Big Pumpkin: Writing Summaries and Art Project

Today we got down to business and started our focus on summarizing stories. I found a really cool method online called Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then. Which teaches the basic five things you want to look for when you are summarizing a story. I also wanted the kick-off into summarizing to be fun, we made an art project to go along with it. :)

We started off by reading a Halloween book, Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman. It's one of my favorites, and it's also super easy to summarize.

After we read the story, I wrote the word "Somebody" up on the white board, and told the kids that when you summarize, the first thing you want to look for is the main character. Who is this story about? That's our "Somebody". So is this case, "Somebody" is the witch.

The next thing I wrote on the board was "Wanted". The "Somebody always wants something.He/she has a goal. What was it? In this story the witch wants to make pumpkin pie.

After that come "But". This is the problem in the story. What is stopping the main character from reaching their goal? What is stopping the witch from making pumpkin pie? In our story the "But" is...The witch wanted to make pumpkin pie "But" the pumpkin was stuck on the vine.

Then we get to "So". We already know the problem, "So" what is the main character going to do about it? How is he/she going to try and solve or resolve the problem? In Big Pumplin it looks like this, "So" the witches friends come over and they all work together to pull the pumpkin off the vine.

Lastly in the "Then" after the problem is solved, then what happens, or what do the characters learn? In our story it's simple, "Then" the witch makes pumpkin pie.

Altogether is looked like this on our board:

The next step is putting it all together into 2 or 3 sentences. I had my boys write theirs on a piece of paper with a pumpkin shape on it.

Lincoln's

Ivan's

Then for fun, we made covers for our writing summaries, using tissue paper and Mod Podge. When everything was dry we cut them out and stapled them to the front of the summaries. Then we hung them up on our closet door to display until Halloween.

I plan on using this outline every day with pictures books, until the kids (Lincoln mainly) get the hang of it, and then we'll work up to a little bit harder books, and then harder, and so on. We probably won't do a fun art project every time though. But I plan on this being our writing curriculum for the next little while.

Today My Back Doesn't Hurt Because Aaron is Sick

I got some one on one with my favorite gal today while the big boys were at theater class and Aaron and Ollie were home nursing colds. Del and I went to Target to try and find some Sunday shoes for her. We had no luck in that department. But never fear, we did not leave Target empty handed. We found plenty of cute things for little miss Ruby, whom Adelia has decided to nickname Ruby-Rue. :)

Adelia was the spotlight in her preschool class this morning. Yesterday I helped her make her spotlight poster. She wanted lots of pictures of her doing her favorite things, and one of when she was a baby. So we picked out some of her favorite pictures and made a quick trip to Costco to get them printed out. She also decided to glue on her silhouette head from our homeschool showcase. I thought the poster turned out cute, and Del was happy with it.

Not sure what is up with this kids lately. He's sick AGAIN. I think he gets sick more often than all my other three kids combined. This time it's just a nasty cold so far. Snot for days. Not sleeping. Super cranky. Ya know, all that fun stuff.

Aaron's got the same thing. He stayed home from work today, which although I felt really bad for him, turned out really nicely for me. I left Ollie and Ivan home with Aaron while Adelia was at preschool and Lincoln and I went to his parent-teacher conference at Harmony.

The conference went well. Lincoln's teacher, Mrs, Larsen, is an awesome lady, and I really like her. She said that Lincoln is a delight to have in class. She said he is doing great socially, and fantastic academically, and that he is helpful and kind, and that if she could she'd take a whole classroom full of Lincoln's. :) That makes a mom happy to hear. She showed us a list of reading scores for the class (with the names covered up for privacy purposes) and Lincoln is the number one reader in the class (which is a combination of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders), by a long shot. Nice job Linc! Both she and I recognize that Linc needs some practice in summarizing what he reads. And she is going to send home a couple of worksheets to help us out with that. I'm glad she and I are on the same page, that makes life a lot easier.

