First Sleepover

Princess finally had her first sleepover.
Every day when Peanut's Mom comes for her they beg not to be separated.
On this day her Mom came for dinner and then went home to study leaving
Peanut with Princess for a sleepover. They were so happy. They played outside until they had to come inside.

We made special popcorn... After baths, they got into Princess's bed with the portable DVD player,

as Princess has no TV in her room, and watched a movie and had a mini

ice cream cone.

They were delighted.

Princess is under the quilt...it was a late night, and Peanut fell out of bed at 5:15am,

so it was an early day. Her Mom stopped by for breakfast on her way to her mid term,

and the girls played nicely all day. They came in from being outside most of the day and

sat down to watch a Charlie Brown DVD. I went to make snacks, came in to find this...

They napped for 3 hours, got up for dinner, and both slept all night too.

It was, a success.

Kids Need to Play Outside

Getting outside every single day is a priority here in our Garden State Homeschool.

Princess feels a need for fresh air every day, so there is no need to convince her.

Bella is easily lured with garden chores... Have you ever seen a child so happy to be asked to weed?

Peanut and Jules need a bit more convincing to leave the armoire filled with dress up clothes..

I help make them more comfortable by setting up a reading and snack space.

There is a vinyl tablecloth (vinyl side on the grass) under the blanket so we stay dry.

Stacks of books, and pillows, tray of snacks.We also have lots of outside toys..swing set, play houses,tunnelssee saw, balls, sandbox, and bikes to ride.Can you guess the biggest draw?

No, not the toys, it's the trees, the fresh air and sunshinethe ability to pick your own snack...Critters we can find and observe

Princess drew the entire life cycle..Get outside in your backyard today, see what you can find....

Sugarloaf Crafts Festival Giveaway Winner

Thanks to all who tossed their names in the hat for the four tickets to
the Sugarloaf Crafts Festival which takes place Oct 30, 31 Nov 1,2009
on both of my blogs and Facebook. If you can't make the show here in
New Jersey, check out the schedule to find one near you.
Congratulations to my fellow NJ blogging friend, Susan.
Susan drop me an e-mail with your address, and I will
get these out to you in tomorrow's mail.
There will be 250 craft designers and fine artists, daily children's
entertainment, daily craft demos,specialty foods, free shopping bags,music.

Camp Katie Days

Every Monday is Camp Katie Day here in our Garden State Homeschool.

All four girls attend.The Halloween costume box is in Princess's closet right now,so as you can see they often dress up for the day.

The projects have met with mixed success...

We have been working on Halloween themes this month.

We tried to make Halloween Countdown Calenders, but it morphed

into Haunted House pictures as the girls preferred that idea (it was their own).

My idea was to use file folders (I have tons) and draw a "haunted house" on them.

We would add "flaps" to be lifted or removed for each day of the month.They liked their idea better. LOL

I try to roll with it, not easy for me, but I am learning to be better at it. ;-)

I will post what we did for the next week in a bit. I a, having trouble getting the photos to

post for some reason. Don't forget to leave a comment if you want to enter into my

Sugarloaf Crafts Festival Giveaway..you have until midnight this Thursday.

((hugs)) Katein NJ

Sugarloaf Crafts Festival Giveaway

Do you like going to craft shows?
Do you live in the New Jersey area? Planning a trip near here maybe?
(I know if you are you will drop us a line)
I was recently offered tickets to attend and to giveaway

to my lovely readers for the Sugarloaf Crafts Festival which takes place


Oct 30,31, Nov 1, 2009.


Are you excited?? I am..I have in my hot little hand..4 tickets for one of you lovely people.


You do not need a blog to win..you can get a chance to win for each of the following...

1. Leave a comment telling me how much you'd like to win them.
2. Become a Fan on Facebook here http://www.facebook.com/SugarloafCrafts (let me know you do so)
3. Blog about it and link back here (be sure to let me know).

Not sure yet? Check out the vendors here, you are not going to want to miss this!

I will give you until midnight (EST) Thursday, Oct. 22,2009 to enter.
A winner will be announced on Friday, Oct. 23, 2009. Can't wait to see you there!!
((BIG HUGS)) KateinNJ
If you don't win, you can buy tickets here.

Princess's Cupcake Birthday Party

We decided to fore go the big she-bang this year for Princess's 7Th Birthday.
Instead, we just had our homeschool group over for cupcakes and nibbles. the green plate had the cupcakes on it. I was having so much fun with
the other Mom's, I wasn't taking pictures.

We had print outs of cupcakes to be colored and "decorated"

the girls played dress up

and they played outside too

I did not take one picture of the food..we had a veggie plate, cheese and crackers,

fried ravioli and mini pizzas (I used my regular pizza dough in a "cupcake" tin).

I hope our friends had as much fun as we did. I can't even believe she is SEVEN already.

I also can't believe this post was still sitting in my "draft folder...my apologies.

Weekly Update

Some of what went on here this week...

Early morning under Nana quilts...

Dress up

How these homeschooled kids play Twister..

What did you do this week?