Surprises from the Kids

October 30 is Haunted Refrigerator Night.

This morning I mentioned to the kids about it being Haunted Refrigerator Night.  They immediately started joking about somehow rigging the refrigerator so that when you open it a whole bunch of snakes pop out.  Heh.
After the kids went to school, I had to get in the refrigerator for something (of course, because there's always something to get in the refrigerator).  I opened the door and saw a paper snake curled up on the top shelf.  Silly kids.  I looked over and saw a Halloween decoration also in there.  Silly kids.
I loved it.

I love when my kids find ways to celebrate without being prompted.

National Oatmeal Day 2014

Jr. Jr.:  I'm going to have oatmeal.
Mommy:  That's a good thing since it's National Oatmeal Day.
Jr. Jr.:  I'm going to celebrate National Oatmeal Day.

October 29 is National Oatmeal Day.  The kids and I all had oatmeal for breakfast.

Best Costume

Jeremy was hired to twist balloons at an event.  It was a costume party and they gave him a prize for best costume.  Even though he was wearing his work clothes.  Go figure.

A Different Way to Celebrate

October 27th is Emily Post's Birthday.  Emily Post wrote a lot about etiquette.  We thought it would be fun to teach the kids some things about manners and etiquette.  An etiquette night for Family Home Evening.  It didn't work out.  We didn't have the time.
Instead, Jeremy got a little silly with his celebrating.  He showed us a blog "post" written about our niece, "Emily," for her "birthday."

Get it?  Heh Heh Heh.

Catch of the Day

I found his sister's headband on his head one night after he had fallen asleep.  I took a picture before taking it off.

Halloween Costumes 2014

 Can you tell what we are?

Hint:  The three oldest kids went with the same theme for their costumes.  The rest of us didn't.

"Taste the Rainbow"

Fajitas for dinner, monster truck for Jr. Jr.

Colorful fun in the Telford home on National Color Day, October 22.

I think I may even eat some skittles later.

Reptile Awareness Day 2014

I want to make you "aware" of how cute three little boys are looking at a book that has prehistoric "reptiles" in it.

All for Reptile Awareness Day, October 21.

Fall Break Day Final

Our last day of Fall Break was also our Family Home Evening day, so for Family Home Midday, Jr. Jr. chose the activity to go to Thanksgiving Point's Farm Country and Museum of Natural Curiosity.  We had time to do both.

Something funny I found- compare today's picture of Munchkinland with last Tuesday's (after the big weekend celebration they had with games and other activities).  There's a reason they had it roped off when we were there before.

For Family Home Evening treat (because our day was like that- Family Home Midday activity and Family Home Evening treat), Jeremy made us simple ice cream sandwiches.  Some vanilla ice cream between two cookies.  Yum.

And it didn't end up being as messy as I would have expected.

It Needed To Be Shared

While looking through pictures for my blog post about our family day at Antelope Island, I couldn't help but laugh at a few I found.  Jr. Jr. has this thing about getting his picture taken.  He can't seem to smile and look at the camera and hold still all at the same time.
Lately he's taken to just being goofy in pictures.  I thought I'd share just a couple with you.  I hope you get a kick out them as I did.

 click on the pictures to see them larger

Fall Break Day 3

We've been wanting to go to Antelope Island for years.  Every time we pass Antelope Drive (which isn't that often since it's a bit north of where we usually travel), we mention how we want to go to Antelope Island sometime.
Well, we finally got our chance.  For Day 3 of Fall Break, we made the trip out there- to the island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake.  We were not disappointed.  We headed up to the Visitor's Center first of all and as we were driving up the hill, there on the side of the road as if greeting us was an antelope (pronghorn is the accurate name, or "Antelocapra americana" for my brother, but it's what we call the American antelope).  That was fun.

It was a fun day.  We got to walk a little, drive a lot, visit a ranch,

and see lots and lots of bison (what some people would call buffalo, "Bison bison" for my brother, American buffalo for others).

There was quite a bit of singing, "Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play."  We didn't see any deer on this trip, but we saw those buffalo and antelope (more than just the one by the visitor's center).  Though Jeremy did mention to me Antelope Island is where "our dears" and the antelope play.  We played a lot.

There was still so much we could have done but we ran out of time because we had to get everyone home before they got too cranky.  We could have done some hiking, played on the beach, driven around some more places.  There were some really pretty views from places we did go.

When I asked the kids what they enjoyed about Antelope Island, Jr. said he liked finding new paths.  We went on one around the visitor's center.

Nichole said she liked seeing the bison.  Me, too.

Jr. Jr. said he liked playing in the sand and seeing the beach.  We had lunch at a pavilion near one of the beaches.  There was sand all around the pavilion.  Apparently, Jr. Jr. didn't get enough of it at the dunes on Thursday.

It was a good family day.

