Read.Explore.Learn.- The Pumpkin Man of Piney Creek

Welcome to Read.Explore.Learn.! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing ways you have learned with and explored books.


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My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

I have been dying to buy a pumpkin. Some of my neighbors have up their Halloween decorations already. Several have pumpkins. Reading the book The Pumpkin Man by Darleen Bailey Beard made me want one even more.

Hattie the main character of the book wants a pumpkin to make a jack-o’-lantern after seeing one in a store window. In her small prairie town in the pioneer days they sell pumpkins to make money and pies. They don’t waste a pumpkin by making them a jack-o’-lantern.

After seeing the one in town she asks her dad if she can have a pumpkin from their patch to carve. He responds by saying, “ The Pumpkin Man from Piney Creek is coming to buy every one.”

Hattie tries to convince here parents to give her a pumpkin, but they remind her that all but three pie pumpkins have been promised for sale.

The next day while getting the pumpkins ready for sale Hattie hides one. She hopes it won’t be missed, but after the Pumpkin Man inspects one of the pumpkins by cutting a triangle in it an inspecting its quality he declares that he will take all one hundred.

Guess what? He counts them and finds one missing.

With one missing Pa heads to the basement to retrieve one of Ma’s pie pumpkins.

Hattie sees the fault in her choice and heads to the field to unhide the pumpkin. She doesn’t want Ma to lose a pumpkin she was going to use to make Thanksgiving pies.

When Hattie asks The Pumpkin Man if it will become a jack-o’-lantern, he asks her if that is what she wanted to do with. Hattie tells him that was her plan and he lets her keep it. He tells her that he can’t sell a pumpkin that has been carved.

Hatttie is thrilled beyond belief!

This book was great for discussing choices and honesty with Jdaniel. He is not really into discussing morals of stories, but this one fit other things we have been talking about when it comes to choices.

We so enjoyed the pictures in this wonderful tale. Laura Kelly’s water coloring painting bring a folksy charm to the book.

It is just a wonderful book.

What did we do?

Cooking

We headed to our local children to try making pumpkin and apple soup. JDaniel loves to helping with cooking and this sounded like fun.

JDaniel loved getting to hold a dull knife. He never has used one at home before. He cut up some pumkin and then some sage.

We watched as the cooking teacher pureed the roasted apples and pumpkins with chicken stock.

Then he got to taste it and he really didn't like it. I tasted it and I really didn't like it. One of the other moms said it needed something. We thought it needed to not have sage in it. Maybe if something sweet were added







This post is linked to Feed Me Books Friday, Link and Learn,  We Play and It's Playtime .

Halloween Party Ideas- Crafting a Pumpkin Salad

I thought it would be fun to do a Halloween craft with food. JDaniel and I headed to the Fresh Market salad bar and I had him select foods he would like to try.

We ended up with a variety of foods. Some were brand new and others were old favorites.


I placed all the ingredients in an ice cube tray and showed him how to create a pumpkin face using some of the ingredients in orange pepper slices with celery stems.

The tray contains edamame, chickpeas, pumpkin seeds, red cabbage, yellow squash, fried wanton strips, mushrooms, celery, uncooked corn, carrot shavings, cauliflower, pineapple, raisins, and cheerios.

Then he started to create faces of his own while taste testing the ingredients. JDaniel said that the wanton was filled with many holes that looked like many eyes. I thought that was a great idea.


He didn’t finish everything. We ended up wrapping the tray with the remaining food up with plastic. Jdaniel said he wanted to do it again at dinner time.

I was happy to see that he tried many of the new foods.  The chickpeas and wantons have become a new favorite.

This post is linked to Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop, It's Playtime, Adventures-In-Mommyland and will be linked to my Halloween Traditions link up on October 27th when it starts.

                                                                                

P.S. The Halloween Traditions link up  event will include four link ups. They are Halloween Costumes, Halloween Foods, Halloween Crafts and Traditions or Memories. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for this link up that begins Oct. 24^th and ends Nov. 2^nd.

 

You Can't Serve Two Masters- Darth Vader Made the Wrong Choice

“You can not serve two masters,” I tell Jdaniel when he questions why something he is doing or has seen is bad or just not good.

We have started going over scripture memory verses with JDaniel at meal times using a verse packet called Foundation Verses from Desiring God Ministries and “No one can serve two masters” from Matthew 6:24a was one of the first ones.

He has been told that it means you can’t do what God wants and what you want if they are two vary different things.

As a three year old with tons of his own ideas, he understands that he doesn’t always get his own way. He would love to master of all things, but he really wants to please God too.

