Other October thins

Other things we did in October:

Nichole, our friend, and I went to support another friend at her faculty recital. She is a voice teacher at BYU. That was a beautiful event.

 

I was letting a blanket air dry and since it was a big blanket, I spread it across several chairs to create a fort. I thought Jet and I would read books like we've done in the past but Lucky used it for playing a video game and Jet sat on the outside of the fort in a chair while watching The Nightmare Before Christmas because... "this is Halloween."

Jet really wanted to have a lunch in his lunchbox so for dinner one night, I put his dinner in his lunchbox (it's okay, it was a sandwich, etc.) and we set out a picnic towel in the living room. Lucky requested watching The Mandalorian so the kids got to watch that while having their picnic. It's fun. 

I wanted to play MarioKart one night (I don't always get to play video games) and Jet wanted to "help" me. It matters more to have fun time with my little one than to win the races. I love being a mom.

We continued trying recipes from A Season of Family Meal Plans by Jordan Page with substitutions and adaptations.

Woo hoo! Yay for October. 

Hodge Podge Halloween

The last few days of October kind of became a hodge podge of Halloween and other holiday celebrating. Some things were celebrated on their day and some were celebrated "observed." So here we go.

I asked Jet a while back what he wanted to be for Halloween. He told me, "Batty." I definitely went with a joke in there but also decided I could make him bat wings so he could be "Batty." Jeremy made bat ears for him.

He loved his bat wings so much, he wore them a lot. One day when they were all finished, he asked to watch an episode of Wild Kratts about bats. He wore his wings and watched the episode then told us things he knew about bats. "They sleep upside down." He said that as he was lying on his back trying to get his feet all the way up into the air. Have I mentioned I love that kid so much?

That day was October 29, National Cat Day (not to be confused with National Black Cat Day two days earlier). I took a picture of the neighbor's cat skeleton decoration again.

It was also National Oatmeal Day but we were too busy to celebrate that day. Jeremy and Lucky volunteered to make balloon animals at the Primary Carnival the Young Women put on. Jet got to test run his bat wings and ears. He enjoyed playing games and getting prizes and treats. He also decorated a sugar cookie. 

The Young Women really put on a good event. Besides the things Jet wanted to do, they also had face painting and freeze dance contests and musical chairs and crafts. I was impressed.

We celebrated Oatmeal Day the next day, October 30, which was actually Haunted Refrigerator Night. So Lucky and I made oatmeal muffins and I fried up some eggs (from the refrigerator- Boo!) for dinner.

Lucky: It looks like a duck face.

 

Earlier that day, our friend Stephanie came over to watch a spooky movie with Nichole and me while we drank hot chocolate and ate toast. Mmmmm. The movie was Something Wicked This Way Comes. I watched that movie when I was a kid and it was creepy. It's still creepy now that I'm an adult. I won't recommend it to my sensitive child.

October 31 was Halloween, National Breadstick Day, Frankenstein Friday, and National Knock Knock Joke Day. Jet and I did knock knock jokes a few days before when we were talking about that holiday coming up.

Jeremy got us donuts as a special treat for Halloween breakfast.

Jet did a really good job going in to school that day (he doesn't always). I think he was excited about Halloween and his costume. I watched Jet and Lucky in the elementary school Halloween parade. 

At home after Nichole got back from classes, she helped me make dinner. That was really helpful because besides working on the food, I was also running around picking kids up after school. 

Jet got fangs at school (which he calls a jaw- it makes sense), so a few times he told people he was a vampire bat. 

Because of Nichole's help, we were able to eat before trick or treating. Spaghetti Monsters to celebrate Halloween, National Breadstick Day, and Frankenstein Friday. 

The three youngest went trick or treating with me around the neighborhood then the whole family loaded up in the van and went trick or treating at my sister's house then went in to visit for a little bit. It's tradition. Every year, Jet talks about trick or treating at his aunt's house.

While we were out trick or treating, Jr. Jr., dressed as a jester, showed people juggling tricks and they gave him treats.  

Jet as you know was a bat (Batty).

Lucky dressed as Quirrel from Hollow Knight, the video game. Jeremy made his costume.

Hodge Podge Halloween celebrating. It's fun.

How Did October Start?

How did October start? It started on October 1, which was World Vegetarian Day. We had a salad bar for dinner without meat.

Since it was Homemade Cookies Day, we also had chocolate chip cookies from a recipe by The Food Nanny.

 

Lucky had his "Grand Lunch" at the elementary school. Jet and I joined him. He chose to have me bring him lunch that day instead of eating school lunch. He was very happy that I brought him Chicken Caesar Salad Wraps.

That evening, Jeremy and I went to Parent Teacher Conferences with Lucky and got to see some of the things he's been working on.

October 3 was Virus Appreciation Day. Lucky was sick. We were able to appreciate the timing of it at least.

He got better.

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.