A is for Apple.

We started rowing a new book this week call How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. Yet another great read. We spent a good chunk of time at the library first thing this week; picking up picture books about all the places the girl travels to get her ingredients because the market is closed: France, Italy, Sri Lanka, England, Jamaica, and Vermont. One of my favorite aspects of this curriculum is getting to water the adventurous-spirit-and-travel-bug seed with geography.  

We're also going the uber classic route and doing the letter A and apple activities. Because I can play the cliche card every now and again. ;)

We discussed the parts of an apple.

Who doesn't love a good time of apple stamping?! 

{grandma disclaimer: he's snacking on the previously cut-up apple, while painting...not snacking on the painted one. k, thanks. ;)}

Give you three guesses what our field trip will be for this book. 

And one guess who'll I'll be delegating the apple pie makin' to. 

The one who went to culinary school...

USS Hornet Museum

Over the rainy weekend, we ventured out to Alameda to check out the USS Hornet Museum.

We had a great time exploring the giant ship--for a whole four hours.

We did our job well. ;)

The rest of the day we spent with hot cocoa, our first fire of the season and in our footed-pjs...yes, all of us. ;)

{ezra-cam}

Pumpkins

We ventured to the patch last weekend to grab our stash.

We are definitely quickly running out of room for pumpkins! Who knows what we'll do next year with THREE littles?!

We are very much into "If he does it, so do I" stage.

And they are pretty much inseparable. Fingers crossed that helps with moving them in together in a few months!

Our rule for pumpkin selection: have to get it to the wagon. This was E's solution.

We gave in due to creative thinking.

Airport Open House

The men were at a men's conference all day on Saturday, so the ladies got this idea to do breakfast and the annual airport open house. Three Mamas and eleven kids. Crazy fun? Absolutely. Coffee? Mandatory.

The whole gang!! 

The rest of our day was spent with lunch, long naps, a movie before getting W and having an in-n-out picnic dinner in the grass. And an early bedtime.

Cooler Weather

FINALLY!! We celebrated the first "cooler" day {read: below 80} by heading to the pumpkin patch with friends last week.

They had a grand ol' time in the kernels.

And, of course, the hard-core corn-maze.

Beautiful afternoon spent in corn.

Although next time, I'm seriously bringing rations. There were moments where I thought we would get stuck!

A victory photo attempt. Dirty would be an understatement.

 And so would tired. :)

Leaf Printing

Last month, the boys and I went on the leaf hunt with some friends. We met at a park and collected as many different types of leaves as possible. 

The next day, we gathered our supplies together for printing:

-various leaves

- white paper

- fall colored crayon colors

-something hard to work on {we used a plastic plate}

Place a leaf under the paper and lightly color the paper so that the leaf lines show up

We found that the pine tree needles didn't really show up, but the prints should look something like this...

But if you have a toddler, it'll look more like this:

We did learn a few tree species like oak, gum and Japanese maple! So it'd say it was a success! ;)

Gettin' Spooky! {decor}

A few weeks ago, the fall box came down and slowly but surely our house is turning a bit spooky! I've made a new front door wreath which I'm in absolute love with. Already scheming up Christmas ideas so I can keep it out!

{tutorial found here}

Our entryway inlet has a few added touches:

I got the print a few years back and added my mustache hoop art that wonders around downstairs without a permanent home. The beware sign was a dollar store score.

Our mantle:

At this point, just a hod-podge of what was already on it plus a few random additions. The candy corn garland I made out of felt and is hung on black ric rac. The witch print is found here. And the centerpiece pallet sign is incomplete {still need words} and will eventually go to another home. But it works there for now until I mail it off.  

The winning space thus far is our bat wall! It turned out so awesome. Amazing what 50 little card-stock bats can do! The flight of the bats:

{tutorial found here}

Happy harvest month!