October 2013

This month was full of birthday, Halloween and college.

We started the month by celebrating B's birthday with a Teddy Bear Picnic party.  We had to move it inside because it snowed the day before (of course).  We played all kinds of bear games, like Going on a Bear Hunt, 'Bear'-a-chute, Bear and Seek.  We had a full blown inside picnic with bear shaped sandwiches, Teddy Grahams, 'bear'ies, Honeycomb, Gummy Bears

and honey lemonade to drink.  It was a lot of fun and the kids were surprisingly calm.  I think it was because it was a morning party instead of afternoon.  We ended the day by releasing the balloons to China.


For B's birthday present, she wanted to go to Build a Bear with her BFF T and make Rainbow Dashes from My Little Pony.  We had fun together and even went to lunch at Red Robin.  It was a great afternoon.

We decided to escape on an overnight adventure.  We drove to a hotel about two hours away and stayed the night.  It was nice to have a pool and hang out without any pressure.  We also went to a Giant Pumpkin Contest and shopped for some new cowgirl gear on B's actual birthday.  We finished the day by going to our local Pumpkinfest.

E got her official acceptance to Utah State and is trying to decide if this will indeed be her school.  She is still working on her BYU applications but not sure if that is where she wants to go.  It is nice to be accepted to a school that she really likes.  Now on to scholarships...

M continued playing football and being busy with school.

We had our last Halloween party with our PC ward.  It was out at the barn and had a bittersweet feel to it.  It was fun to do the Trunk or Treat and have chili with friends.
 
The next day our ward split and was put together with a part of the PP ward.  Our new ward was formed.  It has been really exciting to be starting from scratch.  I was called to the Young Women's and T was called to Sunday School.  There are only 20 young women and 13 young men.  It is a small ward with a huge primary.  We have 150 kids!!  The kids are all fine since they have kept most of their friends and even picked up new ones.

The big kids went to a barn Halloween dance and went as cowboys.  They had fun with their friends from the stake.

We decorated and actually carved pumpkins this year.  It was fun to see all the different personalities in our pumpkins.
 
Halloween night was fun too.  B went out trick or treating with T and I and then met up with her friend T.  M went to two parties (both of which were girl parties!) and E had friends over for her own small party.  It was a nice night and everyone had a lot of fun.

 
Many changes this month and good things too.  I just can't believe how fast time is going!

September 2013

Homecoming was the theme of this month, as well as M's birthday. We started the month running preparing for the big homecoming dance. I was pulled in by E as the parent adviser. I didn't realize that meant meeting every week or more as well as several calls and texts. The biggest thing was pulling a huge 12 hour weekend to build a volcano, jungle and tunnel to fit "The Incredibles" theme. It turned out really well, the best that the school has ever had, which says a lot for E's leadership and dedication. She did an outstanding job! M even had a hand in it as this is his first year with student government. The pictures of the Pixar characters are from some of their showdown events, which the freshman won over the sophomores ( a school first!) and the seniors won over juniors. Both the kids were pretty happy at those outcomes!

Speaking of student government, B was selected to be her class representative as well. That makes all three of our kids involved in that process. B was so proud to join and be just like her older siblings.

As for the actual Homecoming dance, E went with a good friend from church, who asked her. He surprised her with balloons and she replied by tagging his truck. She had a fun night on a double date, despite the crazy amount of rain we received (even flooding the doors of the school!). The mask was the ticket. They went to Outback and then the big dance.  Since we were on the planning and decorating we actually got to go to the dance as well.  It was very different from my dances in high school.
 

 
M went with a group of friends. He was asked to go by several girls. There was one in particular that wanted him to ask, but he has learned his lesson and is waiting to do any kind of dating thing till he is 16. He also went to Outback, so he and E got to see each other there.
 
E had her annual spaghetti dinner for choir. She sang in a quartet with one of my piano students. They did my student's mash up of Moonlight Sonata and Adele's Someone Like You. It turned out awesome! It is strange that that was E's last one of these. Time is passing way too quickly this year.

M turned 15 this year (I can't believe that!) and instead of wanting a mellow game night with friends, chose to have a big party. We followed the Who Dunnit? theme from the show this last summer. He likes all things mystery and Sherlock Holmes, so this was a modern way to pull it off. I made martini glasses that said Who Dunnit? on them with splashes of blood. We served mocktails with Dum Dum lollipops as the olives in Sprite. The soda changed to the color and flavor of the lollipop, which was pretty cool. There was all kinds of food for the mocktail party and then E was murdered! We set up a scene in the bathroom upstairs and I took the picture and showed it to the guests. They had to divide up in three groups and choose which place they would go: the last known whereabouts, which had the clue of the vials of flowers extracts, including hemlock; the crime scene, which had the clue of the glass; and the morgue which had E in it as the dead body. She did great just lying there, but the kids would hardly look at her and didn't pick up the clue of the mouth. From there they got a riddle that they had to unscramble seven different flower names and then the first letters would tell them the clue, hemlock. At the beginning of the party we had the kids pull out an occupation and pin it to their backs. They had to guess who they were with yes or no questions and then pin it to their front. The murderer was the one who pulled out botanist. M was a boxer and we had all kinds of things, even a guy who was a hairdresser. We recorded their guesses and played them for everyone. Those that guessed the botanist, with hemlock in the drink won a 100 Grand Bar. It was a fun party and definitely a more mature one. Now we just have to plan next year's big 16. He decided that he wants the big party instead of the smaller cool experience, so I have to change what I had planned.

The rest of this month has been filled with lots of football with M playing the first string center position and guard, the Hawk Hussle at B's school (which E did with B) and building the forever taking deck.


 
We did manage a night out to a Hawaiian show with my parents and sister's family. My brother has also been visiting here off and on and so he was able to go too.

I wanted to include some of the photos that E took in her class.  They are of M and B and won her extra credit points and a place on the teacher's photography blog.  Maybe a new talent is surfacing?!
 
It was a crazy month that flew by. I really hope this year doesn't speed by so fast that we can't enjoy it!