fun at school!

 These last 2 weeks have been so busy with activities at school. And Matt and I have been lucky enough to be there for most of them. It started last week with Lucy's first field trip to the pumpkin patch! Lucy's preschool didn't do field trips so she was extra excited to go and even more excited that Matt would be chaperoning. Because of work schedules and other upcoming school commitments I knew I couldn't be there so Matt took the day off and spent 3.5 hours in the dumping rain with loads of kindergartners running around beside him. While the weather didn't cooperate for most of the trip they both had a great time.

 So many kids!

 Luckily Lucy and her buddy wore matching rain boots so it was easy for Matt to keep track of them.

 Later in the week Carter and Simon played some Harry Potter before I took Simon over to the bookstore. It's so funny...while he wants to do everything his older siblings do (ie. Harry Potter) he still has his own strong personality and seeks out every sports book at the bookstore to read through.

Wednesdays are usually my favorite days of the week because the kids have early release so we have a few extra hours in the afternoon for play dates, riding bikes or playing outside. But last week it was cold and wet so I surprised the kids with homemade caramel apples as an after school treat! While it was incredibly messy to make and eat, it was pretty fun too.

 Carter was sick at the end of the week so I had an unexpected day at home with just the boys while Lucy was at school. We pulled out games, chess and trains to pass the time before taking long naps in the afternoon. Thank goodness his fever ended quickly and we were able to keep our weekend plans the same.

 Over the weekend the kids convinced me to carve Lucy's pumpkin from her field trip. We are saving our bigger pumpkins for this weekend so they don't get too rotten before Halloween but they really wanted to roast some seeds. So I happily obliged because it was a tiny pumpkin and hardly made a mess.

 The weather has been so much better this week and we've been able to play outside every afternoon! With the beautiful fall leaves on the ground and the sun shining...it doesn't get much better. We took over the cul-de-sac with ALL the sports equipment and played until dinner.

 I spent 3.5 hours volunteering in Lucy's classroom earlier in the week and then got to go into Carter's class on Wednesday to teach the first cooking lesson of the year. I'm the cooking docent this year and am so excited. His teacher really believes kids should learn basic life skills besides spending time doing reading and writing so we have a monthly cooking unit to go along with whatever they might be studying. This month...pumpkin muffins! The kids got to scoop out the seeds from sugar pumpkins, we roasted them and then used the homemade puree to make muffins. It was messy and a little hectic but by round 5 I had it mastered and every single student devoured their muffin after recess. Success!

 And finally, the next day I spent more time at school chaperoning Carter's first field trip of the year! We headed down to the Seattle Art Museum for some time in the art studio and touring the gallery. There were so many beautiful exhibits and the kids really enjoyed learning more about the elements of art and identifying them from various artists.

We ended the day at the park for Lucy's last soccer practice of the season. Matt came home from a week away and we ran and played until it was cold and dark. 

Another week down, a busy weekend planned and then...Halloween!