Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Halloween 2017

Halloween fell on one of my days to teach. Perfect time for a costume party with spooky witch's brew!



Halloween bingo...guess how many bingo markers got munched?


After lunch, we went to watch Laney and Anna parade through the Sunnyside hallways.


And the grand finale of the Halloween festivities....trick or treating! And nobody needs to be carried this year! Amazing how much more fun it is when everyone can use their own legs!


Monday, October 30, 2017

Pumpkin carving....fabulous chaos

Here's exactly what pumpkin carving night is: 

tons of people


 knives flying



slippery seeds and slimy strings




piano playing!


bedhead?


parental assistance while maintaining creative integrity**very tricky business


A multitude of design methods


Power tools


 And snacks....always snacks



Another carving night in the books! I seriously love every minute.



Thursday, October 26, 2017

Pre-Halloween, post-camping, bust yer bickies... super fast photo shoot

So, what a crazy weekend. We couldn't possibly cram one more thing in these last few days. Coming straight home from a 3 day camping trip to unpack, start the heaps of laundry, bathe or shower every single person, make a pot of soup and a batch of cornbread, spray paint Laney's shoes, put straps on the giant oreos and get everyone dressed and hair done is a feat of miraculous proportions. I could feel the stress coursing through my veins.

But what else is there to do?

Start checking things off the list and while you're at it, hustle those kids out the the front yard and take a photo before that costume has chili down the front or a rip in the knee.  I will thank myself later...if I'm still conscious.

Laney is a cute witch. She attached that cute bow to the rim of her hat and it really adds that special something!


Everly chose to be a cupcake in the hopes that it would entice the neighbors to give her more candy that usual.


I think she's on to something.


Mathew has wanted to be Link for SO MANY YEARS. And we finally got it together. He looks pretty happy. Which is a good thing, because that shirt took me FORever to paint.


I had to track Megan down at the church because she went early to help set up the fishing pond game. She's a mature young woman now and handles her responsibilities with serious efficiency.

She also purchased and put together her costume....Pony Boy (from the Outsiders). She even drew a red slash on her neck. Apparently Pony Boy gets slashed.

I'm diggin her rebel "what's it to ya?" glare.


Anna wanted to be a bat. Which was as simple as removing the tail and attaching some felt wings to our black cat costume.

This photo show's her personality perfectly.

She's a feisty one.


Ethan's band festival got rained out and so he was free to come as....a teenage boy that found some black paint for his face and always has a baseball hat on. 

Look at that authentic facial hair!  spooky.


Mark and I finally morphed into the living example of "You are what you eat". Double stuffed Oreos for the win.



Except. We were trumped by the Guenther Family....

They brought their 'A' game!!


Let's get a closer look at that mullet....


I love our ward.





Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Dodgeball

What to say about dodgeball?

Its fast and crazy and Megan for sure is not into it. I'd say she got that from me, but my and my band of misfit friends took home the Payson Middle School championship in 7th grade.....sooo....







Saturday, October 21, 2017

Fall camping 2017 - Wallace State Park and the kitchen sink

I've been looking forward to our fall camping trip all year long. I LOVED getting away last year. I needed to spend time with good friends, disconnect from technology and give my kids the opportunity to run wild and free in the wilderness. 

But, there is a price to be paid. The planning, shopping, packing, cleaning, organizing felt insurmountable this year. Maybe it was because I knew we would be arriving home with a very small window to get ready for the ward Halloween party....
All the costumes needed to be ready and the house needed to be cleaned so that we wouldn't arrived home into preordained chaos. 

Thursday morning I woke up with stress coursing through my veins. I hit the ground running and soon I was bossing and barking at everyone. Megan was at the kitchen sink plotting a mutiny because she didn't want to wash the dishes and the others had simply disappeared in an effort to avoid an assignment. 

I stood in the middle of the madness and realized that if we didn't regroup we were going to have a miserable morning and arrive at our campsite already furious with each other. 

So we got a schedule going and we were off. Soon we were on our way to Wallace State Park and 3 days of friends and nature.


Megan made us a broom to sweep the leaves off of our tent porch.  If only it didn't leave it's own leaves behind as well.


Everly learned how to "tend sticks" this year. She is still working on the concept of not waving the flaming hot end around in everyone's face. Only two of us got branded!


We had some pretty sweet campfire visitors!


I love how the kids roam from campground to campground sharing food and teaching each other games and generally having their run of the place. And I really love sharing food and forgotten supplies with my friends...they're so close! Just a few yards away! I feel like we've lost some of this feeling of community as our connection to each other shifts to the digital arena.

I was born in the wrong century. Except for Netflix and hot showers.....those are keepers.


The girls got tired early and requested to go to bed early.

uh....okay!


So we got them brush and jammied and settled in. A few ghost stories later and they were snoozing away and the grown ups were left to chat.

Before long, we were all gathered around the picnic table sharing stories and funny movie quotes while the teenagers manned the campfire.

It was my favorite moment of the trip. Having time to enjoy the company of these awesome people I have come to love and count on in my life.

 The next morning started off low-key but turned stressful when Mari and Martin realized that Seth was missing. We all set off in different directions calling his name and thinking that he'd turn up any minute at someone's campsite or down at the lake.  But he wasn't turning up and Mari was getting really scared. Of course!!

Mark and Martin ran down the road and went down different trails, Jessica stayed back in camp and watched all the other little ones so we didn't lose anyone else. Todd took Deer Run loop and Laney and I branched off down Skunk Hollow Trail. We were yelling and praying and hoping to run into him soon.

After about 15 minutes, Ethan came running our direction and started searching with us. A few minutes later, Mark texted him...Seth had been found! He had gone off on a morning hike with the Johnson family and had overlooked the very essential step of asking permission.

We were just glad to see his face.

Everyone gathered back at camp and the Guenther's set off on a hike and we kicked around camp just organizing and shooting the breeze.


Laney took advantage of a captive audience and told her very best ghost story. Kylie told one and suckered me into looking closely at a gruesome "scar" and got me to scream like a sissy when I got too close. ugh!


After lunch we headed down to the lake with a big group of the willing. We had heard tales of the "biggest seesaw in the world". Well then!


Anna was....happy!


We had to take a few minutes to roll down the very best rolling hill a few times.


And a few more times.


And maybe a few more times....


Look at that awesome swirling hair! That is impressive rolling speed.


Couldn't resist snapping a picture of cute Mark. Love that man.


We followed the Johnsons down a path and placed our trust in them as we veered off down a dry river bed and wound round and round in search of the teeter totter.  We trust the Johnsons. They are professional campers. They know stuff.

And we weren't disappointed. Best teeter totter EVER.





By some miracle I managed to take a panoramic photo of it while everyone was moving about and being generally spastic. 



But not before I gave Mark a super stretchy chicken leg...lol



On our way back to the camp, I thought it would be fun to snap a fall photo of the girls. Megan did not agree.


One of this things is not like the others....


I managed to get this one (not perfect, but I'll take it) right before she rolled her eyes at me and stormed off.


Mathew found his people and they gathered around the watering hole.


It was the perfect getaway. We gathered, we laughed, we shared and swapped. The kids were loud a crazy and dirty. Mini-societies were built and collapsed multiple times. Each child seemed to get a chance to be the "boss of everything" and enjoy their power before the others organized a mutiny.

It's exactly what I was hoping for.  Happy, tired, smokey, and completely filthy.

Camping perfection.