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Happy Halloween!!!

Wow! October has been SO busy but so much fun. Today was Halloween and it was great. We had a "late start" day at school so we had an extra hour to get ready this morning. The girls all wore their Halloween shirts with skirts and were super cute. We had time to make pumpkin shaped pancakes this morning before school too.

Good Morning!

Breakfast is pumpkin pancakes!!! They were so yummy!
All ready for school. I tried really hard this year to get the girls to wear their Halloween clothes as much as possible. Still sad that they don’t get to wear their costumes to school though.
 

 

I asked Aurora if she would come over and help get the house ready and spend Halloween with us. Couldn't have done it without her!  She wasn't sure about this feeding two babies at one time thing.

But she did a GREAT job!

I was able to put together skirt, shirts, and tights sets for the three girls out of just stuff we had in the Halloween box that had been hand - me- downs. Unfortunately, two pairs of the tights got big tears. So now I need to look for more tights on clearance. Isn't my house cute?!

Eli found this Spidermand costume in one of the boxes I had been going through and put it on that instant. From that time on, he would put his clothes on in the morning and then put the Spiderman suit on top pretty much everyday. I was really grateful when Halloween was over he decided he didn't have to wear it all the time.

Britta is our "lil pumpkin" and Kyla got her all ready for trick-or-treating with this tiny trick-or-treat bucket! (and NO we didn't take the babies trick-or-treating) 

On Sunday I started toying with the idea of throwing together a last minute Halloween Open House. When we first moved into the ward the young families would rotate having an open house each year.  It was really fun to have a place to hang out and chill with friends.  Most of the other years we spent too much time trick-or-treating but this year I thought it would actually be more fun to hang out at the house with friends.  I called Melissa on the way home from dropping Grandma Cynthia at the airport to see if she would be my partner in throwing an impromptu open house.  Right after that I called Aurora and asked her if she could spend the day with me cleaning the house, taking care of babies and having a party. The girls were really sweet and put together some games for the kids.  Nora printed and cut out pictures of little pumpkins and did a treasure hunt. Kyla printed off a Halloween bingo game complete with prizes and markers.  Myka had Dad help her make strips of a sheet for a mummy wrap game.

Ready to hit the streets.  Little Red Riding Hood, a soceress, a pirate, and spiderman (who sometimes morphed into a fireman if he needed a jacket :) The kids got SO much use out of their costumes this year.  They wore them like 6 times and we didn't even go to the school party. Kyla won a costume contest at activity days and got a $10 gift card to McDonalds and a free coupon book. 

For the past couple of years I have had this great idea of organizing a "costume swap" in the ward, and this year I actually made it happen.  It worked quite well because the primary was holding their program the last Saturday in September. I just used the Relief Society room and set up everyone's costumes that they brought and the moms browsed while the kids were in practice.  Most of us wanted the costumes back when people were done with them so we wrote our names on the tags.  We totally scored when it came to Kyla's costume because that was the exact one she had picked out from the Party City catalog (that I told her I wouldn't buy).  Nora also got her dress at the costume exchange.  Eli's and Myka's were costumes that we had from before. 

We were so glad that our friends came up to spend the evening with us! The Lawrence's came over early and I made chicken noodle soup for everyone. Then Daniel and Tom took the girls trick-or-treating around the neighborhood for about 45 minutes and then brought them home for the Open House.

Eli's "kitty" pumpkin, and Myka's pirate

 

Kyla's happy face and Nora's owl. They all did a great job and were assisted by the cool new drill bit I bought Daniel and his jigsaw.   

Eli's kitty and Myka's pirate

Kyla's smiley and Nora's owl

I had Daniel take the firepit out on the driveway and everyone had fun hanging out around the fire but it was pretty chilly and started sprinkleing. We ended up having about 6 families stop in and I think everyone had a good time.  Well except the two families that forgot their 8 yr old daughters at home for an hour, until their neighbor looked up my # to tell them the girls were alone at home :) 

The babies slept for a good part of the party and were REALLY glad when everyone left and it was quiet! Britta on the left Anya on the right.  I still want to make the kids get in their costumes and get good individual pictures AND one with ALL of them in their costumes. I'll have to post one of the babies in their costumes but we actually didn't put them in the costumes on Halloween.

Bagging the routine

So today I am trying to bag the routine and get some blogging done.  Don't get me wrong I love, live, survive, breathe, etc. by the routine. It is how my family stays fed, house stays clean, laundry stays done, and kids stay up in school BUT most of my days get routined to death and I never get anthing done past the routine. So today I am trying something new and attempting to get as much of the "routine" done as I can while the babies are awake and while they are asleep I am going to work on "real" things. I actually have been amazed at how well I am able to keep up on things with having two infants and 4 kids. I have tried to have low expectations as to what I can get done (which I think is a key to not getting totally depressed). BUT there are some extra things that I REALLY want to get done, like blogging/journaling, thank you cards, and Christmas stockings for Eli and the twins. So here is giving it a try! BTW I am sorry if I write terribly and my grammar is bad but that is one thing I don't have time to worry about right now.

