Halloween Festivities

Tried some new cookies.  Super yummy - find the recipe here.  I didn't have an orange so I used 1/2 tsp of orange extract.  So yummy.

Ready for some pumpkin carving!

 Are there any Octonauts fans out there?  Camden chose to carve Kwaazi and he even got to help carve the straight lines!

 Jake did his own - start to finish.  Drew carved his the week before so that he could enter the contest at school.  He was excited to win second place, but we took the picture a week late when his pumpkin was getting a little saggy.

Surprise, surprise, Someone wanted a Minnie Mouse.  And it was love at first sight as soon as she was done.

 She even read Minnie a story!

It was a fun afternoon on Halloween Eve with my four little people eating cookies, carving pumpkins, a little homework, and some Monster Mash music!

 Treats to pass out at Jacob's Halloween party at school, plus a couple bags for my A-1 helpers, Camden and Emmie.  I underestimated how exhausting it would be to retrieve pumpkins and restack pyramids of toilet paper for Pumpkin Bowling.  Camden's help was invaluable!  Emmie - not so much.  Jacob was a big help running to catch her when she took off to go outside to the playground.

Our traditional treat of caramel apples

 One super tired geisha - staying up late jumping on her bed the night before and playing through naptime on Halloween makes Emmie a tired girl.  She got herself a snack of rotisserie chicken and milk from the fridge.  Too tired to trick-or-treat anymore!

Halloween Cuties

 

Surreal

Last night there were three options for Callie.  Actually, she thought there were two - go to the Priest/Laurel stake activity or help out at the ward youth/primary Halloween party.  But then a necessarily rescheduled choir concert trumped those activities.

Yesterday was a fury of throwing together some last minute but very adorable costumes.  The most important part was that I had 4 happy young children, and 1 happy teen (because she doesn't like dressing up more than the Captain America shirt that I picked up for her).  I had intended to invite Grandpa to the concert, but by the time I had fed and costumed little ones, they were already 30 minutes late to their party and I was too late to drive to the concert with Callie.

The high school auditorium is too small to accommodate all the spectators for all of the choirs so it was fine for me to wait in the hallway until people began to clear.  It might not be good concert etiquette in general, but as long as people only move in and out during applause it has to work for our school.

After a crazy day, I got to sit still and listen to beautiful music for an hour.  It was kind of weird not to have any of my smaller companions with me. As always, I was impressed with the caliber of talent.  Our music director is fantastic.  The students are fantastic.    It was a treat just to soak it all in.

Afterwards I couldn't find my girl in the crowds, not that I was surprised.  She enjoys the visiting afterwards.  But this was the first time that I didn't HAVE to find her to take her home.  I waited for awhile to see if I could just tell her how much I enjoyed the concert and finally left a bit reluctantly.  My phone wouldn't call out but when I was in the parking lot I did get a call coming in from Callie.  "Everyone" was going to JcW's so could she go, too?  Of course.  I went home in my car, she went out in hers...

This is an exciting phase but still a little surreal.

Fall Hike

Summer Goal to Go on 3 Family Hikes:  Check!  (If you count the hike that just our four oldest kids made together with cousins last week).  Yesterday my four little ones and I charted new territory with Grandpa M. and tried out a new hike.  Grandpa had a map and I googled the various routes until I found one labeled "easy".  I still didn't think my little people would make it the full 1.8 miles to the destination, but they DID!  The weather was perfect, being out away from the busy-ness of life and suburbia was perfect, and time with family was perfect.  Loved it all!

Camden wanted to carry his own backpack with a water bottle and snack.  Later on it got too heavy and his brothers and I took turns packing it and the other backpack around.  When Drew got tired and cranky he dumped it on the ground and the abruptness of his action popped the lid off of a large water bottle and it soaked the bag.  I'd like to say he learned his lesson but later in the hike he did the same thing with the other backpack and so both were wet.  Jacob won the prize for ending the hike wearing BOTH backpacks since I was packing either Emmie or Camden and Grandpa was helping with little ones and carrying Emmie's bag.

I brought along Callie's little camera and was surprised to find that it proved to be a good motivator to keep the kids hiking ("in 5 more minutes you can take a turn with the camera").  My boys were really good at pointing out interesting things in nature.  Drew loved this moss-covered rock and took the picture himself.

One of the rewards of this morning was spending time with my younger children with no distractions.  I LOVED it when I heard Jacob telling me that he loves hiking!  I got to hear fun details from his hike in Arizona last week.

A really huge and interesting tree

We made it to the springs!  Emmie promptly found a log just her size and settled in.

After hiking 1.8 miles uphill, Camden was too tired to even sit up with his siblings for a cute picture.

Even with fall colors well past, the scenery was beautiful.  It is so peaceful to be out in nature!  Bottom right, a crazy aspen tree took a 90 degree turn.

 

Grandpa took turns with me carrying Emmie.  She walked perhaps half of the time - still an incredible feat for a 2 year old.

We missed the other three members of our family.  Let's do this again when we can all go!