National Knock Knock Joke Day

October 31 is National Knock Knock Joke Day.  I woke the kids up with Knock Knock Jokes.  Jeremy helped figure some out though I can't remember all of them.  

Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Itsa.
Itsa Who?
Itsa Halloween.  Wake up.

Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Lettuce.
Lettuce Who?
Lettuce get up and get ready for Halloween.

Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Halloween.
Halloween Who?
Hallo!  Ween are you going to get up and get ready?

We also celebrated Halloween.  Back and forth to and from school all day with dropping kids off, looking for lost wands (and finding them with grateful prayers), watching Halloween parades (twice), going home a long round about way because the remaining child wanted to, and picking kids up from school.

Then came spaghetti monsters for dinner and drinking milk from jars we decorated a couple years ago but I never got around to blogging about.

Then off to the ward Halloween party and trunk-or-treat... without the trunks.  Lawn chairs instead.  The kids got to run around and I got to socialize.  Win win.
Jeremy suggested I dress as a gardener for the pumpkin patches since I hadn't picked a costume for myself yet.  Thanks, Jeremy.

Steven Kellogg's Birthday

To celebrate Steven Kellogg's birthday on October 26, we read Jimmy's Boa Constrictor books (illustrated by Steven Kellogg) while eating Kellogg's Frosted Flakes (no relation).

Is It Art?

October 25 is Pablo Picasso's Birthday.  To celebrate, I am sharing with you a blurry picture of an egg that had 2 yolks in it.  Jr. was very happy to eat it for breakfast.

Is it art?

And What About Last Week?

After that wonderful Halloween party we went to that Saturday, we had a week.
Monday, October 17, was Wear Something Gaudy Day.  Jeremy said in Nichole's case it should be Wear Something Gauzy Day.

Smile, Nichole.

Tuesday I got out for some morning me time.  I went to Ashton Gardens at Thanksgiving Point.  I got to do some birding and enjoyed the gardens and since it was during the Scarecrow Festival, I got to see some scarecrows.  It was a very relaxing and well needed break.

In the afternoon, Nichole went to a Halloween party for Activity Days.  One of the things she got to do was paint a pumpkin.  She likes dragons.

Wednesday Jeremy went with Jr. Jr. to his first field trip.  They had a fun time.  Jr. Jr. was very happy to bring home a pumpkin.  We were very happy he let us use his pumpkin for our Primary lesson Sunday. 

Sally the Pumpkin helped us learn about what kinds of things we can do to keep the sabbath day holy.

Thursday and Friday were Fall Break.  I went to Girls' Night Thursday and came down with a cold (separate statements, I didn't catch a cold from Girls' Night).
Nichole and I stayed home Friday while Jeremy took the boys to the Scarecrow Festival.

Nichole did work a bit on sewing a dragon for a school project since October 21 is Reptile Awareness Day.  Did I mention she likes dragons?

Saturday, October 22, to get some fresh air and to celebrate National Color Day, we drove the Nebo Loop to look at Fall colors.  Unfortunately, most of the Fall colors have already disappeared up there.  There's already snow on the ground in some places.  It was fun to see so many aspens sans leaves, though.  It's just a different kind of beauty.

There were still some Fall colors in some places, but not as much as we were originally hoping, like the last time Jeremy, Lucky, and I went out to look at the Fall colors.

We stopped for a picnic lunch and a short hike at Devil's Kitchen which is known as a mini Bryce Canyon.

Hmmm.  Southern Utah in Utah County.  Who knew?  Probably a lot of people, just not us until recently.
There weren't a lot of birds out but we did get to see some wild turkeys toward the bottom of the other side of the loop.

When we got home we had rainbow pizza with different colors of bell peppers and other things.  Yumm.

During the week, we also celebrated Jr. Jr.'s birthday.  Jeremy wrapped his present- a big storage box with a lot of little boxes inside.  Each of the little boxes was also wrapped.  Jr. Jr. had fun opening each of them and was very pleased to find each little box held some Pokemon figurines.  Pokemon's getting to be a thing again.

For his cake, Jr. Jr. requested a Halloween cake so Jeremy found pumpkin sprinkles to put on chocolate frosting.  Jr. Jr. was very happy with that.

Yep, we had a week.  Now wish me luck as I try to kick this cold.

Halloween Costumes 2016

Yay, Fall.  And with Fall comes Halloween.  And Halloween parties.  Hooray!
Jeremy was hired to do balloons at a Halloween party a week ago Saturday and the lady that hired him invited his family to come, too.  Perks!
So the kids and I went to this Halloween party and had a lot of fun.  And the kids were able to try out their Halloween costumes for the first time this year since I literally finished them that morning.

Nichole is Hermione Granger from Harry Potter.  She wasn't able to wear her Gryffindor patch since they sent us the wrong one in the mail and we're still waiting for them to send us the right one.  But I was able to make her a robe to wear and she had a wand from a past Harry Potter party.
Jr. wanted to be a dementor, so we took his over-sized hoodie and safety pinned leftover robe scraps to the sleeves and bottom of it.
Jr. Jr. decided to be a pumpkin patch and when Lucky heard that he let us know he wanted to be a pumpkin patch, too.  We made fabric pumpkins and safety pinned them to green clothes for the boys.  In keeping with the Harry Potter theme, the kids discussed it and thought the boys could be Hagrid's pumpkin patch.
The kids had a blast at the party.  There was a bouncy slide and a train ride.

Each of the kids that rode the train got their own train whistle.

Jr. Jr. LOVED the train and rode it over and over and over as many times as he could.
At one point, they let all the kids go trick or treating.  Lots of candy the kids enjoyed.

