No Pictures

So I don't have any pictures to post. Well, I really do, but when I went to load them to the computer from the camera, ALL 1200+ pictures on my camera were going to load!! There wasn't an option to select the ones I wanted to load. I'm afraid to delete the pictures on my camera until I burn those same pictures from my computer to a disk. I have a lot of pictures on the computer that need to be burned! My picture posting will be postponed until I can figure things out. I'm bummed because I think I have a couple really good pictures.

I figured I'd share some things we've been doing so I don't forget.

We have been making a turkey wall in our kitchen. We have 5 different types of turkeys we have made to hang on the wall. 1. we took a coffee filter and colored it with markers, then dropped water on it and waited for it to dry, then cut out a turkey body and glued googly eyes on it. 2. painted our fingers different colors for the tail and painted our foot for the body. 3. traced our hands on different colors of paper for the tail and cut a body and used googly eyes. Tommy wanted his turkey to have 4 eyes. 4. used a paper plate and painted it different colors and made a body. 5. used half a paper plate and glued fake leaves onto it (our leaf collecting was all in vein...they grew mold or crunched apart before we could use them) then colored a turkey body to glue on.

We painted all over a big brown piece of paper that had come in a package all crumpled up. After it dried, we cut out leaf shapes and glued them to a paper plate that I cut into a spiral. They are our falling leaves. (I modified this idea from No Time For Flashcards).

We've been trying to learn and sing new turkey songs. We made a turkey treat by putting chocolate frosting on a graham cracker, a whopper candy for a head, and candy corns for feathers. We made an apple gumdrop turkey at the library.

Sadly, Tommy has entered the Terrible Twos. He still has his super cute moments like when he's singing songs and talking about spooky ghosts and praying for his trick or treat candy, but he can be really ornery a lot of the time now and has a big temper. Last Saturday we all discovered he can climb out of his pack n play (yes, I don't own a crib and my children sleep in pack n plays when they're babies). This means nap times have not been happening!! I try every day to put him down, but he climbs out and bounds down the stairs then does a victory lap to show how awesome he is for escaping. Actually, he only did that a few times, he wisened up and plays upstairs in my room so he won't get caught. I've tried driving him around until he falls asleep, but then Damon falls asleep and I don't want him getting too much rest then he won't go to bed until late. One day I was trying to sing to Tommy and he was squirming, so I asked if he wanted me to put him in his bed. He replied, "I get out." As if to say to me, "mom, I'll just get out of my bed, go ahead and put me in there, I won't stay and I'll just get out!" So, I've been trying to decide if I can face yet another power struggle with my kids. I'm really tired of the power struggles and the tantrums. Sigh...

So, because I now have to entertain both boys during the afternoon hours, I made pumpkin pie playdough that I found here . It has been magical. I pulled out an old rolling pin, tongue depressers, toothpicks, canning rings, pumpkin cookie cutters, little heart cookie cutters, and pie tins. We've spent hours playing with this playdough. I'm so glad I made it, except I didn't have the recommended pumpkin pie spice, so I dumped in cinnamon, ground cloves, and nutmeg. I think I put way too much ground cloves in...the scent is a little strong.

The other day Barrett and I were talking about Tommy and hoping he wasn't getting more teeth. Damon piped in, "If I grow more teeth, I'll grow into a shark!!" Pretty funny.
I didn't really change our "school" calendar for November except the word "November." I told Damon the letters to write and he did it. He wrote the first letter then started doing something funny to it. He did the same thing with the next letter. I asked him what he was doing and he told me that the other words had little spiders on them(it was a Halloween font with little spiders hanging from each letter) and these letters needed pumpkins. He drew a little pumpkin on every letter!! He made his own font!!!! It was a super happy moment for me...I love cute fonts and it was pretty creative of my 3 year old!