Plenty of Turkey before the Turkey

I know I just told you that I wasn't going to post every day, and I won't. I just happen to have a few fun things to put on the blog.

Yesterday it was our Thankful Turkey.

Today, it is a whole new breed of turkey. I'm not sure I have ever seen one quite like this. He probably won't make for a very good feast. Too hollow in my opinion.

Since Grandma is here and the kids are out of school, I planned a craft for us to do today. The day was filled already with workouts, JR visiting, safe shopping (for a literal safe), sharpening 200 pencils and breaking the ward pencil sharpener (oops), game playing, christmas shopping, lesson planning, and dog pampering (Gizmo and Pip are here as well.)  But regardless of the chaos, we still managed to get our creative juices flowing and finish our silly birds.

Everyone helped a bit here and there, but June and I spent the most time tying all the tulle on the turkey bodies. It took a chunk of time. Plus, we were running out of the main colors (red, orange and yellow) so we added in some gold that I had left over from Pearl's tutu. We think it turned out rather well.

You can see the original here with the tutorial. We had a lot of fun putting them together. Grandma painted the cool eyes and after we stuck them in with toothpicks, they could still move in either direction. So this turkey can watch you out of the corner of his eye.

You'd better watch out. Now Santa isn't the only one watching!!






p.s. I'm sorry all the photos of our house after dark look yellow. That is just how they turn out. And you see them AFTER I take out plenty of 'yellow' in photoshop. It just seems to be the color that comes off the walls, although our walls are not yellow. It must be the sunshiney personality of everyone who lives here.

Thankful Turkey 2015

Ten years of turkeys! I am amazed at how one little FHE lesson turned into ten years of turkeys on our wall. I love it. The girls love to reread all the feathers on each turkey. Even I was caught many times staring at the wall and remembering how each turkey was put together and who helped.

This year it was June's turn to help with the turkey, but she is old enough that I let her do it all herself. She found a design and made it her own. We had a great time last night filling out our feathers with all the things for which we are, indeed, grateful.

Grandma Cazier is here visiting, so she got to make a feather as well. I love that our turkeys have guest appearances. We have the Mack's who started it all in 2006. We have the Dargan's in 2012. The Houck's (and Buckwheat) in 2013. And now Grandma Cazier in 2015.

Here is June with the finished turkey. (I love the pilgrim hat.)

Let's take a closer look. I usually take a picture pre-laminate, but not this time. And yes, I know Mom, it isn't close enough to read the feathers. You have to come to our place to enjoy the whole shebang.

Our wall is nice and full with our turkeys. We don't have a lot of Thanksgiving traditions around here, besides eating a feast on Thursday, but this is one aspect of Thanksgiving that I really look forward to.

Gobble, gobble.  

Don't Be Disappointed

Well folks. Twenty-three days is a pretty good streak. I have no more pertinent information to get out to you at the moment and I would like to stop tormenting my brain with tid-bits to regale you with. I am officially not going to post every day this month, and that is okay.

I still have some things that I will blog about, so I'll still be around. After all, Turkey day is just around the corner.

But let's not make this more painful than it has to be. (For both of us.) I'll wait until I have real content to share and you can....well...do whatever you would like. Maybe plan what dessert you will have with Thanksgiving this year. I hear pumpkin pie is out. Try something new, like chocolate silk. Or don't even have pie. Live on the edge.

This Blog Post Left Intentionally Blank

Maleen and I were carefully working out exactly what we wanted to put in tonight's blog post. Then we decided that the best possible blog post tonight would consist of more whitespace.

Dee Hock once said, "Make an empty space in any corner of your mind, and creativity will instantly fill it." So, here we are...waiting for a bolt of creativity.

One Good Toot Deserves a Quarter

If you recall, I have back trouble every now and then. I try to be careful, but you would be surprised what can throw your back out. It could be bending over to grab a sock off the floor. Perhaps it is leaning over to spit in the sink after brushing my teeth. The last time it was simply putting on a skirt. (Fashion can be dangerous...no lie.) The real trick is keeping my back strong enough, so that when I decide my five year old is too adorable not to hold, I can pick her up without having to spend the next day or so in bed.

