tom sawyer.

An abridged version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and so the literary style is not authentic and the story was shortened.  Guess Dave is a bit of a Mark Twain fan from Grade 12 english class and he is giving this a thumbs down.  Do not try this one at home folks.

In a few months we'll dust off the original version (from the mama's childhood book collection believe it or not) and give it a go as Iko was quite interested in the story.

leaf frolicking.

A serious romp in the leaves before Mother Nature tucks them in, and spreads a blanket, "pure and white, soft as down and sparkling bright" over them.  So fun to kick and throw and crush and dive into.  Huge armfuls to hug and some rolling around is okay too.  I'm talking about the kids here.

nut balls.

For awhile (a seemingly long while) Ash's two favourite words were nut and ball.  So you can imagine his delight when we decided to make some nut-balls.   In fact the delight is so outstanding this is becoming a weekly habit (very dangerous for the parents if you dip a few in good, dark chocolate).  This is one healthy, fun food idea for kiddies.

1 cup nut butter (almond, peanut, cashew etc.)

3/4 cup chopped dates

1 1/2 cups unsweetened, shredded coconut

1/2 cup ground nuts or seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, etc..)

Reserve 1/2 cup coconut.  Combine nut butter, dates, coconut and ground seeds.  Form into balls and roll in reserved coconut.

bats, ghosts and gobblin'.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

silly pumpkin heads.

LOADS of fun this week making silly pumpkin heads.  I printed some funny eyes, noses and mouths from here but we needed to get a little sillier so mama's artistic talents were called upon.  The children cut out the funny pumpkin face pieces, glued them on and then coloured them in.  I think Iko could do this project for hours on end.

The last pumpkin head was made "on own" by sweet Ash (scissor work contracted out to the mama, ahem).  Iko was really impressed with his brother's work and couldn't stop congratulating him.

We are busy making and baking for a halloween party tomorrow.  Thought we'd take a chance with something new - popcorn balls.  A VERY sweet and sticky project which received positive reviews from the little people so far.  I googled for a recipe and then took off on my own from there.  Iko counted 31 balls made at the end (lucky as we need 30 minimum).

1/2 cup butter

6 cups marshmallows (melt together in pot)

16 cups freshly popped popcorn

1 cup freshly toasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds

1 very strong boy to help with the stirring and to encourage everyone to keep going

1 very cute and brave boy to stick his hand in the pot and test "doneness" and "stickyness" (must be willing to lick continuously to keep self clean)

snow hike.

Kids and snow.  What do children in warm climates do with themselves?  Snowballs, snow prints, snow sliding, snow running, snow hiding, snow building, snow removing, snow scraping, snow eating (but it just tastes so good - that's what I hear--)....  it's a never-ending imagination fostering medium. 

Snow combined with a bit of sunshine is a serious spirit lifter.  The world becomes so bright it almost hurts.  The snow romping children were certainly happy in the forest today.

first snow.

The magic of waking to the first snow.  All is changed from brilliant, glorious colour to bright and white.  Perfect for snowballs and snowpeople and rolling all around.

tree art.

October art.  Autumnal art.  Leaves, trees, reds, golds and rusty browns.  I started with this depiction of a tree.  Pretty simple.  Just used permanent marker for the trunk and branches then filled in the "negative spaces" with colour (oil pastels shown here but crayon would work too).

And then Iko created his tree using the same method.

I really like the way it turned out and I think he is proud of his effort (took a lot of muscles to colour in every little bit of space).  But he was obviously not truly satisfied because he proceeded  to make a real autumn tree (complete with branches and proper colourful leaves).

And then leaf stitching.  Leaf stitching?  Who ever heard of that?  But it looks kind of neat on our windowsill (or floor depending on the play of the day).

photos in the forest.

There was a new photographer on the hike this week in the forest.  It's apparent he's been observing his mama's style.  What I mean is, take a look for yourself....

One of the focuses this week in the forest was "things that are NOT living".  Iko started the discussion by telling me rocks are not living and neither is soil.  Dead leaves and twigs are not living either but they were alive once before.  We investigate many dead, fallen and standing trees again and noticed that these trees had become a home for other plants, fungi, molds etc..  We even found a funky orange fungus that we hadn't noticed before.  It was tempting to touch that orange fungus as it kind of oozed a bit of slime...  We all agreed that the furry, bright green moss found growing on rocks was one of our favourites.  Today we used one of our guide books to identify some trees (trembling aspen) that we had mistaken for paper birches.  Iko and I taught ourselves the differences so that we could "teach Ash when he gets older".

poncho perfecto.

This poncho pattern really is perfecto.  Perfect to knit and perfect to wear on sunny, slightly crisp autumn days (so treasured right now).  If only you could see how soft this silk/wool blend is.

charlie and the chocolate factory.

Dave and Iko have a date every evening just before bed.  A reading date.  They have spent the summer re-reading many of the works I already posted here (Dave having never read these novels).  And then, they branched out into a new chapter book.

The review in Iko and Dave's words respectively:  "I love that book so much." and "Tasty."

What to read next????

cold weather hiking.

Okay it's cold now.  I am sad to report that the virginia creeper which normally dresses our October home in deep burgundy glory is now limp and mushy from frost.  It feels like the crisp autumn beauty of the long weekend is gone.  Big sigh.  Our hike in the forest this week was...hmmm... cold.  Ash stuck to my back like glue and I was kind of happy to have one body part remain warm on the trail.

Walking along familiar paths we observe changes from week to week.  Today the darkness cast a mystical mood on the forest and as we walked amongst the creaking trees we felt the forest was cloaked in somber grays and browns.  Iko was interested in the standing dead, fallen and woodpecker marked trees today.  And of course the leaves and cones that now cover the ground are always investigable material.  One hollow log was thoroughly inspected for gnomes and small furry creatures.  The season's first chunk of ice was discovered and crunched up.  Cold noses, rosy cheeks, chilled hands and frozen little feet were happy to warm by the fire with a pumpkin muffin and tea at the end of the morning.

picking and juicing.

Apples.  More apples.  Can never get enough apples in our house. 

happy thanksgiving.

    

autumn forest.

This week in the forest we are really getting a sense of autumn and the impending winter.  The weather is decidedly crisper and cooler.  This morning when we woke we noticed Jack Frost had come to visit overnight.  He left some beautiful frosted sticks and leaves to admire in the woods.  Cones, twigs and decomposing leaves are evident on footpaths.  Summer and fall flowers have gone to seed and are quite fun to pull apart and investigate.  Many leaves have turned beautiful hues of red, golden and brown.  The boys are excited to see the leaves falling as we walk.  An end, and a beginning. 

It's the season for leaf etching and Iko has great plans... (below:  beeswax block crayons in fall colours).