a whole bunch of stuff...

well, once again i am going to be posting a conglomeration of pictures from the past month or so. i don't really even know where to start. i think i left off talking about our trip to cheyenne. not much else has happened since then. we did have a block party last weekend that was a lot of fun. we just can't get over how blessed we have been to have found this house, in this neighborhood. we really have the best neighbors! the neighborhood is filled with people our age and kids the same age as the girls. we all help each other out from time to time with the kids. it seems like someone is always out with the kids while they run around the cul-de-sac :) anyway, the block party was a huge success. a few of us brought out our grills and it was bring your own meat, and drink, with a side to share. almost everyone showed up, we had the football games going on the radio, and we all just hung out and ate while the kids ran around. when it got dark we brought out the fire pit and had s'mores. then to bed we went:) the ladies are getting together tuesday night to plan our halloween block party. they usually have some sort of game going on in each garage and the kids go from house to house and get candy from each place, fun right. i think what brandon and i are most excited about is the "booing". the way it works.... sometime starting in october you "boo" people. you run up to their door and ring the door bell, leave your stuff and watch. i think they usually make cookies and candy and that sort of thing to boo people with. usually everyone gets "boo-ed" at least once, but probably more than that since you don't know who is doing the "booing" and who's getting "boo-ed".  i think it sounds like a lot of fun!! we'll let you know!  

we decided not to send madison to pre-school this year since i stay home with the girls anyway. we just felt that the time spent with me at home is really important. after all, once they start that's it:( so, i wouldn't say that i'm "homeschooling" per say but i have found some books that i'm going to work with her on so we stay caught up on abc's, numbers, sounds, matching, shapes, etc. i'm really excited. i've kind of set up our basement like "school". i have a table where she can do all of her reading, writing, drawing, painting, etc. we have a calendar to talk about what the day is like. i've also found some really cool ideas to do with her that are educational yet really fun too. we're going to make our own play dough for each month (teaching her about practical life, measuring, etc.) madison helped me make some i-spy bottles which are the coolest little things. you find small glass bottle that the kids can fit in their hands pretty well, fill them with a filler (we used rice and colored it) we filled the bottle with little trinkets that she can identify (you can find them at hobby lobby in the scrapbook section). we have a "harvest/fall" jar, "candy/food" jar, "things that go zoom" jar and a "color/little critters" jar. i'm working on one for numbers and the alphabet, but you can't do everything as once right? so, she shakes them and rolls them around and "spies" what she sees. i'm in the process of making little bingo cards that she can place a marble on when she finds the object. so much fun!! i also made the cutest little lady bugs for "lady bug math". each lady bug has a number on it, with that same number of dots on the wings. you can open and close the wings to see the number. we usually count the dots, then open to see the number and what it looks like. she really likes them and i'm just tickled at how well they turned out! this next couple of months we're going to do things that have to do with fall. we'll talk about the season, what it means, color with leaves, make "fall" play dough, melt some "leaf" crayons and i'm sure i will let her help me with the boo baskets for our neighbors:) i am having so much fun finding all of this fun stuff to do. i have found this website so helpful and fun!

well, now that i've gone on forever about our lack of things going on i'm going to watch some football and cross my fingers before i check my fantasy score. i'm not having a good feeling about it...