October 2020

 We had a busy October! Moments like these make homeschooling worth it.

We enjoyed watching General Conference while we colored!

We were learning about the pioneers and explorers who settled Nevada in history so I let Henry and Lydia play Oregon Trail.  They loved it so much!  They were so excited when they finally won! 

William always provides great photos.

We had our ward "primary presentation."  It was Alex's last! We planned it back when we were still only having church once a month and were split into small groups of 50.  It was decided that the primary presidency would speak and we made a video presentation of the children.  I was really worried that we wouldn't get anyone to participate.  I told Rich that we'd only get 3 submissions (us, the Darringtons, and another family.)  For about 2 weeks that's exactly what happened!  I finally sent out an email and told everyone that we only had 3 videos and then we got a few more.  Still less than 50% of the families... but better than 3! 

James got his top braces on and he will get the bottom ones on in December.  I took him to Panda for a late lunch/early dinner before his teeth started to hurt.  (James loves Panda but he always gets outvoted on the rare occasions when we eat out and let the kids choose).  

Our talented neighbor, Audrey Davis, chalked our sidewalk for Halloween!

In honor of Nevada Day we visited the Old Mormon Fort where they had some displays about Nevada and a fun scavenger hunt for the state symbols.  It was a beautiful day outside too so it was perfect.  We learned earlier in the year about these decoy ducks that the early Native Americans made from tule reeds.  There were a few on display and I knew Henry and Lydia would be excited to see a real one!  We found some of the reeds out in the pond as well and took some home with us to see if we could figure out how they were able to shape them.  It was fun! I checked out an internet hot spot from the library so Henry was able to work on his math on the drive over.

Lydia invited the Davis girls over for a tea party.  She hand delivered an invitation to their house.  They were such good sports (they are 16, 13, 11)!  They dressed up and played with her for hours!

The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed the hammock!

We had a ward trunk or treat.  It felt “normal” and so nice! Surprisingly I won 2nd place in the chili contest.  I think it’s because I had the only white chili there.

The kids were creative with their pumpkins.

William and Kate hanging out.

 

My three little trick-or-treaters had a great time!  We had lots of people in the neighborhood--you'd never know we were in the middle of a pandemic!

Halloween Fun

October always seems to be incredibly full of activities for Halloween!

Our neighborhood held its 2nd annual Harvest Festival.  I took Alex, Henry and Lydia.  James went later with some friends.

We took a trip to Gilcrease Orchard.  We got our apple cider donuts (Fall wouldn't be complete without them!), took a hay ride, wandered the straw maze and even squeezed in our pumpkin picking!  William came but didn't feel great so he was in the car for most of the time.

Everyone (except William) went to the Heckethorn Fall Festival.

Carving pumpkins is always fun... and even better now that everyone can do more of the work!

Lydia dressed up as Anna for preschool.

The kids helped to make homemade rootbeer.

James opted to invite his friends over to watch a scary movie instead of trick-or-treating this year.  They watched "The Sixth Sense."

Alexander, Henry, and Lydia had a fun time trick-or-treating with Rich and came home with too much candy!

It was a crazy, fun month!

October Happenings

We kicked off the month of October by watching a wonderful weekend of General Conference.  This Conference was another historical one... it was announced that we'd move from 3 hour church to 2 hours.  Pretty crazy.

In between sessions we treated the kids to USwirl.  They earned treats as part of our Crane University this summer.

Lydia and I got together all the pieces for her ladybug costume and she couldn't wait to try it on!

William had a Halloween concert for advanced band.

Lydia has had so much fun with her stuffed animals and babies lately.  One day she gathered them all together so they could watch a show on the ipad with her.

Alex went on a field trip to the state museum.

We had to squeeze a few trips to the Gilcrease Orchard in during the month.  The first trip was just to get donuts and a tractor ride.

We spent lots of time this month beginning to harvest our pomegranates.  There are just so many but I feel lucky that our backyard is big enough that we can have so many trees.

Lydia snagged a picture of me one morning while I was reading my scriptures (lots of reading and marking to finish the Book of Mormon by the end of the year!)

More of Lydia with her babies.  This time she was sharing her blueberries.

She also loves to turn on the music from my phone and have dance parties at the park with her friends!

By the middle of the month it seems that we are overwhelmed with Halloween activities.  First up was the Heckethorn Fall Festival.

Henry's actual costume was ready by the next Halloween activity which was the Ward Trunk-or-Treat.

We made it back to the Orchard at the end of the month to pick out our pumpkins.

We tried the hay maze and visited the chickens as well.

Our roses were just beautiful this month!

I found this picture on the Instagram of one of William's friends.  They are just too weird.

We had a great time carving pumpkins.  Every year gets easier as the kids can do more themselves.

Our finished pumpkins!!

Preschool was cancelled one day and Lydia was really bummed.  So, Lydia and I took a day to visit the Springs Preserve.  They had a mirror maze exhibit and it was so fun but really hard! Lydia really wanted to make sure we took the boys back later.

The kids were going to dress up for preschool that day so Lydia wore her costume to the museum.  We had to get a picture of the ladybug with the Lydie-bug.

It was a really fun day.  The fox was up and moving around instead of sleeping.

And Lydia loved playing at the park.

The kids had a great time on Halloween!  James went with his friends to trick-or-treat and watch a scary movie (The Quiet Place) and William was walking the neighborhood with his buddies so I just got a picture of the 3 youngest.

William came home later and I grabbed a picture of him in his mask.

It was a great month and we can't wait for the adventures in store for November!