Oh Yes, We Did

October 14 was Chocolate Covered Insect Day. Jeremy had been looking and we finally found some in the gift shop at the Butterfly Biosphere at Thanksgiving Point. Last time we celebrated in 2014 we got them at Farm Country and there were only 4 in the package (they weren't at Farm Country this time). This time there were 6 in the package. 1 for each of us. Nobody had to share a bug.

Nichole and Jr. Jr. had white chocolate meal worms. Jr. had a regular chocolate meal worm. Dad and Mom had regular chocolate crickets and Lucky had a white chocolate cricket. That's the one he really wanted.

We just had to celebrate this year. Lucky has been talking about it and talking about it. He really wanted to eat a chocolate covered insect since he didn't get to last time. He wasn't yet a year old at the time so I wouldn't let him have any.
Here are some of the comments heard this time-
Jr. and Jr. Jr.: It's like a chocolate covered pretzel.
Nichole: This makes me really want chocolate covered things.
Jr. Jr.: Ooh, you can see little legs.
Mom: It still tastes like a chocolate covered cracker.
Lucky: It was yummy... and crunchy. It was kind of weird but it tasted like chocolate.

I'm still confused how my pickiest eaters will balk at the meals I prepare them yet have no thought to eating a chocolate covered bug.

 I just love that last picture of me. What do you think? Facebook profile picture?
 
Earlier in the day, I was talking to my mom and told her, "Jeremy and I are going to head out to see if we can find some chocolate covered insects to celebrate the holiday today." Since October 14 was also Columbus Day, she was confused as to why we ate insects on Columbus Day. Jeremy explained it this way, "If Columbus' ship was going really fast and he was standing at the front of it with his mouth open..."
Have I mentioned I love my husband? And his humor?

I don't have any pictures but I can tell you about October 15. That is P.G. Wodehouse's birthday. We also found out it is National Grouch Day.
To celebrate, we watched The Great Muppet Caper. How does that celebrate those days, you ask? Well, at one point in the movie Miss Piggy and Kermit are hiding in a closet of some wealthy person's home since Miss Piggy is pretending to be a wealthy person herself. The door is opened and after a short conversation with a character played by John Cleese, Miss Piggy says, "Thank you, Jeeves," and she and Kermit leave. Now P.G. Wodehouse wrote the "Jeeves" books so you can see that we were excited that came up in the movie.
As for National Grouch Day, Oscar the Grouch has a cameo in this movie alongside Peter Ustinov. That was what made us decide to watch that movie. The Jeeves line was just an added bonus.

This Weekend

How did your weekend go? This is how mine went:
Friday, October 11, was It's My Party Day. I don't think I cried (though I cry often enough). I did sing the song, though. Jeremy and I got to go out to eat again that day. The kids were happy with that since they got to stay home and watch movies. It was a relaxing evening.

 
Saturday, Jeremy spent all day long at The Big Sit. I got to do that last October for a few hours. This time it was Jeremy's turn. He had a great time. He was there birding from dark of morning to dark of night and it was coooooold but worth it.

The kids and I stayed home to clean. I cleaned. They did not get to watch movies or play video games. Even though October 12 was International Moment of Frustration Scream Day, I did not scream even when...
I told the kids dinner was "Fend For Yourself" to celebrate the holiday. When they asked what the holiday was, I told them, and they all immediately screamed in pretend frustration.

Then Nichole did shake 'n bake type chicken drumsticks (I told her I would sit at the table and supervise but she got to make it herself).and Jr. made chocolate chip pancakes. They both did a good job.

I ate leftovers from Friday night's dinner. Yumm.
I also tried out a new kind of smoothie. Lucky had been wanting me to make a cinnamon smoothie so I found a recipe online and finally got around to making it. None of the kids liked it. I drank it but I still prefer smoothies with berries in them.

Sunday, October 13, was International Skeptics Day and English Language Day. We didn't really do anything to celebrate those days except Jr. said he didn't believe those were really the holidays. We did go to a ward potluck in the evening. I brought oatmeal muffins.

When we came home, Jeremy and I sat in the van talking for a bit while Nichole and Jr. went to the door reading and Jr. Jr. and Lucky decided to lie on the ground looking at the clouds. That was so sweet. I love those precious moments. 

