An Excellent Young Woman

Recently we went to Young Women in Excellence.  We have a young woman now so she was able to display something she's been working on- her sketch book.  She's been drawing a picture of characters from a novel she's writing.  Yeah, she's multi-talented.

The evening was Dr. Seuss themed so they had Dr. Seuss themed treats as well.
Lucky enjoyed the truffula tree cupcakes.

King Tut Day 2017

November 4 was King Tut Day.  I checked out the old Batman Television Series with Adam West from the library and the kids had fun watching lots of episodes that day.  Hey, one of the villains is King Tut, right?  Perfect excuse.

We also ate taco mummy wraps.

"Pudge Controls the Weather"

November 3 was Sandwich Day.  When we think of Sandwich Day, we think of Lilo and Stitch.  We had kid friends visiting so I printed Lilo and Stitch pictures for them to color along with Lucky.  Then they watched Lilo and Stitch.

When the older kids got home from school, they got to watch Lilo and Stitch.
It was a cool, cloudy day.  I kept remarking that "Pudge controls the weather."  Who knows if he got his peanut butter sandwich or not?

The weather felt perfect for what we had for dinner.  Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.  Mmmm.

For dessert we had sandwich cookies.

Dia de los Muertos

November 2 was Plan Your Epitaph Day.  Nichole and Jr. went throughout the day mentioning different epitaphs.
That day was also Dia de los Muertos.  How appropriate that both were on that day.
Lucky wanted to do some coloring so I printed out a sugar skull for him to color.  He really enjoyed that.

His coloring is improving, too- not nearly as much scribbling but he tries to color the individual parts now.  Fun to see the progress.

National Chocolate Day 2017

Besides celebrating with books, we've continued to celebrate with food.
October 28 was National Chocolate Day so we had chocolate chip pancakes and hot chocolate.  It's definitely hot chocolate season.

Celebrating with Books

Here's a way to catch up.  There have been a lot of holidays lately that could be celebrated with books so I did some planning and checking out books from the library to prepare.  I'll let you know what those holidays are and suggestions for books to read to celebrate.
October 21 was Reptile Awareness Day.  The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash (and its sequels).

October 22 was National Color Day.  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

October 23 was National Mole Day.  The Wind in the Willows.  Lucky was so adorable that evening.  He opened the book and started making up his own story according to the pictures in the book.  It was so cute to hear.  I was tired enough, though, that I fell asleep in my room while listening to him read in the living room.  He was "reading" for a long time, though.  So adorable.

October 26 was Steven Kellogg's Birthday.  The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash (and its sequels).  I just couldn't help it with the cereal again.

October 31 was National Knock Knock Jokes Day.  I checked out a bunch of Knock Knock Jokes books.

November 1 was Vinegar Day.  The Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle.

November 5 is Marooned Without a Compass Day.  In Search of the Castaways.  I tried another Jules Verne book last year- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.  I only read 85 pages of it before I couldn't handle it anymore.  As Jeremy said, "A little more fiction, a little less science, please."  I'm already beyond that many pages and I'm enjoying In Search of the Castaways.  Family Home Evening activity tonight was watching the Hayley Mills movie.  It's fun to see how many scenes from the book they put in the movie even if they changed them a little.  Obviously there are more differences than similarities but I am enjoying the book and I already know I enjoy the movie.

Nichole earned a reward at school and picked out a little toy compass.  When it was time to take pictures with the book and movie, she couldn't find her compass.  "Oh no.  I'm marooned without a compass."  I love it.

Two Day Halloween

Poor little Lucky was sick on Halloween.  Jeremy was able to stay home with him that morning while I went to watch the boys in their Halloween parade at school. 
Then I stayed with Lucky while Jeremy went to work.
When he got home, I took the older kids trick-or-treating (because we missed the ward trick-or-treating) to a few houses.  Jr. Jr. nicely carried his trick-or-treat bucket in one hand and Lucky's in the other so Lucky was able to get some candy, too.
Here were the kids' costumes:
Jr. Jr. was a minecraft zombie.

Jr. was a barrel of toxic waste.

Nichole was the character, Ephira, from the book series Fablehaven.

Luckily, Lucky wanted the same costume as last year so he didn't miss showing off in public (though he did wear it at Jr.'s cub scout pack meeting the week before).
Since Lucky missed trick-or-treating on Halloween and since he was feeling better the next day, we set up trick-or-treating in our home especially for him.  Each of the older kids went behind closed doors and when Lucky knocked on the door, they opened and gave him candy.

They all had fun and Lucky was totally happy with getting to trick-or-treat at home.  It's all about the candy.  Since we missed the ward activity, we had all that candy that we would have handed out (we only got a few trick or treaters at our place).  We gave the kids each some candy to give to Lucky and they got to keep the rest that we gave them.