I have the back exercises, and I try to do them. Well, I try to do them more often right after I have hurt my back and the memory is still fresh. Realistically, time passes and I forget how tenuous this relationship is between a life without pain and being careless with my posture. Posture! This is the worst one. I believe it is actually the cause of much more pain than I give it credit for. My back is okay if I bend over and pick up the occasional box. But if I have been hunched over at a computer for an hour beforehand causing undue amounts of stress to that lower lumbar region, it is less likely to go well.

The chiropractor mentioned as much to me last time I went in to have everything adjusted. To give a little history, I don't usually go to a chiropractor. It was just so painful the last time I threw my back out at the end of September, that I was willing to try anything. That makes me sound like I don't believe in chiropractors. I think they can be fantastic...I just wasn't sure they could fix my particular problem. I would say that it helped the healing process considerably, but was no miracle cure.

I am very aware of my posture issues. You would think that being a short person, I would stretch my height to its full advantage, but sadly, that is not the case. When I eat, I tend to slump. When I am on the computer, I catch myself hunched over sometimes. I need to work on getting my shoulders back. But it is hard to retrain very bad habits.

So I thought of something to give myself a little incentive. I told the kids that if they caught me with bad posture, I would owe a quarter. That quarter would go in a jar and when we built up enough money, we would do something together as a family. They were all for it. You have some like Ivory who call out my posture at every opportunity. Sometimes I am sitting or standing just fine and there is no quarter for her, but plenty of times I have straightened up and begrudgingly added my twenty-five cents to the jar.

Now...if it were just quarters for my bad posture, that jar would take forever to be filled, but I added another caveat.

It is possible that our house of little ladies is not always full of lady-like manners. In fact, there is sometimes quite a problem with tooting. (We use the 'T' word instead of 'F' word around here.) Some children are bigger offenders than others. I get that it is a natural bodily function, but I have to draw the line somewhere. And that somewhere is at the table when we are eating. I think it is just rude to let one rip while everyone is enjoying their meal. And so began the quarter for toots.

I think that has helped the jar fill up faster than anything. Amazingly, one of the worst offenders in general, is very good at controlling his expulsions at the table. (I'm not sure we have had any quarters from Dad.) The rest of us have all contributed here and there. And I would say that the manners at the table have improved tremendously.

The quarter rule has been so popular, I have added other addendum on here and there. For example, the littles owe a quarter if they ignore the food on their plates. They know they have to try one bite, but that particular bite is often left in a corner until it has become cold and unappetizing. How will they ever know if they like something if they only try it after it is unpalatable? Also, we are trying to teach the children that when someone cooks for you, it is polite to sample their dish...in a timely manner. So, I sometimes set a timer and if they haven't mustered their courage in time to try the vexing vegetable, etc....in goes a quarter.

We have a pretty good stash considering we started the jar in October. Tonight, I thought we should cash in some of our rewards. I feel bad that Tyler couldn't join us, but he didn't contribute much to the jar anyway. We went out for ice cream at Macey's, since that is a frugal choice that leaves us more quarters for another day. Most of the cones were so big, we flipped them over into cups so they wouldn't melt faster than we could eat them.

Love my girls. We came home and watched Little Women afterward. I have my own band of little women. They are just right for me. Now if only I could steal some of that patience and understanding from Marmee. I don't think she ever had to resort to a quarter jar.

Time to Leaf

Fall is rapidly turning into Winter. Such is the cycle of life. I love to walk along the sidewalk and step on all the crunchy leaves. We have a lot in the neighborhood. When Pearl walks to the bus stop, she will walk in the gutter, through the huge piles of leaves that accumulate there.

There aren't a lot of trees in the front yard at our house. We have the gigantic pine tree, but that drops needles, not leaves. We still end up with plenty of leaves that swirl around the neighborhood and settle in our yard. Pearl was raking them up the other day. She was just too cute not to stop and take pictures.

She raked them into a pile so she could jump into them. I'm not sure there were really enough leaves there. But I did have her toss some in the air. She is stinkin adorable.

She did build a little nest for her jacket. I wish I could find a bird that color. Or even an egg. (Hey...it reminds me of some of the eggs on My Singing Monsters. We may be a little addicted to that game right now.)

