Catching up

After the birthday celebrations, October was filled with errands, doctor appointments, physical therapy, family time, and organizing at home.  The Tuesday before I went back to work, we had a little getaway for a couple days.  We had to cut it short because we had parent-teacher conferences Thursday morning at 9:00, and we were about an hour away.  But, we had so much fun.  I planned some activities and fall crafts to do.  One of them was the melted crayon pumpkin, seen on Pinterest, of course.  Here's how the Pinterest pumpkin looks:

Here's how ours turned out:

Not quite the same, but we had fun and everyone took turns with the hair dryer.  The only problem is, you really do need to cover the table and wear art smocks.  Hubs' shirt and and the table fell victim to this craft. 

We also did a construction paper fall tree craft that was super easy.  We traced our hands and forearms and then the kids put the "leaves" (scraps of construction paper) on their trees where they saw fit:

Benji's (5) tree

Blue - Josiah's (3) tree
Yellow - Calah's (17 mos) tree

Wednesday morning, we went to the indoor pool for about an hour and a half.  Then, we left for lunch and came back after naps, before dinner, for another hour and a half.  All three of the kids LOVED the pool.  Jo wore arm floaties for the first time and floated around the pool by himself with confidence - such a great feeling.  Last summer, he was so reluctant to do his swim lessons with me and didn't want to participate.   He loves water, but he just always wanted someone to hold onto him and just splash around.  This time, he was all over doing it on his own.  We just have to work on the actual swimming skills now.

Calah wore the puddle jumpers and Hubs and I took turns walking around with her.  Several times I let her go and she floated all by herself!!! Until she turned around and saw that I wasn't holding on to her anymore, that is.  Then, she would get off-balance and roll over a bit.  But, I was really proud of how calm she was.  She seems to be a natural at so many things, which is really fun to watch.  We just have to show her how to do somehting once or twice and BAM! She has mastered it.  God is so good.  This getaway was just what we needed.

This is a shot outside the pool building. 
Love all the greenery!