Last Sunday: I rushed out of church to go home and check on the bread and lasagna I left in the oven on autobake. I skipped out of a short presidency meeting b/c I was worried about the food so I took this to send to my presidency to show them everything turned out fine.
It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed watching the girls play together outside. It's hard to tell from the picture but they were laughing and having sweet bonding time.
Talea would run around the tramp and then plop on her bottom and laugh. I didn't get many good pictures but I have these for the memory anyway.
Her profile and all the hair she's getting.
Plop!
Plop!
Looking up at Kaitlyn who was also doing seat drops.
I couldn't capture the smile I wanted but her backside was also cute. I can't believe how old my baby is!
Samuel climbed on the playhouse roof.
Monday: Hanging out at the orthodontist. The 5 little kids wanted to come and they all had a great time.
Roofers showed up at our house unannounced (we rent) but it made for an entertaining week. Kaitlyn took these pictures while they sat outside watching the shingles go up that conveyor belt crane.
Listening to something with Madalyn's earphones.
I love the red bushes in this parking lot on my walk.
Wednesday: The 5 little kids also wanted to go to the DMV with me to get Spencer's permit. They were so good while we did the paperwork and then we played in the car, cleaned the dash with baby wipes, and read.
Talea enjoyed the bowl of grapes I brought and sat and ate them in the parking lot.
I loved this view of Thomas and Tilly playing chess with 3 boys reading their scriptures in the background.
Thursday: For a science experiment we squeezed juice from fruits and then tested them with a solution to see which had the most vitamin C. We did cantaloupe, melon, purple grapes, dark purple grapes, green grapes, organic grapes, strawberries, lemons, limes, tomatoes, kiwi, oranges, and apples. The darkest purple grapes and the cantaloupe seemed to have the most vitamin C.
The kids spent a couple of hours on this. They enjoyed squeezing their own juice and then drinking it with medicine droppers more than testing for C.
In the middle of this Spencer texted that his violin just got broken at school. His teacher asked him to move the piano and accompany the next song so he set his violin on his chair to go do that. His stand partner also got up to help move the piano but knocked over the chair which dumped the violin to the floor and broke it.
Luckily it was a $100 violin I got 17 years ago from the classifieds in Dallas and I was super bored with only 1 baby and looking to start a new talent. Of course I never got any good, teaching myself and not being good with music, but it's been a good violin for Spencer anyway.
Friday night: working on our Halloween costumes. We're going to be candy again this year.
I'm crocheting Talea a peppermint beanie, Madalyn is making a Twix costume, Alexis is making Andy a Smarties costume, and Makenna is making Kylie a Halloween card.
The finished beanie.
Later I added peppermints to it.
Saturday: I went on the most refreshing hike ever. The air was crisp and cool, there was nobody on the trail and I had the woods to myself. I listened to conference a little bit, listened to the birds, sang outloud, and skipped and ran. I also got some good reflection time and came home so rejuvenated.
This is my favorite trail because it's so wooded and damp and I can pretend I'm in NC.
I'm not a fan of selfies and rarely do them but I thought I'd try one now that I have a nice phone and was having such a good time.
I took this to show the kids I walked in snow. They always want to know where I went while I was gone.
That night I took the kids to the ward Halloween party.
I don't like the way my costume turned out; I think I could have done a better job but I was too busy helping the kids with theirs.
Madalyn did a terrific job with hers.
Spencer saying he was too tired from a campout and all day pit orchestra practice to put on his M&M costume. :)
We had soup, games, and a costume contest.
Kaitlyn doing the limbo. She ended up winning.
This family won the adult costume contest with a viking, dragon theme.
Andy bowling.
We won the kids' costume contest! Kaitlyn holds our trophy.
When we got home and the little kids to bed we decorated cookies that Samuel wanted for his birthday instead of a cake. I put some secret healthy ingredients in them including whole wheat flour and even though I don't like sugar cookies, they turned out pretty good.
Sunday: Samuel's 5th birthday. Getting ready to light the candles.
Hanging out while Sam opened presents.
A construction set my mom gave him.
We gave him the dollar race car helmet (on the clearance costume rack at Kid to Kid--he begged for it) and my mom got him the construction set and motorcycles. He loved everything and had a great birthday.
