Black, the Color of the Week

Sorry this is a week late everyone, I have been super busy with the family! Black was our color of the week last week, but it was also the last color that we are going to do. Next week's will be Halloween, and after that we will begin learning about the weather. Here is our tribute to the color black, our final color of the week.

Sunday: PUMPKIN PATCH!!!! Usually we go to Walter's Pumpkin Patch, but we wanted something a little closer to home this year so we went to Cox's Farm instead. It was just as much fun, and a lot cheaper. First Ares played some carnival games, and won a prize!

Then the kids explored the kid tunnels, "milked" a cow, and played on the playground.

Next up was the tractor train! They were all excited to go, but once they started Brigid freaked out so I had to take her out. Poor baby! At least Ares and Ceridwen had fun though.

After this we went to through the hay maze. I think Ares had the most fun in the maze out of all of us!

Once we were done with the hay maze, the kiddos got some temporary tattoos, and then they road tricycles around.

We then rode on a hayride out to the pumpkin patch. Once we got there we saw that there was a petting farm, and Ares was able to feed the goats.

Then it was time to go through the corn maze. Luckily this was an easy corn maze, and all of the kids enjoyed it!

As soon as we were done with the corn maze, it was time for everyone to pick their pumpkins!

We rode the hayride back to the exit, and was able to finally get a picture of all of them with my mom.

Monday: This was just a normal day for us. The girls played, and did a water activity. Ares went to school, and he did his homework when he got home, like he does everyday when he is with me, and then we colored and played with legos.

Tuesday: Now this day was action packed! After Kyle and I dropped Ares off at school, I met up with Kyle Ann and Jude for a play date at the park while Kyle went to move stuff out of storage from his brother's place. Ceri, Brigid, and Jude had so much fun playing together!

Kyle and I then went and did some Christmas shopping, and we made a pit stop at Petland so the girls could play with a puppy. Sorry everyone I didn't think about it at the time, but they should have played with the black puppy for this week, but instead I made them play with whatever breed this dog is that is completely hypo-allergenic since I'm allergic to dogs.

After this we went home for lunch, and then picked up Ares from school. We then took them all to their Grandma and Grandpa's house to say hi, and for them to give Ares his Halloween costume. He was so excited because he was going to be a BLUE Batman!

Wednesday: We did an art activity for the day, and this actually had to do with the color black! I had the girls make handprint spiders.

Once Ares was out of school I went to his parent teacher conference, and then we did his homework for the day, and since he did such a great job with he, he was allowed to go to his Aunt Lindsey's pumpkin carving party! He had so much fun!

Thursday: After taking Ares to school, the day was filled with cleaning, washing clothes, and finishing packing for the twins and I's trip to Colorado with my Mom. Sadly, Ares was not able to join us because his dad had other plans.

Friday: We made it to Denver, Colorado, and spent the day at the Denver Zoo. This was the first time I had ever been there so it was very exciting to see some animals that our zoo doesn't have. Here are some pictures from our trip.

 

 

This picture is for all of The Princess Bride fans out there. Now you know that ROUS' (Rodents of unusual size) really do exist!

We had the girls ride the carousal at the zoo. Considering Brigid's dislike of the tractor train earlier this week we didn't think she would like it. It surprised us when she was the one who loved it, and Ceri was the one who had a melt down.

We then went back to the hotel for a relaxing swim, and then went to Annette and D.T.'s house for dinner and good company. We all had a wonderful time, and the food was delicious!

Saturday: That morning I got the girls in their costumes that I had made for them (Ceri was Harley Quinn and Brigid was Poison Ivy), and drove to Broomfield (a suburb of Denver) for their Annual Spooktacular event. The girls had a blast playing the games, getting prizes, and trick or treating.

After all this fun it was time for even more fun! It was time to go to my best friend Cassidi's house for her son Charlie's 3rd birthday. She did an amazing job with the party, it was super cute!!! The theme was super hero so she had some really cute labels for the food like, "Make your own Hero Sandwich", "Hulk Power Punch", and Kyrptonite (which was green rock candy).

We all had so much fun at the birthday party!

After the party we were too full to eat dinner, but Mom and I picked up cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory to have later. Pumpkin cheesecake was definitely a perfect ending to an awesome day!