The back yard has considerably more trees. I noticed one day that I couldn't even see the grass back there. Tyler got the crew organized and put them to work. It is amazing what they can do when properly motivated.

Daisy was trying to sweep leaves into the shovel. She was ambitious.

It is hard to use two tools that are both bigger than your person.

P-Pod was helping in her own little way. This bucket may not move many leaves at once, but every little bit helps.

Luckily, most of the leaves are off the trees. The next thing we will be scooping around here will probably be snow.

Blogging Break

It is only a 24 hour break because I have pictures in the wings just needing to be edited.

This evening I went out to book group. Hence the lack of blogging. But it is always nice to get together with some of my favorite ladies and laugh and talk about a book.

We read The All-Girls Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg. Yes, I know it is a mouthful, but it was a really fun book. I like how the author added actual historical facts to her story, so not only did I enjoy a fun read, but I learned something. Can't beat that. (Look up WASPs from WWII.)

While I am here, let's talk about some another item in the news. I tend to not talk about current events. Usually because I don't watch the news and I am completely clueless to what is going on unless Tyler filters down information. But I think you would have to be living in a hole to have not heard about the terrorist attacks in Paris.

I am saddened when innocent people are affected by the negative actions of other people who are misled in their beliefs. I have never understood how terrorists claim to be carrying out the work of God. What kind of God is this? It is certainly not the type of God I would want to follow.

There is more I would say about this topic, but it is already past my bedtime. My heart goes out to all those families who are suffering from loss at this time. Life is precious. Give those you love an extra hug tomorrow.

Dates and Figs*

The dates I have one-on-one with the kids each month are my favorites. I love having them all together, but spending time with just one is sweet. It was June's month this November. She decided that we should go shopping for lotion. She gets really dry hands, what with her perpetual washing and the dry climate. (Winter is terrible for skin around here. I think someone should invent the lotion bath where you just soak in a tub of warm lotion.)

We had fun exploring different scents and types of lotion. June managed to talk me into getting her some sanitizer as well. (Anything to knock out a few hand washings. I get it...washing hands is good. But you have heard of too much of a good thing...)

Afterward, we got See's Candy. We each chose four pieces of chocolatey goodness.

As we headed toward the car, we stopped at a shoe store and spent a good half an hour trying on fun shoes. I was looking for boots, but never found exactly what I wanted. June was digging all the fancy pumps. There were so many glilttery high heels. Each was more bejeweled and lavish than the last. Remind me to go to Forever Young Shoes next time I need a sparkle shoe fix.

It was great to chat and laugh with June. She is such a fun person to be around.

My other date for the month was with Tyler. Remember how we planned a date for each month in advance? Well, for November, we planned to go to the temple. It has been forever since we have gone together. I am lucky to attend almost weekly with some friends, but it is special to go with my eternal companion. We chose the Payson temple since we thought it was so beautiful when we went through the open house.

We had a wonderful time and we learned something new: Men cannot wear a short-sleeved shirt in the temple. Tyler forgot and wore short sleeves and the Payson temple does not have clothing for rent. Luckily, they do have some long-sleeved shirts for emergencies. Tyler's shirt was a little snug, but it served its purpose.

I love that we have dates planned for a year and I love even more that we have a babysitter planned for a year. (Thank you June for growing up into a responsible girl. And Robyn for all your backup babysitting when June is busy. You girls are all terrific.)




* Sorry. There were no figs associated with this post.

Technical Difficulties

For some reason, my computer decided to disconnect from the internet tonight. Lucky for me, we have more than one computer around here, but I admit that I don't like using the girls computer. Plus, Tyler is on his machine so I can't edit any pictures.

Looks like I am destined to read a book tonight instead of blog. Twist my arm, won't ya?

The really happy news is that I don't have much left to blog. It is the middle of the month and I am basically caught up.

"I am caught up!" (One of the happiest phrases I know.)

I hope you are enjoying a relaxing night as well. Kick up your feet. Read something...

...besides this blog.

Reflections 2015

Our Reflections road has come to an end early on this year, and I am completely fine with that. Ivory had her awards night a little while ago. It conflicted with gymnastics, and since I pay for gymnastics, I was THAT mom who called ahead to see if my daughter won any awards.

