My five little “Stinkers”

We’ll get to the title of this post in a minute.  First a few pictures that didn’t make it on the last post.

Neil LOVES two kinds of cold cereal for breakfast – Oatmeal Squares or Frosted Mini-Wheats.  After I put some in his bowl he always shows me the sign for milk or bows his head to pray.  He is getting pretty good at using his spoon to scoop up bites but I usually have to remind him to finish chewing before he crams more into his mouth.  He also will not let me feed him from “his” spoon, helping him scoop up a bite is OK, but he gets to put it in his mouth.  The most exciting thing about breakfast this week was that he learned to sip up his milk from the bowl when he’s done.  I think this is his favorite part.

After stake conference last Sunday we went up to visit Grandma Woodward.  Ken brought the stuff to make us spaghetti for dinner and it was delicious.  Ralph showed Abbie and Spencer where a few ripe raspberries were in the garden and of course we had to swing.Before we left Grandma showed us some more baby quilts she had made.  Mark was so impressed and asked what her running total is.  She told us “somewhere around 670!”  It was just a really nice visit.

For some reason Mark is not Neil’s first pick when it comes to having someone help/play/be with him.  I’m really not sure why because Mark really tries to win him over all the time.  But he does let Mark take him out to wave good-bye to Ken in the mornings.  This time after waving Mark and Neil enjoyed Neil’s FAVORITE song on YouTube:  Firebolt by BYU’s Divine Comedy.  He’s LOVES this song and asks for it all the time.  It is so funny what kids get attached to.  Not wanting “shut up” to be a repeated phrase in our family, we stop it at the very end right after the howl.  Every time we get to the howl part, Neil sticks his tongue out and blows.  It is SO funny!  Anyway if you haven’t had a change to see this video yet I hope you enjoy it.

Neil’s FAVORITE song.

Neil also LOVES toothbrushes.  He is constantly trying to get into the bathroom to snatch one.  This time he got two.  It almost makes me gag just looking at this picture.

Last Saturday was just beautiful!  So we spent the day working outside.  After breakfast Ken told the kids we were going to pull out the cannas today.  Jessie’s comment was, “Oh, sweet!  Can we do it at night again like last year when we had to borrow the neighbor’s flood lamp and then go out for dinner?”  The reply was, “ No, we’re going to start this morning and get it down while the sun is still up.”  So I hope our cannas will still grow next year because it wasn’t dark, raining or snowing this time when we pulled them up.  The kids were fabulous helpers, especially Abbie and Spencer (Mark was mowing a neighbor’s yard for part of the time and Jessie was babysitting for RS at the church).  Part way through the kids started picking out the sturdiest stalks to strip off the outside layers and be left with a fairly dense stick, aka sword, dagger etc.  Here is Spencer with his array of weapons after we were done.

And finally Halloween pictures.  Last year I saw this cute skunk costume, but couldn’t find any plain black outfits to sew it onto, so this year I was actually on the ball and found some plain black hoodies online a whole month before Halloween.  Now the costume really wasn’t that much work, except coming up with my own measurements, but making FIVE of them made it seem like a lot of work.

Neil and I went to the elementary school to watch the Halloween Parade.  And he barely waved at Abbie and Spencer and he wouldn’t let me put him down at all!  He wasn’t really scared, but definitely didn’t know what was going on.I got to help with Spencer’s school Halloween party that afternoon and that was fun.  We shot flies into a web I made on Abbie’s hula-hoop and then did pin the face on the pumpkin (both of which we did later at our family party).  Most of the kids were really cute, but I’m still glad I was just there to help.

That evening we celebrated with Ken’s family.  We had white chicken chili, regular chili, cornbread (so delicious and brought by our friends that joined us for part of the evening) and apple juice with dry ice for dinner then played some games.

Here’s shooting flies.  Randy got his to go the farthest first, which was really fun.

Grandma made up a fun madlib with scrambled clues that the kids had to put together to make: Hop-pea Hollow-weenie.Neil was so excited with candy bowls all over, but when he finally got a piece he didn’t really like it.  That was funny.We did some pumpkin pinning:

and some wearing:And ended the evening sharing Neil’s favorite song with Grandma.

