Pears and Halloween

One of Mark’s YM leaders set up a biathlon for the boys in the ward and Mark ended up being the only boy to participate.  I’m sure glad my son is a doer.  He’s going to have so many good memories.

It was pretty windy and a bit chilly there in the early morning.

Mark borrowed Grandpa’s gun.  The first leg you had to lay down to shoot, the second sit and the third was standing. Then I think he took turns running or biking (I’ll have to ask him).

Overall it was a good experience, but we learned that having fancy gear (for the shooting) really makes a difference.

After Mark’s race (and the Primary Program Practice) we did pears.  Rachel and her roommate came down to help and we had a great time together.  Even Neil and Isaac were happy to help peel.  That took us the entire afternoon.

So we had a “fancy dinner” of Indian food from Costco.  It wasn’t bad but nothing close to the Bombay House.  We ate out on the porch because the kitchen was still a mess.  Becca joined us after her work before dinner.

We ended up with most of a box of pears that weren’t ripe yet, so we let them sit another week or so.  They didn’t ever really ripen and so we thought that maybe the canning process would soften them.  Don’t ever do that…we shouldn’t have wasted our time….chicken food.

One of my favorite pics of Mark and Emma.

Abbie got honorable mention for her Reflections entry.

I was helping with the Halloween party for Abbie’s class and saw these fun haunted houses that looked pretty easy.  So Neil and Isaac and I tried them out.  You just fold the paper in half, make to cuts from the fold up, then tuck that part forward and cut again for the second story.  Then you decorate with crayons.  Last you watercolor a night scene over the background and color the houses then you mount it on another piece to hold it up.  We figured out that you need lots of water in the paints to make it look good and the colors blend. 

Isaac recently saw the Veggie Tales Jonah movie and came in to show us that he was Mr. Twisty with a black mustache.  He even said, “smell him” for us several times.  Very funny.

Ken posted this picture on Instagram of where he was and wanted to be on Halloween. :-)

Rachel came and joined us at the school parade for Halloween and Mark didn’t go to school that day because it was a movie/reward day.

After the parade Rachel took the boys home and Emma stayed with me sleeping in her wrap on my chest while I helped with Abbie’s party.  It was ok.  Some kids just can’t be quiet long enough to do anything and that is annoying, and some kids won’t try to do anything and some kids do everything sloppy, but the few that listened and actually tried ended up with pretty cool houses.

I made a batch of bread….and this is what happens to it when you have two people who both like the heels best.  (That was Mark and me.)

Jessie carved us up a couple of pumpkins this year.  A sunflower and a horse.

Quinn joined us for Trick or Treating this year around the neighborhood and Jessie was our candy passer-outer.  I think Mark and his friend went to a movie that night.

Abbie got together with her two friends for trick or treating.  We had Riding Hood, Goldilocks and Bo Peep.

Here the after spread.  Emma was very intrigued.

And while the kids were trading candy we found a ladybug climbing on Neil’s shirt.

A free Saturday meant it was time to put in the bulbs for spring.  These were the outside workers.

And inside we were doing this…making grape juice.  We got a ton of grapes from the neighbors who had put up all they wanted and we made grape juice for days!  And we are not keeping it for years….we are going to enjoy all that work and drink it when ever we want.  I think we got over 60 quarts.

Rachel surprised us and brought down focaccia bread sandwiches for dinner one night.  A hit with everyone.

I was proud of myself for remembering to hang my Thanksgiving banner the first week of November.

My sillies at home.

Neil has recently started falling asleep with his feet up!  I’m not sure how he can keep them in the air while he’s sleeping!

We tried making our own pizza pockets.  The insides were very hot for a long time.

Some potato head creations one morning.

Neil did his hair all by himself to surprise me.  Then he wanted to text his picture to a bunch of people.  So fun!

We were shopping and found these fun dino slippers.  The boys loved them.  Jessie got a pattern and yarn to crochet some dino slippers for them for Christmas, but it just didn’t happen.  Oh well.