I also left Ollie home asleep with Aaron while I took the older three to Orem for theater class. And I left Ollie and Lincoln home with Aaron again while I took Ivan and Del to swimming lessons. This is what I've discovered....Ollie is the reason my back hurts all the time, and why Tuesdays are usually so stressful. Not that he's hard to take places, he's usually really well behaved and happy. But getting him in and out of the car so many times, with all that we have going on on Tuesdays is what's been wearing me out. He stayed home with Aaron all day today, and I feel great. Even after doing a lot of running around.

Here's something interesting...I've been working on turning our blog into books. Right now I'm working on 2012. But the interesting thing that I'm finding is this: The posts I am enjoying reading the most, are the ones that give an account of everyday life. The school/holiday/vacation ones are good, and I'm glad I have them, but the ones I stop to reread are usually the ones that just tell what we did all day on some random, unspectacular day. I like remembering how different days then were from days now. Even though at the time they just seemed like the same old thing we'd be doing forever, they aren't. We do different stuff now. And it's fun to see the progression. So, I've made a goal for myself to start using this blog as more of a journal again, instead of just a highlights reel. I feel better when I journal anyway. It calms me, and helps me put life in perspective. It's a place for my stray thoughts to land and live, so I can move on to something else.

Halloween Mystery Menu Dinner

At Lincoln's request, we did our second annual Halloween Mystery Menu Dinner this year. I think it turned out fun. All the food was really good, and there was lot of it. 

Aaron and the kids made homemade rootbeer for the party with dry-ice. It was so funny watch the kids' reactions to it. 

On the menu we had pulled Bits of Werewolf (pork sandwiches), Decomposing Swamp Moss (chinese chicken salad), Coagulated Slime with Eyeballs (jello), Haunted Forrest Sampler (broccoli), Sundried Mummy Wraps (chips), Raw Octopus Eggs (grapes on the vine), Ghosts in the Graveyard (ghost brownies), Essence of Owl (owl cookies), Elixir of Life (water), and Bubbling Brew (rootbeer). Everyone filled out a menu numbering which items they wanted to eat during which course of the meal. There were three courses total. We hung up a sheet between the kitchen and the dining room. Then mom and I filled plates and served everyone according to what they had put on their menu. It was fun. My kids really got a kick out of it.  

Baby Name Reveal

This picture has nothing to do with this post, but it's beautiful and  I love how fall looks on my mountains.

It takes a long time to grow a human. I've been pregnant forever. Almost 33 weeks. Since the end of March. Holy cow. Only 7 weeks to go, though. 5 or 6 if I'm lucky and Baby Girl comes as early as Oliver did. I have a lot to do between now and then. I hope I have the energy to do it. I feel myself slowing down. Not being able to pack as much into a day as I'd like to.

Here are a couple baby bump shots of me at 32 weeks. Maybe I'm the only one, but I find it depressing that the majority of maternity clothes are made in neutral colors. All blacks and whites and grays and pastels. Blah! I'm going on strike against that this go around, and trying to come up with some variety. And I'm finding that when my clothing portrays more energy, I feel more energetic. And that's a positive thing for me. Also, it's fall and I've been rockin' my boots. I love my boots. They make me happy.

We found a dresser at a garage sale last week. Aaron stopped and bought it on the way home from taking Lincoln to swimming lessons Saturday morning. So we spent all of Saturday cleaning out the boys' room, going through their dresser and closet and getting rid of a bunch of junk, and putting the new dresser in there and organizing their clothes into it. Then we took the old dresser into Adelia's room, and cleaned out her drawers and closet, and pushed her bed over against the opposite wall from where it was. When we get the bunk beds finished, we'll sell her captain's bed, she and Ollie will share the dresser and sleep in the bunk beds.

For now Ollie is still in his room. So, we'll need to get him moved over and adjusted to life sharing a bedroom with Del before the baby comes. But over all I am feeling like we've made some really good progress in getting everyone situated.

We've even decided on a name. Finally. We actually decided a little while ago, but I wanted to give it some time to make sure I wasn't going to change my mind. We will be naming the baby...

