This week was quite the busy week for us! The girls only had school this week on Monday and Tuesday due to some teacher training and All Saints' Day (Friday), so we had more time together at home to enjoy some Halloween activities.
I'll start with just some of the regular activities we did this week that I was actually able to document since we had so much time this week at home. Let's get started!
Here, the girls are busy coloring a giant poster of the very popular "Filly" ponies, much like the "My Little Pony" figurines. Here in Germany, they have these "Filly" figurines that the girls LOVE to collect. There are large ones and miniature ones and many come in chocolate eggs, which are obviously very popular.
Here, Ri is preparing her own snack by peeling her clementine, but she does not enjoy this activity. She prefers I just peel it for her, but she is capable of peeling it herself, so I let her work on at least the first one she eats.
Tay has been really enjoying doing math problems lately, so she always brings me her dry erase board to write some problems for her for her to work. Here she is showing her latest problem set. She looks so grown up here! Ack!
Since Tay has been working a lot on the dry erase board and I took a picture of her holding the board, Ri decided she needed to do some "work," too, so while her sister took a break, she got a hold of the board and did some "work" on it. She told me to take a picture of it. Can you tell what it is?
The beginning of this week was beautiful outside, and the temperature was still nice enough outside that the girls didn't need jackets to go outside to play. My big girl has really mastered "pumping" on the swing, so she enjoys spending brief moments outside swinging for a while. She looks so grown up here, too!
Ri continues to enjoy playing with her figurines. I wasn't sure what was going on here, but wanted to photograph it for posterity. She didn't even notice I took the picture. Belle was "captured" by the beads...it seemed. I was busy entertaining the baby to really pay attention to what was going on, but she was voicing each figurine and Belle was a "bad guy" that had been finally caught. I never learned why she was the "bad guy."
Tay is REALLY into card games and board games now. She learned a game in school called Schnipp-Schnapp, which is really a fun game, I've learned. But it takes forever to end. So we started playing a game called "
Blink." It says it's for 7+, but it's simple enough for Tay to play, and even Ri to play if I help her with the "number" piece. It's fast and quite exciting! Other favorite games are Chutes and Ladders, Candyland, and Zingo. We just introduced Zingo with Numbers, and Tay is getting the hang of it! Of course, Memory also continues to be a favorite.
Upstairs in the study room, we do more "educational" activities. Rea spends a lot of time on the floor practicing her crawling and sitting...and tasting all things.
The older two sit at their desks doing various activities like puzzles (Ri's favorite) and pattern-making with color blocks.
The pattern-making comes from the Saxon Math program that I have been slowly introducing to Tay. She is really enjoying all the activities and "classes" so far...so we are continuing. It's not as regimented as the program recommends, but she's in "school" half the day, so I didn't want to overwhelm her. Anyway, we will continue since it does seem to help her enjoy "learning."
Oh, and since I sometimes have to feed the baby while the girls are working in their study room, I will often just sit on the floor mat and feed her...and sometimes, Ri will come and bring her baby and sit RIGHT in front of me and "feed" her baby, too. Sweet girl.
Now, as you know, I have been trying to implement lots of participation in the kitchen by the girls. One activity is that when I am doing the dishes, the girls would help somehow. This activity is not super efficient and it's something I would normally not do if I was just doing the dishes on my own, but since it gives them an activity and gives them an opportunity to "help," I do it (long, crazy sentence!). Anyway, I wash one of their dishes and put it on the counter by the sink, instead of the drying rack.
Then, Ri or Tay comes to pick it up...
...and proceeds to dry it (this photo is of a different bowl).
Then, she goes and puts it away in "their" drawer where they have access to their own plates, bowls, cups, and silverware. With this drawer available, they know they can always get their own water, and they can help with dinner by setting the table or prepare their own snacks without having to ask me to do everything. Makes it easier on me, makes them more independent. Win win?
Now, this little girl...she is really providing a lot of laughs these days...and it's near impossible to get a clear photo of her because she is now constantly in motion!
I have to hold her tightly to get a non-blurry photo! :)
She loves to roll over in her sleep now. She also will rotate all over the mat, so I'm not sure where she will be when I wake up. I do not look forward to when she really gets crawling...
If any of the older sisters come over to our bed in the morning and decides to go back to sleep, Rea makes sure that they cannot sleep. She loves crawling all over them and particularly attacking the face.
She is very interested in all things that she can get her hands on - and if she can't get her hands on it, she will make every effort to reach it!
...even if it means she falls over - which she sometimes find to be very amusing.
This gal is also determined to STAND up. Here is her determined face. Her legs and back are not quite strong enough or coordinated enough to help her stand like she wants to, but if I hold her hands, she can stand...and it worries me. Eeep!
A couple other random photos that I didn't know how to work in before we get on with the Halloween photos. This photos shows how I, and my girls, eat wings. My plate is the white plate. Guess whose plate is the purple and whose is the pink. See how differently (or the same) we eat wings?
