This year Timmy picked our theme and he wanted it to be spooky. Which makes zero sense because the boy is afraid of his own shadow. My kids think Snow White is scary so this should be interesting.

Timmy is a Vampire, Grace is a witch and Lydia is a cat.

Lydia is probably not going to love these photos when she gets older but she makes for the cutest little booty pumpkin.

All she wants to do is eat the pumpkins and Grace for real ate them when we were carving. Is that normal & safe? I do not know.

Timmy was very serious about this pumpkin thing because he wants the seeds for his garden. He plants everything these days.

Which brings me to this video. I had such high hopes for the magic of this idea..until he found the price tag. Oops.

Well we tried. Lol

We went to the Pumpkin Patch on the most beautiful Florida day. Look at these cute littles in their boots. I love it so much I want to hang it in my house. Reminds me how me and Tim met country line dancing and now we have three kids rocking their cowboy boots.

We went through the corn maze and on a hayride. Then we played in the pumpkin patch and I loaded them all into a wagon for a ride.

Check out this new little pumpkin! Presentinggggg Benjamin Bayer.

Grace and Max are the cutest. The love is real!

We made some bat snacks for Aunt Erica’s growing bump too. Pretty soon between me and my sisters we could open our own school with all our kids.

Total Pinterest fail was this crayon melting pumpkin. It’s hard work and the wax goes everywhere.

Ahhhh mummies!

We invited some Jesus into our pumpkin celebration too.

And just more photos of Lydia being the cutest baby ever!

We rocked Trunk or Treat! My whole family came up even Sam’s boyfriend did a trunk and the two of them totally had the best trunks!

It’s Halloween week! Sorta. Halloween is on a Tuesday so everything is happening this week.

We had a lot of pumpkin fun learning. First we did a pumpkin investigation. It was awesome. They had to guess how many lines, the circumference, the height in cubes, the weight and whether the pumpkin would float.

Then we tested all our guesses. The kids love this kind of work.

We also did a pumpkin life cycle craft that my friend so graciously gave us from her tpt store. That website is the best invention ever.

We wrote down what Timmy knew about pumpkins.

We drew Halloween word pictures to match these letter sounds.

We made pumpkin playdoh with pumpkin purée.

For our Stewardship Club we had a Halloween parade at the local nursing home.

Timmy learned read a Level 1 book – Clifford’s Halloween Parade. He’s a great reader. It is so excited to see him putting it all together.

Timmy drew a map of the adventure he wants to take for his 18th birthday. He has big plans. First we sail the ocean, then hike the jungle, cross the Great Wall of china and then to Australian to see kangaroos.

In his kitchen class he learned how to crack and egg and peal a hard boiled egg.

Lots going on this week! Monday is Columbus Day and it’s Fire Safety Week.

My Busy Hive Club was all things Christopher Columbus. The kids had the best time. We started the party tracing and cutting out our Columbus hats and then decorating toilet paper telescopes.

How cute are those kids! Next we did a sink or float experiment. The kids made their guesses and then we tested it out together.

For snack we made apple boats with fruit leather sails. While they ate I read to them some facts about Christopher Columbus.

Next each kid had to make a boat out of tin foil. I remember doing this as a kid. I had a pretend ocean in our sandbox and I printed a map of Spain on one end of our “ocean” and the Bahamas on the other end. I showed the kids on our globe how far Columbus sailed. Then it was their turn to race toward the Bahamas. Using straws they raced their boats with a partner.

Last thing we did was see which boat could hold the most weight by adding pennies. It really was a super successful day.

To celebrate Fire Safety Week we went to visit our fire station. They put on such a nice tour. One guy gets all suited up and shows the kids not to be afraid if they see someone dressed like that. Which I never thought of because I bet had they never seen a fire fighter before it would be scary. They talked about crawling under smoke, calling 911 and emergency plans. Each kid was sent home with blueprint paper to draw up an emergency plan.

This is Timmy’s devotional journal. It says The Lord keeps us safe. We are full of joy because of Him. He drew a fire truck because it talked about safety.

We ended the week with a cooking lesson. Mini chocolate chip pumpkin loafs.

It’s October!!! We are learning about creepy crawlers and depending who you ask frogs can totally be considered creepy crawlers. I wasn’t planning on including frogs but it’s been raining a lot so we are inundated with tadpoles. We talked about different habitats and I let them create the perfect home for our new babies. Then we did a frog life cycle craft.

We have a Mysteries of Nature book and I let them each pick a page that they wanted to learn more about. Grace picked a Venus Flytrap and Timmy picked a Sea Cucumber. Both super gross actually. Sea Cucumbers puke out all their organs to scare off predators. Ick.

We went on a field trip to Uncle Matts printing shop and made credit cards. The kids loved it. They learned that that 4 colors make up all the color in a printer; cyan, magenta, yellow and black.

We watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and then had a little chocolate fondue snack.

It seriously rained everyday so we went for a walk in the rain. They thought I was so awesome.

We finished Charlotte’s Web and did this cute spider craft. Then we talked about spiders.

We also made some edible mud with pudding and made a mess of our Wilbur craft.

Grace is doing really well with her letter sounds and Timmy is just getting into money lessons in his math book.

We read Room on the Broom a million times. I love it. Then the kids made handprint witches.

This week we learned all about farm animals. We talked about what animals belong on a farm and which ones belong in a zoo. Grace says there’s always room for a unicorn on a zoo.

I’m really impressed with their cutting skills and the fact that that grace hasn’t tried to cut her hair.

Timmy had to match the animal word to its corresponding picture. I was so proud watching him sound out the words and complete this worksheet by himself.

We learned what each animal provides for us. We were not thrilled to find out how bacon is made.

Then these lucky kids took a tour of a real farm. We chased the chickens around, visited with a pig and got up close & personal with a mama cow and her calf.

It was so awesome because we had just read the part in Charlottes Web describing what Wilbur was eating and this pig was eating some of the same.

The kids were able to feed the cows, learn how to milk a cow and then they gave them baths.

Grandma bought them Mexican jumping beans and boy are these things noisy.

For math Grace had to roll a dice and cross off the numbers as she went. 

Timmy’s lessons are focusing on first, middle, last and graphing.

For art they drew cows with chalk and then I gave Timmy a sight work spelling test. Gracie’s cow has a huge head and Timmy’s has an itty bitty head.

We went to the museum with our homeschool group. Grace was really into the microscope. The boys loved the shadow room and the life size pin art.

I’m so excited about all the friends we are making. Here’s some of our homeschool group. 

At coop Timmy kitchen class took a group photo and the learned how to make a salad.

I snuck some pictures of Grace at yoga.

Timmy sculpted wedding cups for Victoria  & Brandons wedding…

Then we had a really nice day at the beach fountains with our new friends.

We are half way through Charlottes Web but it will lead right into our next unit of Creepy Crawlers since Charlotte is a spider and Templeton is a rat. It’s the small things that excite me.

Our next unit study is combined Farm & Apples because Hurricane Irma messed up our plans.

Every year I have a Johnny Appleseed party. This year I had it with our Busy Hive Club homeschool group.

Here are our 10 mini Johnny’s with their tin pot hats and apple seed satchels. 

I stayed up all night making apple pie scented playdoh. I wonder if these kiddos will ever remember these small details that I worry about.

When all our little guests arrived I had them make apples with the green and red dough. While they molded little apples I shared with them some facts about Johnny.

Then we taste tested red delicious, Granny Smith, applesauce & apple juice to see which was the class favorite.

After that the kids took their seed bags and went outside to plant their pretend orchards.

We even learned how to bob for apples. Look at Grace with her foot in the air like a little princess.

It was a pretty successful day.

When everyone left we did our math lessons. We are really enjoying Horizons math. It’s very simple to use. Grace learns a new number and shape every other day for review and we have started beginner addition.

That night was the first night of religion class. This is Gracie’s very first year. She was very nervous being in the class alone. They learned about how God is the creator of all things and that everything is a gift from Him.

On Tuesday we had our Marine Biology coop with Loggerhead. We met at Dubois beach park to learn about ecosystems. The teacher gave the kids little field notes workbooks to draw the habitats they saw.

Then the teacher took them into the water to talk about the importance of mangroves.

The kids spotted a hermit crab and it was all they could talk about. They all wanted to take it home.

Then we went out onto a dock to take water samples and look at plankton under magnify glasses. We even saw a baby puffer fish. It was so adorable.

That night we had ballet & acrobatics.

Wednesday was our first day of Coops. Timmy is taking a cooking class, PE and reading. Grace is in a storytime craft class, Gods Little Explorers class and yoga. It was great to see them have their freedom and get a good report about how sweet and polite they both were.

It’s also a great time for me to be with just Lydia. She made a little friend in the nursery room. She loved him so much and he wasn’t having any of it.

After, I took them to Chikfila for lunch and they played for 2 hours in the play area while Lydia napped. I got so much planning done.

Thursday was a wash. Grace came down with the flu and I ended up cleaning all day. Later in the afternoon Timmy did an apple word search and sight word coloring page. He knows 15 sight words. Every week we learn three new words.

Grace stayed sleeping for the rest of the night so I started reading with Timmy his easy readers. He’s so smart. He picked it up right away.

I was a little disappointed in myself that I didn’t plan anything special for the first day of fall and then I woke up Friday and learned that the first day of Fall was Friday not Thursday sooooo crisis averted.