Ivory got an honorable mention, but didn't advance, so I had her go to gymnastics instead. It would be different if they offered a make-up class, but there is none, so I like her to get as much practice per dollar in this case. Maybe that sounds awful, but we have been to many a reflections night. I figured we could miss one.

June is in Jr. High and they didn't even have an awards night. They had an awards afternoon. A half hour at the end of the day squeezed in to highlight the students. It seemed a little rushed, but it did avoid evening conflicts.

Only the students who participated got out of class early. Hannah was there of course. She enters every category each year.

This random guy moved on in music composition. I have a picture of him because his mother's phone was out of batteries and she wanted a photo. She asked me to take a few and send them to her. I guess I must look like the friendly type who would do that sort of thing, and she is right. Although my knowledge of how to send things on phones is not the best. I just emailed her the pictures later.

As usual, the visual arts category (which June entered) is the largest. That makes me happy since I enjoy looking at all the things they draw and design. At this level, they combined 3D art along with the 2D category. That seemed less fair, but I guess they used to not allow any 3D art after the regional level. Reflections agreed to advance 3D art to higher levels if they could combine it with 2D art. Regardless, I think all the kids are being cheated out of more chances. They only accept two entries from each level. (June's level is 6-8 grade.) There was only one 3D piece submitted, and it moved on along with one 2D piece. I don't know if the judges felt they had to move the 3D piece on to be fair? 

It doesn't really matter. The 3D piece was Hannah's, and it was really cool, but there were so many fantastic art pieces that couldn't advance. I'm just glad I don't have to be the judge.

June got her participation award. I love her bird and I am happy it got to come home with us.

And she still got some fun prizes. My favorite is the ticket to see a show at the Hale Center Theater. I would enter reflections just to get one of those.

Now we can just continue to root for Hannah along her Reflections road. It must take a lot of energy to enter every category. She deserves some recognition.

Bandannas R Us

Every once in a while you need an excuse to get out the bandannas. We actually have a whole collection we've saved up throughout the years. They come in useful for many things...blindfolds, costumes, wraps for sprains. We soak them to keep cool on hikes or wear them over our mouths to keep out dust. Sometimes they are just for decoration. Truly a useful item of clothing.

June chose them for the common purpose of blindfolds. It was her night to teach the lesson for FHE and she rigged up a course much like the one we did with the Houck's two years ago. Her rope course wasn't as intricate considering she only had two trees to go around, but the activity was still fun.

We started indoors putting on our bandannas. Everyone was slightly disoriented.

We went outside and she took us one at a time to the beginning of the rope. My turn was quiet. Even the littles were hushed during the whole activity. After finding the end of the rope, I was taken over to be with my family. Even though I couldn't see, it was still comforting to find them.

June made sure to say, "Welcome home sister," as each person returned, because that was her favorite part of the activity when they did it at girls' camp.

Once inside, our home teachers came over for dessert and games. They were kind enough to take a picture of our whole group. (Ooh, it is almost like a Sunday selfie. Although technically, it was a Monday selfie.)

Moxy was very happy to get out of her bandanna. Not really her thing. Plus, she still had to contend with Pearl. Pearl loves the stuffing out of that dog.

The rest of the evening was less spiritual with a roaring game of Caveman Telephone. That game is never boring. And the other highlight of the day was Ivory getting her expander off. She actually missed it at first, but I think she has gotten used to the extra room in her mouth again. The braces will still be on for a while longer.

Family Home Evening is always a great night. Probably because I have such a fantastic family.

My Mother, the Author

My mother is an amazing creative. I have mentioned this before. She can invent poems at the drop of a hat. She writes all sorts of things...plays, songs, limericks, activities, short stories, and now we can add books to the list.

As of this month, she is officially published. Three years ago, we were all sitting around on Grandma's bed listening to her fun fairy stories, and today we have a book! It has been a bit of a process for her to get all her ducks in a line. Plus, add to that the incredible illustrator she found in Lithuania. Put it all together, with some cash and a lot of patience, and the end result is fantastic.

Go check out her website... myveryownfairy.com

She is even on Amazon. How cool is that??

