Party #1

Last night we celebrated Maddy's 10th birthday. . . can't believe my little 5 lb. 9 oz. /17 inch baby is growing up so fast!

Grandma & Papa gave her a canopy to put over her reading chair. . .now it doubles as a secret place to hide out and read up on fairies.

Of course, with her love of fairies, Maddy also got a book written by Wendy that was all about Tinkerbell and her friends. She has read it several times already, and knows all the fairy secrets.

It was a fun night--Maddy was thrilled with all the presents, and aside from a few issues with the Slinkys that were handed out (next time everyone gets a metal slinky, none of those awful plastic slinkys for the little ones), everything was perfect for a 10th birthday. Now, if only things could go that smoothly for the China Party on Wednesday with all her friends. . .

What are you gonna be for Halloween Night?

McKenzie was a gothic witch. . . the hoop skirt did cause some issues with sitting at her desk, but all the trouble was worth the candy provided.

Madison was Hermione from Harry Potter (seriously, if you didn't know that from the picture you need to spend some quality time reading).

Carter was a hunter. He had every intention to make a paper gun to carry around, but even paper violates the "no weapons at school" rule. . .so obviously, he did not get to make the gun.

Laityn was a witch. . . "not the ugly kind, the pretty kind".

Jace was a BYU baseball player. . . he flexed his muscles so you could all see how manly he is. . . just minutes after this picture, he was carrying around a baby doll and shushing it so it would go to sleep----not so sure about the manliness now!

Halloween was a fun day---like always. The kids were all in the costume parade at school. Late in the afternoon, we went to Tim's school for a trick or treat in the halls. We eventually made it home and went candy hunting in our own neighborhood. Then it was off to grandma's house for sloppy joes, potato salad, Krispy Kremes and . . . more trick-or-treating. By 10:30 the candy had been weighed and all the kids were sleeping soundly in their beds. Hooray for the day!

Sugar Overload!

5 kids + 5 plastic pumpkins + 3 hours of trick-or-treating = 20 pounds of candy! Forget a one year food supply, we just got a 1 year candy supply for free! After a night like that, it's no wonder kids love Halloween!

Cookies with Grandma

Today was the annual sugar-cookies-for-Halloween day at Grandma's. Grandma made a double batch of cookies and a triple batch of frosting and we got to work. After assembling a dozen or so plates for neighbors, visiting/home teaching families, etc. there were still plenty for all of us to take some home for our own families. Jace, being the only child present and not in school, got his own bowl of frosting. After a good 15 minutes of frosting his one cookie and scraping his bowl clean, he got down to the business of eating the cookie. If you look closely, you will notice that the frosting is about 4 times thicker than the actual cookie. . . he only got halfway through the cookie before he was sugared out. Not to worry, Papa didn't let the cookie go to waste. He scraped off the extra frosting and finished it off--no surprise there--no food is wasted at Papa's. I think the only thing he has ever thrown out was a piece of steak that was growing fuzzy stuff. . . mind you, he did try to cut off the mold and eat it anyway, but after the first couple bites, he gave up and surrendered the steak to the trash. Love you Papa!

Unexpected Moments

I woke up this morning thinking it should be a pretty slow, maybe even relaxing, day. . . I should know better. Everything I was expecting happened, but along with that came a bunch of unexpected surprises.
Expected: Running to mom's to drop off some leftovers
Unexpected: More road closures thanks to pressurized irrigation installation

Expected: Going to Target to look for birthday stuff for Maddy
Unexpected: Jace getting a sticker from the checker for sitting the right way in the cart (mind you, he is usually in the back going through my purchases and dumping my purse)

Expected: Meeting Lindsey for lunch at Carl's Jr.
Unexpected: A mom approaching me to see if Jace belonged to me (normally this would be followed by a report on how he was mistreating her child) but today, this mom wanted to tell me how sweet Jace was being to her little boy. Jace told this mom, "I take good care of babies." Lindsey and I are still reeling from the shock!

Expected: Getting the mail
Unexpected: A notice from the school nurse stating that if Laityn didn't get her follow-up Hep A shot, she would no longer be allowed at school (that was a major oversight on my part)

Expected: Driving to Orem to get the shot
Unexpected: Laityn repeating the following rhyme for the entire drive: "Girls go to college to get more knowledge, Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider"

Expected: 15 minute wait in the lobby of the doctor's office
Unexpected: 45 minute wait in the little room where the shot was to be given (Is the nurse trying to kill me?)

Expected: Watching E.R. in about 5 minutes
Unexpected: all of the kids actually asleep so I can enjoy with no interruptions!

New Love

Kenzie has recently been spending her afternoons and Saturdays volunteering at "Courage Reins". It's a therapeutic riding club that works with disabled children. To say Kenzie loves it would be an understatement. For every 30 hours that she volunteers, she gets a free riding lesson. It only took her 2 weeks to get her hours, and Saturday she was riding. . . and she was thrilled! I must say, it was pretty awesome to watch her doing something she really seems to love.

The Fairy Test

Over the past few months, Maddy has developed a deep interest in fairies. She collects fairy eggs at school (air soft gun pellets). She has read every fairy book she can find. She even bought a bracelet with a fairy charm. We found the idea for building a fairy house in the Family Fun Magazine---Maddy was thrilled! She worked on this fairy house for a couple of hours. The flowers are pillows and the black tubing is a slide. She later put some chocolate chips inside and left a note for the visiting fairies. Maybe she'll get lucky and some sweet fairy will leave her a note. . . .I'm sure Maddy will be checking every day!