We had a full day of fall themed learning. We read a book about why leaves turn colors. We went on a hunt for our own fall leaves. Surprisingly we did have some fallen brown leaves and some yellow. But of course Florida does not offer these kids the real feel of fall so we have to make our own. We picked some green leaves and painted them red, yellow and orange. We talked about chlorophyll and how the days begin to get shorter in fall. I really wish I could drive them into some pretty fall views.

The pictures of this activity are so blog worthy. Look how the book and paints are perfectly placed. I’m laughing at myself right now. I hope I’m not screwing these kids up too bad with my picture taking obsession. The more I try to quit the more I snap. But mmm they are so cute!

It’s the beginning of the best time of the year and I’m so excited for it all.

Timmy: Mommy how divstars stay in space and not fall. I tell him that sometimes they do fall we call them shooting stars. And he says ohhhh yes they are then starfish. 

Then I had to tell him the shooting stars are actually not stars. Oops.

My kids got married. Like invitations, a ceremony, cake, rings, dancing, even a white dress. No expense was spared on this pretend wedding. These two are too cute and they will probably go nuts when they see these videos in the future. ​

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We were at the intracoastal and the water was smelly. Grace says you know why it smells Mommy, because alligators have bad breath. They must be all in this water.

Lydia’s new word is Denver. She crawls around the house screaming it over and over again. Poor dog, always in trouble.

Lydia also has figured out how fun toilet paper and she couldn’t be more proud.

Lydia learned to eat with a fork and if she likes what she’s eating she says mmmmm with every bite.​

​These three. 

We started off strong with our routine of singing and dancing and playing with our new instruments. 

We did lots of art paintings.

We had a lesson on telling time. 

& then this happened.

So for the rest of the week we obsessed over whether or not to escape this storm, prepared all our supplies and panicked some. We ultimsteky decided to stay home and ride it out. We got through it with very little damage and only 5 hours of no power. No formal school got done but there was learning.

We met up with our friends at the park before the storm hit.

I let the kids help bring in all the the outside toys and furniture. They love working.

Daddy read to them four chapters of Charlottes Web by flashlight.

We played every board game me own. I taught Timmy how to play chess and checkers. We talked a lot about about being a good winner and a good loser.

We were builders.

We talked about how during an emergency like a hurricane it’s important to make sure your neighbors are safe and to help who you can.

I surprised them with 2 furry hurricane evacuees. Chilly and Chipper are originally from Texas. They traveled to Florida to escape the flood waters of Hurricane Harvey only to be met by Hurricane Irma. They are staying with us until their foster mom gets back settled in her house because she lives in an evacuation zone.

They were so excited to help take care of these puppies. And it is a good lead into our next them about farm life. Animal care is fun and exciting in the beginning but it is also work. We can’t have chickens here but between our 2 dogs, these 2 puppies, the bunny, the lizard, the turtle and the fish these kids are getting a little taste of animal responsibility. And we might be getting some kittens too!

Me and Timmy had some serious games of old school Mario.

And we snuggled ALOT! 

We went to Hoffman’s Chocolate Factory for a field trip. Such a yummy trip. We made chocolate pizzas, then we watched a video about how chocolate is made and got a tour of the factory. Then ice cream! 

Yayyy Lydia! I am so happy for this. You’d think it was my very first baby to learn to walk. ​

Timmy had his yearly hair cut. He’s so handsome either way but Every time it’s like I go in with one boy and come home with a new kid.

Look at the smile on his face.

And Gracie’s first day of he second year of ballet. 

I have an obsession clearly. I could photograph these children all day. This is the difference from one year.

I love these babies so much. I refuse to call them kids. Babies for life.

This princess is learning her phone number and address.

Every week we are writing in our scripture  journal. I need to work on word spacing for Timmy.

Timmy is breezing through this Horizon math. It’s a little easy for him right now but it gets harder soon. 

Gracie is working on her math worksheets to from Confessions of a Homeschooler’s K4 curriculum.

The kids made emoji paper plate faces to play the feelings gane. They both have great scissor skills. 

Turns out the only thing that makes these kids sad is when I make them eat things they don’t like lol it’s a hard life over here.

I want to take them to see the emoji movie soon since it sort of goes with what we are learning.

We are addicted to this book. We’ve read it everyday during storytime. They can’t get enough. I’m surprised that we are almost finished with it.

We also finished the book Because of Winn Dixie. My kids are real book worms. Now we are starting Charlottes Web to go with our Farm theme.

For our cooking class the kids made quesadillas. I was really hoping if they helped make things it would encourage them to eat it but total fail. Me and Kydua enjoyed them though.

We did some building with toothpicks and marshmallows.

At the library storytime we read We Are Going on a Bear Hunt, then they acted out the story and made bear ear headbands.

On Friday we went back to Sailfish Waterpark with our Homeschool coop group one last time before it closes for the season.