They also had hot dogs and potluck food.  Nichole and I enjoyed that.

It was fun and we felt so welcomed at the party.  It was also a good trial run for the costumes.  Now I can make some adjustments in time for Halloween.

Fall Has Fallen

Let me tell you about this week... besides what I've already told you about.ppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppkkkkkkppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooiiiiiiiiiiiioiiiiiiiiiuyyyyyyyyyyttreeqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqu\\\\\\\\][pppppppppppppppoor meeeehelp

Sigh.  Kids.  I turn around for... well... I forgot that I was typing out a blog post and someone or someones got a hold of my post.  So... let's start again... a long time after I started this post.
Time to catch up.

Tuesday, September 20, was National Punch Day.  I blogged about that.  What I didn't blog about was that it was also Pack Meeting for the Cub Scouts and Jr.'s den was putting on a carnival.  Fun for the whole family.

Wednesday, September 21, we did Family Home Evening.  We went for a drive around the lake.  It was nice and we got to see some raptors (the bird variety, not dinosaurs)- mostly red-tailed hawks.

Thursday, September 22, was the first day of Fall and it was crazy.  Rained off and on the whole day.  There was even a tornado in Northern Utah.  Crazy, right?

That night I got to go to another Girls' Night with my friends.  I made an apple pie for it.  Fun fall food, right?  Earlier in the day while I was making the pie, we listened to music from The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings since September 22 is also Hobbit Day.

Saturday, September 24, I got to go to Super Saturday for Relief Society.  It was great to socialize and I made some key fobs.

Monday, September 26, we had Family Home Evening at the new Light of the World Garden at Thanksgiving Point's Ashton Gardens.  We'd been waiting years for this garden to be finished. 
Angela Johnson wanted to share her testimony through sculpting these statues depicting the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.  There used to be small versions of the statues so we knew what they'd look like when the full size statues were finished.  We just waited and finally got to see the finished products.
There are 15 scenes including teaching and miracles, His time in the Garden of Gethsemane, carrying the cross, resurrection and appearance to his disciples.  There were plaques at each of the scenes with scripture references on them so you could look up scriptures associated with what you see from the statues.  At the end of the walk-through area, you walk down a path into a small grove where there is a scene of Joseph Smith's first vision.  Beautiful.

While we were there, it also happened to be "dog days in the gardens" where people could bring their dogs to enjoy a walk in the gardens with them.
Some of our kids decided to pretend to be dogs.  Nichole even put Jr. on a leash.

Later that week, Jeremy and I went birding on a date

and the next day I got to go on a field trip with Jr. to This is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City.  The kids got to push and pull handcarts, visit a blacksmith's shop, go to school in the 1800's, and take a ride on a train.  It was neat to see and learn about how things were for the pioneers when they first arrived in Utah.

While I was with Jr. on his field trip, Lucky and Daddy had some bonding time.  They went to the library and picked out books and movies, they stopped by the gas station and got icees, and they watched a movie at home together.

October 1 and 2 was General Conference.  Saturday between sessions we went to a friend's birthday party.  They had a big yard the kids could run around and play in.  There was also lots of yummy food.

On Sunday, we had our traditional Conference nachos.

October 4 was Taco Tuesday- National Taco Day and it fell on a Tuesday.  Woohoo.  We ate tacos for dinner and Lucky watched The LEGO Movie twice while the kids were at school.  There was even a mention of "Taco Tuesday" on a TV show Jeremy and I were watching.  Tee Hee.

That week, Jr. Jr., Lucky, and I also got to go out for some well needed playground time with friends.

Also, Jr. Jr. got to play on a trampoline for homework and the boys and I had "shadow wars."

Nichole is learning to sew for a project for school so she helped me make juggling balls for our primary class.

Yet another thing I haven't mentioned on this blog.  Something that happened months ago.  After almost 4 years, I was finally released from being in the Primary presidency.  Jeremy and I were made teachers together, teaching the 4-5 year olds.  I was also given the calling of choir director.  And yes, we made juggling balls for the kids in our class.  The lesson was about talents.

We got to visit my sister Saturday.  The kids enjoyed playing with cousins and I loved getting to spend time with my sister.  There was a family reunion in September we were both at, but Jr. was feeling sick so it was not as relaxing at that time.

Finally to this week.
Monday, October 10, was National Cake Decorating Day.  For Family Home Evening, we decorated cupcakes.  It was fun... and messy.

Tuesday, October 11, was It's My Party Day.  We danced and lip synced to Lesley Gore's "It's My Party" and for dinner we had party food- pizza, pop, chips, more cupcakes, a veggie platter, and apple slices (I didn't want it ALL to be junk food) and watched Studio C.

Earlier that day, Jeremy and I took the youngest boys to Highland Glen Park to feed the ducks and found some other waterfowl we hadn't seen there before- a Western Grebe and some Ring-necked ducks.

Wednesday, Jeremy, Lucky, and I got out for a drive in the Fall colors and some birding.  That was nice and relaxing. 

This morning after dropping the older kids off at school, the two littlest and I went for a walk and collected leaves.  So many different colors.  I LOVE Fall colors.  I love how a tree can have different colors on the same tree, sometimes different colors on the same leaves.  When we were out for our Fall color drive Wednesday, I noticed a tree that had green leaves in the middle and the outer leaves were yellow.  This morning I saw up close leaves that were still green in the middle along the veins but the outer edges had turned yellow.  So beautiful.  Autumn is definitely my favorite season.

At some point during the last few weeks, Jr. carved soap for Scouts.  I took this picture later so I don't remember when it was.

There.  I'm done.  Phew.