Halloween Costume, 2012

Earlier in the fall, I gave Carolyn a catalog to look through to give her ideas of what she could be for halloween.  She first picked a mermaid, a fairy, and an owl.  Then, she kept going back to a ghost.  I told her to think about it for a week or two, and then she would have to make her decision so I would have time to make it before Halloween.

She came back to me in a few days, quite adament .... she wanted to be a ghost.  I thought about talking her out of it and convincing her to be something different.  But, her logic won me over:

"Mom, I can dress up as a fairy or princess any day; I have those things in my dress up box.  But I can only be a ghost for Halloween.  It is the only time I can wear something so scary."

So, ghost she was. 

Though, she insisted on being the fancy, sparkly ghost like the one she saw in the catalog.  The hooded cape was a lot safer, more practical for a 4 year old, than the traditional bedsheet-over-the-head ghost.

And here are her thoughts about Trick or Treating.

Soccer Stars

The silver alligators.  There were no stars on our team.  I am not even sure they scored a goal during any of their games.  Many of them ran around each other on the field, not even knowing where the ball was.  Others laid down in the middle of the game.  Carolyn ran a lot.  She was not afraid to get in the action, but she did not always know how to get the ball going where she wanted it to go.   

The best part of every game was the snacks!!  

Our team also loved giving high-fives and shaking hands with the other team when the game was over.  So, while none of them showed natural soccer abilities, they at least learned sportsmanship during the process. 

Autumn Activities

Fall time is a pretty special time.  Some photos from recent activities....

We went to see the witches at Gardner Village.

We played at the farm; we even got to ride a pony and talk to a rooster.

We went to Red Butte Garden's "After Dark" for the monster party.

We went to Cornbelly's with the Hart family.  

(photos coming soon)

Unfortunately, while there, Sara and I discovered the panic feeling that comes with losing a child in a public place.  The girls, Carolyn and Annie, were playing in a wooden truck (play structure); we told them that we were going to leave in a few minutes.  Suddenly, both Sara and I looked at each other and said, "The girls are no longer in the truck."  We looked around in the immediate area because they could not have gone far because they were just there not less than a minute ago.  I stood still with the two younger girls, Elizabeth and Kate.  Sara started circling the grounds looking for the missing girls.  They were probably gone for about 10 minutes; though, it felt like an eternity.  They finally came around the corner to exactly where I was standing; the same place we were standing when we told them we were getting ready to leave.  They had no idea they were lost.  They ended up going into the "rat maze" which was less than 10 feet from where we were standing.  We could not see them because it was completely enclosed.  It took the girls about 10 minutes to get their way through the maze. Ah.  The whole experience aged me a bit.  I really wish the girls would have realized they were "lost" so they would have been scared by the experience.... Carolyn does hold my hand a lot lately and says "I do not want you to get worried like you were at Cornbelly's," so maybe she learned some sort of lesson.      

There was a halloween party with our co-op friends.

We carved pumpkins at home and roasted pumpkin seeds.

Family Photo Challenge

Here we all are at the Halloween Carnival at Carolyn's school
(I was in charge of the whole event)

The MCS Halloween Carnival

We are required to volunteer 10 hours a year to assist Carolyn's school .... last year, we assisted with a couple of fieldtrips and did a couple loads of laundry for her classroom.  This year, I decided I would volunteer to chair the Halloween Carnival since I was not working.  It was a BIG job.   I think there were about 350 people.  We hired a "mad scientist" who did experiments with dry ice.  We had a storyteller.  There were face painters and ballonn twisters.  There were carnival games, even a couple games of musical chairs.  The stage was set up with crafts, where each child decorated a full size pumpkin, plus could do a couple of other crafts.

We also set up a photo booth, where families could pose in a mad scientist's lab.  Here are a few of the photos that were taken.

Some more photos from the party....

It was a fun event.  And thankfully, I had a lot of parent volunteers to run the carnival games, to set-up, clean-up, and to make sure that the event was a success.  I am done with our parent volunteer hours for the year, but I am not sure if I will volunteer to do such a big event again.

Ah, who am I kidding? I have a hard time saying no, especially when it comes to planning parties!


   

Housework.

Here are some photos of our front yard landscaping job.  We did it all last year, but the last time I took photos, the plants were all so small.  I am pretty impressed.  It is very low maintenance and is growing in nicely.

This summer, we replaced all of the floors in the house.  New carpet downstairs.  Vinyl in the laundry room. And then we refinished the wood floors upstairs, which meant we ripped out the old carpet in the girls' bedrooms.  Floors are not that exciting to photograph, so no pictures to share.

Whenever we think it is time to take a break on our house-projects, we come up with another brainstorm.  Here is a sneak peak of our next project .... it is in the back corner of our yard.  We have removed a bunch of trees and are moving a lot of dirt.  This fall, before the snow flies, we are doing the site prep.  Next spring and summer, we are going to build a really cool little shed back there.  It wont just be a shed to store things, though.  It will be a legitimate play-house, slumber-party, art-space, lounge-space.  We will keep dreaming all winter long to see what we can design into this 200 sq-ft building.  We are excited about this project!!

Oh, I still really want to change out the doors on the house....  I am really considering an update to the bathrooms.....  I wonder how we can find more hours in our day to do them. 

Of course, we will never hire any one to do our housework.  Well, at least not the big stuff.  We gladly pay for help scrubbing the toilets and the floors.

Photo Shoot

Look at this little beauty. 

A friend of mine is trying to restart her photography business and asked if she could take some photos of Elizabeth for her portfolio.  I am so happy she did.

 Photos by Whitney Thatcher.
http://www.whitneythatcher.com/