Ruby Aveline Swan. 

Ruby because every time we thought we'd decided on another name, I kept telling Aaron, I like this name, but I wish we could name her Ruby, but we can't because it's so popular. And finally Aaron was like, "Why don't we just name her Ruby? Who cares if it's popular if that's the one we want to use most?" I have a wise husband folks. :) So Ruby it is, gemstone name after her mama with a gemstone name.

Aveline is pronounce Av-uh-leen (short 'a' sound, like in avenue) and is the French variation of Evelyn, which means wished-for child, and is a four-generation name on my mom's side. Evelyn Hayes Nelson Roberts is my great-grandma, Evelyn Jeanette Nelson Hogan is my grandma. After that the Eve is dropped, but the Lynn is kept in Tamilynn Hogan Lemmon Sparks who is my mother. And then of course, I am Krystal Lynn Lemmon Swan. And so we will keep it going, with a slight twist, by using Ruby Aveline. I can't think of anything I'd rather have than daughters named after the strongest, most amazing women I've known. Adelia is named after my dad's mom, and Ruby will be named after my mom, grandma, and great-grandma. :)

I pulled out my newborn and 0-3 month girl clothes boxes. It was as I expected...we need warm, winter clothes for Ruby. Adelia was born in August, so we have lots of cute short sleeved onsies, and lots of cute dresses and t-shirts. Nothing warm though. And I think I must have had Del wear boy pajamas as a small baby, because there are no pajamas either.

It's ok though, because Ruby will come before Christmas, and she really doesn't need anything else, so she'll be getting clothes for Christmas. And maybe a minkie blanket, if I can swing it. And a carseat cover. :)

I've already bought her Christmas dress. A ruby-red dress for my little Ruby. It's a lot deeper/darker of a red than it looks like in the picture, almost burgundy. And the cardigan over top is cream. I found both of these at Burlington Coat Factory, on an awesome sale. Then I went on Etsy and ordered her some camel colored leg warmers with gold fringes on the bottom to go with. Now I'm just in search of a headband that I like. I'm hoping to get her newborn pictures done in this outfit.

If you can't tell, I'm getting excited for her to be here. It's starting to seem real, like it's really going to happen. My doctor's appointment this week went well, she's measuring right on track. Adelia keeps asking me to show her the newborn clothes so she can see how big Ruby is going to be. She's as excited as she knows how to be for a baby to be coming to our family, but I don't think she quite remembers what it's like to have a newborn around. She keeps saying that Ruby will be just like Oliver, climbing on the table and getting into things. It's cute. And it'll be really fun to watch Adelia interact with a new baby now that she's a little bit older. And I'm SO excited for her to have a sister. I never got to have a sister.

And lastly, let's talk about what I've been craving lately, shall we? This little girl has expensive taste.

Just Odds and Ends

I often find Lincoln like this. Just reading somewhere. It makes my heart happy. Recently he's started the 4th Harry Potter book. I made a deal with him that when he finishes book 4, we can listen to book 5 on CD in the car. My kids love audio books in the car, and so do I. :)

I got an email from Lincoln's charter school, they were sending me the results of his Dibels test (reading) that they took a couple of weeks ago.

I actually think that the Dibels test is kind of stupid. I also feel like I've told the school a few times that Lincoln is reading a lot higher than grade level. So I was very happy to see this result, and to note that he's already WAY past their mid-year goal. And I'm satisfied to know that we will just keep on doing what we've been doing, because obviously it's working. Yay homeschool! 

Ollie has discovered trains. It's adorable. Sometimes he can get the track together himself, but when he can't he brings me the pieces, and I put them together until we have a nice little track, and then he drives his trains on them. :)

And, Aaron loves me...or he got sick of my jewelry being all over the bathroom counter...either way, me made me this sweet necklace holder and hung it up in our bathroom for me. He's a keeper.