The kids were over the moon when our copy arrived at the house. (Thanks mom for sending one.) They did not know there were illustrations so there was a flurry of children flipping through the book to see all the cool pictures. I finally had to roll a die to see who would get to read the book first. Robyn was the lucky girl and she took the book off to her room. Less than two days later, she had finished it. She was telling me all her favorite parts and it just made me want to read it again.

It really is the cutest book. All the girls love their individual fairies. Here is Daisy pointing to hers.

And don't forget Robyness who started it all.

I'm so proud of my mom. She deserves a heap of praise for writing such interesting stories and having a dream come true for her, in published book form.

You'd better believe this won't be the last book you'll see with the author: Megan Dargan.

Dance the Night Away

The youth always have a fun activity in the works. (Well, really the leaders have an activity in the works. Usually the youth just show up.) But for the Dance Festival that they had recently, the youth put in plenty of work.

They had several practices in which they learned a choreographed number and then they went over some of the basic steps of waltz, cha cha, and swing. (In theory they were supposed to go over the basic steps, but not every ward got around to it. I think our ward missed swing.)

The night of the Dance Festival arrived and I was confused as to what it was all about. I envisioned groups of kids getting up to perform certain dances, but it wasn't like that at all. It was just a big stake dance. They played songs and told the kids what style to dance and away they all went.

They had some ingenious ways to get the kids to choose partners. (You can imagine the boys were often a little reluctant to choose a girl to dance with.) Also, the boys had wrist bands that the girls collected as they left each partner. June came home with a whole arm full of bands.

I had brought the whole family to 'watch' the performance, but it didn't take long to realize we were superfluous. There were hardly any chairs in the gym. (Probably to encourage the boys to remain standing and choose girls.) I let each of the littles dance a song or two with Tyler and then it was time to go.

June looked so cute in her 50s attire.

She knew the dances pretty well and at least had the sense of mind to keep her toes clear of misguided feet. (Which, to be frank, was most of the boys. You could tell some knew what they were doing, but the majority were clueless.)

Robyn was very excited about the dancing. I think she is ready to move up to Young Women's. She still has 5 months to go, but I thought a little dancing couldn't hurt anything. She stayed while I took the other girls home and she had a blast. She danced with Tyler for a while and then branched out and collected some of her own wrist bands.

She was so proud of those bands. And she earned them. Check out this guy she danced with. Tyler sent me the picture and I asked if he was an adult. Nope, teen. Wow, imagine that guy stepping on your feet.

It was a really great evening. Even yours truly got to dance with Tyler a couple times before I took off with the younger kids. Dancing is such a good way to leave your cares behind and enjoy the now. Makes me want to go to Zumba again. Now if I can just get the Christmas party to look as good as that night...

Quirky Quips

It has been almost a year since we have had Quirky Quips. I really feel like I posted some, more recently, but the blog tells me otherwise. So let's not beat around the bush. Let's get right to the weird and funny things I hear around the house.

___________________________________________

Daisy was looking at something that June had written to Mrs. Billings.

Daisy: Murse Billings?
___________________________________________

Hannah was over for dinner.

Hannah: Ivory, from the perspective I'm looking at you, it looks like you have two eyes because of your glasses.
Ivory: (Looks at her curiously) I always have two eyes.
___________________________________________

The littles were guessing which of three sandwiches they would get.

Daisy: (Whispering) Pearl, I'll give you a hint. It's 3.
___________________________________________

I was showing Ivory the girls on the front of Little Women.

Mom: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy
Ivory: Jo?
Mom: Yes. Meg for Margaret, Jo for Josephine, Beth and Amy.
Ivory: Beth for Bethlehem.
___________________________________________

On Christmas, Tyler pulled out a bottle of Olive Oil from his stocking.

Robyn: Is that whiskey?
___________________________________________

Daisy: Pearl has been pulling my nerves all night!!
___________________________________________

Dad: (Talking to Robyn) What eight-legged creatures do you have?
Robyn: Spiders
Ivory: Centimeters
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Tyler does not like it when I sneeze and say a word at the same time. He thinks it is weird. So I try not to do it.

Mom: (Sneezes) PLU!
Mom: I didn't say a word!!
Dad: Plu is a word.
Mom: Use it in a sentence.
Dad: My wife said, "Plu."
___________________________________________

Daisy: Sing a song if you like something that starts with 's' and ends with 'ider.'
Mom: (Singing) Sssssssssss-cider
Daisy: Actually, it ends with bider. Sbider.
__________________________________________

June noticed some crumbs on the floor while Mom and Pearl were sweeping. 