We have reminded him that it isn’t his way or our way. It is God’s way we are all trying to follow. He has been reminded that Mom and Dad still struggle with this too.

He seemed to be understanding what we were saying, but we weren’t sure.

Then something happened that made it crystal clear for him. We got three boxes of cereal in the mail with Star Wars characters on them. If you put the boxes together they made a panoramic scene.

JDaniel had no idea who they were or what they were from, but he was fascinated by the robots in the picture.

I tried telling him a little about each of the characters and we watched some short clips on Youtube that weren’t violent. They mostly concentrated on R2D2 and C-3PO. He loved watching them.

Then he started asking about Darth Vader. He has a large picture on the third box. Who was he? Was he bad? Why does he look like a robot?

“Well, Darth Vader was a man who had to make a choice,” I told him.

“He had to chose who to follow and he chose the wrong master,” I continued.

“So, he was bad?” JDaniel asked.

“Yes, he was bad and he didn’t turn away from bad things when he could have (Yes, I know he did in the end.),” I replied.

“Not good,” JDaniel replied back.

“Really not good,” I answered back.

We haven’t really gotten to all the Darth Vader does in the movies series. My husband did show him one of the scenes where Darth Vader is fighting with a light saber. We have chatted more about making good choices and following through with doing the right thing.



I am going to be hosting a giveaway that includes the three cereal boxes with the Star Wars scenes and a $25 Walmart gift card this Sunday. I hope you will stop by and enter it. You never know what conversations the boxes could stir up at your house.

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock's Alphabe Thursday.

Pause Life for a Moment- Galit Breen of These Little Waves

I love word weavers. I tend to gravitated to blogs were the writers love words and paint beautiful pictures with them. Galit Breen of These Little Waves is a writer that totally fits that description. The post she is sharing with us today will draw you in and make you want to relax, grab a cool or warm drink and take in wonders fall has brought to where you live.

After reading this wonder piece, please explore her blog to take in more word tapestries.

Crisp wind wisps my hair, cools my cheeks.

I slide out of my flip flops and rest my feet on the porch railing. Feeling the the sturdiness of our old home -worn wood, peeling paint, rough edges- against my skin, I don’t pull away.

I cross my feet in front of me and lean far back in my seat. The plastic gives way, wraps me up. I breathe in the night, and lean even further in.

Bonfire remnants -delicious and smoky and crackling and lasting- trail towards me.

The first splashes of color- golden yellows and royal reds- catch my eye.

And I can't help but think that the very best of Fall is right here within fingertip reach.

Glancing at Jason in the seat beside me, I take him in too. His long legs reach so very far on the railing. His jeaned legs rest loosely against my bare ones. Our toes melt in the space between.

We pass one (pumpkin) beer back and forth as we sit side by side, somehow small within this kind of quiet.

We listen for our three children, long ago read to and hugged and kissed and tucked into bed “just one more time.” But still we listen for them, just in case.

Sparingly, he lilts about the stars, the leaves already starting to fall.

I am about to mention fundraisers and schedules and all that swirls in my mind, but I don’t.

My writing, his work, the dishes, the laundry, another Monday- all hang inside, whispering softly in the background, pulling us back.

Ignoring this noise, we continue to sit.

And in this rare quiet, we spot fireflies glowing their fleeting wonder. The magic is not lost on either one of us.

So pushing our to-do lists even further away, we sit, pass our drink, cross our toes, breath our hearts, not daring to disturb this kind of moment.

On the Road to La-La Home Daycare with Cupcakes

I am not here today! I am sharing a post on cupcakes and being special even if you are plain at La-La Home Daycare.

I hope you will take a moment to stop by and visit me there. La-La Home Daycare is a wonderful family blog that shares crafts, learning and so much more I know you will find a joy to visit.

Please stop by!

Muffin Tin Monday on Sunday- Football is Here!

I found these cute muffin liners and flag picks at Hobby Lobby on clearance over the summer. They made a really cute addition to my football themed tin.

Along with two football shaped sandwiches are a collection of grapes that look like footballs if you squint. One of the grocery stores near us was having a Grapeapalooza Festival and I thought it would be fun to try a variety of grapes.

Here are the grapes we tried:

1. Black grapes- JDaniel loved the black grapes. He said they tasted like cherries.

2. The White Prince grapes- These were okay .

3. Red organic grapes- These grapes were yummy according to my preschool aged food critic.

 4. Large Sweet Royal red grapes- He said that these were yucky.  I happened to like them all.

It was fun to try some new foods even if they didn't all go over well!

Do you have a favorite type of grape?

This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday.