P is for Pride and Pumpkin

Bible story: Tower of Babel
Books: None. I'm sure there are hundreds of cute pumpkin-themed picture books in the world. I'm also fairly sure that every single one of them is checked out of the library during the month of October. And, well, I needed a nap more than I needed a trip to the library on Sunday. It so happens that Poky Little Puppy was the book of choice every night this week, so we still got a P-themed book, even if it wasn't about pumpkins!
Crafts: pumpkin paper plate masks, Pumpkin-scented playdough
Science: pumpkin observations
Food: pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin muffins
Blessing others: pumpkin muffins for Peter and Patrick (two brother-friends at church)

We started out Pp week with a local community's pumpkin festival. The boys got to play in seeds, make crafts, pick out a mini pumpkin, and ride a pony . . . if they so choose. Both older boys sat on the horse, but Owen started screaming as soon as it shifted weight under him and wouldn't quit. Levi shed some tears but stuck it out!

Brave boy riding the pony. 

The best we can get, asking three boys to stare into the sun for a picture.

I whipped up some pumpkin-scented playdough on Sunday afternoon, which turned out to be a fantastic idea. The last time we had playdough out, Owen lost interest quickly, but both boys were quite occupied (making birthday cakes, randomly) for over half an hour. The addition of popsicle sticks seems to have made an oddly noticeable difference. (The sticks served as birthday candles in this particular play session.)

Cutting his "birthday cake."

"Look how many candles are in my cake!"

Monday morning, we painted paper plates orange, to be pumpkins for this pumpkin mask craft. 

Mixing red and yellow, since I'm too cheap to buy all the colors of paint.

Working hard to cover ALL the white spots.

Meanwhile, I gave Silas a plate of orange-colored yogurt (though I grimaced at the thought of all that food dye) to finger paint. He immediately discovered it was edible, though, and worked hard on getting it all into his mouth. Eventually I gave him a spoon to practice with, but he was happiest lifting the plate up to his face.

Tentative at first . . . 

 . . . after he started sticking his whole face in the plate . . . 

Later, I cut the center out of the paper plate. Levi helped me twist a pipe cleaner around a pencil for a vine, then we attached the vine, half a toilet paper tube, and a popsicle stick to make this cute little mask:

Owen, unfortunately, had a very emotional second half of the week, and never calmed down long enough to finish his own mask. He did, however, start one pumpkin-seed counting activity (How many seeds in the pumpkin? by 2 Teaching Mommies), which lasted approximately 90 seconds before he had some sort of meltdown. (It was a rough week.) I was particularly excited about this counting activity, too, since we still had roasted pumpkin seeds leftover from last year's pumpkin! Oh well.

Real pumpkin seeds on a printed pumpkin half.

This really doesn't have anything to do with Pp week, but I couldn't resist snapping a photo of Levi reading Snuggle Puppy to Silas on the kitchen floor. :) (Funny, when you start looking for a particular letter, you notice it everywhere . . . .)

Ooooooh, snuggle puppy of mine . . . 

Another little gem from 2 Teaching Mommies was a pumpkin observation worksheet. Levi used his eyes, ears, nose, fingers, and mouth to answer questions about the pumpkin (what color is it? does it smell good or bad? is it smooth or bumpy? etc.). We haven't done much with the five senses, so this felt like good solid school work to me. :)

Does it make a sound?

Since Owen loves to glue so much, I printed off the "pumpkin size sort" from the 2 Teaching Mommies packet and let him go to town. Meanwhile, Silas finally got interested in popping in the pompoms and did more than three or four before dumping them on the floor!

(Also meanwhile, Levi declared that he didn't know how to do ANY of his math. Since this was blatantly untrue, he had to miss out on our weekly half-hour of television while we slogged our way to the end of the lesson.)

The Tower of Babel: A Lesson on Pride

I have found it virtually impossible to get our Bible lessons done in the mornings. I always envision doing them at breakfast, but breakfast somehow goes by with a fair bit of chaos, and everyone is scrambling to get away from the table (myself included) before long. So this week, I asked my husband if he'd consider focusing on our weekly story when he reads the Bible to us after dinner. It worked so much better, and gave Daddy the chance to be involved with teaching Scripture, which makes me happy. 

Levi looked up a few Bible verses on pride, and then we built our own towers, only to knock them down again! 

Trying to pose for a picture with his tower while also holding the destructive littlest brother at bay.

"My tower is as tall as I am!"

"Look, Mommy! We're a tower of Babel! Take a picture!"

(Don't you just love Owen's chosen ensemble?)

It was shortly after this last picture that I discovered I'd done something horribly wrong in my explanations. The boys were absolutely thrilled to BE the tower of Babel, and Levi told me in no uncertain terms that he was the biggest and didn't need God's help to do anything. Typical self-sufficient first child . . . 

We capped off Pp week (spontaneously) with dinner at Cici's pizza. It just so happens that the boys like their pizza with pineapple and parmesan -- lots of opportunities to make the Pp sound over and over!