June: Mom, you left some debris. (Pronouncing it de-breeze)
Mom: It's debris. Yes, I know it has an 's,' but you don't hear it.
June: Well, you still left some debris. (Still pronouncing it wrong.)
Mom: Yes, I can feel da breeze.
__________________________________________

Miranda had written some stories for us, but she hadn't sent some in a while.

Mom: Miranda is having some writer's block.
Robyn: What's that?
June: It's when your hand gets stuffed up.
__________________________________________

I was playing Crossy Road with the kids.

Mom: I think it is time for a field. Kids, put in a good word for me.
Daisy: Give Mom the 'F' word!!"
_________________________________________

It was a very cold blustery day. The dog had been out a good amount of time.

Mom: Moxy will probably come in soon. It is really cold.
Pearl: I hope she doesn't dissolve out there.
_________________________________________

Robyn had fasted through breakfast and she was finally eating lunch.

Robyn: Every time I stop eating, there's still a hole in my stomach.
Pearl: It's your belly button.
________________________________________

Daisy: What's a craft?
Pearl: It's those things that you ride on. With the logs.
________________________________________

I was telling June that I need to get her pictures from the Medieval Faire.

June: Maybe while you're evolving pictures, you could get a poster board.
________________________________________

(This is one of my all time favorite quotes) Tyler was in Idaho with Barry. He had this conversation and was relating it to us when he returned. 

Tyler:  Grandpa was quizzing me on how much heated water you pour on someone's oatmeal. Half a glass? A quarter cup? I said, "The right answer is that you never put water on someone else's oatmeal." Grandpa said, "That is the right answer," and he picked up the water and poured it on himself.
Ivory: He poured it on himself??
_______________________________________

Dad: When was the last time you used 'mirth' in a sentence?
Mom: Not often.
Dad: Why is that the automatic autocorrect?
June: Uh, my mirth is wide?
Dad: (Taking a moment) You mean girth.
_______________________________________

Pearl was talking about her graduation day at Itty Bitty Bruins.

Pearl: Today at school it was gradulation day.
_______________________________________

Daisy: I know that my remainder lives.
June: Remainder?
Daisy: Remainder. (Matter-of-factly)
June: (Looking at the hymnbook) Redeemer.
Daisy: I know that my reindeer lives.
June: Redeemer!!
______________________________________




I have not been so good about writing down funny sayings recently. Hopefully reading from the quote book today will inspire me to get back on it. Funny sayings are gone too quickly.

Sunday Selfie

I didn't realize Sunday Selfie's were a 'thing,' I know a friend who does them and it seemed like a fun idea. So I tried to start them in our family. It has been a slow, rocky road to say the least.

October 25, 2015 -

This was our first try. Not too bad if you ask me. Half the battle is remembering. I believe one of the kids reminded me, even though we had never done it before.

November 1, 2015 -

We went to Idaho for Henlee's baby blessing. Ironically, the only pictures we had of the whole weekend were selfie shots and pictures Ivory took of the dogs. We weren't in Idaho very long and I wasn't in camera mode, so we didn't get any pictures of cute Henlee or her parents. We did have a great (but brief) time seeing family. JR sure makes an amazing chili. I'll put our sad, but qualifying selfies on here.

November 8, 2015 -

Tyler was wondering why I am still asking about Sunday selfies. He figured the one in October was the only one we needed. I didn't want to bother fighting him on it. Plus, I kept forgetting anyway, so I decided to scrap it. He then looked it up and saw that lots of people take Sunday Selfies, so maybe we could too. (Although I would advise that you don't look up 'Sunday Selfies.' People's pictures are not always the cleanest.) While we were visiting Rubia and Alex, he decided that we could take a picture while we were there.

We had a fantastic time with Rubia and Alex. We haven't seen them since they moved. We loved their new house, and the kids went crazy over Rubia's bear collection. You can see a few in the picture. They dragged bears all over the house and asked the name of each one. (Yes, Rubia has a name for each one. She even has a name for her houseplant. Why didn't I think of that?)