The week ended very rainy, so here's an adorable pic of Ri walking to her friend's birthday party yesterday holding her umbrella and wearing her rain boots.
On with the Halloween activities!!!
First, we made some vampire apple teeth.
Packed them in their lunches on Tuesday to "scare" their classmates...
Eeeeek! Hehehe...
We also opened some special ghost lights for trick-or-treating from Halmuni!
We watched a VERY scary movie..."Monster House"...(it really was very scary! Even for me!). They were so cute...they held hands and sat cuddled together the whole movie!
Ri was particularly scared, so she ended up lying across Tay as she stroked her back.
Then, we made some creepy octopus spaghetti for lunch one day. Here's Tay helping put the uncooked noodles into the hot dogs.
Ready to be cooked!
Cooked and sauced.
YUM. This is a favorite of the girls.
Another creepy snack we made: Witch fingers!
They look much better before they are cooked, but these are cheesy "witch fingers." Tasted like a lighter version of Cheez-Its!
We carved another pumpkin on Halloween because Tay wanted a go at carving one herself. Here are the girls scooping out the seeds...
Then Tay working on the design she wanted to cut out...
...she chose a cat face.
Now, to help her along, I went ahead and took a knife and created a shallow cut along the stencil as a guide. Then, she took the "saw" and got to work. Ri wanted in on the action, so I let her work one whisker for a bit, but she kept getting distracted and not paying attention to the blade, so we ended that activity quickly.
Tay, on the other hand, worked diligently...
..."smile!"...
...cut cut cut...she wanted my help to hold the pumpkin because she sometimes needed both hands to cut through the pumpkin.
...and here's the final product!
Then we got a little silly with some orange slices...we were originally trying to make cat ears, but they ended up looking like eye brows instead, so we just moved them into a more proper place.
Another Halloween food we made were "Mummy-dogs." Here's Tay working on some left over dough to make into pizza.
Baked! Like the eyes?
Hehehehe...
We served these with ketchup, and they were quite delicious. I think you could also serve with some marinara sauce...I bet that would be quite tasty as well.
My little Halloween babies.
My wee-pumpkin! This is right after we had been trick-or-treating with the big sisters in the cold weather...see how red the pumpkin's nose is? We traded out with Jeff and he continued to trick-or-treat with them while we manned the candy basket at home.
OK, I think I had mentioned before that Tay has started earning an "allowance" of sorts, but our allowance is tied to her chores. I know, I know...most recommend separating allowance from "responsibilities," but this works for us for now. Anyhow, she really wanted an Easy Bake Oven when we went to the store about three months ago. We told her she needed to save up her money to buy it herself. So, when we got home, I made her this money envelope. The oven was $44 and some change, so I rounded up and told her she had to save up $45. I made 45 little boxes for her to mark off as she added dollars into her envelope. This Saturday, she finally had saved up enough money to go buy it! She was SO excited.
She found it at the store...
...and we let her pay for it with her money all by herself! She looks so GROWN UP! Noooooo!
When she got home, she wanted to make something right away...of course. So, we read through the directions together, and she proceeded to get to work. Here she is making the dough.
Rolling the dough into little cookie balls.
Pressing them onto the pan.
All baked! (I failed to get the photos of her getting them into the oven and such...)
She is arranging them on a "serving plate" to share.
Ready! They were surprisingly tasty!
Then, she had to wash her own pan, of course.
Now, on to the rest of this week's food. Ri helped make a "depression" cake. Called this because it was invented during the Great Depression by using no eggs or butter, which were hard to come by due to their cost. She had fun making it...although it was a bit messy. She's a little "excitable."
Pouring...
This is the picture of the frosting we put on the cake...
...or beside the cake...in this instance. Yummy.
Here are some chorizo patties I made for "sliders" one day. They went fast.
The beautiful vegetable we ate this week - a Romanesco Broccoli (or Romanesque Cauliflower)
About to be roasted in the oven. Tossed in a tablespoon of melted butter, sprinkled with salt and pepper, with a few thin slices of lemon placed on top.
Both girls really liked it! But they do like both broccoli and cauliflower...mucho.
Here she is sneaking another bite!
Ah...a deliciously grilled london broil. Yes, we enjoy our beef still moo-ing at us a bit...rubbed with garlic and marinated in balsamic vinegar for about four hours. YUMMY.
Here's a salad I packed for Jeff one day for lunch. The salad dressing is an avocado dressing I made that turned out surprisingly well! I'm sad avocado season is over...:(
Ah, and I can't forget our chocolate cake-pop muffins. I didn't get any actual "muffins" out of the pan (they weren't too pretty), but they were still quite delicious!
And last, but not least, alphabet pasta is always fun and tasty to eat! :)
I'm sorry this post was so long, but I hope you were able to make it all the way to the end without losing interest. I really need to start breaking these up and writing more during the week if I have a lot to share...Eh.
Have a great week!
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