A worn out boy

Today, Eli and I stopped by the village to let some friends in and then of course had to have a ride ourselves. He enjoyed his first time in the front seat of the Model T.

I guess our new school schedule is wearing him out because when we got home from the village and running errands he started wrestling with Myka's stuffed puppy in the living room. I went to do a few things and was surprised how quiet it was.  I found him sleeping soundly at only 12:15! Well he got a good nap in and even woke up before I had to wake him up.

General Conference Campout

This weekend was busy and a lot of fun. The girls had their last class of gymnastics Saturday morning Mommy got to stay home and do some deep cleaning and Daddy was working very hard on the girls' Easter present. Eli played all around the house with Fiona.

A conference tradition that we started last year was putting up a tent in the living room like the Nephites did to come and listen to King Benjamin. The girls LOVE it! They get so excited about General Conference. They also love the activity booklets and playing conference bingo. Last time we tried a breakfast casserole. They were all so excited but none of them liked it, so we didn't repeat. Instead on Saturday afternoon we had cracker hors d'oeuvres. Daniel just cut up a bunch of cheese, meat, pickles, and avocados then we let the girls make their own stack. I made a little tuna salad to give some variety. It think this might be a better tradition for us.

After getting a lot of work and Saturday jobs done, Daniel headed to priesthood session and I was left with the kids and an oven I was in the middle of cleaning. Shortly thereafter they got their jammies on and declared that they were all STARVING! I thought all the crackers and cheese at 4:30 would have been enough so I wasn't really planning on making dinner. Hamburger Helper to the rescue! It has been many, many months since I have used a box of that stuff but I was sure glad to have it on hand.

We extended the tradition this year and I let the girls sleep in the tent in their sleeping bags.

They had a lot of fun, but I was so exhausted from cleaning that I needed them to go to sleep quickly. They were pretty good and I didn't have to get after them too many times. I made the mistake of laying Eli down in a sleeping bag and reading books to him like he was going to get to sleep there too. I tried to lie him down twice and then I took him up to his crib. He cried and cried "seeping bag" "seeping bag". Finally I went and rocked him to sleep.

I am not really sure how early the girls got up Sunday morning but they watched a Veggie Tales show and then started playing. Daniel made Danish pancakes for breakfast. We showered the kids and headed to the Riverview chapel to watch the morning session. (After an untimely accident of leaving Eli running naked for too long after the bath! We were a few minutes late and the girls had to do their own hair.)

This afternoon they enjoyed hanging out in the tent and even listened to the last session fairly well. I didn't really expect them too, I figure having them listen to one session a day is pretty good. The squares on the wall is a matching game where they match the apostles name and picture when they speak. As you can see it was quite the disaster area after two days of fun. They were pretty good about cleaning up, although Kyla really didn't want to take the tent down. If frustrates me how if I try to get REAL stuff done (something that I don't have to repeat next week) then the rest of the house falls apart. I can keep it up and maintain it but it is pretty much a full time job!

I am happy that we have been able to find a way to make Conference exciting for them. I really enjoyed conference too, although there wasn't one specific talk that really stuck out to me. I thought it was funny how they kept on talking about the guys getting married. I think the Saturday morning session was my favorite but I need to go back and relisten to some of those talks too.

Pancakes and Pickle Juice

One Sunday afternoon we were enjoying a nice lunch of leftovers. Eli was very excited about his choice of pickles and pancakes. He was very interested in Kyla's choice of beverage and quite enjoyed the pickle juice. I love (and Hate) how he is saying so many more words now. It is so fun to hear his little voice trying to say big words.
Other happenings today include Myka going home sick from church. We think she has an ear infection but we have all been battling coughs and runny noses. Daniel gave her a blessing and she fell asleep for awhile. We talked to the older girls about summer plans and they all want to go to the Real Life Farm for Summer Camp. Our friends the Lawrence's go every year so it will be fun for them. Daddy made us waffles (blueberry and pecan), smoothie, and sausage for dinner. Nora fasted for the first time for both breakfast and lunch. We were pretty proud of her, she also bore her testimony in sacrement meeting today. Nursery went well for me. I actually taught my lesson. I think that is the first time that has ever happened! Hopefully it will happen more often as the kids get a little older. We are looking forward to a week of play practice, girl scouts, honor's choir, gymnastics, art club, math club and selling girl scout cookies when we get the chance. Daniel has been taking some cookies to work and it is going really well. The girls even made a cute poster for him to hang with their picture on it. Hope you have a great week!