November adventures

I love getting together with my two friends, Tiffany and Chris.  We all have four kids and always need a break, so we try to find any excuse we can to go out together.

This particular trip was my belated birthday dinner/shopping trip.

It snowed for the first time this month.  It wasn’t much, but Sophie was fascinated by it.  She loved to pick it up and throw it.  And yes, she eventually tried eating it too.

 

The kids did pretty good on their report cards first term, so after parent-teacher conferences we took them out to Sizzler for dinner.  It was so ironic running into our friends, Jeremy and Cheri and their kids there!  We walked in one door, and they walked in the other at the same time.  They also had just been to PTC and like us, were taking their kids out for a reward dinner too (it helped that we all got free kids meal coupons for Halloween).  It was fun, but also a good reminder why we don’t take our kids out to nice restaurants very often.

 

I hate mornings.  I’ve never been a morning person.  One perk of having older kids is I don’t have to get up when they get up.  I usually put Sophie in the playpen with toys, a snack, juice and a movie and the kids babysit her.  If she wants to get out, they get her out.  This particular weekend I came downstairs to find my sweet kids sitting together on the couch watching TV/reading.  I love how sweet Jeff and Sophie looked.

 

Despite getting our first snowfall this month, we’ve also had record warm weather too.  About a week after it snowed, we were back up in the mid 60’s.  I took advantage one day by taking Cedric and Sophie to the park.  It was the best weather day!  I was even a little hot in the sun, with short sleeves and no jacket!  It makes me sad this season is almost over.

 

Lily tried out for our local high school’s musical, “Joseph…”  They were casting a handful of children to help be in the kids chorus.  Lily tried out and made the part!  She was in seventh heaven!  The past month she’s pretty much lived at either her elementary or the high school.

 

The practices went so late that parents volunteered to help bring in dinner for the kids.  I offered to help one night (not realizing what I was getting myself into) and made nachos for the kids.  I, along with three other parents, made enough food for 120 kids!  I brought in three crock pots full of cheese sauce, and together we brought in about 20lbs of ground beef!  The kids loved it though.  Here’s Lily enjoying her dinner.

 

Then performance week came.  Wednesday they did a matinee for several schools.  Lily’s class was one of the classes that got to come watch and she loved performing for them.  Then Thursday night Tom & Nana went to watch opening night, Friday I went with Tom’s parents, we didn’t make it Saturday night, but Monday night was closing night and several family came to support Lily (Teresa & kids, Aimee & Matt and kids, Dad & Suzy, Natalie & Travis, Tom & I and our boys).

 

When the show was over I gave her a rose and she started crying.  Lily grows very attached to people.  These kids have been her second family for the past month and she was sad to say good-bye.

Here she is with some of the other kids, now her friends.  Who knows, maybe in five years she’ll see them again when she goes to high school?

   

Here she is with the very talented leads.  Lexie was the narrator and did an amazing job.  Carson was Joseph and was so animated and also did great!

I’m proud of Lily.  She did such a good job too.  It was a good experience for her.  Hopefully it’s the first of many school musicals she can perform in.

Halloween 2013

This year was one of our best Halloweens.

I was quite proud of the Minion costume I made for Cedric.  

 

Jeff made his own costume this year.  He and his friend, Steven were Pokémon trainers.

Our first event was hunting for witches at Garner village (see other post).

The second event was a party at a pumpkin patch.  It was put on by our realtor/cousins.  Everyone got to pick out a free pumpkin, then we had donuts and hot chocolate.  It was a good test run for the costumes, but it was a bit tricky having five kids by myself there.  Luckily, they were good.

 

The next event was Tom’s work party the Friday before Halloween.  It’s one of my favorites, full of games, a mini haunted office , crafts and trick-or-treating through the building.

 

That same day we had our ward trunk-or-treat.  Because we got stuck in after-work traffic the kids had plenty of time to eat candy in the car and I dropped them off at the church with some ward members a few minutes before the party was to start.  I ran home to make homemade mac and cheese for the party, and Tom (who got home the same time I did) ran to the church.  I missed the trunk-or-treating, but I got there with my mac and cheese just in time for dinner. 

Sophie with her pet pals, Chase and Tessa.

 

It was a crazy dinner and I’m never relaxed at parties like this, but it was fun and the food was good.

  

Jeff had so much fun playing games, he never even ate dinner (other than candy).

Sunday, Tom helped the kids carve their pumpkins.

 

Lily was excited Nana helped her dress up her witch costume a bit.

 

Wednesday was Cedric’s preschool Halloween party.  Here he is eating ghost slime (vanilla yogurt), skeleton bones (pretzel sticks), witches eye balls (grapes) and mummy toes (marshmallows).

That night was my dad and Suzy’s ward trunk or treat.  They invited us to go.  Sophie decided to be a pumpkin this time, instead of a Dalmatian dog.  I liked how they ate dinner first and did the trunk-or-treat afterwards (Jeff ate dinner much better).  Sophie quickly caught onto trick-or-treating.  Tom was the candy giver, while I helped Sophie go around.

 

Then Thursday was Halloween.

Unfortunately, I had to miss the elementary school parade because it was during my other preschool class, but a friend took some pictures of the kids for me.

  

The kids showing off their pumpkins.

 

Tom and I split up this year.  He took the older kids and I took the younger ones.  Ironically, we wore our rival school sweatshirts for the event.

 

Tom’s parents stayed at our house to pass out candy.  And Tim, Maren and Charlotte went with me and the little kids.

 

The kids did really well, and the weather was fantastic for trick-or-treating.  Sophie LOVED trick-or-treating and carried her bucket by herself the whole time!  Cedric was done even before she was.  We lasted about an hour.

 

Tom and the older kids lasted about two hours.  Between all the parties and trick-or-treating Jeff and Lily’s candy weighed in close to 14lbs!

It was a fun Halloween.