Fall Break

I think this year our lawn looked the nicest it ever has.  YEAH for green grass!  The only unforeseen consequence of that is: lots more mowing.  Once a week didn’t really cut it even though we tried, so we weren’t able to mulch the grass, but had to discharge and rake instead.  Raking is not my favorite, but on this Saturday Neil was one of Ken’s happy helpers.  After the piles of grass were raked he picked up handfuls to fill the buckets so we could dump the grass in the chicken yard.  And he loved every second of being outside.  When the raking was done he dragged the rake around the backyard just for good measure.Still finding Jessie’s flip flops to wear.And here’s what else he found while we were making bread.  Such a silly.Spencer entertained himself for quite a while filling measuring cups and bowls and other random objects with beads from our bead bucket.  When he hopped down Neil climbed right up into his place.Ken had meetings for two days of Fall Break, but he took the other day off work so we could all go play.  Steph and McKay got us some gift certificates to Boondocks last Christmas and this seemed like the perfect day to use them.  In the morning we cleaned the house a bit and made a batch of tuna grape salad (only we didn’t have any grapes so it just had apples and celery in it) and headed out for fun.  We arrived about the time for lunch, but the kids said we should play some first and then come back for our lunch.

First on the list was laser tag.  Ken took all the big kids in and Neil and I went to play miniature golf.  This really was the perfect day to come we nearly had the place to ourselves which was great because there was nothing fast about Neil and golf.He and I were about 1/2 way through the course when Ken and Spencer came racing around the go-cart track right next to us.  Neil was so excited to see them that I got to play the rest of the golf game myself and just try to keep track of him so he didn’t wander too far.We were surprised the boats were up and running but the kids got to do those too.  They said they were pretty hard to steer and Jessie was not pleased about Mark constantly squirting her, but other than that it looks like they had fun on them too.I think Mark and Abbie decided there favorite thing was the little kids go-carts, as long as they got one of the fast ones.  About this time we took a break for lunch.  Yummy!  After lunch Ken took Neil and the rest of the kids split up to do something they wanted and Spencer and I did the other golf course.  We had so much fun together, just the two of us.  I’m glad Neil and I did the other course where it was easy to take the stroller.  By now the crowds had picked up and since it was just Spencer putting and me cheering we ended up doing quite a bit of waiting on the people in front of us.

At the very end of this course there was a volcano that would randomly blow fire out the top.  Spencer was excited then terrified as we got closer to it and you could feel the heat waves coming from it.  He almost didn’t even finish the course, but I convinced him to stand right next to me and I would protect him.  He ended up getting a hole-in-one on the very last hole.  And then we found out where the fire was coming from.  After the last hole you hit your ball into the volcano and if you made it up the little ramp into the rock then you were pronounced the hero and the volcano blow fire.  If you missed the ramp the volcano said some insult and then squirted you with water.  Spencer confidently told the couple behind us that he was going to make the fire go.  And he DID!!  What an exciting way to end the game.

Our tickets came with tokens for the arcade.  Skiball and shooting hoops were the two favorites there.  But I have decided that I hate arcades.  Besides all the totally gross games, it is so loud that my head was pounding!  Next time we will give most of our tokens away and all of the tickets we earn because having sad children at the end of an otherwise fun day over some tickets and trinket prizes is not my idea of fun.

Oh, I failed to mention that they had a 4-D ride there and this was Jessie’s favorite.  She went on it 7 times!

As for the rest of Fall Break, Rachel came down and spent some of Friday with us.  We played Settlers, Mark won after a slow start.  Neil really wanted to play too so he was my dice roller.  We also tried out a new recipe I’ve really been wanting to try, but never wanted to take the time to make.  You cook Jumbo pasta shells, stuff them with taco meat, top them with taco sauce, cheese and crushed chips and bake them.  They were actually really tasty!  We will totally make them again, but as a taco meat leftover recipe.The boys both got flat tops.  Mark because he looks so good in one and Spencer to try and help him to stop twirling his hair and pulling it out. A friend came over to play games, but we just ended up talking and watching the kids play.  She brought my kids over wax lips to play with.  I have never actually seen these before, but they have been SO much fun!!We also had some lego builders,bike riders, and tent makers.  What a fun break.  I love having the kids home.