Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from our little witches!  Our little witches also want to send special birthday wishes to the Chief Witch in NY.  

As you'll see below, neither one was tall enough to be a ghost this year.  

Photos of the citizens in their costumes to follow in a few days.

Blair Witches?

Do you recall the movie The Blair Witch Project?  To be fair, I don't recall most of it, but I do remember there was a lot of running in the woods.  At night.

Our video isn't quite as scary.  It's a corn maze.  And it's day time.  But the kids kept popping out to "scare" me.  

Are these two in training to run in the woods at night and scare their mother?  I hope not...

Hiking The Fells

We had a chance to take a lovely fall walk through the Middlesex Fells park.  Along the way, we stopped by Spot Pond for a short snack:

"The Magical Place"

I just don't get it.  Our kids watch Netflix where there are no commercials.  So how (or why) the heck did they get the idea to start calling our local McDonald's "The Magical Place"?  

As we drive by, you can hear the reverence in their voice as they point it out to me, afraid that I might pass by too quickly and miss the opportunity to see the Magical Place once again.  It's the same excited voice Adam uses when he sees a Subaru STI on the road (which is a fairly high level of excitement, just for the record).

When I asked Karla about this, she smiled sheepishly and said, "We only go there on special occasions."  A-ha!  Mystery solved.

 Being the good natured mom that I am, I took them there a few days ago:

And the irony of it all?  Neither one wanted to climb any higher than the steps you see in the clips.  We'll have to get Karla to work on that one ;)

Homeschooling, Lesson #19

Today we studied Vietnamese culture, specifically food (isn't that what so many of our posts are about?).  In today's lesson, we tackled traditional Vietnamese pho with chopsticks.  Not an easy task;  those noodles are slippery little things!

We are going to have to ask our next au pair for help.  If Adam and Ashley were to rely upon chopsticks alone, they wouldn't eat very much.

But I do give them enormous credit for trying so hard to succeed!

Playing with Leaves

Best part about fall in New England?  Playing in the leaves:

Making "leaf angels"

Topsfield Is Tops, Part #3

And today is our final tribute to the Topsfield Fair:  food.  Adam and Ashley happily wolfed down the warm cider donut before I could even take out my camera.  So Adam then tried some fried dough (huge hit).  Ashley preferred the soft pretzel.

Sheesh Mom!  Can you take a photo when I'm not eating?

No more pretzel!

Topsfield Is Tops, Part #2

Entertainment!  That's why Adam and Ashley wanted to go to the fair.  They were even more excited to learn that our neighbor was able to join us for the morning:

With the tame ride out of the way, we ventured to the more exciting rides.  First we took flight:

Then we plowed the fields:

And chugged on home:

Tomorrow will be the final installment of our trip to the fair.  Stay tuned!

Topsfield Is Tops, Part #1

Karla and I took the citizens to see the Topsfield Fair, the oldest agricultural fair in the States.  There was so much to see, learn and eat, that I'm going to separate our visit into 3 posts:  Education, Entertainment, and Eating (because I always work food into this blog).

Today's spotlight:  Education

We waited patiently in line to pet bunny rabbits:

Feed the ducks:

And stand next to the winner of this year's Big Pumpkin Contest:

And if you're wondering, yes, the pumpkin is displayed in a temperature controlled environment, with better air quality than we experienced in other areas of the farm (I'm referring to the Cow Barn and Sheep Area in particular, ha!).

Tomorrow's post?  Entertainment!

Homeschooling, Lesson #18

A homeschoolin' mama such as myself understands when it's time to bring in the pros.  Or rather, when to bring your students to the pros.  We visited Drumlin Farm to learn about hawks.  

This one here is about 10 years old and came to Drumlin Farm as a baby.  She is blind in one eye and unable to live in the wild on her own.  Adam and Ashley, who are excellent at following a teacher's instructions, sat quietly to avoid startling the hawk.

Apple Picking

It was a lovely fall day, so we packed up the car and headed to our favorite spot in Groton, MA, to go apple picking.  Best part of all?  We didn't need the backpacks to carry the citizens this year.  They were able to climb up the big hill!

Early Reader?

Both Adam and Ashley love to read.  While we were in NY, Adam found a copy of "Cars" at the local library.  It was a match made in heaven:

Family Fashion Show

Got to give the kids in our extended family credit:  they sure do know how to entertain themselves while the adults are eating.  This year they decided to hold an impromptu fashion show using locally sourced fabrics (thank you, Aunt Mindy!).  All of the kids wanted to participate, so there are three clips to watch:

Sukkah Builders

Yes, I'm behind on my posts.  Again.  Why?  We've been so busy with exciting activities and taking photos that I haven't had time to blog.

So a couple of weeks ago we were invited over to our friends' home to help them build and decorate their sukkah.  See Daddy?  He's the green jacket.

While the daddies were figuring out the tough stuff, Adam and Ashley raked the leaves so the sukkah would start off nice and clean:

This is fun!

Aaaagh!  Leaves are getting stuck!  Is it time for a snack?

Tee hee!  I'm using a rake without a handle!

Wii are Family

Ava loves teaching the A-team how to shake, rattle and roll with the Wii:

Dreamy Dessert

Going to NY is fun.

Seeing our cousins is great!

Going to NY, seeing our cousins AND sharing ice cream together?  Just dreamy!

Turtleback Zoo

Adam and Ashley visited Turtleback Zoo a few days ago with Baba and Dedushka.  Best part of the zoo was not the animals.  It was the merry go round.

First Fireworks

In a rare moment of craziness, MLD and I decided to keep the kids up way past their bedtime so that we could enjoy the fireworks on Arlington Town Day.

The clips below are from before it was dark enough to launch the fireworks.  But I have to say, watching fireworks with kids is a different experience all together.  Adam held Daddy's hands over his ears so that he could clap each time a new firework launched.  Ashley sat in rapt attention, fully in awe of the show in the night sky.  "Oh Mommy, this is bee-YOO-ti-ful!"

Will we do this again?  Absolutely!

Cliffhanger

Yesterday's post was a cliffhanger, right?  Did they like the quesadillas?  Will they want to eat them again?  Will Mommy have to make an alternate dinner on the spot?  Roll the tape:

Homeschooling, Lesson #17

In today's homeschooling lesson we covered foreign cuisine:  quesadillas.  (OK, so I had some leftover chicken that needed creative reworking.)  Adam and Ashley rose to the occasion and were fantastic chefs-in-training.  

Muchas gracias Karla!  Thank you for recording the whole process.

Flying Fairy

When Ashley dresses up, she takes flight: