french toast sticks. He likes anything with chocolate chips in it.

Notice how he puts his fork on the napkin.
At this meal he had a smorgasbord of chicken nuggets (green bowl), rice krispie treat, and the pancakes. Actually, the 1/2 a treat and part of a nugget were leftover from earlier in the night. I just figured out he likes the smaller and cheaper brand frozen nuggets better then the nicer Tyson ones that Shayna likes better. and for some reason like his sister likes McDonalds nuggets the best. why don't they sell those in the supermarket?
Skyler likes to have both milk and juice . I figure good to get as much Vitamin C and Calcium in him as possible.

Skyler's new words:

Help and bye

The first time we heard him use "help" was Monday when asking for help doing the teletubbie puzzle, and again later reaching for the light switch in the dining room. He has been saying bye for about a week now.

Monster Magic Show

I took the kids to the Halloween themed "Monster Magic Show" at the library tonight. It was a really good one, and the most entertaining magician I ever saw. The whole room was filled and he had all the kids hysterical- they were really getting into it. of course, Skyler only sat maybe 40% of the time. He got incorporated into the show a few times when the magician ad libbed when Skyler would run onto the "stage area" or grab one of the props. he was a pretty good ad libber and didn't seem to mind Skyler's antics even referring to him once as his assistant. Shayna also got called up at the end to draw the face of a monster. He asked for the scariest face and he liked the face Shayna made. He then had another kid draw the body and another the feet. After some magic- poof- a white live bunny emerged as the "monster."

here is one of the rare times Skyler actually sat and watched the show:
Here is a video - a sampling of Skyler's antics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxmRD31G304

Haunted House

I took Shayna to her first haunted house tonight. It was her idea. I asked her last night what she wanted to do on Sunday, because we spent most of the weekend shopping. She said she wanted to go to the hay maze (will do that next weekend) and a haunted house. So today she looked on the internet and found one near us. She has been to haunted houses before, but during the day when they are not done up all scary with actors.

So off we went to the Festival of fears http://www.festivaloffears.com/ Haunted House.

To make it even more scary, we were the ONLY ones in the haunted house during our entire visit. Not until we had left the house did we see others approaching. So all the ghouls were 100% focused on scaring us.

Here is the outside- only half of it can be seen in the photo:

Below is part of the first room you enter in the house. The ghoul told us a story about himself and the house. There was a hallway leading to this room and in the corner was a never ending drop (you peer down into it). After his talk a secret door opened up after a bookcase was moved aside - pretty cool!
here is what was called 'the vortex." It didn't photograph well, but looked so neat. It was a long tunnel, all red with fog swirling inside. Shayna said, are we supposed to climb in there? Then unexpectedly a face appeared in the hole and yelled which startled us and made us scream!

After that we went through all kinds of neat rooms and hallways and encountered all kinds of scary people. One was measuring us against a wall to fit into a coffin. He improvised by saying that even though Shayna was small enough to fit into the coffin he would cut her up anyway. At one point - the only time Shayna ran/walked fast - we were chased by a ghoul with a chainsaw.

When we left she said she knew the whole time they wouldn't really hurt us so that got her through it.

Our First Geocache

We did our first geo cache on Thursday. A geo cache is a "treasure" hidden by a GPS user who then logs the GPS coordinates on the web site www.geocaching.com.
You then use your gps and the coordinates to find the treasure, usually in a plastic container. You then sign the log, and record your find on the web site's log for that specific geo cache. The rule is if you take something, that you replace it, and also record what you took and left.

For our first geo cache, we tried the bensalem community park cache (Click here: (GCX4BC) Bensalem Community Park Cache by scifiguy), which is in the local park near our house. It was in the hiking trail in part of the park. The neat thing is we never even knew there was a hiking trail there! this is the park we go to frequently to take the kids to the playground, and also where Shayna did cheerleading a few years ago for the Bucks County Bears. Also, near the site of the geo cache was a cute little brook. The cache was cleverly hidden under a fallen tree, and I foudn out later by reading the online log that the previous visitors had made it even harder to find by hiding it much better.

Here is where it was hidden. Where would you have looked??? A ha! You have to move the tree bark away to find the secret hiding area beneath the fallen tree!
Shayna is pointing to the cache:
Checking out what is inside the box. there was a LOT of stuff in there! Even a baby toy- the star Skyler is holding:
The lid of the box:
The log book:
All of the cool stuff inside the box:

Skyler checking out the stuff: What we took- a mini alien toy (not pictured) and the Intel bunnyman TRAVEL BUG!!!

A travel bug has his own site on the geocaching site. he comes with a tag and number. if you go to this site, you can see his history, the stories about where he has traveled and what he has done, including photos:

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?tracker=526628

This travel bug, the Bunnyman, is named "Son of a sailorman." His mission is to visit every state of the US that has a working light house. he has a dog tag on him with the web site www.groundspeak.com and his serial # is 526628. We plan on taking him with us on vacation in November, taking lots of photos of him at various locales (including his mission, to see lighthouses), and then dropping him off at a geo cache in Florida so he can continue his mission.

How appropriate we found the "sailor man" one, being that Manny loves boating so much and we all love the water. We are the perfect family for him.

One thing I love about the travel bug concept is it reminds me of the gnome in the movie "Amelie" which I LOVED.

To read about what a travel bug is go here:

http://www.geocaching.com/track/faq.aspx

*By the way- we are hooked on geo caching and can't wait to do another one!