Pumpkin Carving!

On Saturday we decided to carve our pumpkins. Okay, Greg helped the boys carve their pumpkins. I took pictures and gave color commentary.

Nick's pumpkin had a really long stem, though Henry's was somewhat fatter. Both pumpkins had plenty of pumkin guts, though.

Henry has kind of a tradition of putting the pumpkin top on his head like a hat.

Nick did it, too.

They both loved touching and playing with the gooey goop.

I think Greg did a nice job carving them.

As traditions go, this is a pretty messy one, but the boys remember from year to year. Henry told me, "We have to take pictures out on the porch with our pumpkins!"

So we did.  :)

Halloween is almost here! Can you see all the decorations Henry made with window markers? Those are his "spooky drawings."

Pumpkin Farm!

Today we went to Heap's Giant Pumpkin Farm out in Minooka. The weather couldn't have been any more perfect, and the boys were ecstatic once they realized that this was the farm with the CORN BINS! (They never say corn bins without shouting for joy.)

We started out with a hayride out to the pumpkin patch.

There were some interesting, colorful, and warty specimens out in the patch. I think we visited later than in previous years--that's why the pumpkins were more spread out and the vines mostly dead.

After the pumpkin patch, the boys hit the climbing area. They ran around and climbed for probably an hour. I was very surprised they didn't go to sleep faster tonight, after all the running around they did.

The corn, though, was their favorite. I think they'd still be there now if we would've let them stay and jump in it for longer. We had to leave eventually because the hay was irritating my asthma.

If it wasn't for the whole asthma thing, I think a corn bin in our garage would be a perfect distractor. Of course, getting the corn and the hay dust cleaned up is quite a challenge. It gets in all the crevices.

After corn time, we visited the farm animals before heading out. They were pretty friendly, though I have no idea why, considering how many families were there bothering them.

Who cares if you've got a little donkey fur on your sweatshirt, especially when you already are covered in hay dust and corn?

Though we had a good time, all that fresh air, hay dust, and running around made me pretty tired. It's hard to believe we just had the last weekend before Halloween.

A Fire Safety Plan

Last week Henry's homework assignment was to go over our fire safety plan. He drew it all by himself!

Notice our family holding hands in the house.

 Check out his artistic skills!

We were supposed to practice having him telling about our plan. Henry and I practiced a lot, though he kept getting distracted.  Here's what he came up with for a plan. Note his mention both of the firemen and the "fire ladies."

Henry does have a plan for how to get out. I wouldn't call him a fire safety expert, but he's well on his way!

Nick Takes the Lead at Storytime

Nick has been learning to read more and more this year. He struggles with low frustration tolerance, but just recently I've seen him reading (and even sounding out words) on his own.

Nick even brought a book into the bagel shop the other day!

Tonight he actually volunteered to read a book to Henry for storytime. Here's Nick reading. He knows the story well, but he was finger tracking, self-correcting, and really reading.  I'm so proud of him.  :)



After he read us this story (I love Mo Willems), I read him an old favorite, The Little House, by Virginia Lee Burton. Henry was pretty tired and passed out right away, but Nick stayed up reading and rereading The Little House. He read mostly from memory I stayed upstairs on the futon (reading a book myself), and every few minutes Nick would spell a word and ask for help with it from up in his bunk bed. "Mom, what word is s-t-r-o-n-g?"

I know the battle isn't over, and I'm sure there will be more battles to come whenever Nick isn't "in the mood" to read, but it was such a relief to see him reading (and enjoying) a great book of his own volition. I'm a die hard bibliophile. To be honest, I read 4-8 books a week, and more than that in the summer. While I don't need my kids to be just like me, I've worried as I watched Nick struggle with reading this last year. It felt really good to listen to Nick up in his bed, sneaking in a few extra minutes of reading. I think I'm going to go out and buy every Mo Willems book ever published.

A Tour of a. . . Wastewater Treatment Plant?

Yup. That's what we did on Saturday. My mom and stepdad live up in Carol Stream, and since my mom works for the public works department, she heard about this event, the WRC Open House. I heard that pumpkins, ice cream, and balloons were involved, so we showed up right on time. It was very chilly and windy, though, so everyone had long-sleeved shirts plus sweatshirts on. Brr!

They did indeed give away pumpkins, but they also showed us things like the microscopes and test tubes that they use for checking the water as it is being treated. The boys had lots of questions, all about where everything goes when they flush the toilet.

Henry liked watching the machines that spun around. "Tornadoes!" he said.

They also took us on a hayride tour of the facilities, which were less, er, odifereous than one would expect. It was quite nice where the cleaned water is released into a creek. We even saw fish and ducks hanging around.

Did you know that they add oxygen to the water before adding it to the creek? I guess that's why the fish like hanging out right near where the treated water is released into the creek.

Henry and Nick were interested in all of the buttons and gauges where they add the oxygen. Nick says he wants to be a scientist. "But not the kind who does poop stuff. That's disgusting. The kind who works with microscopes and stuff."

After our hayride, we had ice cream and then headed to the "touch-a-truck" event. They had some pretty huge specimens, and the boys were all kinds of excited as they raced from truck to truck.

Nick's favorite was this big truck, and he kept going back to crawl inside. What was he most fascinated by? On some of the trucks there was a handle and you could roll the window down! Awesome! Amazing! Weird, even! On the way home I told Nick that until I was in my mid-20s, nearly every car I got inside had roll-down windows. He didn't believe me.

Henry preferred a more rugged sort of vehicle. This one was his vehicle of choice. Grandma Linda got to drive this one a few years back, so I think it's her favorite, too.

He even did a little song and dance while way up there.

Grandpa's favorite was this helicopter. They use it to spray standing water in the summer to keep the mosquitoes down. After the boys had their turn pretending to drive it, Grandpa Ray took his own turn behind the wheel.

Henry wasn't keen on sitting in front of this huge snowplow. He might not be thankful now, but he'll sure be thankful for the snowplows once winter hits! (Or maybe not. Henry loves playing in the snow, so being stuck at home wouldn't be a bad thing for him.)

Here's Henry at the wheel. He said, "It's just for pretend though. I can't drive for real. Not until I'm big." Good thing, too, the way he maneuvers his toy cars around.

For something that sounded initially kind of lame, this event ended up being pretty awesome.

The boys got goodie bags and taffy apples to take home. When we ate them later on, both of them were shocked that there was an actual apple inside. What, did they think there was fake apple flavoring inside? A sweet ending to a chilly but entertaining day.