My Creative Child

Ivan has been on a drawing spree. Every time he brings me his pictures he asks me, "Mom, aren't you glad I'm creative?" I think it's cute.

I like to encourage my kids by displaying the projects that they work on around the house where people who come over can see them and comment on them. That gives the kids opportunities to talk about or explain whatever they have been working on.

Ivan's drawings have really enhanced our Halloween decor this year. :)

This is a rabbit.

This is a haunted house with a spooky tree.

Family Date Night

If it's not one thing, it's another, right? All week long Adelia has been having major accidents, like 3 or 4 a day. I was getting so frustrated because I thought we had gotten past this. I mean, we were still having one every couple of days, if she got distracted and forgot to go potty until it was too late. But one every couple days in not 3 or 4 every day. So I started being more diligent about sending her to the bathroom every hour or so. But it didn't help. She was still having accidents in between the trips to the bathroom, and she was using the bathroom when I sent her! I couldn't figure it out. Then we were in Kohl's a couple days ago, and I took her potty first thing when we got there, and she went, and five minutes later she was asking to go again. Now, this isn't all that unusual, because she thinks using a public restroom is fun (yuck!); but I told her to hold it because we'd just been, and then I tried to distract her with something else (which usually works, because she usually doesn't really need to go, she just wants to go back to the bathroom), but she started crying and saying her body was hurting t hold it in. That was kind of weird. So I took her back to the bathroom, and told her that this time she REALLY needed to make sure she got it all out, because we weren't coming back. So she went, but sure enough, five minutes after that she was asking to go again. And again when I told her we weren't going, she started crying. She said it hurt to keep the pee in, and that sometimes it even hurt when the pee was coming out. That's when it dawned on me that she probably had a bladder infection! That would explain all the accidents, and the needing to go every five minutes.

So we took her in to see the doctor this morning, and sure enough...bladder infection. But we've got an antibiotic for her now, and already it seems to be helping her mood swings (she is SUPER dramatic when she doesn't feel well or when she gets hurt, to the point of hysterics sometimes...that was our day all of yesterday) and her number of accidents.

We spent all morning at the doctor, and by the time we got home I was beat. We didn't do much of anything as far as cleaning the house, chores, or school was concerned. Except we did do these ghost acrostic poems. We talked about what an acrostic poem was, an then we listed all the letters in ghost in a line, and then underneath each letter the kids and I listed as many descriptive words as we could think  of that started with that letter. Underneath S for example, we listed scary, spooky, see-through, silent, sneaky, silvery, scream, scare, etc. Then everyone got a ghost and got to choose what they wanted to do with their poem. Ivan especially go really into his, and after I showed a couple of examples of what an acrostic poem might look like, he came up with the words to his all on his own.

Here are the rest of ours:

When Aaron came home, we decided it would be fun to have a family date night to Jaker's, the pumpkin patch just across the street, all the activities are free, and they have some pretty cool stuff, a corn box, big slides, a hay ride, a couple hay-bale mazes, a kid friendly corn maze, and a petting zoo.

It was nice to let the kids run some of their energy out. They close at dark, so we didn't get to stay as long as the kids would have liked, but that means we'll just have to go back another day. :)

My darling Ollie. His hair really is the color of straw.

So on Tuesday...

We're having a 5th kid. I have a long list of things I need to do to be prepared for that. One of the major things on that list is rearranging our other children in such a way that I have an empty nursery to put the baby in when she gets here.

So the great debate: Where to put Oliver.

He's a boy, so naturally our first thought was to put him in with the boys. My only concern with that is that because Lincoln and Ivan are older, we often let them stay up a little later, reading or whatever, while we put Ollie and Adelia to bed. I'm not ready for Ollie to be staying up later with the older boys, or getting up as early as the older boys get up sometimes. Plus there's the dresser issue. If we put a bed for Ollie in the boys' room, then there is no room for the dresser they already have in there, plus the second dresser we would need to put in there to hold Ollie's clothes.

Second option, put him in with Adelia, just for a little while, until Baby Girl is old enough to go in with Del. Adelia talks herself to sleep, which might also keep Ollie up late, but at least she goes to bed at the earlier bed time. Or at least, I think Ollie would be more adaptable to Adelia's bedtime routine than he would to the boys. But we still have the dilemma of the bed and the dresser fitting in Del's room.

My solution was this. We need to find a bunk bed and a dresser, and sell Adelia's captain's bed (which has the dresser underneath it), then their would be room for both Adelia and Ollie in that room. And if we found the right size of dresser, it could hold both their clothes.

Aaron made Lincoln and Ivan's bunkbed, and that thing is solid. But he wasn't sure he wanted to spend the time and money to build another set at this point. And I don't blame him. We have a lot going on right now, and a lot of other around the house projects we need to finish, and starting another one doesn't seem like the greatest idea right now. Neither does spending $250 on materials.

So, we started looking around on KSL again. Monday night, Aaron found a solid wood set up in Bluffdale for $60. We decided we'd go look at it on Tuesday night, and buy it if it was sturdy. It looked pretty beat up, but we figured we could paint it and add a railing on to the top bunk so Del wouldn't fall out. I was kind of luke warm about the set when we set out. But when we got there and saw them, I knew they were perfect.

They are twin bed sized, but the bottom bed is low to the ground like a toddler bed. It'll be perfect for Ollie. We will need to sand a couple spots, build a railing, and I'd really like to paint it white, but after that it will be awesome! I'm really pleased with it. I'll post pictures when we get it all fixed up.

While we were waiting for Aaron and the guy we bought the bed from to take it apart and load it into the truck, I took the kids to a neighborhood playground that was nearby. It was a really cool playground. It had a slide that was 3 stories tall. My kids were so impressed. Especially Ivan. On the way home he decided that when he grows up he wants to design playgrounds. He got right to work on it first thing this morning, and spent the whole day designing this beauty. It's three legal sized pieces of paper big, all taped together. He worked so hard on it, and is really proud of it. I was proud of him. We hung it on the wall in his bedroom.

Read and Read and Draw

Doesn't Lincoln look so big in this picture? I don't know, but he looks so old to me some days. Who is this big kid, and what did he do with my baby?

Our three oldest kids have started up swimming lessons again. But this time Lincoln was at the right skill level to the conditioning session with our city's swim team. So he practices Saturday mornings, while Ivan and Del go Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Linc sits on the bleachers with Ollie and I and reads his books. Which is exactly what I would do too, if  I wasn't chasing Ollie around and trying to keep him from jumping in the pool. Lincoln, ya lucky duck, enjoy that while you can.

I've also been having Lincoln read a chapter a night out loud to Ivan, while I put Adelia and Oliver to bed. Right now they are reading James and the Giant Peach. The last few nights they've been cuddle up in Ivan's play tent to read. I think it's so cute.

I'm glad that reading is such a big part of their lives. It makes me happy that we own more books than movies, and that we spend (at least) 5 times the amount of time reading as we do watching TV/movies. I feel like we won't ever regret that choice of how to spend our time.

Aaron has been teaching Lincoln a little bit about perspective drawing. Linc seems to enjoy it. Here is a picture he drew of a building by a railroad track.

New Couches!

Apparently, when I was making Adelia's tutu, a lot of glitter got on our couch. Aaron came home and made the comment something about me sprinkling the couch with fairy dust. To which I replied, ya, I was hoping our couches would fly off to Never Never Land in the middle of the night. (It's no secret that I've been picketing for new couches every since we moved into our house.) I didn't think any more of it.

The next day, Aaron got on KSL, found a set of microfiber couch and love seat, for a great price, and went and picked them up. From the pictures online we thought they were a light brown, but when Aaron got there, he found that they are actually olive green, which is the PERFECT color to go in our family room. Seriously, like we couldn't have picked out a better color to match if we'd tried. Not to mention the fact that they are full of puffy pillow and oh-so comfortable. And as an added bonus, they come with an ottoman, which is something I've never had before and always wanted.

