Happiness is ...

Tubby Time!!

Adult Supervision Required

Mr. Jeppson at Hidden Hollow Elementary School has an interesting way of teaching his students about ancient Egyptian culture. He invites parents to his class to make mummies out of his students. I spent 2 hours at school wrapping J2 with packing tape - 3 layers for each part of his body. The trick is to keep the tape loose AND to wrap the first layer of tape with the sticky side out.

We finished his arms and legs at school. We finished his torso, head and taped it all together at home. It was kind of weird to wrap his head.

Even though his mouth wasn't covered, he looked like he had a plastic bag over his head!

Cutting it off wasn't as easy as it looks, either.

Halloween Hauntings

It seems like we celebrated Halloween the entire month of October. The official parties started Tuesday, October 19, when the young men and young women in our ward went around doing service for several families in costumes.

We had our annual ward Chili Cook-off and Trunk -or-Treat on Friday, October 22.

This year, several of the kids made their own costumes: L came up with an Alice costume. J1 made herself into Strawberry Shortcake. J2 decided to wear a cape with his Sunday clothes and be a vampire. A1 said he was a geek ... and he found the most mismatched clothes possible to make himself into a geek. Z and A2 found costumes in our costume trunk ... Z was a pirate and A2 was a witch.

Lil' Miss wore my favorite toddler costume. She was a ghost.

The kids enjoyed Halloween parties at school on Friday, October 29. Then we hurried to Don's office to go Trick or Treating there. Don's group dressed as hill billies and decorated appropriately ... including homemade moonshine and an outhouse where the kids reached into a toilet for their candy.

All the kids in the area did their Trick-or-Treating on Saturday, October 30. Alice and Strawberry Shortcake handed out the candy while the younger kids went out candy collecting.

Lil' Miss just enjoyed the candy.

What's Halloween without carving pumpkins?!

Yes! I'm a GEEK!!

I dare you to call me "4 eyes"!

Fall Harvest

L, J1 and I planted a garden last spring as a Young Women Personal Progress Value Project. It has been quite a learning adventure for us. We discovered that seeds that are at least 10 years old aren't any good - and some seeds that were only a year old didn't grow either. We learned tomatoes don't need a lot of water, pumpkins need a lot of space, one zucchini plant really is enough and many more little tidbits of information that will help make future gardens even more successful than this year's.

We have 4 large pumpkins to make into jack-o-lanterns.

We've enjoyed lots of cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, zucchini and yellow squash. We've had a few red, yellow, orange and green peppers and some carrots.

If you didn't already know ...

this lil' Miss is going to be a Big Sis in February!

I haven't had an ultrasound, and hope not to, so we won't know if it is a boy or girl until February. The kids think the baby needs to have a name that starts with a Z, since we have 2 L names, 2 J names, 2 A names and only 1 Z name. (I'm not as excited about it.)

First Day of School

I love the first day of school. I think it is one of the absolute best days of the entire year. It is MY day. After I send these two off to catch their buses ...

and walk these guys to school ...

I dance a little jig, play the "Hallelujah Chorus" on the stereo nice and loud and then the day is all mine. It is the one day during the entire year that the "to do" list is set aside. I take a nap if I want to ... I take a bubble bath if I want to ... I do both if I want to. For me, the first day of school is an escape from everything for 6 1/2 hours!!

Please don't misunderstand - I love my kids. I enjoy playing games with them, spending time with them, just hanging out and talking to them. I worry about them when they are away from home - especially about what they might be learning in the big bad world. However, I am also so excited for all that awaits them - the opportunities they have to learn things, to accomplish goals and to try new activities that they didn't know they could do. I can't provide all of these opportunities for them, but people who have been trained to teach children can.

School as been in session here for a week and a half now. I'm back to my regular daily routine with our school routine piled on top. As nice as it is each day to send the kids off to school, I look forward to their return, to hear about each of their days, to help them with homework, to hear about their worries and concerns and to just be with them. They are great kids and I'm glad I am their mom.

Summer of Freebies: Week 11 and 12

Week 11: inContact day at Lagoon!! Don's company spent the day at Lagoon celebrating some recent successes. (Employees in Utah had to go to Lagoon or take PTO. Don thought it was great to be paid to play at Lagoon with the family for free.)

This little monkey couldn't ride on most of the rides, but she was a really good sport! She enjoyed Lagoon-a-beach, though.

Week 12: Art, Julie and family came to town to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Sherwood before their mission, and us. The kids had lots of fun playing games, splashing in the pool and just kicking back.

Summer of Freebies: Week 5 - Week 10

Week 5: Getting ready for pageant and driving to NY.

Week 6: The Hill Cumorah Pageant rehearsals, heat, humidity, rain ... and opening night.

Week 7: The Hill Cumorah Pageant

Week 8: We drove like mad - leaving after Sacrament Meeting on July 18 - to arrive home on Monday, July 19. L left at 3 am July 20 to go to Wyoming on Trek at Martin's Cove. Don and I left the rest of the kids with Grandma and Grandpa Sherwood for the weekend and we went to Colorado Springs on Friday - Sunday for his 20th high school reunion.

Week 9: Recovered from all of our traveling in July!!

Week 10: Classic Skating Bounce House.

Pageant Family 2010

Preaching Lehi in Jerusalem
Alma convert at the Waters of Mormon

Harvest Worker and Nephite Campfire Dancer

Destruction Survivor

Destruction Victim

One of King Noah's citizens

New World Child #3 - in scene with the Descending Christ

New World Child

Alma convert at the Waters of Mormon w/ Mom

Sunday Afternoon at the Hill Cumorah

Celebrating Lianne's birthday at Pageant - July 3