We had yummy food and then played some My Team. We played three times and the third category was 'Anything to do with Thanksgiving.' It was really funny, because out of seven people playing, four put down Cranberry Sauce. I guess we all thought we were being so unique. Instead it was really easy to guess people. (In case you were wondering, the other three that weren't cranberry sauce were pilgrims, dishes, and T -- because that is what Thanksgiving starts with.)

As for the Sunday Selfie, there are no guarantees that it will ever happen again. If I remember and can be bothered, I'll try to put one on here. Sometimes I don't need to create more work for myself.

Happening Halloween

Halloween week is a fun busy time. Ivory had activity days and they did face paint. I brought June along to help. (She was in heaven.) I practiced on Ivory's face so I could get it right for Halloween. Turns out the grease crayon is too blurry to do her lips. I had to use my face paints that I have had since I was a kid. I must have got that book when I was 12 or 13, and the paint is still good. (Thanks dad for buying me that kit while I sat around waiting forever for you to shop for comics.)

Ivory wanted to paint my face too. Imagine what she drew? (At least it isn't a shark on my mouth.)

I also stopped by the school for something that week and low and behold, guess who is still hanging around?

Yep, Jack. He has been up there for a month now. Impressive.

The day before Halloween (or as I like to call it, Halloween Eve) was the big day at school. We were all up early getting people in costume. Robyn was ready to go. (Hmm...I forgot her pearls for the photo shoot.)

Ivory looks happy to be going to school. (Don't worry, she is just trying to stay in character.)

You still get to dress up in Jr. High, although I'm sure some of the kids choose not to. When is it NOT cool to dress up anymore? Doesn't matter...no humbugs in this family.

Even I was dressed up first thing in the morning to go over to Tyler's work. He said his costume would make more sense with me around. I was one busy bee getting ready. Luckily I painted my nails the night bee-fore.

June got a picture for us before we left.

All day Tyler was asked why he was wearing a hazmat suit. And then people would look again and exclaim that it wasn't a very good hazmat suit, what with the mesh around his head. That wasn't going to keep out anything. (True...probably it will only keep out bees.)

I went over to the school bright and early because the sixth grade was putting on a Fall Festival for the lower grades. There were a ton of activities. They had the tradition boxes that you put your hand in to feel strange things. Robyn wasn't in charge of this activity, but she was asked to make the boxes because she is creative. She did a cute job. I loved the eyeballs and skeleton.

Robyn chose to read stories to kids that were patient enough to slow down for a minute, but there was so much chaos, she didn't have many takers. It was pretty chilly too, so it was important to keep moving. I like my mermaid in her bathrobe keeping warm.

Then there was the school parade. I made sure to find all my girls in the crowd.

Now, skip over to Saturday. We did our photo shoot in the afternoon and the evening brought Trunk-or-Treat and regular Trick-or-Treating. Daisy found her mask in her shoe after pictures. (Why didn't I think to look there?) It looks like everyone is ready to go.

This picture makes me laugh. I was taking a selfie and Robyn photobombed it with her hand, although from the angle, it looks like my hand. (Although if you look closely, it is the wrong hand.)

We didn't bring our car this year. We brought the Grom. It has a much smaller trunk, so less to decorate. :) And it was fun to get rides to and from the church.

This is the first year that I went Trick-or-Treating with the kids. I was a little late catching up since I had to do dishes and clean up the house a bit so we would be ready to leave for Idaho right after coming back. J.R. and Jami were blessing Henlee the next morning so we had to drive up to Idaho in the evening. But the kids made it to almost all the houses they normally do. It was fun to be out there with them. And I don't really need to stay home since our candy was mostly gone after Trunk-or-Treat anyway.

It was a really fun evening. We had one proposal, with a ring (pop) and everything. But we decided he was a little too old for Ivory.

The kids came home with more candy than they knew what to do with. But the trading and organizing of candy is also a tradition. Some was eaten, some was exchanged for tokens, and most was saved for another day of sugar highs.

Then we jumped in the car and traveled to Idaho. I sang to my tunes while everyone slept. I only got sleepy once, but fortunately I had a full size snickers stashed away in my pocket. See? Candy is useful sometimes.