I'm in couch heaven. Now hopefully I don't turn into Nazi Mom as I try to keep my children from completely destroying them.

Hangin' In There and Thinking of Grandma Lemmon

 Here's me, still hanging in there and trying to survive being isolated from the rest of the world's population while Ollie gets over HFMD.

Actually, I shouldn't complain so much. It hasn't been as bad as it could've been. My older kids still have activities that they need to go to, and even if Ollie and I stay in the car, we still get to get out of the house and drive around and see the world while we cart the older kids to their stuff. So there's that small blessing to be grateful for.

We've taken the boys to their theater and art classes up in Orem. And Adelia to her preschool. And Lincoln to Harmony. Lincoln also had his last soccer game this week. I took him, while Aaron stayed home with everyone else. Linc played well. I didn't take any pictures though, because they didn't get their medals. Their real coach wasn't at the game, so one of the parents was subbing. I'm sure we'll get the medals in awhile, and then I'll take a picture of  Lincoln wearing his.

I love this picture of Del and Ollie being goofballs.

The boys also had piano lessons, And it was a beautiful day, so we decided to load Ollie and Del in the wagon and walk the boys to piano. Then we walked home, and I decided to let Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb play out in the driveway. They were cracking me up with all their silly antics. I think Ollie is starting to feel much better. He's been a lot more of his normal sweet, tease-bucket self. Thanks goodness for that.

When we do have to stay home, I've been trying to keep myself busy with projects. Adelia convinced me to start work on her Halloween costume. We (and by we I mean I, because I think I'm the only one who really cares) try to do a family theme for Halloween each year. This year Lincoln and Ivan really want to be Super heroes. Adelia, of course, wanted to be a princess. I talked her into agreeing to being a super hero by promising that she could wear a pink cape and a tutu. Heaven help me and my frilly, girly daughter. Ugh. Hehe. It's not anything I taught her, that's for sure. But I think I'll keep her anyway.

When I was a kid, my Grandma Lemmon sewed my Halloween costume every year. We'd just tell her what we wanted to be, and she'd make-up the pattern, and sew up a storm for all of October, and by the end my brothers and I had awesome Halloween costumes. I remember going over to her house for fittings, and to try things on, and to watch her sew. They are fun memories. My grandma loved Halloween, and she'd always tell us stories about the parties she went to when she was younger, and the costumes she'd made for those parties. The one I remember best is that she decided to dress up as a sailor, and she trimmed the hair off of her head and glued them onto her chest above her shirt, so that she could be a hairy-chested old sailor. And then she'd say, "I was so damn glamorous!" Haha! My Grandma Lemmon was the best.

Anyways, I can't sew a lick, so I will not be sewing Halloween costumes for my children or grandchildren, but I'd like to give them a little bit of Grandma Lemmon's magic if I can. I found a no-sew tutu tutorial (say that 5 times fast), and all it required was the ability to tie knots. I think I can handle that. So I got out the tulle and because cutting it and knotting it around a piece of stretchy elastic for Adelia's super hero tutu. There was glitter and tulle everywhere! But, the tutu turned out awesome. I'm excited for her to wear it.

As I was making Adelia's costume, and thinking about Grandma Lemmon, I remembered another tradition she used to do for us in October. Owl Cookies. I've tried to make these a tradition in our house as well. The kids and I make them together every year, and this week seemed the perfect time to make them again. I doubled the recipe so that Adelia had enough to take to preschool with her for her day for the treat bucket. Aren't they adorable?

Lincoln also had to give a report on bats at his Harmony class. So I've been working on helping him make his poster. Luckily, we studied bats for Science last year, so I already had a lot of templates and things saved the computer.

Lincoln decided he wanted to draw a picture of a bat cave, and a picture of a bat and label the parts. He also had the idea to print out pictures of different kinds of bats and glue them on to. I thought his poster turned out great. And he did really well presenting the information. When he brings his poster home from school, I'll get a video of him giving it again.