Hundreds of Ways to Decorate a Pumpkin

Today was Legacy Elementary's Annual Pumpkin Walk. Each class/grade picks a theme. Sometimes the pumpkins are sent home to be decorated and some teachers make them in class. It's unbelievable how much work goes into this little school tradition, but the kids love it!
Kenzie's theme was "The Value of Knowledge". They each made a pumpkin of something they could learn to be---she was a chef.

Maddy's theme was "Fish are Friends, Not Food". They each made fish pumpkins with a card saying what they could do to be a good friend.

Carter's theme was "May the Force Be With You". They had to make Star Wars characters--but only the good guys. His is the little ewok---pretty impressive huh?

Lady's theme was "I Like Being Me". They each painted their own face on the pumpkin---I'm thinking the Kindergarten teacher had some pretty high expectations. I went to help them paint the pumpkins. Even though Mrs. Parke reminded the kids about the real colors of eyes, hair, etc. They were lots of faces with blue hair, green lips, pink eyes---the regular colors were just too boring.

The pumpkin walk is the signal for me that fall is officially here--I still feel like winter just ended, so I'm really not thrilled about the cooler weather---too bad I don't have a say in that!

Program Perfection?!

Today was our Primary Program. As a presidency, this was our 3rd program. The kids did an awesome job, and considering the time length, even the 30 Sunbeams did pretty well. We got a laugh watching Carter pop his head up from behind the piano every few minutes and Laityn--well, she was Laityn. Tim spent most of the time trying to catch her eye and keep her from wrestling with her little friend Samuel (yep, the same Samuel she thought didn't love her anymore). I don't think we even came close to mastering the "stand up together" thing, we sang the third verse of a song halfway through the second verse, the 5 year olds inevitably bounced on the big squishy choir seats, and by the time they all sang the closing song "If the Savior Stood Beside Me", I was all teared up. For all the grief we get with a Primary of nearly 200, they sure can bring in the spirit. It was a good day.

Discovery!

While digging through the closet yesterday, Jace came across Carter's old cowboy boots. He was thrilled! Jace outgrew his own boots earlier this year. After a boot phase that had lasted nearly a year, I was not terribly disappointed to see those boots go. Jace sported them with all his attire- - - shorts, pants, church clothes, pj's- - - everything. It would now seem that the boot phase has been rediscovered in a new form. . .Apparently boots also go with underwear!

One of These Things is not like the Others. . . .

I took the kids for their annual school pictures today. I have given up on trying to a get a cute picture taken by the actual school photo person. I picked the kids up from school thinking we would run home, change, fix hair, and take pictures. By the time I had everyone ready, it had been over an hour. Carter, Lady, and Jace had their hair done twice, because they started some kind of wrestling-under-a-blanket game while I was finishing Kenzie's hair. After telling everyone to go potty, we jumped in the car. About 2 minutes from the house, Laityn's bladder decided it was too full to continue. We stopped at Grandma's for a potty break (it was closer to the picture destination). After many promises of a big piece of cake for those who cooperated, we started the clicking. The individual pictures went great--I posted them in the side bar. The group shot didn't go so well (BIG surprise there!) Jace was too short to see over the rail of the bridge, so I had Kenzie hold him up. That is the above picture. The below picture is when I teased Jace in hopes of making him laugh--that backfired and then some. I must admit, I think his pout is almost as cute as his smile.

Paying my Tithing

I was picking up Carter's room this morning, and I came across this copy of his tithing slip. Yesterday he told me he was going to "pay some tithing". I figured if he needed help, he'd let me know. He filled this out and made a 10 cent donation to every fund available. He even post dated the slip for next Sunday when he will turn it in. I'm pretty sure his little donation just meant more than everything we've given over the past year. What a cute kid! I'm sure the ward clerk will have a chuckle when he opens this envelope!

New Spaces

So this is going to be a lengthy post. I have been promising people for weeks that I would post pictures of the basement once it was done. Well--it's as done as it's going to get for now, so I took way too many pictures and posted them all. We've been working on this project for a full year now, and it feels great not having a major project to work on every night. Tim is probably going through withdrawl--I'm sure he is really missing the never ending question "So, are you gonna work on the basement tonight?" Ha! Ha!

We could not resist making an office themed with BYU stuff. I'm pretty sure Tim spends most of his spare time (all 10 minutes he gets a day) in his new room.

the "Tween" room

Kenzie is constantly reminding me that she is a "tween"--Who came up with that word anyway? We tried to make her room reflect her and it came out just right. She couldn't be more thrilled to have her own space.