We did have a somewhat rough day before and after church but we had another precious moment before bed. After family prayer we all sat around and just had a nice conversation. Sometimes it was silly but not disruptive silly. Here's how part of it went.
We were talking about surgeries because we've been praying for my brother-in-law who had surgery recently. Then we started talking about different kinds of surgery. I mentioned surgery for cataracts.
Jr.: Isn't that where you put dead people?
Mom: No, that's catacombs.
Jr.: I thought that's what you brushed a cat with.
Yeah, that's the kind of silliness we had.
It was a good end to the weekend.

The KAT's Meow

Lucky: A fly that makes honey is called a bumblebee.




(After watching Teahouse of the August Moon)
Jeremy: You know that movie- the Autumn Tea Bag movie?




When your kids spend more time watching Avatar: the Last Airbender than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Nichole: Michelangelo's the funny one, right?  Basically the Sokka of the group.




Lucky: Bats are butterflies that turned evil.

October Beginneth

And here we are. Practically caught up. You want to know what we did the first couple weeks of October? Here you go.
The beginning of October, we went to a wedding reception. Congratulations. We've been friends with this family for years. They are such great people. The oldest son in the family got married and their wedding reception had a carnival theme. Cotton candy and popcorn and a balloon artist- you know who that is. Jeremy did balloons at the oldest daughter's wedding several years ago, too. My, how time flies. 

It was such a nice evening. I was thinking I'd take the kids and only stay for a little while since they had school the next day. We ended up staying pretty late. Oops. We had a great time, though. I really enjoyed seeing people I hadn't seen in while.

Jeremy finally made a certain balloon sculpture for the youngest daughter of this family. He meant to make it for her years and years ago and finally was able to.

Jeremy and Lucky did a special project and carved an apple for a shrunken apple head. Lucky designed it. Jeremy used the knife. Lucky painted it with lemon juice and stuck in the clove eyes. Now it's been sitting for a while and it did spend some time in the oven to get some of the moisture out.

Nichole and Jr. had student led conferences at the junior high. Some of the teachers had activities set out for the students to show their parents. In Jr.'s science class, he was able to demonstrate Newton's laws of physics and drop a screw into a narrow necked bottle by placing it on the top of a hoop and whipping the hoop out of the way. Pretty cool and Jr. was good at it.

October 4 was National Taco Day. We kept with tradition and had tacos that day. Not a very hard tradition.

For General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we had friends visit us again and of course we had Conference Nachos.

Nichole got creative... again. She decorated her cup with a dragon... again. She likes to do things with her hands to pay attention to talks and things so she crocheted a little person while listening to Conference.

I don't think I took a picture of the brownies but Nichole and I kept up with tradition and made brownies to eat while we watched the Women's session of Conference.
Our younger boys also listened to some of the talks and definitely heard Elder Bednar's talk about the cheetahs using distraction, deception, and diversion in the grass as they hunted topis, a type of antelope.
Our children weren't the only ones who paid attention to that talk. For Family Home Evening we decided to go hiking at Big Springs to look at the Fall colors.

When we got to a big field, the boys wanted to be cheetahs and take turns showing themselves and crouching and creeping along in the grass. There were other families at that field and we could hear some of the comments coming from other kids, apparently deciding to be cheetahs themselves. "Look at all the cantaloupe." "It's a whole field full of cantaloupe." We got a kick out of that.

That was October 7, which was also the 170th anniversary of Edgar Allen Poe's death. We didn't see any ravens at Big Springs but the older kids were quick to point out that we were surrounded by death and decay since we were up there when leaves were falling.

Jeremy and Lucky took some time to go to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. Lucky got to ride a horse and they both went on a tractor ride.

Nichole, Jr., and I went to BYU to watch a faculty recital- Deseret String Quartet. Since Nichole plays violin and Jr. plays cello, it was nice to take them to a performance where they could both hear and see those instruments played by just one or two people each.

The elementary school was doing a "Grand Lunch" where anyone grand in a student's life was invited to come have lunch with them so Jeremy, Lucky, and I had lunch with Jr. Jr. I remembered to get pictures of Jr. Jr. during lunch this time. And being the overemotional person I am lately, I almost cried during the lunch and taking Lucky to his class since we were already at the school. I did cry all the way home. "I just love my family so much."

Nichole and Jr. had their first orchestra concert of the year. Spooky Halloween themed music. They both did well.

And Lucky wanted to be in the picture.

Lucky and Jr. had their parent-teacher conferences. I don't have pictures but they are both doing well at school like their siblings.

And now we are caught up. Wow. We did a lot in October and it hasn't even been two weeks yet.