On Sunday it was time to say goodbye to Colorado, and head back home. Kyle and Ares had a ton of fun without us though. On Saturday, they brought flowers to Grandma for her birthday, and then went to Amy's for a Halloween Party with all of the cousins. Ares was especially excited about this because Camden had come up from Oklahoma for the party. Then on Sunday they went to church, watched the Chiefs win, and then went to Jacoby's 3rd birthday party. We got home a lot earlier than we thought we would, and I was able to surprise my boys when they got home from the party!

White, the Color of the Week

This week has really felt like fall, weather wise! We finally have been in the 60's instead of the 80's, and I have finally turned off my air conditioning. You might find it weird that I would have the ac on in 80 degree weather, but our townhome that we live in has a flat roof so it is hard to keep cool. Luckily though it keeps heat in really well, and even though the weather can be in the 40's outside my house will be a pleasant 69 degrees without having to turn the heat on. This is great because gas can be so expensive! All this wonderful cool weather called for some fun activities, and some comfort food. Our color of the week was white, and this is what we did for it:

Sunday: We went apple picking at Steffan's Orchard in Conway with my brother-in-law Darren, his boyfriend Matty, and Matty's kids, Celest and Ru. We went later in the year than we did last year, we found out that most of the trees had been picked clean. We got our share of wonderfully delicious crisp apples though!

 

My kids love apples, especially Ares, who ate around 3 of them throughout the time we were there.

After apple picking we all went for a delicious dinner at Gambino's, and it was so much to eat and catch up with family. We were there for quite awhile just enjoying each others company!

Monday: Kyle and I spent the afternoon cleaning and airing out the house. We then made one of our favorite soups, copycat Panera broccoli and cheese soup, along with some homemade bread. YUM! Here is the recipe from when I made it last year. It is delicious! While the soup was cooking, Ares and I started work on the apple pie from the apples we picked on Sunday. I decided to make Caramel Apple Crunch Pie. We sliced the apples, added the ingredients to the apples, mixed it up, and put it into the pie. I then made double the crumble to put on top, then added the pie crust. It made our whole house smell divine! My friend Nick was over at the house helping Kyle and I with some financial budget, and I gave him and his boss our first slices, and they gave their stamp approval. Shortly after the kids and Kyle gave their approval as well! This pie was much better than the one I made last year.

Tuesday: For our science project for this week I had the girls make their own butter. This went better than what I had done so far for the color white this week (ask you can obviously see from above). 

What you'll need:
Heavy Whipping Cream
Baby food jar with lid

1.) You fill the jar half full of  heavy whipping cream. (We made a little bit of a mess with ours!)

 

2.) Then shake it for about 10 minutes, or until the cream is thick and sticking together.

 

3.) Pour out the remaining milk (this is buttermilk), and then put the butter in your hands and run it under cold water to get off any buttermilk. Add a little bit of salt and roll it into the butter if you want too. We didn't because I think it tastes better without. Then you put it back in the jar and you have butter. If you notice, homemade butter is a lot more white than store butter.

 

The rest of our day was very quaint. I helped Ares with his homework after school, like I always do, and then surprised him with a new book for him to read. This book was very special to me because the books I had found the day before are old (published in the 40's- early 60's), and they belonged to my Dad, and possibly one of my grandparents too. The book I had him read was "Fun with Dick and Jane", and he loved it! He said he liked it better than some of his other books.

 

Wednesday: This day was just so blissful! After school I took the kids to Riverside Park because I knew there would be geese there. I was hoping to see snow geese, but all we could find while driving around the river were the Canadian Geese. The kids tried to get close to the geese, but they had other ideas.

 

We also found a squirrel hole in a tree, and all the kids wanted their turn to see what was up in it. Sadly, Ares said there wasn't anything in it.

 

When we got home the house smelled wonderfully of dinner that was cooking in the crockpot. For dinner I had made white chicken chili, and it was absolutely delicious!

 

For dessert I made Pumpkin Spice White Hot Chocolate, and it was heavenly! Everyone loved it!

 

After we finished our yummy dessert, Ares wanted to play a game with Kyle called Small World. I just learned how to play this game just a few days prior, and was in no position to be helpful to Ares play the game so I just watched. Brigid tried to help play too.

 

Thursday: After taking Ares to school it was cleaning day, again. It was a nice and quiet afternoon.

 

Friday: I got to watch little Miss Emma again!  The girls had so much fun playing together!

 

For our art project of the week I had the kids make ghost foot print plates. I just painted their little footsies....

 

Then stamped those little footsies onto black paper plates...

 

and this was the final product! Aren't they adorable!?!