We Live in a Solar System...la,la,la...

We've used the spoons to teach upper and lower case. They've gone down the line to Ezra, now one more kid to go...

This is what packing up for piano looks like for three kids. About literally 85 pounds of music books. But we don't mind because we have the BEST music teacher in the UNIVERSE. The 85 pounds may be an exaggeration, but the best in the universe part is not. She's been a blessing to our family in so many ways. 

Ezra is following in Jacob's footsteps- he's our new dot-to-dot man. He's already doing 1-40. What a guy.

We studied Edgar Allen Poe for October since his poems are so freaky. Notice the raven up in the corner of the room. I snuck it up there so that after we read The Raven I could scare them half to death...

Rotate and Revolve practice for our Solar System unit. 

Planet distances from the sun with t.p.

Learning about the planets was fascinating for all. It's probably one of our favorite things we've learned thus far. Even Hazel and Ezra got into it. Hazel can say all the planets in order at the tender year of two and Ezra can tell you all about Mercury. We went to the Observatory at the science center as part of this study unit, and watched Hubble the Imax movie which was neato.

Halloweeeeeeeen!

Uncle Albert hooks us up with Galaxyland tickets every Halloween. It's a major highlight of their existence- especially Charlie's. This was Hazel's first year getting in on the action. She's just like the rest of them- not afraid for one moment. I sort of sneaked her on the kid dragon roller coaster and then got worried she'd be terrified but she loved it and didn't want off.

I was watching Ezra on the bumper cars and literally was laughing out loud by myself like really hard. He was weaving around like a superstar- it was SO WEIRD! The other kids were all jammed in the same place, stuck and he just cruised by everyone going round and round with one hand on the wheel. I got a video bc we have some uncles and a baba that would be extremely proud.

This fall we planned a cousin Halloween party. 

I love this picture of Scarlet and Ezra waiting for their cousins to arrive.

Jenny scared all the kids half to death- †he adult entertainment.

Scarlet rocked her witch costume for the third year in a row.

Ezra fit in nicely with the cousins Star Wars theme.

We bobbed for apples and Jacob lost a tooth in an apple!

We did donut on a string, carved a pumpkin, had a treasure hunt, made hotdog mummies 

and had a bondfire, then went out trick or treating. 

Fall Festivities

 We can always count on Jane for a spectacular center piece.

 Ezra and his pal. They both love to play trains.

 Ezra has been in Darth mode.

 Jane and her good friend from our neighborhood- two peas in a pod. She's Dutch so we stopped by the Dutch shop so she could show us around. We left with salty black liquorice candy. It's was so salty I had to yell out my car window to recover... 

 Scarlet is a lone olive ranger in our family. She LOVES them so much that I give her cans of olives as toothfairy prizes.

 This is the day we found out Ezra could spell his name. Not sure how he figured it out, but I'm assuming it was Mrs. Carols aka Scarlet.

 Playdo mats are genius.

 Our handsome apple eating boy.

 Charlie has been chugging through the Harry Potter series this fall. I love how he takes his basket outside packed with a blanket, book, and snack.

 Loved this darling note from Scarlet.

 And this one from Ezra.

It was delightful teaching Ezra the Christmas story this year. He understood it instantly, as though the beauty of it all made perfect sense to his pure child mind. 

Fall Has Arrived

We've been wanting to stop at this spot for years!

 We had a beautiful time enjoying the fall colors in the river valley.

 We did a pond study at the Nature Center. 

 I love how the littles learn from the older kids.

  They were scooping out all kinds of creatures.

 Our favorite part of Fall is General Conference. 

We have established some fun traditions to help the kids listen. 

 Jared and Linda came over to watch a session with us, which was nice. Jared of course got a crazy tickle to death attack from the kids- I was worried he was going to have a heart attack. 

Then afterwards, Linda taught them their first Family History class. 

It's been awesome to see the kids get excited about family history. Just this morning, I found Jacob teaching Ezra what he knows so far. We are lucky to have such an expert teacher :) 

I've been reading We Walked to Zion to supplement the class and of course I make sure they get their family history homework done. We've also started writing in our journals every Sunday as part of what we're learning about record keeping and keeping the Sabbath day.

 This was what the kids woke up to Sunday morning of General Conference. I stayed up late counting all their tally's from the first 2 sessions then counted out their loot.

The Littles

 She loves her hand-me-downs from her pal Daisy. 

This little cutie calls sparkles "freckles".

 Peeling and peeling and peeling and peeling...

When your big brother does your hair...

 Pumpkin muffins and Halloween ghosts.

Playdo mats are cool!

I walked in to find Ezra on "J" in playdo letters.

I've been trying really hard to make time to get these littles to the library regularly. The big kids went all the time but it's become a lot trickier to get there these days.