Fall Break Day 2

It has become tradition in our home to try a slumber party when the kids have a big break from school.  It has also become tradition for Jeremy and I to regret it... every time. 
So today after Jeremy, Nichole, and Jr. did some Halloween costume shopping, we decided to try a pseudo-slumber party.  The kids would get to eat pizza and popcorn and stay up later than normal playing games and watching a movie while wearing their new pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa. 

They'd also get to eat popcorn and have root beer floats but they'd have to sleep in their own beds when it was time.  And we let them know we could take away the slumber party at any time if there was fighting.

In the end, it started getting too late, we didn't finish the movie (but we will later), and when we said it was time to go to bed, there was plenty of whining.  Of course there was whining before we even turned off the movie which was part of how we knew it was time to be done for the night.
So according to tradition, we regretted it again.

Some traditions are not the best.
But our kids are still great.

See the kids posing with their new pajamas?  Jr. is doing a hook with his hand for his pirate pajamas.  Jr. Jr. is ready to blast off in his rocket/planet pajamas.  Nichole is in a ballet position with her ballet dancer pajamas.  Lucky's dinosaur pajamas are still a little big on him.  He couldn't move around so well and was getting frustrated so we changed him into different pajamas.  Luckily we know he'll grow into them.
Thanks, Mom and Dad.

Fall Break Day 1

Usually during the kids' Fall or Spring Break, Jeremy has to work, but this time, he has a break.  Hooray!  That means that we are able to do some things as a family that we've been wanting to do.
So today for Fall Break, we headed out to the desert.  To the Sahara.  

O.K.  To the Little Sahara.  Little Sahara Recreation Area.  There are sand dunes there.  It was so great.  Reminded me of my childhood playing on the dunes, except these weren't by the ocean.

When we got to the the visitor's center to pay our entrance fee, the people there gave each of the kids a coloring book and little box of crayons.  They also gave us a frisbee, one that glows in the dark.  How exciting.  We probably would have actually used it in the dark if we had been camping, but we were just there for the day.  Maybe another time.

We had so much fun playing on the dunes.  We saw animal tracks, several bugs, some bugs as they were making tracks.

It was great.  We all had fun.

It was a great family day.

For Carli

This year, National Fossil Day is October 15th.  The Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point was having some activities to celebrate.  We were going to go, then had trouble with one of the kids, and didn't get to go.
But never fear.  We were still able to celebrate.  We may not have been able to celebrate National Fossil Day the way we wanted to, but a friend of mine informed me that today is her birthday.  She suggested we have a cupcake in her honor.
So Jeremy picked up some cupcakes on his way home from work tonight and...
This is for you, Carli. 

Thanks for the reason to celebrate.

Emerald Insects

A couple months ago, we were visiting Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point.  Jeremy was in the gift shop looking at things when he saw that they had seasoned bugs and chocolate covered insects.  When we got home we looked on the calendar and saw that National Chocolate Covered Insect Day was October 14.  I was hesitant at first (even though the kids sounded enthusiastic), but Jeremy convinced me that we should eat real chocolate covered insects for the holiday, not like the fake insects we ate a couple years ago.
So today was the day.  This afternoon we headed to Farm Country.  When we bought our chocolate covered insects, we were able to inform the cashier of the holiday.  He thought it was great and decided to get himself a box of them to eat in front of his wife later, maybe gross her out.  It's always nice when you're able to help others find reasons to celebrate.
Since there were only 4 bugs in the package, Jr. and Jeremy split a regular chocolate covered meal worm, Nichole ate a white chocolate covered meal worm, Jr. Jr. ate a white chocolate covered cricket, and I ate a regular chocolate covered cricket (that's the one I really wanted).

And yes, we actually all ate them.  If you don't think about it, then it just tastes like a chocolate covered cracker.  I chose to think about it, though.  Which meant that after swallowing, I could still feel the little gritty leftover bug bits that were still there and stayed there for a while.  It's not really gross.  I would do it again to celebrate the holiday.

That wasn't the only way we were able to celebrate at Farm Country, though.  Since this year is the 75th Anniversary of The Wizard of Oz, Farm Country is doing a Wizard of Oz theme during the month of October (and Cornbelly's across the street has a Wizard of Oz themed corn maze this year).  They had decorations up around the whole place. 

The kids got to dress up in costumes for pictures. 

We followed the yellow brick road to the emerald city where the kids got to ride the horses, some of them with bright colors in their manes.  "Now that's a horse of a different color." 

We also went on a carriage ride, just our family

and played a little in Munchkinland.

It was nice.

We were also at Farm Country in time for milking the cow so Nichole and Jr. each took a turn again.  We didn't get the greatest pictures of that, but you've seen it before.
We had fun celebrating today. 
I wonder if anyone else I know ate any chocolate covered insects.