Walmart, Sometimes it's worth it

I really, really don't enjoy going to the Walmart in our city. I usually avoid it if I can. It is old, the aisles are tiny creating traffic jams or people and carts. There are no wipes to sanitize your carts when you enter the store and there is never, never enough checkers working the front. There are bigger, cleaner, brighter Walmarts nearby but yesterday was one of those days where we had other errands to run and this Walmart was the closest one so I sucked it up and went in.

And we actually had a good trip. We spent an hour in there, not because we got a cartload of stuff, but because we were having fun looking at different things and the kids were being really good. The deal of the trip were the above costumes that we scored for two bucks a piece! Even if they don't end up wearing them next year, two bucks is worth it for the dress up value (Little Man wore that costume all afternoon long). As a tangent, can I just say I can't believe that there is a Paris Hilton costume. She is about the last (or at least one of the last) people that I would have my little girl dressing up as.

All of the Christmas stuff was also up. I may or may not have bought some snow flake window clings. Although the Christmas season is my favorite, I am usually staunchly opposed to any sort of holiday decor of festivities before Thanksgiving. But they had all the fake trees with the lights and those little reindeer things and rows and rows of ornaments and I only went into that section because the kids wanted to. It was strictly for the children. It was not as if I named the cart the "Christmas Express" and pushed Little Man though the aisles (with Kiwi walking beside us. She doesn't stay in a cart for long, while Little Man has recently decided he wants to squeeze his four year old body into the front seat) excitedly pointing out different decorations. Sheesh, it's only the beginning of November.

So although I still don't especially enjoy our local Walmart, when I get two dollar Halloween costumes, I have to admit that sometimes it is worth the stop.

Wednesday Activity

The teacher in me went a little overboard today with our activity. It started simply enough, with an idea to do something with insects. I narrowed in down to butterflies and found a cute craft. I wanted to teach a very simple lesson about The Life Cycle of a Butterfly. But the ideas kept coming and soon I had a whole little lesson plan for the morning. We started with readingThe Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle focusing on the different stages the caterpillar goes through. We then did a little worksheet (which I actually found on a website where teachers share lesson plans...it's been too long since I visited one of those!) where the kids colored simple pictures of the four stages and then cut them out and glued them onto a butterfly. This was followed by looking at real pictures on the internet, acting out the transformation ourselves and then ending with cute butterfly craft where we traced their hands to make the wings.

The teacher in me forgot to plan for the needs of each student and the fact that one of her "students" is exactly two years old. A good teacher will always strive to meet the differing needs of his/her students and make necessary adaptions so that every child can meet their potential. My adaptation for today was to let Kiwi ride her bike and run all over the house while Little Man and I finished the project. And even he was getting a little antsy by the end.

The hit of the morning was definitely acting out the life cycle.

In their eggs on the leaf

Hungry little caterpillars

Snug in their cocoons

A beautiful butterfly

So Proud

"Kiwi, we did it!" I heard him exclaim as I rounded the corner into the family room. "We made a huge mess! And it was EASY!"

Way to make us proud, son.

He wasn't as excited about the cleaning up part...

Halloween

They didn't even make it past the entry way before plopping themselves down and examining their loot.

"Mommy, can I have another piece?" Little Man asked and when I answered "Sure, it's Halloween," he must have caught my tone. I didn't say, "You can eat as much as you want," because that seemed like words a mommy shouldn't utter when it comes to candy, but that is what I was thinking.

And Little Man was in tune with that vibe.

It may have been the greatest moment of his life. They both immersed themselves into Skittles, fruit snacks, tootsie rolls (I found it interesting that they left most of the "good" candy alone) and Little Man's new found favorite of pixie sticks.

And I let them live it up.

Yesterday, we put on the costumes one final time for the year and brought their candy to a local orthodontist who paid them for it (I believe the candy is sent overseas to soldiers) and then we went and picked out some toys with the money.

Trick or Treating

Kiwi walked right into our neighbors house (and we've never been inside before). He opened the door and she started heading for the dining room. She caught on soon enough.

Our little monkey

Little Man, Kiwi, and Princess A.

Things are getting kind of spooky...

Yesterday the kids and I put up some decorations in the dining room

And made some "Monster Hash" (eggs, potatoes, peppers, onions, and turkey sausage with some green food coloring). Mike and Little Man made some crazy spooky colored pancakes.

And the brave ones ate eyeballs (peeled grapes).

We lit some candles, played "Monster Mash" and had a very spooky dinner. Little Man loved all the names of the food and got a kick out of the eyeballs. Kiwi refused to eat them and would only eat the grapes with peels. She was initially resistant to "Monster Hash," but relented when we explained what it was.

All guests received a parting gift of bubbles in a pumpkin holder (courtesy of Targets dollar spot).

Happy Halloween!!

Children's Museum

My mom, Mallory, and I took the kids to a Children's Museum. I have been here a couple times before and it is always a little stressful with parents and kids everywhere, but for some reason on this Monday morning we almost had the whole thing to ourselves. Combine that with three adults for three children and it was a very fun and pretty relaxed morning.

We started with a quick stop at Fred Meyers to get some lunch supplies. We called this the "cousin cart" and the kids found this hilarious. It was a pretty uneventful grocery trip...as long as you don't count the incident of Kiwi taking Annabelle down by the deli section.

The hit of the museum for all three of the kids was the little section that had play food, grocery baskets, and cash registers. All of them had fun making sandwiches and being the workers and shoppers. I think they would have stayed there all day if us adults didn't convince them that there was more to see.

The had this great art studio where all of the kids painted and made masks.

It was a really good morning.

Wednesday Activity

Mal and Annabelle joined us for our Wednesday activity while they were here. Here is what we envisioned: Making cute Halloween cookies with the children, having them dress up in their costumes and have a costume parade, having a Halloween dance party, and then going down to the craft store to get some things we wanted to pick up.

We did successfully manage to make cookies and they were cute. It took about twice as long as anticipated, required an unplanned trip to the store, and consisted of about ten meltdowns (a couple by the girls and about eight by Little Man. He was having an off day).

The kiddos looked adorable in their costumes and the parade had Little Man running around, Annabelle tottering behind, and Kiwi stripping her costume off before she even completed one loop.

The dance party was fun, but I didn't blame Annabelle for not wanting to join her cousins on the floor (Mal held her).

We never made it to the craft store, but three out of four isn't bad. In the end both mommies were exhausted, but happy and the kids had fun so it was a success.