Rewind Time to October

Here's a peek at October...

October Date Night:
For our October date night, we went to Scene 75, which is an indoor entertainment center that has a lot of attractions like arcade games, miniature golf, inflatables, laser tag, go-karts, and more.  I had already gotten a gift card for it, so we could choose which activities we wanted to do.

Of course we had to race in the go-karts.  I should preface this by saying that this was my FIRST time driving a go-kart, so, needless to say, I got lapped...a few times.  :)  But it was fun!

We also did the blacklight miniature golf - another round of healthy competition.

Drew obviously did not wear a blacklight-friendly outfit.

Disney On Ice:
  We decided to take Jenna and Grant to Disney on Ice this year.  They both LOVE Disney and we thought they would enjoy seeing the characters come to life in front of them.  I have to be honest, the show completely exceeded my expectations.  It was really very well done!  We will definitely be back.

Jenna had made a fan at home and insisted on bringing it.  And this would be her "fashion" pose.  Oh my!

Fall Festival:
Our church had their annual fall festival.  The kids look forward to it every year.  This was the first year they did trunk-or-treat, where kids can trick-or-treat in the parking lot out of the trunks of cars...and the cars are decorated with some sort of theme.  So the kids were to wear Halloween costumes to the festival.  Since we didn't really want them getting their costumes dirty, we had them choose alternate costumes - Grant was a (Swiss) superhero and Jenna was super-Spidergirl.  Their cousins were able to join in the fun as well!

There was a "salon" station, so Jenna got her nails painted and also had the reddish/pink spray added to her hair.  I don't usually let them get the colored spray in their hair, but Jenna was so excited about it, I figured why not - it'll wash out with her bath that evening, and it did.

My sister and I getting in the festive mood.

Hayride with some friends.

Jenna loves riding the horses and it was good because she finally got to ride a horse after repeatedly asking us if she could ride Hannah's horse at therapy.

I had no idea how to decorate our car for the trunk-or-treat, but then I remembered I had done a Mexico unit study back from my teaching days.  So I pulled out all my decor and went for the fiesta.  It worked.

My aunt and uncle had a great idea - my aunt is actually hiding in the back of the car and would slip her hand out (with the skeleton glove on) with the candy.  Perfect!  The kids loved it!

If there's candy involved, they're happy!

Hannah in her Halloween costume - dressed as an owl.  We even tried decorating her wheelchair with tree branches.  I have to say, I think she's the cutest owl I've ever seen!

One happy girl.

Trick-or-Treat:

On the actual trick-or-treat night, Jenna dressed as Rapunzel, Grant as Captain America (baby Jack - you and Grant could have been twins!), and Hannah was an owl.

We didn't collect candy for Hannah since she can't eat any, but we still wanted her to be able to participate in the fun.

Misc:

Hannah trying out a gait trainer (walker).

Family bowling night

I volunteered to help teach the toddler class at church, so that Hannah could move out of the nursery and be around kids her age and I could be in there to help her.  She LOVES being upright, watching other kids, and doing what they're doing.  So after the lesson and snack, I put the Upsee on and walk her around so she can play.  It's seriously precious.  If we pick her up to hold her, she'll start crying because she wants to be down playing.  We're so glad to see her aware of her surroundings and wanting to interact with them.

Me and my sweetheart.  We are back to patching her eye 4-6 hours a day.  It sounds as if that's something we'll be doing for quite a LONG time, as in years.  Whatever we can do to help her vision!  Along with becoming more aware of her surroundings, she's become aware of her glasses and now it's nearly impossible to keep them on her.  She has become a master at slipping them off and making them a chew toy.

Love these 3!

Drew was working out back trimming little branches off the tree, so the kids wanted to help.

Hannah even joined in the fun!

And they did a little bit of tree climbing...and jumping.  Thankfully that's as high as they got.

Jenna was invited to her friend's house for a tea party, so she picked out her prettiest dress and brought along her favorite doll - her cabbage patch kid, Hailey Cassidy.

Tea party fun with her two closest friends

Her friends are also in her ballet class, so from the tea party, they went straight to ballet.

And while Jenna was at her tea party, Grant was at the house of one of the girls with the boy siblings.  A full afternoon of trains - what more could a 4-year old ask for?!

On a field trip with a homeschooling group from church to a local fruit farm.  The kids learned all about the importance of bees, and how this farm harvests apples.  Very interesting!  We actually went on a day when Drew was off work, so he tagged along as well.

On a hayride to pick out our pumpkins from the pumpkin patch.

Grant with his "buds."

We decided to put the kids in swim lessons at our local YMCA for the year, so we got a family membership and signed them up.  They completed their first session.  Jenna moved up to the next level, but Grant will stay in the same class until he learns to swim across the pool on his own.  I love that they are learning such important life skills.

We took a family hike on a beautiful fall day.  Jenna and Grant LOVE spending time with their cousins and we love spending time with our family.

We got to have the boys one evening and had a great time with them.  I love these little guys!!

We didn't take as many pictures this month with horse therapy, but Hannah continued to enjoy them.  The classes ended at the end of October and will resume again in January, so we're on a little break from them now.  We're looking forward to her starting them again in a few months, even though it will be in the dead of winter.  Brrr!!!

Home School:
 I'm not great about taking pictures of school time...probably because I'm pretty busy helping and instructing them, but I do try to capture some highlights of our month.  For the month of October we studied Christopher Columbus for Social Studies and pumpkins in Science.

The kids had to look at a world map (on the iPad) and label the countries correctly.  We then discussed Christopher Columbus's path he took.  We also read many books about Christopher Columbus.

Pumpkin experiments - do pumpkins float...?  :)

They had to guess the weight of the pumpkin.  We did other pumpkin experiments like guessing the circumference of the pumpkin and how many seeds are inside.  We also observed our pumpkins as they decayed and discussed what happens.  We also learned about the parts of a pumpkin and labeled a pumpkin craft, and discussed the life cycle of a pumpkin (which goes along with the decaying pumpkin experiment).

The kids at their desks in the school room.

A fun pumpkin addition worksheet...and of course we had to use real pumpkin candy as manipulatives!